The Dead Await

About

The Dead Await is a single player open world role playing game with horror and post-apocalyptic themes. It was developed by Shotx and was released on October 24, 2024. It received mostly positive reviews from players.

The Dead Await is a deck-building open world survival RPG set in a zombie apocalypse. The world as we know it ended, torn apart by hordes of ravenous monsters. Humanity still clings on in the sea of blackened ruins, cold ashes, and man-eating creatures. You're the leader of a caravan of survivalists whose goal is to figure out the truth behind the zombie apocalypse and, if possible, build the f…

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71%

Audience ScoreBased on 28 reviews

Innovative blend of genres including deckbuilding card combat, open-world RPG exploration, and survival mechanics.
Challenging and engaging combat system that improves with character progression and diverse weapon choices.
Active and responsive developer support with frequent updates, bug fixes, and community interaction.

Numerous bugs and stability issues such as frequent crashes, UI clunkiness, and some game functions failing unexpectedly.
Lack of polish in many areas including confusing UI elements, unclear card effect descriptions, and repetitive or inconsistent soundtrack.
Gameplay can become tedious due to grind-heavy resource management, slow pacing, limited crafting options, and poor inventory space leading to repetitive fetch quests.

story
15 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
20%
60%
20%
The story follows a familiar zombie apocalypse quest to uncover its cause and potential cure, with some RPG elements woven into open-world exploration and quests. However, progress is hindered by level caps limiting skill upgrades, and the narrative at the early access stage feels shallow, often reducing gameplay to fetch quests with minimal resolution. Despite these issues, ongoing updates and future development promise improvements and deeper storytelling.
- “[*]open-world RPG: there are a few settlements players can access in Act I, each with their own quests and weekly missions.”
- “[*]storyline: although the story is nothing new, the main character embarks on a journey to discover what caused the zombie apocalypse and maybe find a cure.”
- “The dead await mixes deckbuilding, card battling, open-world exploration (similar to Encased), RPG-styled quests and skills, inventory management (similar to Project Zomboid), and trading (similar to Caravan).”
- “Level cap of 10 halts progress due to inability to acquire more shared ability points for higher level skills like demolition (e.g. stuck on a mission because no more points available to upgrade demolition to find a golden box in an area behind rubble).”
- “You spend a couple hours getting access to resources squared away and then it becomes a walking simulator, losing all the tension and resulting in basically a couple of fetch quests which all only have a single line of resolution.”
- “Due to its early access state and the fact that only Act I is available at this time, I wonder about the direction the developer will take regarding storytelling.”
gameplay
11 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
27%
46%
27%
The gameplay combines deck-building card battles with exploration and resource management, but suffers from repetitive grinding and inefficient mechanics like constant resource depletion and frequent costly events. While core combat mechanics are solid and deckbuilding is engaging, the additional gameplay elements feel underdeveloped and hinder the overall experience.
- “The game has been in development for a while and it has a strong opening, with interesting deckbuilding mechanics influenced by your equipment, different styles of combat, and a lot to discover.”
- “Overall, The Dead Await is an okay blend (at the current stage) of different genres with core mechanics focusing on deck-building card battles.”
- “Some great ideas and gameplay.”
- “The gameplay is grind, grind, grind, and grind some more because your traveling vehicle keeps eating through your resources (gas, drinks, and food) even when you have parked it in a town hub and are exploring on foot.”
- “The exploration gameplay is drive around using gas money, get hit with events that probably cost money like bandit tolls, try to avoid the roaming zombies that fight you dropping HP that needs more money in healing items while your car breaks down immobilizing you and costing repair money so the zombies don't reach you to hand you your medical bill, to reach boring town hubs and scavenge pennies from trash heaps as you burn down gas money on your idle parked car and use your savings to stock on food, gas, and drinks to crawl to the next town.”
- “It is another example of mixing different game genres but does not excel in most of them other than the core mechanics.”
music
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
75%
75%
The music is fitting and complements the combat, but frequent and abrupt changes—especially during card play—can be jarring. The opening's constant music shifts also negatively impact the overall impression, with some users finding the soundtrack somewhat repetitive.
- “The soundtrack, especially during combat, dynamically changes based on the cards I play, adding depth to the experience.”
- “Music is fitting and enhances the gameplay atmosphere.”
- “The opening provides some background and the music change between scenes helps set the narrative tone.”
- “The opening: although it provides some background on what happened, the narrative and the constant music changes between 'scenes' really give a bad impression of the game.”
- “The soundtrack, especially during combat, would suddenly be cut off and changed based on the cards I play during combat.”
- “The music is a little repetitive.”
graphics
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
67%
67%
The graphics feature a unique, post-apocalyptic art style that some find fitting but others criticize for its unattractive, distorted character designs and garish, washed-out neon colors reminiscent of failed 90's fashion. Overall, the visuals are polarizing and may require adjustment.
- “Unique art style.”
- “The graphics take some getting used to, but they fit the post-apocalyptic style of the game.”
- “From the terrible art style that wants to be artistic but only manages to look like a combination of ugly deformed Balkan NPCs cooked up by an AI for a no-budget horror game, to unsuccessful imitation of 90's fashion sense dressed in color-blind neon colors that were washed away in the washing machine.”
- “The graphics are a bit hard to get used to, but they fit the post-apocalyptic style of the game.”