Undawn

About

Undawn is a single player and multiplayer survival role playing game. It was developed by Lightspeed Studios and was released on June 13, 2023. It received neutral reviews from players.

"Undawn is a free-to-play, action-packed open-world survival RPG, combining PvP and PvE modes for a thrilling post-apocalyptic experience. Brace for harsh environments, realistic survival mechanics, and customizable characters in this immersive adventure. However, be prepared for grinding and numerous bugs that may impact gameplay."

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52%

Audience ScoreBased on 2,425 reviews

story66 positive mentions

grinding80 negative mentions

The game features a vast open world with diverse environments and plenty of activities to engage in, including crafting, base building, and zombie combat.
Character customization is extensive, allowing players to create unique avatars and personalize their homesteads.
The game offers a mix of PvE and PvP content, making it enjoyable for both casual and competitive players.

The controls are clunky and not optimized for PC, often requiring players to switch between modes to interact with the game, which can be frustrating.
The game is heavily pay-to-win, with significant advantages given to players who spend money, making it difficult for free-to-play users to compete.
There are numerous bugs and glitches, including issues with audio, quest progression, and character interactions, which detract from the overall experience.

story
352 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
19%
75%
6%
The game's story is often described as generic and poorly executed, with many players noting issues such as bugs, disjointed questlines, and a lack of engaging narrative depth. While some appreciate the immersive world and the variety of missions, others find the storyline tedious and filled with repetitive tasks, making it feel like a backdrop rather than a central focus. Overall, the story has potential but suffers from execution flaws, leaving players divided on its quality.
- “The game successfully hooks players with its immersive world, intriguing storyline, and a constant desire to progress and explore further.”
- “The story is great and it's cool that you can go anywhere and find goodies since it is open world.”
- “The story missions build on each other well and there are umpteen side quests.”
- “The story is poor, but the gameplay and events are quite fun.”
- “The writing for the dialogue is on the same level as a middle school child writing a short story for an assignment.”
- “The story lacks something and isn't really fluid.”
gameplay
219 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
21%
68%
11%
The gameplay of the game has received mixed reviews, with some players praising its smooth mechanics, engaging survival elements, and cooperative gameplay, while others criticize it for being a poorly optimized mobile port with repetitive tasks, clunky controls, and a heavy pay-to-win model. Many users noted that while the game offers a variety of mechanics and activities, the overall experience can feel tedious and unbalanced, particularly for free-to-play users. Overall, the game shows potential but suffers from significant issues that detract from its enjoyment.
- “The gameplay is great and I have enjoyed every minute of it.”
- “Undawn impresses with its survival mechanics, outshining competitors in the zombie genre.”
- “Whether I was scavenging for resources, building my shelter, or engaging in heart-pounding battles against hordes of mutants, the gameplay remained engaging and satisfying.”
- “The grinding and farming mechanics of this game take too long; you could spend hours gathering resources for a single S-tier gun and you might not even get it.”
- “After playing for 12 hours, I decided to quit the game once and for all because this game is a cheap mobile port with a pay-to-win system. After some time, the gameplay starts to feel repetitive; the grinding gets boring, and at one point, you will feel that you are just doing the same thing again and again: kill zombies and grind.”
- “It's a poorly done PC port of an Android/iOS game that has all the gimmicks of a typical mobile RPG: too many daily, weekly, and seasonal events in your face that you don't care about, too many currencies, poor storage mechanics, subpar gun mechanics, and a forgettable story that fails to compel you to slog through all of this.”
graphics
210 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
35%
46%
19%
The graphics of the game have received mixed reviews, with many users noting that they resemble mobile game quality rather than that of a typical PC title. While some players appreciate the visuals as decent for a free game, others criticize them as outdated and lacking detail, often comparing them unfavorably to more polished titles. Overall, the consensus suggests that while the graphics may be enjoyable for casual play, they fall short of expectations for a modern PC game.
- “The graphics are beautiful, along with character customization that can make characters pretty unique.”
- “With its jaw-dropping graphics, immersive sound design, and addictive gameplay, it's a must-play for fans of post-apocalyptic settings and cooperative survival games.”
- “The visuals in Undawn are nothing short of breathtaking.”
- “The graphics feel more like you're playing on a phone.”
- “In-game, the graphics look oddly dated.”
- “There is no excuse for games to look this bad, except that the devs dumped their graphics budget into things that the lowest denominator will focus on.”
grinding
84 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
1%
4%
95%
The grinding aspect of the game is heavily criticized for being excessively tedious and time-consuming, often requiring players to invest significant hours to progress or craft items, leading to a repetitive gameplay experience. Many reviews highlight a pay-to-win element, where spending money can alleviate the grind, but this detracts from the enjoyment for those who prefer to play without financial investment. While some players appreciate the depth of crafting and resource gathering, the overwhelming number of systems and low drop rates contribute to a sense of frustration and monotony.
- “You'll need a second life for grinding.”
- “The grinding and farming mechanics of this game take too long; you could spend hours gathering resources for a single S-tier gun, and you might not even get it.”
- “Grinding is limited by the resource refinery system; play a few hours and you have nothing to do while waiting 24 hours for the refinery to reset. Without refined resources, you can't level up, so you can't progress through the storyline, and you are stuck waiting for the refinery to reset. The game feels very disappointing and empty.”
- “The worst part is the sheer amount of grinding you need to do in order to craft anything in the game.”
music
63 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
14%
81%
5%
The music in the game has received mixed reviews, with some players enjoying the upbeat and whimsical musical numbers reminiscent of Disney, while others find them jarring and out of place in a zombie survival context. Many users noted issues with audio balance, where dialogue is often drowned out by the music, and some experienced bugs that affected audio playback. Overall, the soundtrack is described as enjoyable, but the unexpected musical segments can be polarizing, leading to a love-it-or-hate-it response from players.
- “The musical segment was actually sick af.”
- “Best game I've played this year, best companion, best music, really cool soundtrack.”
- “The game is cool, I was pleasantly surprised by the soundtrack, more precisely when the girl started singing.”
- “The audio is all linked so I couldn't hear the dialogue over the obnoxious music and environment audio, and the dialogue skips itself. There's no way to change display resolution, it randomly switches to terrible quality cutscenes, the keybinds don't work, the interface and UI is gross.”
- “You can't sync your actual keyboard up; it's completely off note by 5 keys and your pedals/tabs won't work. You cannot save/midi-file songs for the game either, which means no one wants to play/hear you do music, and you may even be bullied for it in the raven's shelter by players.”
- “The game turned into High School Musical when one of the main characters started singing a whole song, and I must say, never could have expected that coming.”
monetization
54 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
7%
39%
54%
The monetization strategy of the game has been widely criticized for being excessively predatory, with numerous players labeling it a "cash grab" due to the overwhelming presence of microtransactions that significantly impact gameplay. Many reviews highlight that progression often requires spending real money, making it feel like a pay-to-win experience, while others express frustration over the game's reliance on ads and the high prices of in-game purchases. Overall, the monetization approach detracts from the enjoyment of the game, overshadowing its potential.
- “Like many free-to-play games, Undawn features microtransactions.”
- “While it's understandable that developers need to generate revenue, the implementation of microtransactions that hinder gameplay enjoyment is disappointing.”
- “This is a common feature in many freemium games, and while it may not affect the core gameplay experience, it can be a slight drawback for those who prefer a more inclusive approach to in-game purchases.”
- “It has the potential to be a truly great game overshadowed by one of the most expensive and unbelievably predatory monetization schemes I have ever seen in any game.”
- “Basically, Undawn is just another cash grab; I guess they were low on cash and needed a quick way to make some money.”
- “Game plays okay, filled to the brim with microtransactions they throw into your face as soon as you get on a server, and heavy limitations for the player so that you don't get to the end of every bit of content quicker than they can pump what little content they will in between the many microtransaction updates they make.”
stability
43 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game suffers from significant stability issues, with numerous players reporting frequent glitches, bugs, and lag that severely impact gameplay. Many users describe it as a "buggy mess," with problems ranging from audio issues to unresponsive controls, making it unplayable at times. While some find it enjoyable despite these flaws, the overall consensus is that the game requires substantial improvements to its stability.
- “This game is so buggy and full of problems it makes it unplayable at times.”
- “Unfortunately, the game is buggy, laggy and you have to struggle to complete the missions, not because of missions complexities or difficulty, but because of the lag and freezes.”
- “Absolutely unplayable on both PC and Android, the number of bugs and glitches makes it impossible to even open your inventory, change weapon or even aim at times.”
optimization
38 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
8%
45%
47%
The game's optimization for PC has been widely criticized, with many users noting that it feels like a poorly executed mobile port. Performance issues, clunky controls, and inadequate mouse and keyboard support detract significantly from the experience, leading to frustration among players. Overall, the lack of proper optimization has resulted in a game that is often deemed unplayable on PC compared to its mobile counterpart.
- “This game does not feel optimized for PC.”
- “One area where Undawn falls short is in its technical performance, which affects the progression in the game.”
- “They promise amazing things but then they deliver a product that is optimized for mobile and purely adapted for PC.”
- “It needs to be optimized for PC, as far as I understood, people play it mostly on mobile.”
- “Game is trash; they haven't optimized it for PC at all.”
- “Its is criminally un-optimized; how is it possible my PC can run FF14 on mid with no issue and here I can't get 30 FPS stable, even on all low it's unplayable.”
atmosphere
17 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
35%
47%
18%
The atmosphere of the game receives mixed reviews, with some players appreciating the detailed graphics and immersive audio that enhance the experience, while others criticize the lack of originality and the repetitive use of NPC models that detract from the overall mood. Despite some players finding the world enjoyable to explore, others feel it falls short compared to similar titles, leading to a sense of disappointment in the promised atmosphere. Overall, while there are elements that contribute positively to the atmosphere, many reviewers find it lacking in uniqueness and depth.
- “The world is detailed, and the various locations you visit all have a distinct atmosphere.”
- “The game features excellent graphics and sound, which enhance the atmosphere of the game.”
- “The overall atmosphere of the game is really moody, making the world a lot of fun to explore.”
- “Atmosphere: 5/10 pretty basic zombie atmosphere, nothing special.”
- “Ok, this is more of a minor personal complaint, but the re-use of NPC models is killing the atmosphere for me.”
- “Here the game developers clearly could not follow through the badass atmosphere they promised.”
humor
15 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is described as quirky and often absurd, featuring mechanics like bathroom breaks and awkward moments that elicit laughter. While some players find the humor genuinely funny, others note that it can be hit-or-miss, with a mix of amusing glitches and odd design choices. Overall, the game is seen as a lighthearted experience that can provide laughs, despite its flaws.
- “There's even a mechanic where your character has to 'use the bathroom,' with humorous cutaways to avoid showing explicit details.”
- “Game is extremely weird but kind of funny; it's a PC port of a mobile game, so there's a ton of microtransactions.”
- “I even appreciated the random Disney singing performance because it was awkward and it fits my humor.”
character development
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
60%
20%
20%
Character development in the game is generally praised for its depth and quality, standing out compared to many recent titles. However, some critiques highlight a lack of diversity in character design, with traditional gender stereotypes and unrealistic body types being prevalent. Overall, while the character development is seen as a strong point, the design choices may not appeal to all players.
- “Character development is very good.”
- “There is significant character development in this game, unlike many other games produced in the last 10 years.”
- “The character design and clothing are very attractive, too.”
- “Character design is awfully gender mainstreamed without much variation (males being manly, just without proper facial hair, females being girly, pouty lips, cute snub nose, all with unrealistic body types and age variance).”
emotional
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Reviews highlight a mix of emotional engagement, with some players finding the story wholesome and touching, while others criticize the emotional scenes as lacking depth due to insufficient character development. Overall, the game elicits strong feelings for some, while others feel disconnected from the emotional moments presented.
- “Love this game, free to play, wholesome story.”
replayability
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
50%
Undawn is praised for its exciting and unique gameplay, contributing to a high level of replayability. However, some users note that the transition from mobile to PC lacks enhancements that could improve the overall experience.
- “Overall, Undawn is a solid game that offers an exciting, unique experience with plenty of replayability.”
- “This game was ported in from mobile without any visible effort to make it more playable on PC.”