Review: Earth's Dawn


Title	Earth’s Dawn
Developer	oneoreight
Publisher	Rising Star Games
Release Date	December 7 2016
Genre	Beat them up
Platform	PC, Steam
Age Rating	T
Official Website

Earth's Dawn | Cutscene — A cutscene is played before each main mission.

Earth has been invaded by E.B.E aliens and half of the human population has been decimated. In order to save mankind, a new kind of soldiers, A.N.T.I. soldiers, have appeared. Their body has been infused with alien cells in order to combat the threat effectively. You are one of them and you are going to have to face thousand of aliens to bring a new dawn on earth. This being said, the story of the game is rather simple and is not the main point. Each mission usually starts with a cutscene where the general gives you details on the running operation and how you are going to deal with the enemy. But before selecting a mission, you have the possibility to customize your character and equip various weapons or armor. It is also possible to spend points earned through leveling to obtain specific skills or passive bonuses. The maximum amount of points you can obtain seems to be set to 200, and you won’t be able to use all the skills at the same time. You can, however, remove any skills at any time during the game, and no choice is permanent. It is also important to note that a lot of bonuses can only be obtained by completing side missions, which are not mandatory but are a wonderful opportunity to gather alien items that will be used to craft new weapons or upgrade them.

Earth's Dawn | Menu — You can customize your character in the menu and change weapons and items equipped

Now, let’s talk about the fighting system. Once you are on the battlefield, you will have the possibility to use different weapons, like swords or guns. Dual Wielding becomes available later in the game. Aliens have different weaknesses, so sometimes you will notice a specific enemy is resistant to a weapon you are using, and you will consequently feel the need to cancel the mission, go back to the menu and equip or craft a weapon with a different element. This is not very intuitive and the opportunity to switch gear on the battlefield is only obtained late in the game. I think it would have been better to have free access to different weapons right from start. Even in normal mode, fights are challenging and you may find the need to level up your character by doing various side missions in order to make your life easier. This is probably a “make or break” element of the gameplay, and some players may feel bored at the idea of having to grind in a genre that relies on fast-paced spectacular fights. I found myself losing interest sometimes and I considered giving up at points, but in the end20 I was happy when my character became a powerhouse able to deal with giant aliens effortlessly.

Earth's Dawn | Boss — Fights with giant bosses are legion in this game.

One of the elements that can feed this feeling of monotony is the lack of variety of backgrounds. There are less than ten different maps for the whole game and they are all very linear, which means you will often go from point A to point B. While all beat ’em ups involve a degree of linearity, I would have appreciated more maps with a more creative level design. While the art of the game is quite unexpected and original, I feel it may suffer from being sometimes too generic. Those issues can be overlooked if you like the hectic rhythm of fights and the feeling of controlling a killing machine. The music in the trailer worried me because it was very repetitive and I was afraid I would have to deal with an annoying soundtrack but in the end, that concern was not justified. The music is not awesome but is not bad either.

Earth’s Dawn is really a typical case of a game that is not perfect but which has redeeming qualities. It certainly won’t please everyone, but if you like to slaughter waves of enemies with style and can deal with the amount of grinding needed to progress, then this game is for you. It took me about 30 hours to beat Earth’s Dawn, which is currently sold for $23.99 on Steam.