Back to the Dawn Review (Patso)
Over the course of 90 hours and 9 playthroughs, I can finally say that I'm "done" with this game for the time being...until they release Bob's campaign for free in a little over a week from now, which is my cue to start all over again! Needless to say, I've thoroughly enjoyed my time with this game so far, and am super excited to go on another journey in this beast of a game, both narratively and mechanically.
I don't really know where to start when it comes to all the little things I appreciate about this game. Yes, there is a 21 day time limit that can be stressful to work around, but I have no idea how something like this could exist without some sort of "end" to it all. The developers worked extremely hard to make each day feel special with the announcements, prisoner conversations, and events that happen on a daily basis. There is Thomas' story that has to naturally progress, and my god, don't even get me started on all the subplots and shenanigans that the other inmates (ALL 46 of them) get themselves in that are developed over the 3 week period. I find the attention to detail on display staggering, especially when it comes to how consistent each inmate's interactions feel with their personality and backstory. The game is definitely meant to be played and appreciated to its fullest on subsequent playthroughs; there's no way you'll see everything on your first time around. Personally, I loved the feeling of being able to point out all the little nuances in the conversations I was eavesdropping on after knowing each prisoner's story from bonding with them before. It was so cool seeing all the hidden irony, sadness, complexity, and foreshadowing in some of these interactions. The type of shit that will make you point at the screen and say, "So THAT'S what they meant!". Even if I'm in the minority in how I enjoy and hyperfixate on these small details, I think anyone can appreciate the effort that went into spinning this intricate web between all the inmates in their interpersonal relationships and how they behave.
To focus a bit on the gameplay side of things, the player is given so many options when it comes to how they decide to survive, escape, and tackle challenges within the story. There's NG+ which allows you to carry over skills and rapport, and the game has an extremely comprehensive online database (super fun to browse btw, there's so much fucking flavor text that you'll never see) created by the devs which make future playthroughs not feel like an absolute slog to get through. The dice rolling mechanics never feel unfair in my opinion, since you're allowed to reroll and there are tons of ways to artificially boost your stats through equipment, items, and skills. Most of the difficulty that you'll experience will come from a lack of skills, or a lack of game knowledge. It can feel really rewarding to overcome quests and checks that you had a difficult time with just because you know what's coming and can handle it better than before.
There are so many other things that I want to talk about like the writing, the main story, or even just Thomas being a super fun protagonist to play as, but you'll have to experience those things for yourself. If any of this interested you even a little bit, please just try the game. The developers have put so much love into it and are even releasing Bob's campaign for free, which has probably already dropped by the time you read this review. I expect it to be on the same level of quality as Thomas' campaign, which was already amazing. Critiques about the in-game time limit and difficulty can definitely sound scary from an outsider perspective, but they are integral to the experience and can absolutely be overcome. Don't even worry about having to escape on your first playthrough, I didn't! My biggest piece of advice is to not rush and truly get to know your fellow inmates. If all goes well, for better or worse, Boulderton Prison will start to feel like a second home to you. To conclude, Thomas is the fucking GOAT.
Obligatory link to the Back To The Dawn Database (this saved my life on multiple playthroughs): https://back-to-the-dawn-data.vercel.app/en
Listing some gripes I had with this game:
- The romantic interests in this game feel kind of half-baked both mechanically and narratively? There are two in Thomas' campaign, but neither feel like they're given enough interactions with Thomas in order to make their relationship with him that deep. To elaborate: Mechanically, why does Beth not have any exclusive items that you can buy from her with affection points like Maggie? And it's medicine that you can just as easily buy from other inmates. I get that you have to date her in order to do Hakuna's bond quest and break into the infirmary (or you can just bond with Jimmy), which only feels useful for The Tower escape and nothing else. On future playthroughs, I never found much of an incentive to get with her unlike Maggie who can mail me some useful equipment and items. I really like Maggie, but it's kind of criminal how her bio never gets updated once Thomas repairs his relationship with her while Beth gets like 9 pages worth of backstory, especially when Maggie is made out to be such an important person to him. It's nice how Maggie is an option when it comes to The Sun escape, which provides her with some much needed scenes with Thomas, but it isn't enough in my opinion. Even "chatting" with Maggie just brings you to a black screen and her rapport goes up. There's so much material to work with when it comes to the "funny stories" that Thomas would tell her, like have you seen the shit that happens on a daily basis at Boulderton??? I feel like the nail in the coffin for me was when I first saw the post-credit cheating scene, which only happens when you decide to date both Maggie and Beth. Hilarious in a vacuum, but it made me realize that neither Maggie or Beth get their own individual post-credit scene. Why not? They created an entirely new post-credit scene (with two variations), new outfits for the three respectively, and the setting of Downtown just to use it once. It just feels like a missed opportunity to me (I also just want to see Maggie/Beth spending time with Thomas without the threat of death...)
- NG+ carries over all the profiles of the inmates you've gotten to know, along with their stories and gift preferences which is great. However, this doesn't apply to other NPCs like the guards and people outside the prison, whose profiles are wiped when you start a new playthrough. I never realized how much I had been missing out on when I checked the database to see that the game DOES update the profiles of these NPCs depending on your actions in the story which is so cool, but you'll likely never notice it in-game. This is a shame, especially for characters like Gomez, The Devil, and all the characters from the Four Corners. I get that they're supposed to update as you progress through the story, but what if you've already seen it all and just want to reread their bios and stuff? You'll never see some of these characters again since they're exclusive to certain escape routes which most players won't repeat.
- Carrying over the rapport system to the other NPCs can be kind of deceptive sometimes. It makes sense when rapport has a tangible effect on interactions with them, like with Billy and Owen. Other times, it just feels like an indicator of how your choices made them feel. As far as I know, there is no benefit to raising or lowering Bruce's rapport (please correct me if I'm wrong about this), and he's one of the most important NPCs in the game. There are also some NPCs who you will never be able to raise rapport with. It's even weirder when you have the option to "Chat" with NPCs, which is something you can only do once and never again to raise rapport (free flavor text?).