Back to the Dawn (2025)

Metal Head Games

Nintendo Switch · Nintendo Switch 2 · PC (Microsoft Windows) · PlayStation 5 · Xbox One · Xbox Series X|S

3.27 from 11 ratings

62 members have it in their collection · 3 playing now · 29 backlogged · 22 wish listed

How long? Main story 30h · with extras 12h (from 2 logged playthroughs)

A gripping prison escape RPG woven with crime, corruption, and hidden agendas. Step into a maximum-security facility where every inmate has a past—and a plan. You'll have to fight to survive, investigate, and ultimately break free before the time runs out. Uncover a scheme that threatens more than just your life—it could bring down the entire city. In this thrilling adventure, choices matter, and escape is your only salvation!
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Release dates

  • Nov 03, 2023 (Early Access) (Worldwide) PC (Microsoft Windows)
  • Jul 18, 2025 (Worldwide) PC (Microsoft Windows)
  • Jul 18, 2025 (Full Release) (Worldwide) PC (Microsoft Windows), Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S
  • Mar 05, 2026 (Full Release) (Worldwide) Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2
  • 2026 (Full Release) (Worldwide) PlayStation 5
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Rating distribution

5 stars
2
4 stars
4
3 stars
1
2 stars
3
1 star
1
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Community All Reviews Statuses

V1CGaming

Review V1CGaming 2/5 · Oct 8, 2025 Abandoned

Back to the Dawn is a fascinating game at first glance, due to its uncanny mix of prison, animals, and laid back music. But as you dive into its systems and figure out what your goals are, you run into a sort of identity issue. Does this game want to be open-ended or not? It’s hard to tell, and the …

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Back to the Dawn is a fascinating game at first glance, due to its uncanny mix of prison, animals, and laid back music. But as you dive into its systems and figure out what your goals are, you run into a sort of identity issue. Does this game want to be open-ended or not? It’s hard to tell, and the rush to complete goals within a strict time limit betrays the offerings of things to do and people to meet. This confusion between what this experience does or doesn’t want to be, and a surprising lack of personality beneath the surface, both made my time with this adventure feel laborious.

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cwknight

Status cwknight Sep 28, 2025

Finished Back to the Dawn up and saw a very bad ending, then the game revealed that it's one of those games where you're expected to New Game+ through it as really the only reasonable way of getting better endings. I can definitely see that there are many different lines through game (even has two completely distinct characters with distinct …

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Finished Back to the Dawn up and saw a very bad ending, then the game revealed that it's one of those games where you're expected to New Game+ through it as really the only reasonable way of getting better endings. I can definitely see that there are many different lines through game (even has two completely distinct characters with distinct stories to play as, with maybe a third one that you can unlock through play), and I think it's interesting that there's such a panoply of choice. But I'd be more encouraged to New Game+ it if it had some slightly better quality of life things to skip time or repeat actions automatically.

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cwknight

Status cwknight Sep 1, 2025

Tried this out on a whim because it’s on Game Pass and I must say I am pleasantly surprised. It has some great writing and surprising depth to the RPG gameplay. I like it quite a bit and recommend folks check it out, you might be surprised.

Eerp

Review Eerp 2/5 · Aug 14, 2025

The (furry) Escapists

I spent 30 hours on this to get the bad end?! I was literally ONE DAY away from escaping!

It is kind of a grind and very opaque game, so having such a hard deadline, I did not know the election ends the game, was very frustrating!

Perhaps the game is designed for multiple runthroughs, but I only play things …

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I spent 30 hours on this to get the bad end?! I was literally ONE DAY away from escaping!

It is kind of a grind and very opaque game, so having such a hard deadline, I did not know the election ends the game, was very frustrating!

Perhaps the game is designed for multiple runthroughs, but I only play things once. I want my run to be the canon run! This is not a roguelike! There are so many ways you can accomplished but I do not feel like they on-board you very well.

By the time I figured out what how to play it was too late to get a positive ending. I love the art and the story was interesting enough but everything else about it was too... yuck!

Like I said, it left a bad taste in my mouth.

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