Dawn of Defiance Review

Well, 2024 is getting closer to reaching its end, but that doesn't mean the gaming has to stop, and it looks like we might have a new top contender in the open-world survival genre. Traega Entertainment has set their sights on shaking things up by going straight for gold. Considering they were founded in 2015, they only have 3 releases, which are quite well-polished compared to other greener studios. Their first game is a simple mobile game called BRIG 12, released in 2018; Aegis Descent in 2022 came after that.

 

This brings us to their latest creation, Dawn of Defiance, which was released on 15 August. From the outside, it's clear that you're in for a treat as you take on the role of Defier, and the Greek Gods have their own plot for you. However, it goes both ways, and you'll have to survive as you make your way to the top and through each of God's trials. In this case, your adventure starts simply by learning the basics of building and crafting on the Isle of Arrival.

Dawn of Defiance tries to play nice at first with its tutorial, but things can escalate quickly if you stray too far without being prepared. While you get the hang of everything, your best bet at survival will be to gather up a decent excess of resources for easier crafting later on, or at least until you leave the Isle of Arrival. However, stick to the tutorial quest while finding your feet, and you'll be fine.

Aside from being an open-world survival game, one of the biggest features of Dawn of Defiance is just how expansive the building options are. The only downside is that you'll need to go out and explore to find all the crafting recipes, and then comes the grind of making everything so you can build your new village-sized home. Yes, sooner or later, we all take on the massive task of building a giant home, which is possible in this case.

Now, as fun as building is, you'll need a simple home to get started with on the Isle of Arrival in Dawn of Defiance. However, your main goal would be getting off the Isle to the Forgotten Crossroads…. The island next door. This is where things become a bit more interesting as you'll need to hunt down each place of power to get some godlike powers. There's no explanation of how much of a difference the powers make. Zero fall damage, an air dash, and even the ability to fly are what you can expect, and these powers will make life so much easier, so you'll definitely want to pick those up as soon as possible.

There is one slight piece of 'jank' regarding the powers. They're incredibly useful to have, but the issue is with the fall damage negation; falling from a height that would normally kill you will, in fact, not kill you with this power, but there's a weird delay where your character gets stuck for a second. Maybe this is intentional, maybe it's a bug, or perhaps the lack of fall damage is a bug dressed up as a feature. It seems this might become one of life's many mysteries.

 

With the basics covered, there are a few things to remember with Dawn of Defiance. First, it is somewhat similar to Valheim's, with a skill to level up for almost everything. From athletics to every weapon and mining, there's a skill, and they all passively level up as you go, giving you buffs for each action. This might be a little odd to some, but if you're a fan of exploring every nook and cranny of an area to give an example, your Athletics will likely level up the fastest. In turn, giving you more speed and less stamina consumption for sprinting. It's like Christmas all the time because Dawn of Defiance will just keep giving you more as you progress.

Diving deeper into gathering and exploring, there's never a shortage of resources since you can find almost everything you'd need around you or from whatever you kill. However, there is a slight catch. Sooner rather than later, you'll have to start refining your resources for further crafting possibilities, and this is where things become a little hairy. You'll have to expand your home for the various crafting benches where you can refine your resources to keep progressing.

Essentially, upgrading your materials for bigger and better things is all good, but having some form of timer or indicator for certain crafting benches would be great. For example, your Butcher's Block takes a few seconds to break a carcass down, but the Tanning Rack takes considerably longer. A little wait is never bad, but a simple progress indicator is desperately needed instead of having to guess the whole time.

On a different matter – What in the nine hells do you do with your useless equipment? It's easy to craft new gear as you upgrade, but there is no indication of how to destroy or salvage inventory items you don't want anymore. There is technically an option to destroy those items, but it's easily overlooked, and the icon is nowhere near your inventory. We get that wanting to take a different approach to design is good, but certain things have a place.

With the gripes done and dusted, let's move on to the best part of Dawn of Defiance, aside from building village-sized homes. Combat in Dawn of Defiance is an odd mix of simple but satisfyingly smooth. Each weapon brings its own attack style and damage to combat, and they all seem to follow simple attack combos. However, watching as you cut down anything that stands in your way or parry an incoming attack is incredibly satisfying. The best part is that it gets even better if you have a friend join in on the bloodshed!

 

That's right; there's multiplayer, and Dawn of Defiance is much better with friends. With the abundance of weapon types available, there's never a dull moment with how you and a few friends can pair up and create brutal strategies. Alternatively, you can opt for an all-out charge and crush anything that stands in your way like a berserker; everything goes in Dawn of Defiance. Just stock up on healing items and maybe food; every buff counts, even more so if you have to take on something bigger than the garden variety enemy.

To save the best or worst for last, there is one extremely vital resource you'll need to worry about. The root of all evil in most cultures is money. A good chunk of the crafting recipes can be found all over the world, but some rarer ones will have to be bought. Suppose this answers a previous question since you can sell your old gear only after reaching the Forgotten Crossroads. However, you'll need to do much more than just sell old gear to make enough coin for the top-tier recipes; there will definitely be a fair bit of grinding just for money.

Naturally, with so much going on in a release that took a few pages from Valheim and several other survival games, there has to be some visual appeal. Well, there's a massive world to explore, and luckily, Dawn of Defiance is much more detailed. It's a little surprising just how much detail there is in the world if you consider that it's still an early-access title. There are still a few design flaws that could be caused by some touching up, like the faces on the characters (the uncanny valley eyes), but things can only get better from here on with what's already been done.

Since you can't have one without the other, the sound engineering in Dawn of Defiance is also pretty on point, to say the least. There's a great ambiance with the general sounds when you're out exploring and the occasional background music to tie it all together. However, the real beauty comes out in the middle of a fight with matching music and the accuracy of the weapons clashing. These might be small details to some, but these add much life to Dawn of Defiance, especially with how well-executed everything was.

 

Dawn of Defiance is already well-polished from the get-go, even though it's an Early Access title. With a few more improvements in the right places, it has the potential to go extremely far, and there's a near-infinite potential for further expansion. It does, unfortunately, have a few minor flaws, but nothing that can't be overlooked for now, and it's still well worth a shot if you're a fan of Greek mythology. All left is to live out your fantasy life and rise against the gods that plot against you.
 

Jay Claassen (@R3GR3T_3NVY)
Senior Editor, NoobFeed