Dawn Of Defiance Early Access Preview
My love for the survival genre is one that peaks and dips with each passing release. I’ve spent countless hours lost in ARK: Survival Evolved, Conan Exiles, Valheim, Palworld, the list goes on. However, for each of these genre defining titles, there’s a dozen more that fail to meet the mark
This is exacerbated by the stark contrast in design. Some developers lean heavily into the core survival elements, food, water, the environment, others staple it on as an afterthought, nothing more than a mere inconvenience.
I enjoyed the near limitless inventory space of The Front, removing the needlessly mundane chore of transporting heavy goods between bases and important locations. I loved the fast travel nature of Nightingale, each new release has the potential to remove the less exciting aspects of the genre, which makes walking into the next release a complete gamble.
I will tell you one thing though, if I have to spend another 30 hours in a survival game gathering thatch from bushes, I’m going to walk into traffic.
Dawn of Defiance occupies an intriguing middle ground. It does fall victim to some survival genre tropes, tropes that many developers have avoided to great success, but it’s more narrative and objective driven. Removing the often repetitious nature of gathering materials just for the sake of having more materials.
I have a fully built and functional base, high tier armor and weapons, and never once did the gathering feel excessive.
The adventure begins on the Isle of Arrival, as you and up to three buddies complete a series of basic introductory quests to learn how to gather, craft, and build. All familiar and easily accessible to anyone, regardless of experience with the genre.
The entire island acts as a tutorial. You discover quests by locating points of interest on the map. The environment is beautiful and expansive, it truly feels as though you are exploring Ancient Greece. It’s complimented by a building system that allows for the construction of authentic looking Greek structures, although more buildables would be very welcomed.
The points of interest, while limited in variety, introduce the narrative as the players work together to defile the shrines of the Olympians, a series of currently disappointing fetch and find quests.
However, what’s not disappointing, are the almost god-like powers one receives as the narrative progresses. Before you even leave the tutorial island, you’ll have the ability to glide through the skies and launch attacks on unsuspecting foes below, fall damage is for mortals, and hitting a headshot with a bow from 40ft in the air never gets boring.
As you continue into the game, defiling the shrines of Greek Gods, you unlock more recipes and abilities, such as the opportunity to craft Poseidon’s Trident. The incentive to move on, to explore and progress, focuses on rewarding players with awesome abilities and items – something all too often overlooked in games today.
When I spend 10 minutes climbing to the top of an insane mountain, I want to find something. When I’m walking through a desert storm being chased by golems, I want to stumble on a chest. Everything is very fixed, materials and supplies respawn in identical locations, but the core excitement of exploration is already very present.
Combat is the only area of the game that I found really lacking. It works, it’s fluid, but it’s a simple dodge, block, attack system that quickly becomes repetitive as you use identical tactics against all the enemies in the game.
The areas of the game that disappoint most are already confirmed to be placeholders, as the developers hope to work with the community to improve various aspects of the game. If you have realistic expectations of an Early Access title, there’s still a lot of fun to be had in Dawn of Defiance.
With the Early Access label becoming more convoluted as time moves on, it can sometimes be difficult to remember its original design.
All too often, we see the broadest extent of the Early Access umbrella. Games that remain in limbo for years, others that release in an unplayable state and take months to even get started. Dawn of Defiance represents everything Early Access is designed for.
It has a fantastic foundation of great ideas, a beautiful game world to explore, a familiar but enjoyable building system, and stable performance despite having the ability to soar through the skies, but it is very light on content.
Defying the shrines of the Olympians, a feature that could truly distinguish Dawn of Defiance, are little more than basic fetch quests and checkpoint chasing objectives: although this has already been addressed in the Road Map.
As it stands today, there’s a lot of fun to be had if you’ve got a group of enthusiastic friends looking to explore the myth-filled world of Ancient Greece, but it’s likely to be another year or two before the features hit a truly release ready state.
