| Back to the Dawn Review | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Release Date | Gameplay & Story | Pre-Order & DLC | Review |
Step into a maximum-security prison, survive the chaos, and plot your escape in Back to the Dawn. Read our review to see what it did well, what it didn't do well, and if it's worth buying.
Back to the Dawn Review Overview
What is Back to the Dawn?
Back to the Dawn features:
⚫︎ RPG
⚫︎ Prison Setting
⚫︎ Anthropomorphic Characters
⚫︎ Pixel Graphics
⚫︎ Turn-Based Combat
⚫︎ Story Rich
⚫︎ Calendar System
| Digital Storefronts | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Steam |
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| Price | $19.99 | ||||
For more gameplay details, read everything we know about Back to the Dawn's gameplay and story.
Back to the Dawn Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
 A Compelling Yet Humurous Prison Story Multiple Routes and Outcomes Make Replayability Essential Stunning Pixel Art Style Engaging NPC Interactions and Stories Tons of Mini-Games and Side Activities Satisfying Recourse and Stat Management |
A Steep Learning Curve That Can Feel Unfair and Overwhelming at Times Getting the Real Ending Takes Time, Patience, and a Lot of Replays |
Back to the Dawn Overall Score - 90/100
Back to the Dawn is a gripping prison RPG packed with razor-sharp writing, brutal but rewarding gameplay, and a cast of unforgettable anthropomorphic inmates. Its dark, emotionally charged story is laced with wit and warmth, earning its place among the greats. Think Shawshank Redemption meets the golden days of Prison Break, but with fur, feathers, and fangs.
Back to the Dawn Story - 10/10
Back to the Dawn is a compelling, unforgettable tale about humanity—told through the eyes of anthropomorphic inmates in the darkest corners of prison life. Beneath its gritty surface lies an allegory about justice, truth, and what it means to change. Every character, whether lovable or loathsome, adds depth to the story, and getting to know them feels personal. At the heart of it all is Thomas the Fox—a witty, sharp, and deeply engaging protagonist who anchors this powerful narrative. It’s not just a prison break story—it’s a fight for truth.
Back to the Dawn Gameplay - 9/10
Back to the Dawn doesn’t just look like prison—it feels like it. This isn’t a stroll through the yard; it’s a brutal, brainy survival experience that demands patience, planning, and sharp instincts. The game throws you into the deep end—tricky systems, overwhelming choices, and a difficulty curve that can feel downright unfair. But stick with it, and you’ll find a deeply rewarding experience where every decision counts. Your choices shape the story, the gameplay, and your path to freedom—making each playthrough feel fresh and personal. Once you sink your claws in and learn the rules of the cage, you won’t just survive—you’ll own the joint.
Back to the Dawn Visuals - 9/10
Back to the Dawn features some of the most expressive pixel art in recent memory. Every character bursts with life, their personalities radiating through detailed animations and subtle, animal-inspired behaviors—Thomas the Fox, with his slouched posture and weary eyes, looks every bit the inmate who's seen too much. The anthropomorphic designs aren’t just charming—they’re clever visual storytelling tools, turning each interaction into something memorable. The prison itself is no less impressive, with areas like the cell blocks, canteen, and laundry room each feeling distinct, yet part of a cohesive, grimy ecosystem. Admittedly, the UI can be a bit clunky, and some sprites aren’t immediately clear without hovering your cursor—but those moments are few. Overall, it's a world that feels meticulously built, pixel by pixel, with personality in every corner.
Back to the Dawn Audio - 7/10
Back to the Dawn features a serviceable audio design that leans more toward atmosphere than standout melodies. The soundtrack won’t linger in your head after the credits roll, but it supports the mood well—quietly amplifying tension, drama, and the daily grind of prison life without ever stealing the spotlight. While a few key scenes could’ve benefited from voice acting to elevate emotional beats, its absence isn’t a dealbreaker. The audio may not be the game’s strongest suit, but it does its job—and never gets in the way of the story it’s trying to tell.
Back to the Dawn Value for Money - 10/10
Back to the Dawn offers incredible value for its $20 price tag. One playthrough as Thomas the Fox can easily run over 20 hours—and with branching choices, multiple endings, and a growing cast of playable characters (including Bob the Black Panther, with more on the way), you’re looking at 100+ hours of replayable content. Every run feels fresh, with new alliances, strategies, and secrets to uncover. With more updates on the horizon, this prison escape RPG isn’t just worth it—it’s a steal.
Back to the Dawn Review: A Bold and Brilliant Prison Break
I’ll be honest—Back to the Dawn didn’t grab me at first. The anthropomorphic character designs made me assume it’d be some lighthearted Zootopia-style prison escape, maybe even something too whimsical for my taste. I didn’t give it a second thought… until I started seeing people genuinely praising the Early Access and sharing gameplay clips that looked surprisingly intense.
And let me tell you—this game is nothing like what I expected. It’s gritty, dark, and seriously tough. If you’ve been hesitant because you thought it might be some kind of “furry game,” don’t be. This is one of the most compelling, brutal, and rewarding experiences I’ve played in a long time—and it completely won me over.
Zootopia Meets The Shawshank Redemption
If I had to describe the story of Back to the Dawn, it would be this: Zootopia meets The Shawshank Redemption. It borrows the surface-level charm of anthropomorphic characters, like Zootopia, but quickly trades whimsy for something far more brutal and grounded. Unlike Zootopia, where species represent societal segregation, this game treats its animal characters as metaphors for humanity itself—flawed, corrupt, complex, and painfully real. Underneath the fur and feathers, it’s a raw story about justice, survival, and systems rigged against the truth.
Currently, there are two playable protagonists: Thomas the Fox and Bob the Black Panther. While both bring their own compelling narratives, I strongly recommend starting with Thomas. His story lays the foundation for what to expect—and it's a rollercoaster of gang politics, backroom deals, and dangerous conspiracies.
Thomas is a journalist who’s framed by the corrupt former mayor after attempting to expose him. With drugs planted in his car by a crooked campaign manager, he’s thrown into Boulderton Prison under false charges. Now, with just 21 days before the mayor is re-elected, Thomas must gather evidence, uncover secrets, and plan his escape—before it’s too late.
What follows is a tense, nerve-wracking journey through the prison’s harsh hierarchy. You’re forced to deal with extortion from guards, dangerous rival gangs, underhanded schemes, and unexpected allies. The writing is razor-sharp, and you feel every ounce of desperation and injustice. Yet Thomas remains a likable, witty, and relatable lead—you root for him not just because he’s innocent, but because he never gives up.
The supporting cast is just as memorable. Every inmate has a story—and while not all are likable, they’re all layered and fascinating. Personally, I gravitated toward Jimmy the Giraffe, a down-on-his-luck software engineer; Bam the Gray Cat, who hilariously claims to be a paranormal investigator; and Bob, the undercover detective panther with his own secret mission. These three became my core crew—not just for their stories, but because of the useful skills they teach, like hacking and pickpocketing.
Even characters I initially dismissed surprised me. Take Crunchy the Crocodile, for example. He starts as your typical prison bully, demanding money on day one. But dig deeper into his past, and you’ll discover real tragedy and loss that makes him so much more than a thug. It’s that kind of storytelling that makes Back to the Dawn shine.
Other standouts include Ray the Racehorse, Caesar the Chimp, John the Tiger, Jumbo the Elephant, and your long-suffering roommate, Sam the Donkey. Each one adds something to the narrative, whether through their quests, backstories, or the skills they offer. There are a lot of characters—but thankfully, New Game Plus lets you carry over the bonds you’ve built, letting you explore new relationships in future runs without starting from scratch.
And that’s where the game truly excels: every replay brings new insight, new paths, and new emotional payoffs. With numerous endings—many of them hidden or difficult to unlock—the game rewards patience and persistence. It’s not just about escaping prison. It’s about uncovering the truth, building trust, and surviving long enough to change your fate.
Back to the Dawn will throw you into a whirlwind of plot twists, betrayals, and gut-punching revelations. The odds always feel stacked against you, and every step forward feels like a fight to claw your way out of a system built to break you. It’s gripping drama from start to finish—raw, tense, and surprisingly emotional. It conveys a powerful message about corruption, survival, and justice. It’s a story that demands multiple playthroughs to fully unravel.
What really makes Back to the Dawn stand out is how ridiculous and twisted prison life can be. The game leans into prison humor—from dropping the soap to being forced to smuggle literal crap into someone’s cell. You'll run into scammers trying to con you out of your commissary money, inmates with wild quirks, and conversations so absurd they’ll have you laughing in disbelief. It’s a chaotic ecosystem of inmates and staff members, each with their own agendas, secrets, and unhinged personalities.
Prison Can’t Look This Gorgeous?
Despite being an absolute hellhole, Boulderton Prison is incredibly well-designed—and visually, it’s a standout. The pixel art style is not only rich in detail, but it also works beautifully with the game’s lighting system. Cells are dimly lit, casting just enough shadow to make you feel the cold, oppressive atmosphere. Every space—from the outdoor basketball courts to the nurse’s office, the library, and the chapel—feels alive, distinct, and dripping with grimy character.
One of the things I love most is how dynamic the prison feels. Characters don’t just stand around waiting for you—they move, they live, they go about their routines. You’ll rarely find someone in the same place two days in a row, making the prison feel like a functioning ecosystem rather than just a static map.
And the character designs? Inspired. Making them anthropomorphic wasn’t just a stylistic choice—it was smart. Each inmate stands out visually and emotionally. From Evan the Rhino’s massive, hulking frame to Whitney the Rabbit’s twitchy, nervous energy, you get a real sense of who these characters are just by looking at them. Even Thomas the Fox carries so much personality in his sprite—always looking tired, even at full health, like someone who’s seen too much and barely hanging on.
The art direction here isn’t just good—it’s outstanding. It feels like the devs poured their heart and soul into building a world where animals are caged like people, and people act like animals. It’s striking, it’s immersive, and it leaves a lasting impression.
21 Days Just Isn’t Enough and That’s Completely Fine
Let’s get one thing straight—Back to the Dawn is not meant to be completed in just one playthrough. With a tight 21-day in-game time limit and a New Game Plus system that carries over your stats, skills, and relationships, it’s designed for replayability. Your first run is more like trial by fire—testing the waters, learning the systems, and slowly uncovering the prison’s many layers.
At its core, Back to the Dawn is a prison-break RPG where every action, decision, and dice roll can shift your fate. You play as either Thomas the Fox, a framed journalist, or Bob the Panther, an undercover detective—each with their own backstory and skillsets. Days are structured around strict prison routines—roll call, meals, showers, and job shifts—but what you do outside of those hours is entirely up to you. Train, explore, gather intel, or plan your escape. Time is your greatest resource, and also your biggest enemy.
Character builds are highly flexible. Whether you lean into brute strength, stealth, charisma, or hacking, your approach shapes your experience. Inmates can teach you skills, which you can further improve through books, workouts, or practice. Want to learn pickpocketing? Track down the right inmate. Want to boost your intelligence? Start reading. The freedom to mix and match builds ensures no two playthroughs feel the same.
The prison itself is alive with personality. You’ll encounter gang leaders, corrupt guards, snitches, and would-be allies. Every interaction matters. You can align with factions like the Sharp Tooth Gang or carve your own path, manipulating others to gain influence—or simply surviving by keeping your head down. Social dynamics are deep, and reputation plays a crucial role in how you’re treated.
Escape requires planning and resourcefulness. Crafting is essential—you’ll need to make everything from lockpicks to fake documents, digging tools, or distractions. Resources are scarce and must be managed wisely. Items, money, stamina, and even bathroom breaks all factor into your daily strategy. You can stash contraband in your cell, bribe guards for supplies, or trade with inmates, but every choice has consequences.
One of the game’s most distinct mechanics is its dice roll system. Almost every key action—whether sneaking past a guard, winning a fight, or persuading an NPC—is resolved through a dice check tied to your stats. While luck plays a role, the system never feels unfair because your build directly influences your odds. It adds a satisfying layer of risk, tension, and replayability to every moment.
Combat, on the other hand, is turn-based and can be brutally punishing. Enemies hit hard, and failure comes with heavy penalties: lost money, mental damage, or even time setbacks. In early runs, it’s usually smarter to avoid fights altogether unless you’re well-prepared.
Side quests offer a welcome dose of humor and personality. Sure, some are fetch-questy—but they’re fun, cleverly written, and often filled with memorable moments, like planting something foul under a buffalo’s bed or trying to infiltrate a gang. There are also surprisingly engaging mini-games—laundry, packaging, weightlifting—all of which improve your stats or grant new abilities like hacking or stealth.
Ultimately, Back to the Dawn is a rich and rewarding experience that only gets better the more you play. The 21-day limit forces you to think carefully and prioritize what matters, but never feels limiting thanks to the depth of its systems. Yes, it can be difficult and overwhelming at first—especially when managing stamina, mental health, and limited time—but that’s part of the challenge. Once you start mastering its systems, it becomes deeply satisfying. Every failed run teaches you something new, and every successful escape feels hard-earned.
If you love games where strategy, character-building, and smart time management intersect—and don’t mind a little trial and error along the way—Back to the Dawn is one of the most compelling prison RPGs you’ll play. Just don’t expect to break out on your first try.
The Game Won’t Hold Your Hand…or Should I Say Paw
The prison setting in Back to the Dawn isn’t just for show—it’s one of the most unforgiving, immersive, and brutally honest portrayals of prison life I’ve seen in a game. This isn’t a power fantasy. This is survival.
You’re dropped into a corrupt, dangerous system with no hand-holding whatsoever. Everything—everything—must be earned. Resources are scarce, time is limited, and even the most basic tasks can feel like a fight for your life. From managing your health and mental state to deciding when and where to use the bathroom, every decision matters. It blends prison-life simulation with survival mechanics, and it’s easy to feel overwhelmed, especially during your first few days.
In my first run, I couldn’t even complete the basic side quests. I spent half the day just trying to figure out where the nurse’s office was or how to reach the laundry room. That sense of disorientation? It’s intentional. Time in this game slips by quickly. Hours vanish while you wander the prison, and before you know it, a day is wasted with nothing to show. That’s part of the experience as you learn how to exist inside a broken system.
The difficulty curve is steep. On my first couple of playthroughs, I constantly paused just to plan my next move. Tutorials and quests exist, sure—but figuring out what to do and how to survive is something you can only learn through trial and error. You will feel underpowered, underprepared, and confused. That’s the point. And that’s why experimenting and exploring are so important.
Combat, especially in your first run, is almost never the right answer. It exists—but most fights often feel stacked against you. You'll lose more than you win, and the cost is high: health, mental state, money, and time spent in the nurse’s office. Unless you’re lucky or heavily prepped, it's rarely worth it. The game even warns you from the start—your first real choice is whether to hand over your money to a crocodile thug or fight and probably lose. If you gamble and lose, you’re down resources you desperately need elsewhere.
Instead, you're encouraged to think long-term. Build yourself up. Train in the gym, read books, collect stat-boosting items like mushrooms, and—most importantly—make allies. Befriending inmates and investing in social stats is often a better path than throwing fists.
And once you understand the rhythms, the map, and the people around you, you start to feel empowered—not because the game got easier, but because you got smarter.
Give it time, experiment, and don’t expect the game to play fair. It won’t. But that’s exactly what makes finally beating the system feel so damn good.
Initial Run Will Not Feel as Satisfying as It Should Be
I have to say this upfront: unless you’re very lucky or following a guide, Back to the Dawn is absolutely the kind of game that demands multiple playthroughs to uncover its true ending. Your first run will likely feel like trial and error—an introduction to how the prison works, who you can trust, and what’s even possible. Go in with the mindset to experiment. Try different things. Fail a few times. That’s the point.
It’s similar in spirit to games like Dead Rising, Way of the Samurai, or Until Dawn, where each run teaches you something vital. But unlike those faster-paced titles, this game unfolds over a slower 21-day in-game cycle—and there’s a lot more to manage: friendships, skills, daily routines, item crafting, and escape routes. It can be overwhelming. And yes, a bit frustrating.
There are more than five possible endings—many of them bad. And odds are, your first ending won’t be a happy one. After investing hours building up your character and carefully recruiting allies, getting a bad ending can feel disappointing and anticlimactic. The game won’t hold your hand, and it certainly won’t tell you how to reach the best outcome. It’s on you to figure that out.
The 21-day time limit isn’t particularly forgiving during your first run, but that’s where New Game Plus shines. You carry over friendships and skills, cutting down the grind and opening up more paths forward. On my fourth run, I finally unlocked the true ending—and by then, each playthrough felt tighter, smarter, and more rewarding. It’s very Groundhog Day or Re:Zero in that sense—learn by failing, then do better next time.
Save slots help, but you only get eight, so you’ll have to use them wisely. It may test your patience at first, but if you stick with it, the payoff is absolutely worth it.
Is Back to the Dawn Worth It?
Being in Prison Never Felt so Fun
Back to the Dawn offers remarkable value far beyond its modest $20 price tag. A single run as Thomas the Fox can clock in at over 20 hours, and with branching choices, diverse builds, and shifting storylines, multiple playthroughs can easily stretch past 80 hours. And that’s only the beginning.
Though Thomas leads the story, this is a tritagonist title at heart. Bob the Black Panther—an undercover detective—will also be playable, with a third protagonist teased in upcoming updates. Each character brings their own distinct playstyle, worldview, and narrative arc, making every replay feel fresh and meaningful.
With deep gameplay systems, ongoing development, and a level of polish that rivals full-priced AAA titles, Back to the Dawn doesn’t just justify its price—it puts bigger-budget games to shame. It’s a breakout hit in every sense of the word—and one that truly deserves the spotlight. Back to the Dawn is a wonderfully crafted game brimming with heart, ambition, and attention to detail. Here’s hoping it gets all the love and success it so richly deserves.
| Digital Storefronts | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Steam |
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| Price | $19.99 | ||||
Back to the Dawn FAQ
Does Back to the Dawn Have a Walkthrough Guide?
Yes, Back to the Dawn features an official walkthrough guide available on its website, offering a comprehensive look at characters, items, abilities, and much more to enhance your gameplay experience.
Which Characters Can You Play in Back to the Dawn?
You can play as Thomas the Fox and Bob the Black Panther.
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Back to the Dawn Product Information
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| Title | Back to the Dawn |
|---|---|
| Release Date | July 18, 2025 |
| Developer | Spiral Up Games |
| Publisher | Metal Head Games |
| Supported Platforms | PC |
| Genre | RPG, Indie |
| Number of Players | 1 |
| ESRB Rating | Not Ratedc |
| Official Website | Back to the Dawn Website |
