Dawn of the Monsters Review (NSW)

Written by Patrick Orquia

Title: Dawn of the Monsters
Developer: 13AM Games
Publisher: WayForward
Genre: Beat ‘em up, RPG
Number of Players: 1
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Release Date: 15 March 2022
Price: $29.99

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What if monsters suddenly attack? It has been a subject for a lot of sci-fi movies since time immemorial. We have had numerous Godzilla/kaiju movies from Japan and even a few American counterparts and remakes. I remember liking Pacific Rim a lotwhen it came out a few years back and also its sequels. Giant robots versus kaiju. Now that would be a sight to behold, and terrifyingly so.

Of course, kaiju are impossible to exist, but we can still dream. Dream of destruction and rising from the rubble. A terrible fantasy, indeed. We got movies of them, and also a few video games. Enter Dawn of the Monsters from 13AM Games and published by WayForward. Time to fight monsters with… monsters?

This game is not the first monster beat ‘em up game in existence, but this is the first one that I have played. Here, you play as one of four characters: the gigantic monsters (referred in-game as Nephilim) Megadon and Ganira; the Ultraman-like Aegis Prime; and the giant mecha Tempest Galahad. You control them as they fight other Nephilim that have attacked major cities on the planet. As you progress, you get to unlock new info about the Nephilim. You also unlock new abilities and skills, also known as Augments, when upgrades your characters. Unfortunately, you cannot switch between characters on the fly once you have started a stage, so you have to stick with whatever character you choose at the start of a stage. Each one has their own set of skills and move sets so it is up to you which one to choose and I must say it’s hard to choose a favorite. If you find the stages hard to beat, you can invite another friend to play with you locally.

The stages play like your typical 2D side-scrolling beat ‘em up game. You progress through the stage from left to right, beating all the monsters that come your way. You have your light and heavy attacks as well as a dash attack. You can also defend and parry incoming attacks and even evade them completely. Attacking build up your Rage meter which is used in performing special attacks and enemy executions (which can be performed once an enemy’s HP gets low enough). Performing Rage attacks build up your Cataclysm meter. Once the Cataclysm meter is maxed, you can unleash a Cataclysm attack, which is the strongest in the game. Each character has their own unique Rage and Cataclysm attacks.

You are graded on each stage you complete based on how you performed, from S+ to F. The higher the grade, the better the quality of Augments that you get to unlock. The better Augments you equip, the stronger the character you become. Each stage can be replayed, so if you get a low grade on one, you can return to it once you are more powerful for a higher grade. Also, as you progress into the game, you get to unlock new photos in the gallery and new info in the archives to help flesh out the narrative.

Aside from the game play, I also like the overall presentation of the game. The game looks amazing with its cel-shaded hand-drawn art style. The music is also good, with rousing orchestral instrumentation that highlights the mood of a world in chaos with total destruction all around. Speaking of total destruction, you can destroy much of the ruined buildings, and doing so also raise your Rage meter. You can even pick up some of the debris and whack monsters with them for additional damage.

The awesome presentation extends to the narrative style. You get comic book-style cutscenes in between stages, with different characters talking to one another to provide what has been happening and what you need to accomplish next. The story on itself is not very deep and not really very important, but still, you get to have some narrative push to continue on and a very good way to break the repetitive nature of the gameplay. By the way, each dialogue exchange is fully voice acted, which is another highlight of this game.

Overall, Dawn of the Monsters is one awesome game that recommend for everyone to play. It is like Pacific Rim if it was a combination of a comic book and a video game. Sure, there are other beat ‘em up games on the eShop, but I must say that this is one of the best-looking of them. It is very well-presented with top-notch quality all around. It looks, sounds, and performs well on the Nintendo Switch, so if you have that itch to bash some monsters, give this game a go.

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REPLAY VALUE: High

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PROS

• Very stylish art style
• Very good music
• Excellent voice acting
• Excellent gameplay
• Cool narrative style despite the bland story
• Deep customization options
• High variety of enemies
• Plays well on both docked and handheld mode
• Lots of unlockables

CONS

• Derivative/repetitive stage design
• Sudden spike in difficulty after the first 3 stages
• No online multiplayer mode
• No HD rumble
• Number of playable characters is too small

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RATING: 4.5/5 kaiju awesomeness

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