Back to the Dawn launched on July 18 – a prison escape RPG packed with gang alliances, narrative intrigue, and brutal consequences. The prison escape RPG will keep you on your gaming chair for hours and won’t let you focus on anything else but playing.
The thing is, this game never plays the same way twice. Every time you dive in, you’ll meet new characters, uncover hidden spots, and take on fresh quests. If you’re a fan of games like HITMAN, The Escapists, and Disco Elysium, you’re gonna love this one too.
What’s the Game About?
The goal is simple: make a getaway from Boulderton Prison before time runs out. That’s the basic stuff you need to know to get what the game’s about. The Back to the Dawn release took place just a few days ago and convinced many players. You have a choice of two distinct characters, Thomas and Bob.
The first one is a journalist – not the impulsive kind, but more of a planner who likes to figure things out step by step. Alternatively, Bob can fight, turning the gameplay into a fast-paced dance of fists. He’s an undercover agent, sent on a mission. Two characters and two different paths to choose from. But the stay in prison won’t take much time, because both characters have only 21 days to escape.
Let’s see what the game has to offer:
- Two protagonists – Thomas and Bob
- 48 different characters with their own stories and personalities
- Over 100 time-limited quests
- Multiple endings
- New Game structure
- Memory Recall mechanic
- D&D-style dice mechanic
- Over 500k words of narrative content
- Player freedom – you decide what to do
The Core Mechanics
The Boulderton Prison will keep you engaged with the gameplay. The place is controlled by three rival gangs, and it’s up to you to join one or carve your own path as a lone wolf. All the NPCs you will meet have gone through past situations that created their unique personalities; each of them has a story to share, and you can choose to befriend them, steal their things or beat them down. The constant time pressure is balanced by the freedom of choice. All mistakes you make can be fixed with the Memory Recall mechanic, but not without limits.
You can reverse 24 in-game hours to relive the day and make better use of time. The decisions you make will lead to different endings, not always guiding you through all available paths – and that’s exactly what makes time management narrative games so beautiful. The pressure they put on prevents you from focusing on everything. Thanks to this, you can try again, making completely different decisions. Moreover, after finishing your first playthrough, you unlock New Game , which lets you start over while keeping certain progress from your previous run.
The immersive sim genre, which is characterized by different gameplay each time you play, combined with a D&D-style dice mechanic, draws you in even more. The idea is that most situations in Back to the Dawn are random – the game rolls a virtual die behind the scenes. Your stats and gear give you bonuses, and if your total beats the difficulty number, you succeed. If not, you fail and have to find another way. It adds a bit of luck and makes choices feel more intense, especially when you’re sneaking around or trying to escape.
A Gripping RPG With Room to Grow
The game offers a lot, but fans have also pointed out some shortcomings or elements of gameplay that seem to have been overlooked by the developers.
One fan, Olly Smith, mentioned in his review published on GamingBible: “And while I really enjoyed this aspect of the writing in Back to the Dawn, I couldn’t help but feel like its female characters deserved better.” Infact, the game is about a men’s prison, so most of the attention was on the male characters. But that doesn’t take away from the game, like Olly said: “For better or worse, it’s a fascinating game that has stuck with me a lot longer than I thought it would have, and provides a solid foundation for the prison escape RPG of your dreams.”
More Than Just a Game
Back to the Dawn slides right into the wave of smart indie RPGs that actually trust players to make tough calls and live with the consequences. It’s all about giving you control, letting you shape your own path, and presenting tough moral choices to you.
Metal Head Games isn’t done, either – expansions are already in the works. For anyone craving real impact and strategy that bites back, this one hits hard.