Welcome to my Undawn review, a game that I’ve been waiting for 4 years is now officially released. Undawn has been officially released globally on June 29, 2023.
I also mention in my previous blog “UNDAWN CLOSED BETA ” that I’ve been waiting for this game since 2019 since I have a feeling that this game will gonna be good. I love Zombie Apocalypse’s survival game and I learn about Undawn when I start playing Lifeafter.
When I started to play LifeAfter I thought if there is a Zombie Apocalypses game that can compete with it in terms of gameplay. After searching I found a perfect game that can rival LifeAfter and it was Undawn.
Back in those days, Undawn was not yet Undawn, it was previously named Code Live, then they change again to Dawn Awakening, and finally, they announce that its final name was called “Undawn”
Even if they keep changing their names I always keep an eye on it since I was interested in it, I even sign up for their closed beta test and take part in their beta test program. My initial impression of Undawn in the closed beta test was very positive and I was impressed.
Now that the game has finally release let me give you my final thought in this Undawn review, I’m a veteran player of LifeAfter and playing the game for four years, I’m also a hardcore gamer and a gamer reviewer that are into gaming two decades.
Since LifeAfter and Undawn have a lot of similarities, I might be the perfect person to give you the best Undawn review.
Game Introduction
During my initial impression of Undawn, the game introduction is one of the downsides, Honestly I find it boring, I don’t get thrilled about its story unlike my first experience in LifeAfter that the first moment I enter the game my heart keeps pounding, the ambush of the zombies during scape, chasing by a mutant monstrous zombie, meeting NPC like Aleksey and sacrifice his life just for me to survive was phenomenal.
But in Undawn I’m sorry to say this, but it to boring, the game introduction was simple, stuck in the wild, then meet some human alike creatures, escape from zombies, find a motorcycle, and escape that’s it.
In the game introduction, I couldn’t find the thrill that I was looking for, maybe I was just playing LifeAfter for years and I already know what to do in those kinds of situations, but still, the story during the game introduction was lame.
Graphics
When it comes to graphics Undawn has a realistic graphic, that can rival the likes of LifeAfter, Black Desert, and Once Human.
Everything in Undawn looks real from the trees, grass, equipment, NPC, the whole environment, and even the characters. It also has good lighting especially when playing on PC, I highly appreciate the graphics on this game without compromising the gaming experience.
Undawn Gameplay
I was disappointed with its game intro but when it came to gameplay, It was amazing as expected. It has a lot of things that you can do in the game and you will never get bored with it.
OpenWorld
Undawn is an Openworld Zombie apocalypse game, it has a wide map for players to enjoy. Every section in the map is interconnected and players can easily travel and explore the dangerous world of Undawn.
In comparison LifeAfter was not originally an Openworld game, if you play the game in 2018 -2020 players can switch to regions in the map using a chopper, LifeAfter converted into an Openworld game after the season 3 big update.
Undawn on the other hand is already an Openworld game since the beginning which is why the transition when entering regions in the maps when traveling is much smoother in the LifeAfter.
Even when riding the motorcycle at full speed I don’t experience any bugs or lags when entering regions even when playing on mobile. For me, the OpenWorld map of Undawn is big thumbs up, nothing to complain just a pure enjoyable awesome experience.
World Exploration
The OpenWorld map in Undawn gives a much more great experience in world exploration. Exploring the world of Undawn was great, you can visit more places and get some rewards while exploring the area.
There are places where you can take a picture using a camera in the game to get some cool rewards, while exploring the map you might unlock different side quests to earn more rewards, there are also some supplies, or let’s call them a supply box where you can acquire some exploration points.
While exploring the area don’t forget to fix every signal tower in the region to get a better view of the regional map.
Story Mode
Let’s talk about Undawn story mode, previously I mentioned that the Undawn game introduction story is boring, but when digging dive into the game I appreciate how good its story mode is in the game.
Although some of its stories are pretty long to complete I highly advise completing all of them since there are valuable rewards and EXP that you can earn from completing story mode.
You should also try to complete the adventure guide inside the story section of the game to get high-value rewards like free outfits, silvers, coupons, and more.
Survival
Since Undawn is a survival game, you will experience gameplay where you are on your own to survive in a world full of zombies.
Your survival is in your hands, you will need to build your own house to make your safe from zombies’ attack and build your weapons like a machete, sword, guns, or even drones. You will also need to craft your armor to survive ferocious attacks from zombies, human-like creatures, and even hostile players.
Another survival feature of Undawn was you also need to take care of yourself by finding your food source, cooking, and discovering different recipes way each recipe has a different buff that can help you progress in different missions.
To survive you will also need to improve your character physically by doing exercise to improve your build and increase stamina, you will need to make sure that your clothes are always clean by washing them regularly, you can wash yourself to keep yourself clean.
Nothing more I can say about its survival gameplay, it is one of the best that I ever played.
Crafting
Crafting is one of its Undawn features that you will surely like, but yeah some people don’t like this kind of feature, especially those kind of players that has a very limited time to play the game.
But hey Undawn is a survival game– and if you want to play a zombie apocalypse survival game you should expect that the game has a lot of grinding and it includes crafting everything that you need to survive the game.
What I mean by everything –is literally everything, you will craft every part of your house from walls, floors, roof, and every piece of furniture that you need like cabinets, washing machines, refrigerators, beds, etc.
You can also craft weapons, armor, and other usable, and the fun part was if you craft a rare item you can trade it for other players to buy and earn some gold.
Trade
Another feature of Undawn that I noticed was its trading, it is the best way to get the best items or equipment in the game. You can craft weapons and armor and if it is rare with good stats you can sell it for a high amount in trading.
Actually, in my case, I’m a competitive player and when I craft weapons with a good stat I use it to improve my character damage and defense. Here are a few tips, What I usually sell is unfinished items based on the current level in my servers it sells well and gives a high amount of profit.
You can also trade raw materials that are essentials for making weapons, armor, upgrades, and more. After earning a lot of gold from trading, you can use the gold to buy items in the trade that you need to progress in the game.
Role
There are also different roles that you can unlock in the Undawn. You can choose from four major different roles like Logger, Miner, Gatherer, and hunter. There are also some roles like minor roles like Chef, Angler, and Scavenger.
Each role has its specialties you can choose to focus on one role or do a jack of all trades, but based on my own experience I unlock all four major roles but focus more on a single role since upgrading all four major roles is time-consuming and requires a lot of effort.
I will publish a full tutorial on Undawn soon and create a more in-depth explanation about different roles on Undawn, I will use my years of experience being a LifeAfter veteran player to teach you everything you need to know in the game Undwan since LifeAfter and Undawn have lots of similarities and I fully understand the gameplay of Undawn from the very beginning because of my experience from LifeAfter.
Gathering Resources
I already mentioned trading raw materials in the game to earn gold, well to get those raw materials you need to gather some resources in the wilds, you can cut down some trees, mine some rocks, gather some flax, and even hunt some wild animals.
By logging trees, mining, gathering, and hunting you will get some valuable raw materials that you can refine and use for your needs or sell in trading posts to earn some gold.
Realistic Features
Undawn has an impressive realistic feature in the game that players can feel that they have a virtual inside the game.
Your characters need to take a bath, wash their clothes when dirty, drink some water, and eat some foods to survive and even need to pee and poop, a common thing that we usually do in real life.
In addition to that, your character should also need to exercise regularly to become stronger and to avoid being obese which can affect your character strength and performance.
Home Design
Playing Undawn also includes a feature where players can design their own home as they like, items like roofs, walls, decorations, and a lot more that can be unlocked as your level progresses, there are also a lot of features, items, and decorations that you can purchase using real money.
Home design in Undawn is perfect for those kinds of gamers who love to customize their home for their pleasure, the home design features in Undawn are like Minecraft on steroids since players can build a much more realistic look of different houses based on their imagination and creativity.
Player To Environment Interaction
As realistic as possible, it is what Undawn is trying to give to all of its players in the game. There’s a lot of player-to-environment interaction in the game.
You can run but you can also be tired when running in the game, you can swim in bodies of water but can also be drowned if you are reckless.
You should also be careful in some bodies of water since some crocodile might be lurking in the area, in the woods there are some Wolves, coyotes, and Bears that you shouldn’t mess with if your level is still low.
If you want to relax you can have a party with your friends and dance to the music at bonfire events, there are also some fish that you can catch using a fishing rod and bait, there is some Infrastructure inside the camp like a carousel and ferries wheel that you can use for your leisure time.
You can also set your garden in your area inside your camp and plant some valuable food resources that you can use for cooking. The player-to-environment interaction in Undawn is a top tier that every chill player can surely enjoy.
PVE
Aside from all of the features that I already mentioned there are features that are needed to address like PVE. Not all players love PVP and they prefer PVE rather than competing with some players, if you are this kind of player well I found Undawn interesting even for PVE players. Let me elaborate more on what you can expect if you are a PVE player.
PVE Team Fight
If you like PVE you can participate in lots of team fights in PVE, you can join or build your own team and fight some infected in the special Ops challenge, completing special Ops is a good way to earn EXP and valuable items at the same time.
There is also called the “Stronghold Challenge” that you can play solo or with your team and eliminate enemy zombies or other human-like creatures. Since Undawn is a zombie apocalypse you can expect that there are a lot of PVE action in this game that every PVE player can surely enjoy.
Missions
There are also a lot of missions that you can unlock in the game, some can be completed with a team and some are solo.
Some missions in the game are side quests that you can unlock from NPC in the maps, there are some instances that you can find items such as treasure maps or letters that can trigger a new mission in the game.
Other missions are story-based, it’s quite long to complete but worth the time since you will obtain a lot of EXP to level up faster.
PVP
If you are a completive player that loves PVP you can also enjoy Undawn since PVP is one of the main features of the game.
There are game modes like Blockade with a mix of PVP and PVE at the same time since you will be fighting human-like creatures and other players in the area.
PVP Team fight
Aside from Blockade, there are also pure PVP fights like the “Aeronautical Base” where you can create a team or play solo to automatically join a random team.
After that, each team will compete in the battleground, and participate in a PVP fight Aeronautical base can give you a chance to earn valuable rewards like upgrades, and combat points a currency that can be used to purchase items in the combat point shop.
Controls
When it comes to controls, I dont have any complaints about it, it was perfect on both mobile and PC. When I play on mobile the controls are easy to use and customize especially if you’re a four-finger claw player like me.
All the buttons are easy to customize, change its size, and swap between buttons, there is also a top gamer-recommended layout for three-finger and four finger-layout that are perfect as a base when customizing the whole controls for a claw of your choice.
Even when I’m using a PC to play Undawn it was perfect, all the controls are on point and easy to use, and even the key controls are easy to understand and easy to swap based on my preference.
The controls of Undawn are excellent on both PC and mobile which I expected from a gaming developer that has wide experience in creating a remarkable shooter game.
Sound and Music
When it comes to sound, I’m the kind of player who doesn’t give much attention to the soundtrack, I honestly don’t care much about sounds what matters to me the most is the sound of a weapon, I want the sound of every firearm to sound like real as possible.
In Undawn they made good work about effects, every weapon that I’ve tried in the game has different sounds and it also sounds like a real gun, let’s just see in the future if they didn’t repeat the sound of the firearm in other weapons as LifeAfter did, they have a lot of weapons that have similar sounds which is a downside.
Free To Play Friendly
One of the biggest questions among players was if Undawn was a free-to-play-friendly game. I even wrote in my previous article about Undawn that I and a lot of players are expecting Undawn to be free-to-play friendly since Tencent has a reputation for creating a game that is free-to-play friendly like PUBG.
The developer earns money through cosmetic enhancement of players like outfits, but sadly — I was disappointed that Undawn is not free-to-play friendly.
There are a lot of enhancements in the game that can be bought using real money like Alloy Reinforcement Coating, Accessory Blueprint, and Armor plates, all of these items can greatly enhance the stats of weapons and will give a significant advantage to other players.
The good news is, free-to-play players can also get some of those for free when grinding inside the game but of course not as much when you buy it using real money.
Based on my observation and based on my wide experience in this kind of game, I can conclude that Undawn is not so free to play-friendly, but we are still lucky that Undawn is not as heavily paid to win as LifeAfter, the only question now is when? how long can a free-to-play player keep up with heavily spender players in the game?
As the game progresses, we are not sure if future updates can still give a chance for a free player to compete with some heavy spender. We just hope that Undawn will not release gacha weapons and more upgrades that only spenders can acquire as LifeAfter did.
