Back to the Dawn is shaping up to be a fantastic prison life RPG | Hands-on preview

There are infinite possibilities for the setting of a video game, but for my money one of the most underutilised is prison. The idea of being trapped behind bars with no freedom is genuinely scary, and from a design perspective you’d think this very enclosed environment would be ideal. Despite this I could count the number of games I know set in the slammer on one hand, and even less of those are games I personally enjoyed. Thankfully Back to the Dawn is here to bring you all the jailhouse drama you could ever want, but with a colourful cast of animal characters.

Before you get started with prison life, you’ll be given a selection of characters and backstories to choose from. It’s here that Back to the Dawn reveals the RPG systems you’ll be working with, with attribute points and special skills all on offer based on your backstory. I opted to play as a fox reporter framed for drug smuggling while trying to uncover some of the mayor’s shady dealings, who had the charisma to make friends easily behind bars. After a brief bit of backstory, I was shoved into prison with a goal of proving my innocence before the mayor’s election.

Before you get any lofty ideas of sneaking around and finding information in out of bounds areas though, you need to get used to the prison schedule. After your initial headcount in the morning, you’re free to chat to your buddies or go and work in the laundry room for a pittance. Then it’s time for lunch (plain bread unless you bribe somebody) followed by time in the yard. Once you’ve found something to do outside and been suitably extorted by gangs, it’s time for your second meal of the day and a shower and TV time. Once you get the hang of all the things that happen in a day you’ll start to learn where is best place to spend your time to keep your mind and body happy, and might even figure out how to make any money you need.

Just like in day to day life, behind bars money makes the world go round. If you want to use the gym equipment to level up your stats, raise your spirits by watching a sitcom in the evening or buy some extra grub, you’ll need to give some cash to a guard or gang member for the privilege. The only legal way to do this is by working hard at prison jobs, but it’ll take an age to get enough to do anything fun. The gangs have plenty of use for a newcomer like you though, so it might be worth introducing yourself.

Getting in with the gangs might sound like an intimidating task, but each of the three running the prison were more than happy to get some help from a cunning fox like myself. For my first mission I had to take the rap for somebody and spend a day in solitary (which really did a number on my mental health) then my gang leader wanted help getting some loan money back. This involved intimidating a couple of weaker animals, and required some dice rolls on my part. After a couple of failed attempts and rerolls I had to leave it until another day, which made me wish I’d picked a more threatening character or pumped some iron beforehand. The way all the systems work together is really clever, and there seems to be plenty of ways you can use your best attributes to your advantage in this prison setting.

As well as spending time working for elephant mob bosses, you’ll also need to make time for some self care in Back to the Dawn. There are loads of little things you can do every day that give you a boost to your mind and a buff to a stat, as long as you have the required items to indulge. Brushing your teeth will give you six hours of boosted charisma, whereas showers are a great way to unwind and will keep you smelling fresh around anyone you need to impress. You even need to keep track of when you need to take a dump, because if you let that meter max out to 20 a stray fart could spell disaster for your jumpsuit and your reputation.

Once you’ve become suitably capable of handling basic hygiene and toilet needs, you’re probably ready to start finding your way to freedom. My first task in this endeavour was to raise the money to call my lawyer, then I needed to convince a guard to bump forward my visitation by stealing some evidence from a mob boss’s locked cabinet. On your desk you can craft items out of bits and bobs, and a couple of nails and paperclips later I had a lockpick at the ready. The story quests did a good job of teaching me how to play the game, and while doing them I also found a way to start taking my toilet apart in a bid for freedom.

There’s just so much to Back to the Dawn, with all sorts of routes through the game depending on how you want to play. For a demo build especially I was really interested in all the branching paths I could’ve taken, and there’s even a whole other character to play as. In my time with the game I never even started a fight with another prisoner (I figured my measly single point in strength made that a bad idea) and I’m sure there will be even more spicy situations waiting in the full game.

I can’t end this preview of Back to the Dawn without mentioning the visuals, which are breathtaking. It’s great to see the HD-2D aesthetic used outside of the usual fantasy setting, and the lighting bursting through the bars of the prison is truly a sight to behold.

Back to the Dawn is shaping up to be a fantastic prison life RPG, with a whole lot of deep systems to sink your teeth into and plenty of ways to spend your time in the slammer. I can’t wait to see what happens next to my unlucky fox protagonist, but I’m hopeful that with a few lockpicks and a bit of charisma he’ll have a happy ending later this year.

Back to the Dawn is planned for release in 2023.