Dawn of Fear is a 3D third-person Survival Horror game, developed by the small Spanish indie group Brok3nsite. The game was made because the developers won a contest to have their game published by Sony on their Playstation Store. Originally released on Playstation 4 as a Playstation Store exclusive, it was later released on Steam on July 11, 2020.
The game is a lower-budget homage to old school survival horror games, particularly the Resident Evil series, with tank controls and fixed cinematic camera angles.
Players take the role of Alex, a young man who has returned to his old family mansion after the death of his stepmother Jessica, who was suffered a long period of depression after the death of her husband and younger son. Alex soon discovers the mansion is infested with zombies and even worse creatures, and must survive and discover what exactly is going on.
Dawn of Fear contains examples of:
- Body of Bodies: Bryan the Gardener, the first boss, has been turned into a giant 15-foot tall golem composed of dozens of dead bodies.
- Critical Hit: The pistol has an extremely small chance of causing a zombie's head to explode with one shot, killing them instantly. However, the odds of this happening are so small you can't rely on it in any sort of way to save ammo.
- Final Boss, New Dimension: The final boss fight takes place in some sort of stellar void.
- Giant Mook: 8-foot tall creatures that look like a bipedal naked mole rat crossed with the Demogorgon start appearing throughout the mansion in the latter half of the game, they're faster than you and take a lot of firepower to put down and will appear in some rooms that were previously occupied by zombies, but most can be stealthed around by walking instead of running. The creature itself is a Unity-store asset ("Nightmare Creature #1") and can also be seen in the Outbreak series.
- Kill It with Fire: Abi the Housekeeper, the second boss, can't be killed by normal means, and can only be killed by setting her on fire multiple times with an incinerator in her boss room.
- New Work, Recycled Graphics: As an indie game made by a very small group of developers, the game uses a lot of paid pre-made assets, especially for the enemy models, which may be familiar from other small, low-budget Steam indie horror games.
- Puzzle Boss: The first and second bosses can't be defeated with bullets, and instead have to be beaten using devices in their boss room (a cargo container crane for the first boss, and an incinerator for the second boss). Averted with the final boss, which just has to be shot a lot.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Zombies with red eyes are slightly tougher than regular zombies, and take about 1 extra bullet to put down.
- Revolvers Are Just Better: A magnum revolver appears as the game's ultimate weapon; it deals heavy damage, but ammo is limited and should be saved for bosses.
- Resources Management Gameplay: As is typical for the genre, ammo and healing items are limited and you'll have to choose which enemies you absolutely need to kill and which you can save ammo by avoiding. Throughout the entire game you'll find a total of about 112 pistol rounds, 30 shotgun rounds, and 12 magnum rounds, which isn't enough to kill everything in the mansion. You'll also find 14 first aid kits, which is only enough to heal you from almost dead to full health about 4 times in total.
- Seeks Another's Resurrection: Jessica has captured and killed hundreds of people to try and find a way to resurrect her dead husband and younger son with Alchemy.
- Shout-Out: One of the rooms in the mansion is a shout out to Resident Evil, with a biker jacket extremely similar to Claire Redfield's, as well as a typewriter (with your character noting it's a shame they don't have an ink ribbon).
- Vague Hit Points: Your health is indicated by how wrinkled the pages in your notebook are. The notebook pages will be stained with blood when you're near death.
