Z Dawn was an interesting little indie game (developed and self published in 2019 by GoldenGod Games) that crossed my feed a week or so ago. It was on sale at a pretty hefty discount on the Humble Bundle Store, where I got an extra discount due to being a Humble Bundle monthly subscriber! So, for a few dollars, I figured I would try this little game out...

Now, if there is a style of game that I would take with me to a desert island, it would be a really hardcore, old style, tough as nails survival simulator... preferably turn based. There is something that I really really like about running a base management crossed with a RPG style of game, but within a sort of apocalypse setting. So far, the closest that I've come to having that experience has been the XCOM types of games.... but I'm still looking for a zombie or Mad-Max setting that would scratch that same itch. Although, now that I think of it, RimWorld and Dwarf Fortress do a pretty good job too!

Z Dawn looks pretty low budget... but it was the right genre, and you never know... with some of these indie games, they can sometimes hit the sweet spot!

The Setup

You start off the game with a ragged mob of six survivors... the zombie virus has just swept through the world, and there are only a handful of uninfected left. You are given a randomised set of toons, and some basic game settings... and then you are are off on your own to survive! So, pretty

The Game

The game is turn based, and you are playing on a good old fashioned hex grid. The world seems pretty large, and you won't be venturing far from your initial encampment in the early days. Definitely you will need a car before you start getting further afield...

... meanwhile, you will have to attend to roaming groups of zombies and the occasional NPC human groups that are scattered throughout the map. The zombies do come in a variety of "hero" flavours... Spitters, Screamers, and Brutes are the classic ones that make a regular appearance! Meanwhile, the rival human factions are an opportunity for trade... or like in the Walking Dead, they can be your worst and most lethal enemies!

Whilst exploring, there are some text-based decision trees that make use of some lite RPG mechanics... you either need some particular profession skill or high stats in a particular area to succeed at the challenge tasks.

This brings us to your merry band of survivors... don't get attached to them, as you will be inevitably losing them... hopefully not too fast, but the threat of infection and a more mundane death is always lurking. One interesting mechanic is the amputation feature... which allows you to amputate an infected limb in exchange for some serious negative perks! But at least you keep the character, who is more likely to be a home base employee afterwards!

One small comment here... it is a real pain in the arse to manage groups. I get that this is an indie game, but there is no way to have overlapping groups in the same hex.. which isn't a problem generally, except for that heavily trafficked encampment hex! That means that you will be joining and unjoining groups quite often... and quite unnecessarily! It is a good idea to rename your toons with their intended purpose...

Inventory is slightly better managed, but there is the downside that it doesn't compare the items that you are potentially equipping. This does make for a tedious comparison, as you have to mouse over two items that are far apart on the inventory screen.

Leveling up your survivors proceeds like most RPG games... grind, and then ping! Unfortunately, there isn't really that much in the way of level up perks... and I would have really preferred to see different perk trees for each profession instead of such a generalised and sort of mundane selectoin.

Base Management is simple to use... but quite limited in what you can do. This is also a criticism of the equipment list as well.... there just isn't that much in the way of variety and interest in the items that you loot.

Visuals, Sound and Performance

This is a pretty low-tech game from the point of view of pushing hardware... it should run on pretty much anything that can run a web browser... Visuals are nice, but low-fi... no animation, well... the briefest bit of animation for actions. Sound is even less involved... there are little sound effects, but that is pretty much it. I'm guessing that the budget was kept tight in these areas to try and get the game mechanics front and centre in the development. No complaints... but it might not appeal to those who aren't more old school in their game experiences!

My Thoughts

Z Dawn does have the beginnings and promise of a decent zombie apocalypse RPG/management game... but in the end, there is just too much grinding and all the mechanics aren't quite as deep as I would have liked. I would find myself just hammering the skip turn button to just get jobs or searching done... sometimes on the order of 40 times. That isn't quite as much fun as it could be! Meanwhile, as your band of survivors grow... it suffers from the Civ curse of not being able (not being willing to...) micromanage everything and it ends up being more tedious than fun.

Keep in mind that it is an indie game... so, there is a need to support those who try to push the ideas and concepts that the big game development studios ignore... and I'm more than happy to do that. Even if it isn't quite the perfect game, and it doesn't last more than a week or two in your game time... it doesn't hurt to drop a few dollars to the ones who are exploring and pushing the boundaries!

Review Specs

Played at 1080p (144Hz) on:

XMG Fusion 15

CPU: Intel Core i7-9750H
RAM: 16 GB
Storage: SSD (SATA/Nvme)
GPU: Nvidia GTX 2070 Max-Q

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