Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch (reviewed), PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Microsoft Windows,
Dawn of the Monsters opens with Toronto under attack from a horde of Nephilim. If you’re familiar with kaiju, then you’ll understand the Nephilim, as they are giant creatures hellbent on destruction. The Defense Alliance Worldwide Network, DAWN for short, has formed a response team and set out to stop these creatures from invading. They are led by Eiji Murasame and Jamila Senai, who both pilot giant robots to fight the Nephilim. They are also joined by two Nephilim, Ganira and Megadon, who were brought in to fight on DAWN’s side thanks to a secret research program. What follows is a battle of mankind vs. monsters with the fate of the world in the balance.
That is the gist of the story in Dawn of the Monsters. It definitely gives off similar vibes to plenty of other material (Pacific Rim immediately comes to mind for me), so it doesn’t come off as all that unique. It’s told through fully voice-acted, comic-style scenes. It’s always impressive when you get a smaller game that is fully voice acted, but the voice work ranges from decent to not-so-great. Couple that with a story and characters that aren’t all that interesting to begin with and I had a hard time caring about the narrative.
From a gameplay perspective, Dawn of the Monsters is a 2.5D beat ‘em up game that has you battling through side scrolling levels where your goal, in most cases, will be to defeat all the enemies. Every once in a while, you’ll encounter a unique Nephilim boss, known as a Monarch, but otherwise it’s pretty much a straightforward battle from point A to point B.
To bring the fight to the Nephilim, you’ll be able to pick between four characters to play as, Aegis Prime and Tempest Galahad (Eiji and Jamila’s respective robots), as well as the Nephilim, Ganira and Megadon. Each character has their own set of moves set, but it basically boils down to light, heavy, and dash attacks with a few special attacks thrown in.
As you use your standard attacks, your character will build up Rage. Once you have enough, you’ll be able to do one of three Rage attacks, which are moves that are slightly stronger than your normal ones. Your Rage meter will also allow you to do Executions, which restore a bit of your health, and these are probably the most valuable moves in your arsenal because of that. Doing enough Rage attacks will also build your Cataclysm meter, which allows you to unleash your character’s most powerful attack when full. You’ll also have defensive options like dodging and guarding at your disposal.
Unfortunately, these combat mechanics don’t help make the gameplay any better because it is so slow paced that it becomes a slog almost immediately. All characters move and attack at a snail’s pace, and on top of that, there’s no ability to jump or move in a quicker way. This makes escaping an area of effect attack or closing the distance between your character and an enemy a real pain. There are the dash attack and dodge mechanics, but they are also slow and cover so little ground that they aren’t useful for maneuvering. I mean, I get these are supposed to be giant, lumbering creatures, but this is also a video game. I’d rather throw the “realism” out the window in favor of fun because with the repetitive nature of beat ’em ups to begin with, the slow combat and gameplay make things all the more tedious.
Once you’re finally able to push your way through a level, you’ll be graded based on time, score, combo, and more. Depending on how well you do, you’ll get a letter grade. The higher the grade, the better the rewards. These rewards come in the form of Augments for your characters. These will grant a perk and increase attributes, but a majority didn’t seem to change the gameplay in any meaningful way. The best ability I found was one that kept me from getting stunned, which made the combat a little less tedious at times. Otherwise, these just felt a bit tacked on. You’ll also earn money for completing each mission (or from selling unwanted Augments) that can be spent in the Workshop. Here you’ll be able to upgrade your health, rage, and cataclysm, as well as buy new palettes (color schemes) for each of the four characters. This aspect also felt like nothing more than an afterthought.
As far as visuals go, Dawn of the Monsters has moments where it looks great. The four playable characters and each of their various palettes are all nicely detailed. The environments and enemies are all also well illustrated, but with only a handful of each, they start feeling a bit bland to look at level after level. It’s a good-looking game with a solid art design, but a little more variety would have gone a long way in keeping things fresh.
Dawn of the Monsters could have been a dream of a game for kaiju fans, but unfortunately nothing about it ends up feeling that way. The gameplay is a slow, tedious slog through levels and enemies that all start feeling the same. It’s not inherently a bad game, just boring and not at all fun after a level or two. If you’re looking for a solid beat ‘em game, I’d highly recommend skipping Dawn of the Monsters and looking elsewhere unless you are an absolutely diehard kaiju fan.
