Dawn Of Man Impressions | Is Steam’s Caveman City Builder Smash Hit Worth Playing?
124It’s no secret by now that Alice is a lover of all things city builder-y, management-y and strategy-y, which is exactly why we let her loose in Dawn of Man - a surprise smash hit that has taken Steam by storm. Is it any fun? Alice’s Dawn of Man impressions explain all...
This isn’t a full Dawn of Man review (you can read fuller impressions on Rock Paper Shotgun: The Site) but is a good introduction to Dawn of Man gameplay. As you could probably guess from the name of the game, Dawn of Man takes you from the very beginning of time from the Paleolithic era all the way up to the Iron Age. If you want to know more about this new caveman city builder from Madruga Works then stay tuned for Alice’s Dawn of Man impressions.
As an early introduction to Dawn of Man, Alice takes you through some of the different modes you can play in the game, but focuses on Dawn of Man’s freeplay mode, where she starts at the very beginning of man’s timeline, and works her way through the technology tree. Dawn of Man is a gridless city builder, but you need to be mindful when organising your town and where to put your work areas, as going to far away from home can mean death for the less successful hunter gatherers.
There are a lot of things that could do with a bit of tweaking, as it feels quite fiddly in places and the look of the game is a little more rough around the edges than what Alice usually plays. However, with all of that it is still quite a nicely fleshed out and thought out game. It has full Steam Workshop support, and it has an abundance of things to do as you progress through the literal Ages.
If you’re looking for games like Foundation, or games like Cities Skylines but 2,000 years ago then Dawn of Man could be for you. With animal and raider attacks happening on a pretty regular basis, Dawn of Man is certainly no walk in the park, but your people are kind of good at dealing with problems… Sometimes. It can be frustrating in the early stages when your technologies are low, and your people’s morale is just as low, but persevere and those problems will become a lot easier to deal with, as new problems become harder to deal with. Got too many animals to feed with straw and also roofs to thatch? Get those farms working more efficiently. Oh it’s the wrong season to harvest? You’ll have to sit it out and wait. Winters are scary and quite long in freeplay.
Alice also shows two other modes, called Bygone Eras and Creative Mode. Bygone Eras is her least favourite mode to play, and Alice will explain why she’s not a massive fan of the Winter March in our Dawn of Man impressions. However, Creative Mode allows you to see further into the future if you’re struggling to progress through the eras at a fast enough rate, and will also give you a more peaceful time with the game, less attacks (Alice came across none), and plenty more nearby resources.
We hope you enjoy this Dawn of Man gameplay, and if you enjoyed this you should also check out some of the other management games we’ve covered on Rock Paper Shotgun, from
Tropico 6 (https://youtu.be/Jo1WmjycskI), to Megaquarium (https://youtu.be/mIocQyKdHE8), and the aforementioned Foundation (https://youtu.be/N7_HaOdJIRg). This Dawn of Man gameplay should give you a good idea of what to expect, but if you have any specific questions, pop them in the comments and Alice will do her best to answer them.
If you enjoyed watching Alice give you her early Dawn of Man impressions, and would like to see more videos like this one, or even a Dawn of Man review, please do click the like button. And why not subscribe to Rock Paper Shotgun for more goodies like this one. Hopefully there will be less animal slaughtering next time.