DAWN OF THE MONSTERS is a fun kaiju beat ’em up — GeekTyrant

If you like playing side scrolling beat ’em up games and pretending to be a giant mecha or kaiju, you’ll love it Dawn of the Monsters. The closest analogs that come to mind are that Megadon is a quasi-Godzilla, Ganira is a turtle/crab cousin of Megadon, Aegis Prime is like Ultraman, and Tempest Galahad is a very elegant mech. Each mission has two parts that you will traverse, beating up enemy monsters called Nephilim, which differ in appearance and tactics. Once you complete the level, you return to base, continue the story, buy upgrades, change power-ups, etc. There’s really nothing special here, but it’s still a good game.

Visually, the game has an art direction that feels very comic-like and I wasn’t a huge fan at first. I did complete a level once, although I warmed up to it and really appreciate it. As you play through, you’ll also be able to unlock skins for the four characters, and while that’s just taste-swapping, some of them are clear pop culture nods. For example, the Amuro skin for Tempest Galahad gives the mech a paint job reminiscent of the original Mobile Suit Gundam, and Ganira has a purple and green skin that fans of ’90s anime will instantly recognize. The environment for the levels is very appropriate, but after a few missions it feels a little boring. Fortunately, however, the levels aren’t very long, which helps keep everything moving forward, and you don’t usually have a lot of time just to admire the scenery, so this is more forgivable.

The story for the game is a little generic, but the voice acting is fun and helps bring it to life a little more. I like the dialogue that takes place in the missions section of the game, which is most relevant, but there’s also another section of the game called chat and it has some extra character moments to enjoy if that’s your thing. They are not very numerous, but it is nice when they appear.

If you’ve ever played a beat ’em up game, you pretty much know how Dawn of the Monsters plays. You keep moving to the right until the map stops scrolling, and then all you have to do is fight a bunch of monsters. You have three different types of basic attacks (Light, Heavy, Dash) and then you can parry, dodge, use rage abilities and, if you’re really in a bind, cataclysm attacks. Oh, you can also perform executions on low-health enemies and heal yourself. These executions can often result in you beheading the enemy and then, if you’re lucky, picking up the head and using it to attack your comrades. It’s very simple but effective. You can enhance your characters with DNA Augments, which provide additional bonuses to stats, as well as various abilities such as: B. Invulnerability for a few seconds when your health drops below a threshold or after executing an enemy. They are small bonuses but help you develop more unique characters. The 2 player co-op mode works well with no performance issues and it’s always great to have couch co-op in a modern game.

I like to play very much Dawn of the Monsters. It’s not my game of the year, but it’s fun and fast, which is great if, like me, you have an extremely busy life. If everything I said sounds good, I would recommend grabbing a copy of the game on your favorite platform now. If you have Stadia Pro, you can claim the game now at no additional cost.