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Back to the Dawn
Back to the Dawn turns a prison escape into an investigation shaped by the people you choose to trust. With ≈ $13.89 at 
Kinguin, its tracked low makes this a timely fit for players ready to follow either Thomas or Bob’s story and work through the prison on their own.
The two protagonists offer distinct cases, while alliances and rivalries with inmates shape the route toward escape. The Steam PC player snapshot is 94% positive from 8,601 reviews. At ≈ $13.89 from Kinguin, Back to the Dawn is below Steam by ≈ $5.30, making its prison mysteries a strong match for a solo story session.
KinguinBack to the Dawn PC Steam CD KeyAll-time low ~ $15.99across Steam & third-party storesat the recorded all-time low
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Price History
Past 36 months · Updated dailyHistorical Low~ $14.132026-07Current Low Across Stores~ $17.99Kinguinvs. Historical Low+27%
Prices cover Steam and 39 authorized stores; only legitimate offers are counted. The chart shows weekly market-wide lows and Steam's official price across the past 36 months.
01About Back to the Dawn
Back to the Dawn is a prison-set RPG about surviving, investigating two conspiracies and finding a way out. Choose reporter Thomas or undercover agent Bob, build skills, craft tools and decide how to deal with inmates and prison factions. On Steam PC, player reviews are 94% positive across 8,601 reviews. Steam PC supports full controller input.
Credits
Developer
Metal Head Games
Publisher
Spiral Up Games
Lowest recorded in 36 months
$14.132026-07-30 · KinguinBase game · same records as the chart above; USD history, not a regional Steam low.Language support
| Language | Interface | Subtitles | Audio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Simplified Chinese | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Traditional Chinese | Yes | Yes | — |
| English | Yes | Yes | — |
Show 6 more languages
| Language | Interface | Subtitles | Audio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Japanese | Yes | Yes | — |
| Korean | Yes | Yes | — |
| Russian | Yes | Yes | — |
| Spanish-Latin America | Yes | Yes | — |
| Vietnamese | Yes | Yes | — |
| German | Yes | Yes | — |
Steam PC edition data · 2026-10-19
02Before you buy
Language support
Steam PC lists Simplified Chinese, English, Japanese, Traditional Chinese, French, German, Korean, Polish, and Russian interface and subtitle support. Simplified Chinese also has full audio.
Controller
The Steam PC version has full controller support.
03Frequently asked questions
Who can you play as?
Choose between Thomas, a journalist caught in a conspiracy, and Bob, an undercover agent.
What can you do inside the prison?
Explore the prison, develop skills, craft tools, and form alliances or conflicts with inmates and factions.
Are there multiple ways to escape?
The game description says there are multiple escape routes and possible endings.
Popular Steam reviews
Native-language selection · 10 reviewsSelected helpful reviews in this language show both recommendations and criticisms. This selection does not represent the overall positive rating; opinions reflect the version reviewed.
RecommendedSteam player
I do recommend this game but before you buy it and expect it to be a chill prison break game like The Escapist, stop. The game is plot driven and has a 21 in-game day time limit, the way it is made, it will NOT be removing the 21 day time limit, they specifically crafted that 21 day to be eventfully played out and is your role to make use of it efficiently. I’m doing a 2nd playthrough and the experience is entirely different from the 1st which I lost because I don’t have enough time. This game was never made for one playthrough. Here are the Pros and Cons of my experience. Pros: -Every single prison mate is unique, they all have their own special talent which you can learn if you befriend and bond with them. The things they each like and dislike are also tied to their backstories, you can guess many of them with the short info you get when you befriend them. -This is probably one of the few games where I don't find myself hoarding items because I need every advantage I can get. I feel like an entire different fox journalist on my second playthrough solely because I invested early and bought a 200 dollar shoe that gives me 20% more stamina efficiency, which can means 1 more work cycle, few more workouts, you get more from drinking a damn soda. -The game is pretty sophisticated to the point it has a sense of realism in it. Pretty much anything you do except waiting/walking takes actual in-game time. Some says this sucks because there’s the time limit, but I find it in a way, is a resource management game. Like dude, you’re not going to do much at that 4 hour evening time period, use that time to talk to everybody instead of working hours. You don’t just eat ramen, you need hot water at those drinking stations. Prison mates will get triggered if you bluffed them at poker. Is pretty in-depth. Cons: -Some of the UI is very uninituitive, a lot of my first playthrough mishaps happens because of it. A lot of people here are complaining dying in sleep and hard to maintain body stats, look… it took me 5 in-game days… to realise… that police salesman sells blankets and pillows so that you will not lose body stat during sleep. I never notice it because maybe I’m hardcoded to assume the first page on every salesman is “ALL ITEMS” but there are more items if you look real closely to the tabs and you can browse 2 more pages. -I meant it when I said you are bound to lose on your first playthrough blind. But I can’t skip the main story plot cutscenes or little adventures on my 2nd playthrough, devs, if you reading this, please add this feature, as much as I like to see my best homie lawyer dancing in a strip club, it gets annoying when I have to talk to everybody there again or listen to him explaining his long adventure towards that destination for 5 minutes again to progress -I’ve played the demo before, back then the focus point feature is very crucial and I smoked a tons of mints to get their benefits. The current early access has me overabundance of it after the first few days of befriended people. I wish there are more use to it beside re-rolls and that. For a suggestion, I would like to have a +1 dice roll boost as a focus point usage to those progress-based activities like reading books and writing letters. That’s pretty much it for now. Review might change after early access is done. TL:DR The game is very in-depth and plot driven. The prison is very lively and details everywhere. Is more towards a resource management game than a prison escape planner. It was never meant to be won on your first playthrough.Show moreShow less
33.3 hours at review86 people found this helpful
Written during Early Access
Not recommendedSteam player
It's not the "prison-simulator-open world-survival craft-game" that you think it is. It's hard to enjoy the contents of this game when you're capped at 21 days, the times you spend trying to be-friend prison mates, upgrading stats, collecting items, skill unlocks, room upgrades, gang level etc.. none of that matters, it'll all be wiped in 21 days in game. Ruins the immersion and the game's sense of progression. The game has crazy amounts of depth, lore, and secrets to uncover, but it feels like the game is way too focused on pushing the player through the main story that you can't even enjoy the contents of the game. - "You can't get so hung up on where you'd rather be that you forget to make the most of where you are". Perhaps add a separate game-mode where there is no 21 days cap, a true prison survival sim.Show moreShow less
9.1 hours at review299 people found this helpful
Written during Early Access
RecommendedSteam player
This game is if The Escapists had depthShow moreShow less
4.4 hours at review57 people found this helpful
Written during Early Access
Not recommendedSteam player
While I appreciate all the work and quality here, I'm just not a huge fan of the time management aspect. The rest of the game seems great but that element just makes it too stressful and pulls the fun out for me. If time management stuff doesn't bother you though I'd 100% recommend this.Show moreShow less
1.6 hours at review217 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
The colorful cast of characters, the fun skills and activities, gangs. This is what I expected of a prison RPG. It is fun and vibrant! can't wait for more!Show moreShow less
0.5 hours at review52 people found this helpful
Written during Early Access
Not recommendedSteam player
It's a good game, but I can't recommend it because of the in-game timer. You have to finish the game in 21 days. So if you decide to play it, I recommend to push forward the main quest, or you'll need to go through the game all over again (you have only one auto-save).Show moreShow less
7.1 hours at review161 people found this helpful
Written during Early Access
RecommendedSteam player
Came here from CallMeKevin and I do not regret it, this is game really friggin fun. Edit: After playing for some extra hours, I've got to say it's currently really hard to manage the Body stat due to how limited the resources are early game to get items that restore it.Show moreShow less
1.9 hours at review42 people found this helpful
Written during Early Access
Not recommendedSteam player
FINAL EDIT: Beat the game and while I enjoyed parts of it, I'll say there was a huge chunk of the game that was frustrating - primarily the last week of the game. Avoiding spoilers as much as possible, I'll say the last week of the game's timeline is the most crucial for your escape and yet they throw so many arbitrary punishments at you that basically makes it incredibly difficult to achieve the end goal of escape. Thankfully I prepared well enough because I figured they were going to throw some crap like that , so I meta gamed and focused only on efficiency and experience, obtaining every single skill in the game (including reading every single book, playing every game, watching every movie, etc.), unlocked all crafting recipes and prebuilt literally every possible item I could think of to have a good stash of everything; while ignoring maxing relationships of the prisoners (I basically only maxed relationships with the prisoners that gave the most optimal possible buffs, which was only a handful) and ignoring roleplaying as much as possible - and even then I BARELY survived with the particular path that I took. Not only this, but they literally designed the ending where if you dont build your character with combat in mind - you will not be able to beat the game. Want to be a pacifist? Someone who persuades and uses wits instead, while ignoring all combat? Yeah - you're not going to be able to beat the game - because they decide to throw a boss fight at you at the very end that if you weren't preparing for you will lose. Thankfully, I didn't try to roleplay, and literally maxed every stat and unlocked every skill, so I was able to beat the game even though I originally wanted to play the game with a more charismatic character. Why have this idea of roleplaying, builds, stats/skills, if you ultimately are going to railroad the experience for players? Why not give people options? ______________________________________________________________________ EDIT: So restarted the game entirely because the death spiral had become so real. After learning exactly how to play the meta, basically zero difficulty any longer and the game becomes a cake walk. Kinda unfun design in my opinion, because either you play the game perfectly after knowing exactly what to do which makes it more of just following the motions and going down a checklist and you have zero difficulty, or you go into the game blind and make mistakes (which is what makes the game fun) but fall into a death spiral. The second playthru I discovered there basically is no true replayability, dialogue encounters are exactly the same and occur at the same times, no mix ups with choices so again you know exactly what to do and when to do it, and you just sorta meta-game your way to victory rather than roleplaying. Things like making a bunch of cash in the morning of the first day and spending it all on a pillow and blanket before you go to lunch because you know you will be robbed at the beginning of recreation basically trivializes the entire beginning of the game. Knowing you are almost guaranteed to have a dream/nightmare the first couple nights you additionally rush for the book that increases your chance of having a good dream, etc. etc. Basically you meta game after already knowing exactly what happens and then the game becomes a cake walk, or you go in blind and inevitably fall down a death spiral. There doesn't feel like there's an in between at all. ______________________________________________________________________ Giving a thumbs down for now, but really I don't necessarily hate it - just frustrated with how it feels to play for the first time. 8 hours in I still didn't feel like I was grasping what they were expecting from me. Game is alright but has some serious questionable design decisions. It's an incredibly difficult resource management game with a lot of obtuse mechanics that it doesn't really fully explain to you. This wouldn't be so bad if the game developers had ever played a resource management game before and knew what the term "death spiral" meant and why it's something you should try to avoid in games like this that have a lot of resources to manage in a multitude of different ways. There are so many mechanics that lead to you being punished further for not knowing what you're doing. It becomes incredibly difficult to recover from. You run low on one resource? They punish you by decrementing from multiple resources. Run low on those resources that they decremented for being low on the other resource? They decrement from your stats that dictate your ability to recover those resources. Oh and then you went to bed with that debuff to your stats? Guess what! You wake up the next day and are punished again for having slept with the bebuff! Add onto to this that there isn't any full recovery system, you are fighting tooth and nail to get 5% of a single resource back all while the others are still depleting. I don't know what they were really thinking with some of these decisions. The game has some fun ideas and solid core, but it's plagued with tedium. Honestly, that's the best way I can describe this game : tedious. You spend so much time figuring out what you are supposed to do or what you can even do, and by the time you figure it out it's too late and you're already caught in that death spiral. If they just explained things better it would probably be less painful, but I feel like I shouldn't be punished so early and severely for figuring out the game. The game isn't set up in a way where I would want to replay 8 hours because I made mistakes that become frustrating to recover from. An example of what I'm talking about: you can buy items directly from certain prisoners, but for gang shops you have to wait a day for the item to be sent to you and they deliver to you underneath your bed. This is fine and all, but they don't really communicate this to you very well. The first time I bought something from a gang shop it just lead to frustration as I was trying to buy it for a quest just to realize I had to wait - and then I waited just to bang my head against the wall trying to figure out where the heck they even delivered it to. Finally I had realized they delivered it to me under my bed, but by then it was too late to even complete the quest so felt like a waste of money. Why is it that I can spend an entire day worth of actions in game trying to raise my mind 20+ points just for a random event to occur while I sleep to pass to the next day that can decrement upwards of 40 mind points? I understand there's items to alleviate this like the pillow, but go back to my point about the death spiral and it becomes hard to get those items when you're battling trying to just stay afloat. Maybe I'm just not playing the game how they intended, but if there is an intended way to play they certainly don't communicate that. One last note to the devs if they're reading this: Praying and watching movies should give WAY more Mind. These are supposed to be the things that can restore your mind, you can only do them once per day, and yet they only give around 5 points a pop? IMO they should take more time, but give far more mind. Brewed coffee should give more stamina. Why the heck does it give less stamina than coffee beans? I'm aware it gives a charisma experience buff as well, but what the hell - it gives like half the stamina as the beans themselves. I was so furious when I spent so much money on the coffee grinder, stamina and time to grind the beans, and my hot water action just to realize it didn't even give me the thing I wanted or expected : which was more stamina. Why the hell dont you *atleast* give us the same amount stamina with the brewed coffee as the beans themselves? I don't understand this decision at all. There's other instances of this type of stuff, but I've already written enough to give you an idea of things you need to address.Show moreShow less
8.4 hours at review56 people found this helpful
Written during Early Access
RecommendedSteam player
The law of the jungle is more than present in this game, which places us in a world of anthropomorphic animals and focuses on the story of Thomas; a reporter who ends up being falsely imprisoned and who’ll fight to bring the truth to light. Taking inspiration from prison stories like the famed Prison Break, Back to the Dawn immerses us in a maximum security prison where we’re exposed to the harsh realities of life behind bars. Arriving in the middle of a conflict between gangs where anyone can be an ally or an enemy, and fighting to clear our name, we’ll have to familiarize ourselves with an unpredictable environment and a day-to-day life that will test our protagonist. Being an early access game one can't help but wonder, what does this version really have to offer us? And the truth is, a pretty solid experience that could well be sold as a complete game and I wouldn’t doubt it. The main character is Thomas, a renowned journalist who investigates an illegal chemical spill in the city's river. The thing is that these actions put him in the crosshairs of someone powerful, and who does not want this kind of information to come to light before the mayoral elections. You can imagine what happens next, they try to bribe Thomas, and when he refuses, they set him up and frame him in an attempt to get rid of him. What they don't take into account is that even behind bars, he's not going to give up. Aside from an intriguing story, Back to the Dawn provides us with an RPG experience that focuses on decision making, and combines several interesting elements such as dice rolling and character development based on parameters and skills. From the beginning we are allowed to choose between three "backgrounds", such as war journalist or undercover, which differ in the distribution of stats and come with their own passive effects, which can help us with different actions within the game. There are both benefits and consequences depending on our choices, and the world behind the bars is not a place to be taken lightly, so choosing at the start whether we want more strength or charisma, for example, is something that will be reflected in our gameplay. By interacting with the convicts we'll be able to gain their friendship, exchange contraband with them or even fulfill missions with their respective rewards. We can also get involved with the three prison gangs, and even join one of them if we gain enough reputation, at the cost of putting a target on our back for the rival gangs of course. You have to be careful about pissing off someone in a prison, considering that you’ll see them face to face on a daily basis. In addition to the social repercussions, the combat system is quite unforgiving and you have to think very carefully before looking for a fight with the rest of the prisoners, especially because it has more disadvantages than advantages, in my opinion. The combat itself is turn-based, very classic, and while it seems simple at first, it gets a bit more interesting as you get better equipment and skills. To me, it's a nice addition but not a point I focused on, and I regretted most fights rather than feeling good about their outcomes. Leaving aside the inmates, we can explore the prison and its different facilities, such as places to work, the recreation yard or even hidden nooks and crannies out of sight of the guards, ideal for planning an escape. It’s a fairly large map, although it’s not completely open, because after all, we are imprisoned. We'll have certain time slots for different activities; we work in the morning, have lunch, and then there is free time until dinner, a little before they go into lockdown. During these time frames we can perform various tasks, such as hiding contraband in our cell, exercising, and even bathing so as not to stink up the compound; we are inmates but not animals - ah wait, we are animals.... but well, we have decency! There are several mini-games that adorn the different jobs we can take, and some other parts of the game, so there's always something to keep us entertained. By planning our actions around these schedules, and with a game day limit, we'll have to try to clear our name or escape from prison, which sounds as difficult as it is to do. I recommend being aware of this time limit, as trying to do too many things at once meant I couldn't finish any of them and ended up with a bad ending, which forced me to start another game from scratch. Still, it's very cool that there are several ways to advance the story, from following the main plot to escape attempts, and I also really liked the implementation of mini-plots between different inmates that run along the story, covering from conflicts between gangs to a cult that tries to summon demons in the middle of the prison. Doesn't that sound interesting? I should also mention that some missions offer several alternatives to complete them, such as talking to different inmates or looking for another way to deal with situations, and even though they all lead to the same end, the flexibility is appreciated. And as a fan of pixel art, I must mention the visual section, which pays a lot of attention to detail, becoming very noticeable in the character sprites. Each prisoner is unique, represented by their own animal, from the protagonist who is a fox, to an elephant that leads one of the three gangs; and there are very interesting touches that do not go unnoticed as a frog that blinks differently from the rest for being an amphibian, and those little things really get me. The only flaws I saw were some dialogue errors and inconsistent texts (which I imagine is a translation thing), but I saw that they were fixing it little by little with patches. But everything is perfectly understood except in specific cases (like getting text_1 or something, which happened once), and it is a tiny detail compared to the amount of content there is to experience. And if that wasn't enough, another alternative route is planned for the future, where we'll not play Thomas but another character who is an undercover policeman, which seems really cool to me. Honestly, a very complete early access and although many things can change from here to full launch, it leaves me intrigued by how it will develop as time goes by. I'm really looking forward to the other character's route, and I'll be keeping track of that, but for now, it seems to me that it offers a good chunk of content, and it's a very easy recommendation.Show moreShow less
27.7 hours at review41 people found this helpful
Written during Early Access · Received for free
Not recommendedSteam player
I really, really want to recommend this game, but I don't think I can. The pros are exceptional and compelling, but the one big con makes it hard for me to recommend to others. TLDR: This game is visually stunning and has a fun and complex storyline that draws the player in. However what made me want to uninstall the game was the extremely specific nature to obtain certain endings (or any ending other than the "bad" endings) which is tedious at best and monotonous at worst. To preface this review, I am an avid fan of "choose your own adventure" and story rich games. I have many story driven/detective games under my belt and I also enjoy RPG/Dice roll mechanics. I am very patient and have no problem with slow pacing and plenty of reading. THE CON: To achieve any kind of good ending, you MUST follow a guide, watch a video, and play absolutely perfectly to utilize all the time you have to ensure a positive outcome. I have no problem with following guides to play a game, but I do have an issue when they are *required.* I have attempted 2 playthroughs and did not obtain any ending other than the "bad" ending on the basic difficulty with the default protagonist. I wanted to try to minimally use guides, but found out on the end of the 3rd, that I had to follow a guide step by step to ensure the appropriate ending. I uninstalled, frustrated and annoyed that I'd have to replay the same gameplay and follow a guide to the T. Personally I enjoy finding different/unique endings independently and organically, and following a guide so strictly ruins some of the fun for me personally. If you are an achievement hunter and enjoy finding every single ending and possibility this game has to offer, you will have a great time as this game has so much to offer and so many little, hidden details. THE PROS: - visually stunning with incredibly detailed pixel graphics and beautiful, ambient lighting - the writing is witty, humorous, smart, and compelling. - the NPCs are all unique, interesting, and incredibly well writtenShow moreShow less
44.3 hours at review51 people found this helpful
Source: original Steam user reviews. Helpful votes are an archived snapshot, not live data. Last collected: 08/15/2026.