If you’ve never heard of Undawn, that’s okay. The post-apocalyptic open-world title has only managed to convince a limited number of players. Although supported by Will Smith, who lent his face to one of the characters and promoted the game, it didn’t become legendary.
Undawn: the zombie survival game
Once again, players are confronted with zombies and must survive in a very hostile environment. Undawn features a vast open world where they can meet other survivors. You can explore numerous locations, hunt, fish and even build your own habitat using construction mechanics.
Of course, you also have to fight zombies and other players. It’s a fairly classic system, which looks like a mishmash of everything that’s popular at the moment. Undawn tries to do it all, but doesn’t really excel. That’s not to say it’s a bad title, but with a particularly rich video game offering, there are probably better things to do.
Tencent hires Will Smith
Developed by Level Infinite and LightSpeed Studios on behalf of Chinese giant Tencent, Undawn is not a hit with the public. Since June 2023, the title has raked in just $287,000 in revenue on a total budget of $140 million. Although supported by actor Will Smith, who portrayed a character and promoted the title, it was a commercial failure.
On Steam, the game’s ratings are average, but on mobile, they’re pretty good. Some players see its qualities, while others see it as yet another unoriginal free-to-play open-world survival game. And yet, it sounded great on paper.
Should you play Undawn?
Undawn surfs current trends, offering survival and construction. Its open world is just waiting to be explored, if you like post-apocalyptic zombie universes. Its mechanics and interactions with other players are fairly classic and offer nothing new, but they work.
On mobile, it’s a good experience that helps pass the time. Unfortunately, the promotional campaign built around Will Smith was not enough to guarantee the game’s exposure. The latter suffered in particular from competition from Diablo IV, released at the same time. The game was designed to be massively multiplayer, but suffered from its low number of users.
It’s hard to say whether Undawn will find its audience, but it doesn’t look good. It’s unlikely that the title’s low revenues will be enough to keep Tencent happy. In recent months, the market has tended to favor independent studios and smaller games, as demonstrated by the success of Palworld and Helldivers. As with the recent Marvel movies, it may be that excessive resources don’t always lead to success and profitability in the gaming world…
