Andrea Baroni Half past dawn it’s incredibly dark for a game you can play from start to finish in about 10 minutes. I mean that as a compliment; this is the best horror experience I’ve had on Playdate yet.
As someone with a penchant for all things horror, one of the things I’m most interested in perusing what’s out there for Playdate is seeing how the developers will make horror work for the odd little handheld. Half past dawn takes a mixed approach: in the first half, it’s a text-based narrative game where you scavenge for resources and prepare yourself for the long night ahead; second, it’s an all-out fight for your life against an onslaught of eldritch creatures.
Half past dawn It wastes no time in creating a mood of desolation and impending doom, beginning with our hero’s dialogue about feeling “as lifeless as these scattered remnants of humanity” in a city overrun by some unnamed terror. During the story part of the game, you have to choose between different places to visit – a mall, a pharmacy, a gun shop and a house – so you can find things like first aid kits, weapons, ammo and traps. However, there is no telling whether each of these trips will be successful.
You may find a box of shotgun shells, but never reach for the shotgun to use them. You may even get injured while cleaning. There’s also the option to rest, which will fill your health bar (while you’ll start with full health on Easy, Hard will start with two of your six health points already depleted). But an hour will pass after each choice and you have to be aware of the time. It starts at 6:00 PM, and once it hits 1 AM, you’ll be forced to go out and fend off monsters until dawn.
At this point, the game becomes a top-down shooter – and depending on how you go with resources, it’s a pretty tough game. Monsters will come at you from all sides, some of them are harder to take down than others, and you can only refill your limited supply of ammo and first aid kits in hourly intervals. If you run out before that, you’ll have no choice but to fend off the monsters with a knife. It’s as effective as you think.
Half past dawn it’s a very, very short game, but it really made me sweat on some runs. It’s fun to keep coming back because the randomness of resource gathering makes for a different experience each time. And the tension of it all is perfectly rounded off by a synth-heavy soundtrack (available Bandcamp), could be from an 80s B-horror movie. If creepy is your thing, this is definitely a game to check out. Half past dawn is on Game history directory and itch.io For $5.
