Dawn of Ages Review

A new dawn would be most welcome.

Have you ever thought to yourself, “man, I wish I could boot up a game and do nothing interesting while constantly and consistently being hounded to enter my credit card information”? If so, you have come to the right place.

Dawn of Ages is a vapid, highly-monetized auto-battler with little in the way of creativity. A medieval strategy game with base-building aspects that never amount to more than busywork. While the soundtrack and visuals are mostly inoffensive, the gameplay itself is highly objectionable. 

Publisher: BoomBit Games

Developer: Stratosphere Games

Platform: Played on PC, Android

Availability: Released on May 8, 2024 for Android and iOS; April 28, 2025 for PC (Steam).

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There are multiple systems in place to manage, such as crafting equipment, collecting resources, equipping your soldiers with gear, and positioning them in advantageous areas on your field. Occasionally, you may command units through a series of battles, but a hefty majority of the gameplay centers around micromanaging equipment and buildings, rather than commanding your units in any real way. Unfortunately, this micromanaging of the environs is not engaging whatsoever, with everything handled with a single click, and set on massive timers — all in the hopes you will pay real money to speed things up. 

The battles themselves are quite simple — you command a squad of 5 units, and place them in positions that are most advantageous to your current scenario. There is an effectiveness matrix to keep in mind while you equip and position your units. Swords are effective against light armor, spears are great for medium armored targets, and blunt weapons handle heavy infantry well. Once you place your crew on the field, you select a tactics card (which are per-battle bonuses to give yourself an edge). The battles then play out autonomously and unceremoniously, with drab soldiers flailing around until someone’s units go down — at which point a victory or loss screen just kind of pops up.

PVP is another major part of this game. Unfortunately, as Dawn of Ages is pay-to-win, any player looking to play without additional funds is out of luck. The game has a small userbase, so you are pushed into battles with whales and higher level players occasionally. Predatory shops, timers, and battle passes are constantly pushed to the player, with failures and quest objectives pushing you to interact with the monetized elements. Prices are absurd, but that’s par for the course in this type of mobile title. 

These images are functionally the entirety of the experience.

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If the monetization was the only issue with the game, maybe we could wave the game off as just another mobile game port hoping to cash in on a drowning market. But the game is barely functional at times. I have run into major bugs throughout my dismal time with Dawn of Ages. UI disappearing during play, units being lost mid-battle or disappearing from the screen; freezing when accessing warehouses, participating in battles, or interacting with other menus. I have encountered disconnection issues when accessing the workshop, and experienced slowdowns during combat, as well.

At the end of the day, we have to ask ourselves what we want to leave in this world. Are these bland, uninspired projects the type of thing we want generations to come to remember us by? The type of thing whose only purpose is to extract dollars from unwitting or susceptible people? I understand that this is the way things are now in the industry at large. Dawn of Ages is not the first game to do its best to mine its players for money. It won’t be the last, either. But it should be. It is a monument to the type of decision-making that has poisoned the well for video games as an artform.

Is this the worst game I have ever played? No, but I hope it’s the worst game I play this year. I read A Minecraft Movie review recently that lamented how often we excuse bad products through the lens of "It's just for kids." In many respects, those same sentiments extend to mobile games just like this one. Excuse after excuse is used to prop up the worst tendencies in the space. But games like Dawn of Ages don't even have the one major positive that a film like Minecraft does — an ending. Despite being another pointless checklist of references, there is a release from the experience once the credits roll. Mobile games such as this have no such catharsis as they intend to keep you in perpetuity, fully on the line with your credit card in hand. Just one small purchase and you can finish the building. Punch in your Visa and that sword could be yours. A simple donation and you can finally gather enough resources to upgrade your armor. Maybe then you could finally play and enjoy the game.

Verdict

Dawn of Ages is a vapid, highly-monetized auto-battler with little in the way of creativity. A medieval strategy game with base-building aspects that never amount to more than busywork. Riddled with bugs and offensive pay-to-win monetization, it offers so little of value that I came away offended that it exists at all.