Viveport Review: Seeking Dawn

A beautiful world is marred by complex systems and overly dull fetch quests.

By Joshua Hawkins, Greenlit Content

Developed by Multiverse, Seeking Dawn is by far one of the most ambitious virtual reality titles that I have ever seen. The game has some of the best visuals that virtual reality has produced since even before the release of the HTC Vive. Compared to other titles, Seeking Dawn is easily the most visually appealing virtual reality game that has been made to date. However, this beauty is scarred. While it may look like a perfect picture on the surface, the game takes on an entirely different look and feel when you begin to dig deeper.

Don’t get me wrong, I very much enjoyed the core mechanics of Seeking Dawn. For a first-person shooter, it offers some very good gunplay and a lot of potential in the way that you interact with and explore the world. Unlike a lot of shooters in VR, Seeking Dawn is committed to exploration. In fact, the game has a complex crafting system that involves grinding up plants, rocks and other things to break them down into materials that can be used to craft new weapons and gadgets. At first, it’s a fun system, but as the journey wears on, the process becomes more tedious. It almost gets to the point of completely blocking the progression of the entire story.

The narrative isn’t a very strong aspect of Seeking Dawn, either. While it’s good enough—you play a soldier sent to an alien planet to locate other missing soldiers—there isn’t a whole lot more than the basic plotline to keep you pushing forward. Nevertheless, this isn’t really a bad thing. Seeking Dawn is one of those games that’s more about enjoying what it is as opposed to what it could be. Sure, the story isn’t that great and could use a little more development, but the visuals and the overall appearance of the game really make up for this in the long run, so long as you can get past the obnoxious crafting system.

Overall, I really wanted to love Seeking Dawn, and it’s still a game that I’ll readily recommend to those looking for a decent virtual reality experience. If you want to see the extent of what virtual reality titles can achieve in terms of visuals, then Seeking Dawn is a good place to start. But at the end of the day, the game is far from perfect. If you’re looking for a VR game that’s going to offer substantial gameplay or story, then you may want to look beyond Seeking Dawn.

 Seeking Dawn is available on Viveport or as part of Viveport Subscription.