The ancient Greece setting is not something you will normally see in survival games, but developer Traega Entertainment surprised us with the release of their Greek myth-inspired sandbox survival adventure, Dawn of Defiance.

The game takes place on ruined isles, where you begin your journey as the Defier, a warrior whose life was spared by the hand of Charon himself. You must gather your strength not only to survive in the wilderness but also to face the trials of the Gods and prove your worth.

The game world consists of different biomes, such as the Glittering Desert, a Creepy Forest, and Coastal Cliffs to glide off. As you explore a hand-crafted map, you will encounter a variety of enemies, including human soldiers, dangerous wildlife and mythic creatures. Dawn of Defiance also features a deep cave system filled with valuable ores for crafting and secrets.

While you follow the main story quests, you will come across altars. These shrines hold minor challenges and puzzles that reward valuable recipes and upgrades for your character. Currently, there are eight of these to find and conquer. Once the challenges are completed, you can enter the enigmatic Forgotten Crossroads and uncover the true purpose of your journey.

Creating items is a core feature of any survival game. Utilize various crafting facilities to make essential items, such as scaling tiers of armor, tools, a variety of melee weapons, bows, and an upgradable backpack to carry more items. In Dawn of Defiance, you start with wooden walls and foundations, but over the course of the game, you can unlock more recipes for constructing magnificent Greek structures.

If you don’t want to survive alone, you’re in luck! You can invite up to three friends to join your world. The story, as well as the shrine challenges, can be completed together, and every player who participates will receive the rewards. So do not hesitate to explore the islands and build a base with your friends.

The developers released a roadmap detailing what we can expect during the two-year early access period. Within the first few months after launch, the team is determined to work with the community and add as many quality-of-life features as possible while also gathering intel on what players would like to see added in the future. Along with this, they want to improve the shrine labor missions, as these are necessary to progress the story; they want to make them as fun as possible before adding the remaining shrines. Then their goal is to expand the Crossroad and add the last four shrine missions, as well as increase the number of buildables in the game.

The developers also spoke about ideas they would like to implement before update 1.0, but their inclusion in the game is not set in stone yet. These ideas include adding a character creation feature, as currently everyone is the same default male character, and they would ultimately like to add the ability to play as a female character. More difficult mythical enemies are also on the list, along with the addition of mod support.

Dawn of Defiance is now available on Steam and offers a generous 25% launch discount until August 29, 2024.

What do you think of the ancient Greek setting? Let me know in the comments.