Garena's Undawn is a mobile MMORPG with a side serving of zombie survival

Undawn, the new mobile zombie survival shooter published by Garena, is here.

The game looks so massive, and that can excite fans of the genre. There’s homestead building, supply collection, fighting off a horde of zombies, camps, multiplayer modes, PvE modes, PvP modes with arenas, and more.

But that’s both a good and a bad thing. Undawn can be overwhelming if you choose to maximise everything in it.

In fact, I’d go on a limb and say that this is more like your typical MMORPG, but with a side serving of zombie survival.

If you pre-downloaded Undawn last Tuesday (27 June), you probably already dabbled into one of the nicest features: the character customisation piece.

It’s so flexible you can choose between races, ages, skin types and skin colour, change hairstyles and eye colours, refine facial features (down to every corner of the cheek and forehead), and even add highlights and ombre effects to the hair.

Perhaps the only portion that wasn’t so flexible was your character’s body frame, which is limited to a size zero through about size 6 or 7.

The beginning of Undawn started on a solid path. It began like a typical zombie survival game, where you look for supplies, some antibodies, and fend off zombies.

As you continue to play, you’ll encounter human colonies, or camps as they are called, scavenge and collect supplies, fight off zombies in events, cook, eat, drink, take a bath, poop, and even use a worn washing machine.

There are also 12 biometrics that you can keep track of that shows you your character’s physical and mental condition.

While my character had to eat and drink once in a while, these aren’t too difficult to manage as long as you have the necessary supplies on hand.

After all, you have a portable toilet that allows your character to poop in front of just about anyone.

For those who'd like a bit more privacy, there's a homestead you can upgrade and customise according to your liking.

The homestead building and upgrading system reminded me a bit of Satisfactory, a first-person open-world factory-building game on PC.

You can also drive motorcycles and trucks. But out of all the systems in the game, this seems to be one of the clunkier features, especially if you aren’t used to having to control your vehicle on mobile.

I also appreciated that I had a bit of a story to follow. We get to meet some of the characters, like Sherry, Daniel, Tang and the others.

Undawn’s story didn’t shy away from the reality of death and loss — after all, that is the norm in the chosen setting. There were a few moments where I felt for the characters, which reminded me of zombie and post-apocalyptic shows I’ve watched in the past.

The open world seems so vast, and many areas make me think about The Walking Dead (and its spinoffs). Each shelter had a different motif: there was a theme park shelter, a countryside-looking one, a forest shelter, a home for the aged that looked like heaven, an orphanage, and more.

It'd be more enjoyable if I had enough time to do that.

However, it gets a bit problematic as you progress through the levels.

Suddenly, instead of enjoying the flow of the game and managing what you want to, you have other things to take care of.

You also need to keep upgrading your homestead while you’re doing other activities, and you need to do it every few levels.

But what bothers me the most, though, is the dailies: I hate dailies.

Having played MMORPGs competitively for more than a decade, I have grown to dislike the formula of having too many dailies in mobile games: things you need to do to level up and maximise your character.

And in Undawn, there’s A LOT.

You need to manage your weapons and your armour, make supply runs, team up with others for some of the daily missions (dungeons, anyone?), and many more.

That’s on top of having to keep upgrading your homestead — and while I was initially excited at the idea of modifying my flimsy homestead and making it pretty, I found that I didn’t even have time to do that.

That's unless I didn’t have other things to do and kept my game running every waking moment of the day.

Then instead of having to work your way through the post-apocalyptic world — you’re attending camp bonfires, world bosses, fireworks, and other things unnecessary for zombie survival.

I just want my character to scavenge, build, and fend off zombie hordes without being forced into multiplayer mechanics, unnecessary daily runs, and other XP-increasing daily activities.

And if this isn’t your cup of tea, you just might have to ignore all the other dailies and form a camp that only exists to cruise by the game. Focus on the story and explore the impressively massive map, gather supplies, and build and fortify, like what survival games should be.

However, if you like the dynamic of highly competitive multiplayer games that will allow you to work, and if you love the MMORPG genre and are all about building up your character, fighting other camps, and getting stronger, all in the context of a post-apocalyptic zombie world — then yes, this game could be for you.

With a mix of PvP and PvE activities bundled up all in one, Undawn has something for everyone. I just wish the game had a bit more focus on one aspect.

Undawn is now available. You can download the game through the official Garena Undawn website, the App Store, and Google Play.

Anna is a freelance writer and photographer. She is a gamer who loves RPGs and platformers, and is a League of Legends geek. She's also a food enthusiast who loves a good cup of black coffee.

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