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DAWN AEROWAR

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A two-hour animated film. Follow Zodiac 1, an ace pilot out for revenge against the Empire, across 12 episodes of 3D dogfights and hand-drawn 2D animation, with a full voice cast and an original orchestral score. Nearly five years of work by a handful of independent artists.

-10%

$14.99

$13.49

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Most popular community and official content for the past week. (?)

Update: watch DAWN together with your Steam friends

Nov 13

Thanks for all your reports and ideas on Discord, in the discussions and by mail. This update adds a watch party to the player: you can now watch DAWN with your friends, each on your own PC, in sync.

Watch party

Press the gold WATCH PARTY button at the top right of the player, then Create a party.
Send the party code to your friends. They enter it in the same window and press Join, or they use Join game on your name in their Steam friends list.
Play, pause and position stay in sync for everyone, up to 8 viewers. Each viewer plays the film from their own PC, with their own subtitles and volume.
Want to run the show alone? Tick Only the host controls playback before you create the party. Otherwise anyone in the party can pause or move through the film.
Your friends need to own DAWN AEROWAR and have Steam running. Parties are open to Steam friends only.
The watch party is in the Windows version, which is also the one the Steam Deck runs. A new step in the player tour shows where to find it.

Soundtrack

Missing tracks: in the Soundtrack tab, when a track was playing, some tracks (15 to 17 and 29 to 34) were pushed out of the list and could not be reached. The list now scrolls, and every track is there.

Mac

Launch: Dawn could stop at launch with the message "Dawn must be launched from Steam", even when it was started from Steam. A Steam file was missing from the Mac build. It is back, and Dawn starts normally.

If you don't see the update yet, restart Steam.

Keep the reports coming on Discord or in the discussions. And if you enjoyed Dawn, a Steam review really helps a small team.

Neiwa Interactive

DAWN AEROWAR

€15 for a slideshow about fighter jets. Are you kidding me?

4 minutes. That's how long it took me to realize I'd bought pretty much everything EXCEPT what I was expecting. When you watch the Steam trailer, you get serious Ace Combat vibes. Fighter jets, aerial combat, action everywhere. You naturally expect some kind of flight combat game where you actually get to fly the planes. BUT NOPE. IT'S A ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ VIDEO PLAYER. Now, before anyone jumps down my throat, yes, the Steam description does explicitly say it's a nearly two-hour animated film and that you don't ac...

Heiji

Nov 12 @ 6:48am

General Discussions

Update: Quit button, controller support on Steam Deck, smoother playback

Nov 12

Thanks for your reports on Discord, in the discussions, by mail and in your reviews. This update is for the Windows version, which is also the one the Steam Deck runs.

Main menu

New Quit entry at the bottom of the main menu. Press Esc on the main menu to jump to it. No more Alt+F4 in fullscreen.

Controllers

Steam Deck and Big Picture: Dawn only listened to the first controller with a standard layout. The virtual controller Steam Input creates, and some generic drivers, were ignored, so nothing happened until you switched Steam Input to mouse mode. Dawn now listens to every connected controller, and translates non-standard layouts (D-pad included).
If your controller still does nothing, tell us on Discord or in the discussions. Meanwhile, the Mouse Only or Web Browser layout in Steam Input still works.

Playback and performance

Stuttering film: if the film stutters on your PC, open Settings and turn on Decode the film on the CPU (if it stutters), just below Hardware acceleration. Restart Dawn to apply. The war room stays on your graphics card.
Laptops with two graphics cards: Dawn now asks Windows for the faster card. This should help if the war room felt slow.

Streaming and recording

You can stream or record Dawn (OBS, Discord, Steam) up to the end of the takeoff, around 17 minutes in. After that, the picture goes black for your viewers to protect the film. The Image and Clip buttons of the player still work on the whole film.

Fixes

On some PCs, Dawn said "The film could not be found" even though it was installed, and Settings opened with default values. Fixed.
Some interface texts were rewritten to be clearer.

If you don't see the update yet, restart Steam.

Keep the reports coming on Discord or in the discussions. And if you enjoyed Dawn, a Steam review really helps a small team.

Neiwa Interactive

DAWN AEROWAR

Patch notes, November 11

Nov 10

Thank you for the reports since launch. Here is everything that changed since release.

macOS

DAWN AEROWAR is now available on macOS, with every fix below.

Fullscreen

The whole player now goes fullscreen, War Room included. Before this update only the film did.
Use F11, Alt+Enter or the Fullscreen line in Settings. Your choice is kept for the next launch.

Achievements

"Every word" could stay stuck at 458/459. A very short transmission was skipped when the video stuttered. It now counts. If you are at 458, the missing line will count the next time you hear it in the film.
"Full clearance" now counts each dossier once.

Steam Deck

The playback bar no longer overlaps at 1280x800.

War Room

The PACK 4K reminder no longer flashes.

Something else is wrong? Write to us in the Steam discussions or on Discord.

DAWN AEROWAR

70 people found this review helpful

Recommended

2.7 hrs on record

Posted: November 10

TL;DR Its an enjoyable movie, but rough in execution. Hesitant recommendation.

I had a good time with DAWN AEROWAR. I bought it for about $14, watched it through once, and read through all of the entries in the war room between each episode. Personally, I am happy with the product and felt like I got my money's worth. I would recommend this, but conditionally. Really I would like to see the creators give a shot at a sequel/prequel with more time/budget/experience under their belts and I hope this does well enough for them to do so.

Here are some points to consider if you are deciding to spend your money here:

The music, voice acting, and to a lesser extent the SFX are great, no complains here.
The art really has its constraints, limited and re-used 2D drawings and animation sequences, and fairly low quality effects in the 3D scenes. Scenes generally look good within the constraints, but some scenes really are not executed as well as I would like from a visual standpoint. Some specific shots are way overused. Specific throttle-up shots, shots of Zodiac 1 pulling on the stick, and overhead shots of Morningstar are so obviously overused its almost comical. Some sequences frankly do not look finished. There are also sizable portions of the film that are taken up by un-animated portrait talking scenes akin to Metal Gear. These are not bad but are even more noticeable given how little real 2D animation there already is.
Character design is mixed, some characters look like the badass aces you would expect from such a film, while others miss the mark. One character in particular looks more like they were pulled from a knock-off Power Rangers show than they were from Top Gun and it was particularly immersion breaking.
Plot beats are generally well written, but with a few moments that seem like big oversights, although these did not ruin the plot as a whole for me. In an early episode, the bomber that Zodiac 1 is escorting is stated to have very advanced countermeasure systems, yet only a couple of episodes later the bomber is heavily damaged by a single incoming missile with seemingly no reason as to why it the countermeasures weren't used or weren't effective. The fight with Freya was won out of nowhere by Morningstar pulling some nonsense with one of Zodiac's missiles that is never explained. Finally, the drones taken from Freya ended up being completely instrumental to bypassing the capitol shield. The issue comes from the drones being taken in a risky, unplanned maneuver to pull Zodiac 1 out of a tough spot. If the fight with Freya went smoothly and Zodiac 1 shot her and all her drones down as planned, what was the idea to get passed the shield without her drones? This is not explained either.
Dialogue is serviceable. There are definitely some clunky lines but nothing that stands out as poorly written in particular. While there is some, I am missing more of the iconic fighter pilot brevity codes everyone loves. I was also really missing the fun wingman dialogue that all these fighter plane games/movies have. I understand why this film decided to go without, and I don't think they should change this, but it is missed.
Characters are well written for what they are. Many characters are completely flat but they pull off their archetypes well. Really only one character really has any sort of a character arc/growth. And the ending ultimately calls Zodiac 1's final act into question based on what he meant to do vs what actually happened based on Sam's actions. Although I was very pleasantly surprised by the Emperor's characterization in the final scene between him and Zodiac 1. Great storytelling there
All the fighter jets looked great. I loved Zodiac 1's Rafale. The F-15 and F-35 also looked great here. But I Don't believe there was an F-22 in this film at all. Come on guys, how can you make a fighter jet movie and not include the greatest fighter jet ever made? (Only partially joking here)

With all that said, here is my conditional recommendation. Do not buy this if you aren't already into Ace Combat, Project Wingman, Top Gun, etc. Do not buy this if you don't enjoy lower-fidelity indie animation. Do not buy this if you have limited entertainment funds. There are plenty of games with more playtime value, and plenty of movies that are true masterpieces.

However, if you like military aircraft, lower-budget experimental indie animation, and have the money to throw at a short, flawed piece of art, this is more than worth the time and money and is absolutely worth a watch. This is still far better than most of the slop movies that come out in theaters.

If any of the creators are reading this, I know my review is mostly negative but this was a genuinely great experience for me and I would be thrilled to watch as many of these as you are able to produce. I hope you get the resources and experience to iterate on this again, work out the kinks, and make a genuine masterpiece, maybe one I can even go watch on the big screen.

Memespren

249 products in account

20 people found this review helpful

Recommended

3.6 hrs on record

Posted: November 10

Yes, I bought a movie on Steam. And yes, it is great.

If you like Ace Combat, Project Wingman, Topgun etc, you will like this. It has an "fan animation" feel to it, but that adds to the charm. And like everything featuring jet aircraft, the music is absolutely amazing.
Buy it like a movie to share, and its worth its price too.

"Join me, in welcoming the Dawn."

kettledragon

49 people found this review helpful
2 people found this review funny

Recommended

3.2 hrs on record

Posted: November 10

For watching the show alone, the $20 is not worth it at all. Way too much continuity errors that are too noticeable, repeated shots that dont make sense, leading to even more continuity errors. The writing is fine if this was a game, but without gameplay to focus on, some of the issues like pacing in some parts are more noticeable.

What makes the $20 worth it to me is the war map and operations. The presentation is really nice and the extra lore is appreciated. Overall, it was cool.

Take a shot every time someone says "this war"

ุCherry's Delight

So, this is a movie and not a video game?

I REALLY think you guys should re-label this or something. A lot of people might think this is a video game.

NEV:3

Nov 14 @ 7:00am

General Discussions

Why so much hate ?

A little message to the team. I see a lot of negative reviews from people claiming “this is not a game” or “this is too expensive.” Guys, you did a good job: the art is great, the narration is nice, and I got exactly what I was looking for. Keep up the good work! See you in the skies. PS: the intro is a blast, and “peu importe le prix” is perfect :)...

PARYA

Nov 11 @ 5:45am

General Discussions

Anybody else having performance issues?

I've been having issues with the game running. For context, my setup was able to run Ace Combat 8, albeit on lowest settings, with little to no framerate issues. However, Dawn, despite running it on the lowest graphical settings possible and it being a movie and not a full AAA game like Ace Combat, constantly stutters whenever I try to watch it. It pretty much constantly lags, with frequent buffering. I'm gonna hold off on refunding for now since I've enjoyed Jose Pavli's work in the past and I want to enj...

Noinfo101

Nov 11 @ 7:51am

General Discussions

Is this actually a game?

Is this actually a game and you actually play the missions or is it 100% just an animated movie broken up into 12 segments and you're not actually doing anything?

DemonJwan

Nov 11 @ 6:28am

General Discussions

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