'Dawn of the Monsters' Review

Dawn of the Monsters works primarily as a beat 'em up, which means you (and a local co-op buddy if they're within hands reach) can select their chosen kaiju and crush a whole army of rampaging beasts. Each playable character has access to a light, heavy, and dash attack that affords them all some cool combo strings. You also have the opportunity to guard/parry, pull off swift dodges that can cancel combos, deliver executions that refill your HP, and call upon the power of three different special moves called "Rage Attacks." The most devastating move each fighter can utilize is called a "Cataclysm Attack," which produces some epic cinematics upon activation. I never got tired of bashing in the heads of enemy beasties with impactful melee combos and had a ball using actual buildings as baseball bats to do even more damage. You can even use the heads of dismembered enemies to deliver the smackdown!

This isn't just your average beat 'em up, however. There are some light RPG mechanics you can play around with that lets you improve certain attributes of your preferred characters. It does get quite addicting whenever you unlock new stat boosters after completing each stage and rerolling them to switch up their main attributes. Seeking the best rating during each stage is also worth accomplishing since you'll be gifted with better items and even different color schemes for your band of gigantic kaiju battlers. Unlocking new skins that are clear nods to Neon Genesis Evangelion and Godzilla is pretty dope.

Dawn of the Monsters has so much going for it - the fighting is fun, the local co-op works just fine, and the animated visuals are top-notch. But there's a feature omission here that will infuriate you once I mention it here - there's no online co-op whatsoever! It's downright criminal for a beat 'em up to release in this day and age with no online capabilities included and that's sadly the case here. I would have loved to have linked up with another random kaiju hero online to crush some Nephilim, yet you can't even do that for some odd unexplained reason. I highly recommend you find a local friend to get the most fun out of this game (especially since the gam's bosses end up being a lot trickier to take down than expected!). Here's hoping this brawler gets an online play update in the near future.

Dawn of the Monsters is definitely a fun time, no doubt. Just be prepared to be highly disappointed when you can't enjoy all the kaiju madness via four-player local co-op or any form of online play.