The Dead Await: Prologue
Game
Game2026Published by indie.io
The Dead Await
Developer Shotx
Build your deck and try to survive in The Dead Await, a deck-building RPG set during a zombie apocalypse. As one of many survivors, set out across the desolate world, discover the truth about the outbreak, and rebuild human civilization - or die trying. From the Steam store page
36 reactions from 3 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Lemmy) · newest Sep 11, 2026 · last updated Oct 7, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
58
Mixed
19 positive · 14 negative
95% range 41–73%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 19 | 14 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Lemmy * | 0 | 0 | 1 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
Steam's own rating
Mixed
23 of 37 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What players are saying
59% recommend · 20 yes, 14 no
Counted from the reviewers’ own thumbs up/down on the 34 English Steam reviews we collected, not by the AI. Valve’s all-language rating: Mixed (110 of 160 positive).
Players praise the game's innovative mix of genres, including deckbuilding, survival, and RPG elements. [1][2][3] Some reviewers note the game is in early access and has bugs, but the developer is responsive. [4][5][6] Others criticize the UI, slow pace, and complexity, finding it unpolished or not their taste. [7][8][9]
Liked
Representative posts
- [7]
Sadly cannot recommend. The game has been indev for a while and it has a strong opening, with interesting deckbuilding mechanics impacted by your equipment, different styles of combat and a lot to discover. The sound effects as you explore are great ambiance and the interactions with the world feel tense (good) and benefit from learning from your environment and stockpiling resources. So, why not recommend? Well, …
- [12]
i like this game at initial stage, but later it get over-complexed and i have to give up And i find ton of issues which make me feel the dev have not play the game completely at least for once, which is not acceptable for me At early stage, it is item trading + card game, then when get to shelter stage, it become a factory game, where u can automate production + selling. Since i am not interested in factory genre, …
- [4]
So far its a great journey, currently finished all main and side quests, contracts and cleared all zones and sub zones, found some bugs and spoke with the dev directly who was onto it immediately till we found solutions, found a few more bugs none gamebreaking that ive sent logs to him for, also sent what i thinks needed like a few QoL's so lets see what the future brings, totally recommend buying this its a superb …
- [15]
The mixed reviews make sense. It is a niche game. If you are not sure, pass or wait for a sale. If you like mixed genre zombie, card battle, survival hardcore games, can't recommend enough. Just check out the bad reviews. If you are like me and don't care that it's not perfectly polished, doesn't have the exact mechanics of games you played before, give it try.
- [1]
This is a fun little game. If you like Darkest Dungeon combat with a collectible card game and CRPG inventory system and overworld questing, you should try it out. Pros: - Combat is intense. - The "tavern card game to make money" is surprisingly fun. - The traumas you can get are thematic and interesting. - Unique art style. - Open world with trading. Cons: - The "go back to the camp and drop off stuff" loop is …
Summarised from 29 of the 38 public posts collected about this game; every point cites the posts behind it ([n] opens the post) and the split is counted from the posts’ own ratings. Updated Oct 13, 2026. How summaries are made
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
Players who liked The Dead Await talk about innovative blend of genres like deckbuilding and survival; those who didn't talk about uI is clunky and needs streamlining. Which matters more to you?
Reactions
36 of 36 · most liked first"AI Gaming Festival" on Steam. [How nice of them to self-report their AI usage.](https://store.steampowered.com/curator/46280965/sale/AIGamingFestival) Here is a list of the publishers taking part and which games they entered into this event. Do with that information as you please. Just as a warning some of the games linked are very NSFW. 10six Games - YOU vs Zombies -- https://store.steampowered.com/app/4224660/ 150 Beanies - Cardboard Gladiators --…
neutral · AI labelView post →Sadly cannot recommend. The game has been indev for a while and it has a strong opening, with interesting deckbuilding mechanics impacted by your equipment, different styles of combat and a lot to discover. The sound effects as you explore are great ambiance and the interactions with the world feel tense (good) and benefit from learning from your environment and stockpiling resources. So, why not recommend? Well, maybe it'll eventually see a big release, but there's a lot of clunkiness with…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →So far its a great journey, currently finished all main and side quests, contracts and cleared all zones and sub zones, found some bugs and spoke with the dev directly who was onto it immediately till we found solutions, found a few more bugs none gamebreaking that ive sent logs to him for, also sent what i thinks needed like a few QoL's so lets see what the future brings, totally recommend buying this its a superb game where everything works, roadmaps coming shortly! will be posting full…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →In Slay the Spire, if a card does something like apply Vulnerable, or Exhaust (remove itself from the player's deck when played), it'll tell you using a tooltip, even if you don't have the card yet (such as if it's being sold in a shop or being given as a reward from winning a fight). As for The Dead Await? Look at these images linked below. [url=https://postimg.cc/fJLXyLhL]https://i.postimg.cc/fJLXyLhL/The-Dead-Await-001.png…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is a fun little game. If you like Darkest Dungeon combat with a collectible card game and CRPG inventory system and overworld questing, you should try it out. Pros: - Combat is intense. - The "tavern card game to make money" is surprisingly fun. - The traumas you can get are thematic and interesting. - Unique art style. - Open world with trading. Cons: - The "go back to the camp and drop off stuff" loop is annoying. - Even with maxed out inventory and storage, you don't have…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The font's too small. There might be a good game here, but I ain't gonna strain my eyes to find out. Also the intro's pretty atrocious; I don't have epilepsy so I wasn't paying attention to whether there's a warning or not, but regardless. The two things combined felt like my eyes were being attacked. Rare to get a game that deals damage to you IRL these days.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Much more interesting than it looks, it mixes a lot of genres so some people might not like it especially because it has a slow start. It has a very gritty and dark setting but we do have a cat. The enemies are relentless and it's a hard survival game. It's a simple start, a man and his cat go in a trailer and adapt to a new zombie world. The combat is turn based and card based but the cards are abilities that depends on equipment, ammo and other things. There is a trailer upgrade system, perk…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The mixed reviews make sense. It is a niche game. If you are not sure, pass or wait for a sale. If you like mixed genre zombie, card battle, survival hardcore games, can't recommend enough. Just check out the bad reviews. If you are like me and don't care that it's not perfectly polished, doesn't have the exact mechanics of games you played before, give it try.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →TLDR version: Cautiously recommend at the early access stage. The Dead Await mixes deckbuilding, card battling, open-world exploration (similar to Encased), RPG-styled quests and skills, inventory management (similar to Project Zomboid) and trading (similar to Caravan). It is another example of mixing different game genres but does not excel in most of them other than the core mechanics . If you are a fan of the first 4 genres, give this game a try. The game offers: Deck building: Cards…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Very interesting game. It's an uncut diamond. Right now, it's in EA so I expect some polishing. The Dev ist very active on discord and responds to questions, bugs and suggestions very fast. Being in EA, only ACt I is playable. But don't let that deterr you. It's a lot of content. I'm 20 hrs in and I haven't explored all locations and didn't finish the Main Quest. There are only around a dozen locations on the World Map, but within every location are often several sublocations, e.g. "Community…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The Dead Await Shotx. Steam disclosure -y
neutral · AI labelView post →I hope the developer sees this! This is a item management game and it needs a button in the stash similar to the caravan food supplies and perhaps a max button on the bottom of the trade window, that lets you max all stacks to put in stash I liked the game because it was hard, things have changed since the prologue I played but still fun to run away from zombies Certain cards, like Defense have a self target and it forces me to drag to the character, when it really shouldn't; Makes it easier…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Two are the things I like the most: turn-based games and zombie games, so when you find by chance a game like THE DEAD AWAIT, you feel like the luckiest guy in the world 😉. TDA is a promising deck-building RPG set during a zombie apocalypse. Now on sale! shorturl.at/uGJFl #indiegames #turnbased
positive · AI labelView post →The Dead Await is a fantastic game and a great blend of some of my favorite genres include post apocalypse, deckbuilding/ card battler, and it reminds me a bit of the old flash game Caravaneer. The story is still in progress and in the 38 hours I've played over the last couple weeks I've seen them patch every crash I've encountered and reported. I haven't had any crashes since update 4. They are adding new cards and content constantly. Give the game a SHOT the devs are amazing and very…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →i like this game at initial stage, but later it get over-complexed and i have to give up And i find ton of issues which make me feel the dev have not play the game completely at least for once, which is not acceptable for me At early stage, it is item trading + card game, then when get to shelter stage, it become a factory game, where u can automate production + selling. Since i am not interested in factory genre, this is over-complexed for me and i decide to give up at this point (the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Stay away, everything about this game is flawed or badly implimented. From the terrible art style that wants to be artistic but only manages to look like a combination of ugly deformed Balkan npcs cooked up by an AI for a no budget horror game, to unsuccessful immitation of 90's fashion sense dressed in color blind neon colors that were washed away in the washing machine. The dialogues and writing range from indifferent back and forth writen by antisocial individuals speculating how people…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Very enjoyable game ! Recommended ! I will look out for new updates for this game.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I want to like this one, but it is just unappealing, slow, and bloated. Funny thing, there is a faster movement button, its speed should be the norm, and then make it faster. There are too many looting types, so you constantly run back and forth to put them into storage or sell. The story is just survival and sandbox. Maybe later something happens, but it crashed on me and ate like 30 minutes of playtime, so I'm not too keen to find out.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's ok. Rough start. Lacks polish.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Glad I bought it, definitely recommended. It's an original take on card combat and RPG. Open world is fun and interesting.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Innovative interesting survival RPG with card combat, highly recommended 🔥
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If you are looking for a rougelike deck builder look else where. It is a survival game first and foremost. The game also is too slow.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →great innovative mixed genre rpg game, definitly recommended to try
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Was not ready for a 1.X release. Too many bugs and missed opportunities.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Really enjoyed playing and excited to see where this is going for the final product
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I guess its just not for me.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →very good. when is the full release???
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Really enjoyed it. Some great ideas and gameplay. I just hope the finished version is much much bigger.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I've played for about ten hours and have found the game very fun and addictive. I haven't had any crashing or bug issues. I think the game needs some balancing and improvement to quest tracking, but overall I quite like it and am looking forward to its growth.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Score: 2/5 The Good Audio/sfx/music The Bad Art style/direction and animations. Awful writing. Combat. Tutorial. Movement/map navigation.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →https://youtu.be/WZfIQMrQP-M Far too many games were built into this game mudding the water and making it unclear what focus players should target.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →THE ART IS TRASH GAMEPLAY boring loop of looting bad the only survival horror here is trying to survive the boredom when you play
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is a really good game, i don't know why people are leaving bad reviews after only playing 1h, i guess the early access had a lot of bugs, but right now i didn't experience any in 6hs. To enjoy this game, early, is important to treat it as a crpg, where some encounters are better avoided but you should still loot all you can around that enemy to gain an advantage and run away to come back later.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Cash need to be better explained! I almost quit the game for i cant see my cash! Also game crashes non stop on alt+tab! Game crash non stop, when i play card game! Also card game is rigged - i draw bomb card non stop unlike my enemy! I can overload the caravan whit numbers like 680 wood! As result i cant sell and i cant split the wood. So i was forced to sell others stuff whit less numbers first!
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Still really enjoy it & would recommend later once more polished, has a lot of potential & enjoyable concept. To the devs: a lot of crashes after act 2 update, including while moving things around of selling while base-building, needs some attention. Level cap of 10 halts progress due to inability to acquire more shared ability points for higher level skills like demolition (e.g. stuck on a mission because no more points available to upgrade demolition to find a golden box in an area behind…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Love this game. Infinite money glitch was awesome. Can't wait for more to discover. Final game please come sooooooooooon
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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