Game Reviews

Dawn of the Plow

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| Dawn of the Plow
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Dawn of the Plow
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| Dawn of the Plow

In a world filled with violent video games, it feels refreshing and a little bit anachronistic to be cast as an all-round good egg for once.

Because, like in Paperboy before it, you are cast in Dan FitzGerald's Dawn of the Plow as a helpful member of your local community.

In it, in fact, your success is based solely on the number of your neighbourhood chums you can assist.

In this case, it's your role to ensure that local motorists get home safely. So, you steer a whopping great plough around winding suburban streets to clear icy lanes and shift troublesome snowdrifts.

For every car that reaches its destination safely, you'll gain a single point and the wholesome satisfaction of having helped your fellow man.

Harder than you think

It may sound sedate, but Dawn of the Plow is actually a challenging high-score chaser with a steep learning curve.

So, although steering is as simple as tapping the left or right side of your device to turn 90 degrees in that direction, your first attempts at highway maintenance are likely to result in your careering off the road as you struggle with the plough's ponderous turning circle.

And since you're punished with an instant restart for a collision with any of your fellow road users, you'll need precision timing and expert judgement to clear those sleety streets.

Cold as ice

Through the suite of power-ups - such as a salt cannon and snow tyres - Dan FitzGerald livens up proceedings here and tempts you away from the safer tracks.

Crucially, there's extensive leaderboard support, too, so you're able to share and compare high scores online.

Unfortunately, though, occasionally unresponsive controls undermine Dawn of the Plow's arcade purity. Every once in a while, a tap simply won't be registered, an issue that's particularly troublesome when a promising high-score attempt is torpedoed as a result.

Nevertheless, Dawn of the Plow remains a deceptively deep game, and its pixellated visuals, 16-bit music, and stiff difficulty will delight a certain brand of leaderboard junkie.

Dawn of the Plow

Dawn of the Plow is a simple arcade challenge with surprising depth. It's just a shame that it isn't as responsive as it should be
Score
James Nouch
James Nouch
PocketGamer.biz's news editor 2012-2013