We first covered Sea of Dawn, also known as 黎明之海, back in 2020 when it was first showcased at the annual ChinaJoy event. Developed by a team at Chinese gaming company ChangYou, Sea of Dawn finally launched in China last week, and we decided to take a look at the much-hyped game! Playable on mobile platforms with a PC client, it remains to be seen if Sea of Dawn gets a global release since ChangYou is no longer active in the western market. Here are some key points!
• Sea of Dawn is not a sandbox game, it is basically a naval theme park MMORPG which took 4 years to develop using Unity. The development cost is said to be around USD 35 million.
• Players cannot just sail around the ocean, as there are level gates placed. This is the same for port cities as well, where players have to battle and win the guards. Maps need to be loaded as well.
• There are just 4 classes in Sea of Dawn, but they include unique ones such as an Ammunition Expert (we played as the Bard).
• A 5th new class is being prepared for the October 2022 game content update.
• Most locations, ships, and some characters are based on real places and real people (legendary explorers). Tons and tons of historical knowledge in the game!
• There is not much of a fantasy element in the game, such as dragons of unicorns, just a little added to the mysteries found in the game. This is true for the pets and mounts as well.
• Players gacha for new crewmates, and they can be allocated to different parts of the ship, something similar to Fallout Shelter.
• Unlike sandbox games, you cannot just go into the wild and gather resources to build ships. The materials have to be gotten through quests, trading, etc.
• It is unknown if the weather or time of the day affects gameplay in later content.
• Yes, there are both naval PVE and PVP battles. There will be PK ocean maps at higher levels.
• There is indeed a trade feature, where players must buy items cheap from different ports and sell them for higher prices at other ports. There should be more to this system later on in the game.
• Johnny Depp is the official spokesperson of the game in China, see the promo videos below! They are unlisted on YouTube, so they cannot be searched. Just in case we get into any legal copyright troubles!
