The Dead Await (2026) key art
Key art © indie.io / the developer, from the game's Steam page
Game2026Published by indie.io

The Dead Await

IndieRPGStrategy

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

37 reactions from 3 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Mastodon) · newest Aug 29, 2026 · last updated Oct 7, 2026 · How this works

Audience score

59
Mixed

20 positive · 14 negative
95% range 42–74%

Source+−=
Steam reviews20140
Bluesky *000
Mastodon *000

* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).

3 newer reactions are still waiting for a label.

Steam's own rating
Mixed
110 of 159 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)

What people are saying

Mixed reception: praised for ambition but criticised for bugs and lack of polish.

Many players enjoy the game's innovative blend of genres, including deckbuilding, survival, and RPG elements, with intense combat and a unique art style. However, others find the game slow, bloated, and lacking polish, with a poor tutorial and unclear mechanics. [2][3][6][26][28]

Technical issues are a common complaint, with reports of crashes, bugs, and a lack of polish, especially after updates. Some players also criticise the art style and writing, while others appreciate the developer's responsiveness and the game's potential. [18][23][24][31][5]

Praised Innovative genre blend · Intense combat · Developer responsiveness
Criticised Bugs and crashes · Slow pacing · Lack of polish · Poor tutorial · Art style

Summary drafted by an AI model from the 34 reactions it cites ([n] links open each post), then checked by code: every paragraph cites real posts and every quote is verbatim. Written Oct 7, 2026. Method

Reactions

37 of 37 · most liked first
  • Steam user Steam user …0208Steam reviews · Apr 17, 2025 · 36 h played

    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 →
  • Steam user Steam user …9652Steam reviews · Oct 25, 2024 · 10 h played

    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 →
  • Steam user Steam user …7244Steam reviews · Apr 27, 2025 · 1 h played

    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 →
  • Steam user Steam user …4900Steam reviews · Dec 15, 2024 · 11 h played

    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 →
  • Steam user Steam user …7696Steam reviews · Apr 15, 2025

    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 →
  • Steam user Steam user …6040Steam reviews · Oct 25, 2024 · 1 h played

    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 →
  • Steam user Steam user …8119Steam reviews · Jun 5, 2026 · 5 h played

    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 →
  • Steam user Steam user …7166Steam reviews · May 30, 2025 · 26 h played

    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 →
  • Steam user Steam user …3198Steam reviews · Nov 28, 2024 · 19 h played

    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 →
  • Duck AI Slop!! @duckaislop.bsky.socialBluesky · May 26, 2026

    The Dead Await Shotx. Steam disclosure -y

    unlabelledView post →
  • Steam user Steam user …8387Steam reviews · May 25, 2025 · 10 h played

    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 →
  • Hardcase - The Indie Bloodhound @hardcase72.bsky.socialBluesky · Feb 27, 2025

    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

    unlabelledView post →
  • Steam user Steam user …0693Steam reviews · Nov 13, 2024 · 39 h played

    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 →
  • Steam user Steam user …7433Steam reviews · Jun 3, 2026 · 25 h played

    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 →
  • Steam user Steam user …5964Steam reviews · Jan 30, 2026 · 6 h played

    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 →
  • Steam user Steam user …9813Steam reviews · Nov 10, 2024 · 2 h played

    Very enjoyable game ! Recommended ! I will look out for new updates for this game.

    positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
  • Steam user Steam user …0724Steam reviews · Jun 20, 2026 · 6 h played

    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 →
  • Steam user Steam user …1772Steam reviews · Mar 9, 2026 · 10 h played

    It's ok. Rough start. Lacks polish.

    negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
  • Steam user Steam user …4279Steam reviews · Sep 9, 2025

    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 →
  • Steam user Steam user …4908Steam reviews · Sep 9, 2025

    Innovative interesting survival RPG with card combat, highly recommended 🔥

    positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
  • Steam user Steam user …5376Steam reviews · Jun 20, 2025 · 1 h played

    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 →
  • Steam user Steam user …6752Steam reviews · Nov 24, 2024 · 16 h played

    great innovative mixed genre rpg game, definitly recommended to try

    positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
  • Steam user Steam user …9919Steam reviews · Oct 25, 2024 · 6 h played

    Лютый вин. Помесь фаллаута 1-2, даркест данжеон и мейджик зе гезеринг на этакой сеговской графике. Рекомендую.

    positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
  • Steam user Steam user …4536Steam reviews · May 31, 2026 · 50 h played

    Was not ready for a 1.X release. Too many bugs and missed opportunities.

    negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
  • Steam user Steam user …3775Steam reviews · Oct 10, 2025 · 19 h played

    Really enjoyed playing and excited to see where this is going for the final product

    positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
  • Steam user Steam user …3351Steam reviews · Sep 18, 2025

    I guess its just not for me.

    negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
  • Steam user Steam user …1944Steam reviews · Sep 10, 2025 · 1 h played

    very good. when is the full release???

    positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
  • Steam user Steam user …1249Steam reviews · Mar 14, 2025 · 15 h played

    Really enjoyed it. Some great ideas and gameplay. I just hope the finished version is much much bigger.

    positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
  • Steam user Steam user …2273Steam reviews · Nov 3, 2024 · 10 h played

    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 →
  • Steam user Steam user …9018Steam reviews · Aug 29, 2026

    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 →
  • Steam user Steam user …2587Steam reviews · Jul 29, 2026 · 3 h played

    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 →
  • Steam user Steam user …2896Steam reviews · Jul 3, 2026 · 2 h played

    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 →
  • Steam user Steam user …7341Steam reviews · May 24, 2026 · 6 h played

    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 →
  • Steam user Steam user …1261Steam reviews · Jul 28, 2025 · 40 h played

    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 →
  • Steam user Steam user …8462Steam reviews · Jun 3, 2025 · 24 h played

    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 →
  • Steam user Steam user …1100Steam reviews · May 30, 2025 · 29 h played

    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 →
  • Gamernews.it @GamerNewsitMastodon · Nov 4, 2024

    #thedeadawait The Dead Await è entrato in Early Access The Dead Await è disponibile su PC https://www.gamernews.it/notizie/2024/11/04/the-dead-await-e-entrato-in-early-access-18419.php

    unlabelledView post →

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