The Blood of Dawnwalker will be familiar to those who’ve already experienced CD Projekt’s Witcher franchise. Taking distinct lessons from the vast storytelling scope of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, which was also directed by Konrad Tomaszkiewicz, this game from studio Rebel Wolves tells the story of Coen, a young man at the mercy of vampiric armies who’ve corrupted his village and torn his community apart.
Across the first four hours of gameplay available in a recent preview, The Blood of Dawnwalker proved to be much more than a simple Witcher clone, though. It shares much of the same DNA, and it’s unlikely Rebel Wolves will be able to (or really want to) escape this comparison – but that’s to its benefit.
Like the Witcher franchise, it follows a hero with a righteous moral code, wielding strange and uncanny abilities to fight back against oppressive armies. Where The Blood of Dawnwalker differentiates itself is in subject matter, and in the plight of Coen – a man who is a much more relatable protagonist than the iconic Geralt of Rivia.
The Blood of Dawnwalker preview – quick links
Journeying through The Blood of Dawnwalker
The game’s cleverness is apparent right from the opening. Understanding the needs of its audience, the story begins with a desperate Coen trying to save his baby sister from a deadly disease.
A dream-like sequence begins and in this seamless transition, Coen is visited by nightmares of his sister transforming into a vampire, before he’s turned into a vampire himself. The game teases his special abilities, giving a first taste of what Coen will soon be able to do – teleport forward as a bat, wield claws in combat and drain the blood of his enemies.
When Coen wakes from a dream to find himself and his sister are still human, it doesn’t feel so much like a cheat – more like a tease for an inevitable future. What follows is a needed and much slower introduction to Coen’s world, and the battles he’ll face.
As revealed, the kingdom of Vale Sangora, located somewhere in the Carpathian Mountains, is under the invasive rule of a vampire species that uses humans as cattle, culls the weak from the flock and demands loyalty from their human armies.
Coen is not a dashing hero, and that’s another of the clever choices this game makes. He’s the eldest son in a large family, struggling to survive under harsh conditions. His mother is mentally unwell and needs care, his father is stressed and demanding, and his siblings need guidance to stay strong and and committed to their toils.
In tender, slow scenes, Coen cares for every member of his family – helping his mother by gathering a tonic from the nearby alchemist, helping his father with chopping wood for the fire, and supervising his siblings as they’re fishing by a creek.
It is, of course, all part of establishing the stakes of the game. Coen has a clear bond with his family, and is by nature a family man, so it hurts all the more when the action turns, and he finds himself caught in the crosshairs of his vampiric captors.
A vampire lover’s dream
Leaning into well-loved tropes of the vampire genre, The Blood of Dawnwalker knows exactly how to ratchet up the tension and when to hold back. A tight script gives voice actor Will de Renzy-Martin plenty to play around with, as he richly voices Coen’s struggle and incredulity at his changing circumstances.
Caught between loyalty to his family and the desire to rebel, Coen eventually faces the ire of the vampire lord, and is transformed into one of the beasts for their army. There are all the wonderful, juicy tropes in this transformation – the growing hunger, the fear of the inner monster, and the conflict between humanity and this new outer form.
Coen is terrified of what he’s become, and of the damage he causes during his awakening. He’s shaky and unsure of his future. It makes for a rich backdrop for what happens next, as Coen is revealed to be something more.
By night, he grows fangs and claws, and can use magical abilities like anti-gravity and teleportation. By day, the rot in his blood burns off, and he becomes a regular human, able to live freely without the concern of losing control.
There’s a wonderful duality in how the game explores these sides of Coen, and it allows for a diverse experience as you travel. Even in the game’s opening hours, it was made very clear how this will change the game and how you play it, with some problems only available to solve in vampire form, and others more easily tackled as a human.
A layered world of day and night
Following the game’s tense and dynamic opening stanzas, including Coen’s difficult rebirth into a strange new world, The Blood of Dawnwalker opens up into a sprawling open world RPG full of possibilities. While the game’s preview was segmented, with certain areas beyond a point locked off, the explorable region was rich enough to entrance for hours.
Wandering away from Coen’s home village, you’ll find a massive world full of roaming creatures and humans, some of which will have special quests for you. The land here is beautiful and occasionally barren. You’ll be travelling through muddy terrains, grassland, forests and crumbling civilisations.
You’ll also find copses filled with strangeness, like giant crocodile beasts, and stumble onto happenings where you might be able to lend a hand, or a claw.
What’s most delicious about these quests is that Coen can work his way into all kinds of situations, with his vampirism largely going unnoticed – unless he makes a wrong move, or attempts interaction while overly hungry at night. In which case, a civil quest might quickly be perma-failed as Coen instead turns on his pals for sustenance.
You can also misstep during the day, with some quests tied to Coen’s nighttime vampiric strength. It’s all about figuring out which form is best to approach which challenge, and how to make the most of the game’s ever-marching day-night cycle.
Time moves swiftly in The Blood of Dawnwalker
One of the primary concerns about The Blood of Dawnwalker prior to its preview season was the announced notion of time passing by. Coen only has a limited window in his adventures, with just 30 days to save his family after their lives are destroyed by the vampire coven.
Every action in the game will tick the clock forward.
As discovered during the game’s preview, this is simply a means of adding some sense of pacing to the game’s story quests. Some of the bigger ones will take time and make the days tick past, if only to have the story make more coherent sense on a day-by-day timeline.
You’ll be able to fit pretty much everything you want to do in the game’s allotted time span, and the design accounts for your decisions about where you want to go, and what you want to accomplish. That’s also true for wider exploration.
Hanging out in a flower field or spending time fighting creatures won’t make the time tick past at all, and you’ll be largely free to explore as you see fit.
In-game, 30 days is a generous amount of time. In the opening hours, this constraint and the need to be somewhere by a certain time didn’t impact exploration, or the desire to see everything The Blood of Dawnwalker has to offer.
That may change in the next hours but in this particular preview, it was not a notable bugbear – and developers were keen to reassure that the time constraints are merely a story hinge, and not designed to limit play or curiosity.
Heading to the top of our most anticipated list
After indulging this curiosity for hours wandering through Vale Sangora, reaching the end of the preview was devastating. This is a game that’s quick to stick its hooks in – almost as quick as Coen is to get his claws out.
For fans of The Witcher, its similarities will be more than enough to attract interest. For vampire fans, it’s an excellent adaptation that leans into genre tropes and traditions, telling an original story with heart and bite.
If you’re a fan of both vampires and The Witcher, well, The Blood of Dawnwalker is shaping up to be an incredible experience.
Developer Rebel Wolves has high hopes for this release and how it might inspire a whole franchise starring Coen travelling through a number of centuries – a bit like Assassin’s Creed, but with a more connected and coherent vision.
We certainly hope to see where the game goes from here, and how Coen’s adventure will lead into a brighter, and darker, future.
