I am a sucker for vampires, especially in video games. Anytime a vampiric game is announced, my interest is immediately piqued. The Blood of Dawnwalker is no exception. This has been a highly anticipated game for me, as there has yet to be an RPG that really scratches that vampire itch.
A lot of vampire media is set closer to modern-day, but there is something to be said for experiencing the 1400s Carpathian Mountains during the bubonic plague, which really encapsulates that true vampire feel. It was time to take vampires back to the grassroots, and Rebel Wolves has done just that.
The Blood of Dawnwalker is a delightful addition to vampiric lore
Rebel Wolves’ The Blood of Dawnwalker is a delightful addition to vampiric lore. While it doesn’t feel like an AAA game, despite coming from ex-CD Projekt RED alum, I had the time of my life exploring the fantastical world of Vale Sangora. The game has its quirks: rendering issues, popping textures, and NPCs that feel copy-and-pasted from each other. But despite all that, the combat is fresh, and the world feels purposeful and full of mysteries and monsters. Every second spent with this game was a delight, and I hope this isn’t the last we see of Coen and the Dawnwalkers. It isn’t perfect, but it is exactly what vampire fans deserve.
The Blood of Dawnwalker is a story-driven, dark fantasy action RPG. You play as Coen, a man-made Dawnwalker. You’re half human, half vampire (or Vrakhiri, as they are referred to in the story). You have 30 days and 30 nights to save your family from the court of Vampires that reign over Vale Sangora. Those 30 days and nights are extremely important, as time is a crucial component of the game. Time itself doesn’t pass as you explore the valley of the Carpathian Mountains; interactions with other characters, tasks to be completed, and skills to learn all use in-game time (some more than others).
And as day passes into night, you change from human to vampire and certain quests and aspects are then locked or opened to you. Initially, the idea of a time limit stressed me out. I didn’t enjoy the idea that I couldn’t finish all my quests, unlock all my skills, or not being able to save Coen’s family in time. Ultimately, I am an explorer; I don’t like being held back by a looming reminder of the main quest (if you know, you know).
But the longer I played, the more I enjoyed the choices it provided me. If I had to meet a character for a quest at night, how would I spend time during the day? Would I spend it doing daytime quests, trading and crafting goods, adding skills to my tree, or exploring the world for new secrets? It is a similar mechanic to Fire Emblem’s use of time segments. However, I haven’t seen it in an RPG before, and it really pushed me to make choices with intention.
The gameplay and combat harkened back to RPGs like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, which Rebel Wolves developers and Game Director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz departed from. It was interesting to see the parallels of what worked there translated to this debut. Definitely not a copy by any means.
The music, character design (especially its Eastern European influence), and quests feel like a nod not just to The Witcher itself, but to earlier RPGs as well. It has many elements I enjoy in this genre, including forming deep connections with NPCs, a story-driven narrative, and plenty of question marks on the map to discover. That said, I found the writing a little too contemporary. The game is set in the 1400s, during the Black Plague in Europe. A lot of it worked for me, but when a character spoke in a more modern way, it definitely pulled me out of the experience.
The Blood of Dawnwalker’s combat is an ambitious experience. It is defined as fluid, meaning you can change up how you fight enemies on the fly. When you target an enemy, a sword icon appears in the center of their form, inviting you to swing your sword (or claws) at them to your heart’s content. When your foe attacks, a shield appears along with a directional indicator. By pointing the joystick in that direction while blocking, it uses less stamina and can give you extra buffs. You can also do this for attacks, but the directions aren’t indicated.
At first I really struggled to wrap my head around this. You definitely don’t need to include the input directions in your movements, and you can switch in-game in real time; but once I locked in and got into the swing of it, it felt like a dance. Along with swordplay, you also have magic you can use during the day and vampiric abilities you can use at night – such as casting spells to light foes on fire or drinking their blood for a health boost.
Combat was ever-evolving, never feeling stale. It almost felt like playing two different characters, as your human and vampire forms were like character loadouts. It’s hard to pick a preference, since the two forms are so different. Each side brings its own unique style of combat and can be changed with other abilities to suit your playstyle.
The three skill trees Coen has are very interesting, as one you can only use during the day and the other at night. Each tree is for Witchcraft, Swordsmanship and Vampiric Abilities. You can advance your trees by using ability points, finding (or buying) manuals, and increasing your corruption levels at night. It feels intentional; if you want to master a certain ability, you have to seek out ways to learn it and work for it.
As I mentioned, spending ability points also makes time pass. All these choices really make me stop and think about what is important, as not everything can be unlocked in a single playthrough. It begs the question: what buffs did I want or need, and what kind of playstyle is best suited for me?
Choices and conversations are so important in this game, but it isn’t in your face about it. You never truly know what others think about you, and the game never indicates how something you say will affect others. But choices are at the heart of The Blood of Dawnwalker. Despite your best efforts, things might not always go as planned. Paying attention is crucial. Speaking to NPCs sometimes offers different turning points in conversations – such as talking your way out of an attack or flirting with other characters.
For instance, when I saved humans from the court guards, they begged me not to kill them. When I obliged, they invited me back to their smithy and gave me a sword for my benevolence. You never know what information an NPC might hold, but depending on the choices in conversations, it may be lost to the player.
The map and the world itself aren’t too large, as far as RPGs are concerned. At first glance, it felt huge and had me worrying about the time elements. But traversal is easy. There are unfortunately no mounts, but you can gain a feat called Haste to move you more quickly through the world. Haste works differently between night and day, which really keeps you immersed in your human or vampiric form. During the day, time around you slows, and your speed is increased. By night, you become a giant black wolf tearing across the countryside.
Personally, I enjoyed transforming into a beast. During the night, you can also transform into mist to climb over large rocks or scale the sides of large towers to spy on the world around you. And there is a fast travel feature at the shrines you locate (that somehow doesn’t affect the time aspect of the game, but I’m not going to look a gift horse in the mouth), and the more you explore, the more fast travel spots you find, which is fantastic, especially if you are trying to avoid the Court’s guardsmen.
There is a plethora of question marks, quest markers, shrines to find and some to fix, and shops to visit. Some of those undiscovered locations could lead to a monster’s den, or a human in need of help, or a camp of guardsmen. The world feels full of purposeful encounters, and not overcrowded and definitely not filled with miscellaneous things just for the sake of it. Seeing that question mark off in the woods drives my curiosity forward to see what secrets I will find next.
Vampiric Bugs
However, this game has known issues. Specifically in cutscenes, I saw textures pop in and out, and rendering was slow. I had issues with quest objectives falling through the world and commands becoming unresponsive during exploration and combat. At a certain point, a character didn’t jump when prompted or failed to use an ability at all. A day-one patch corrects the known issues.
These include infinite loading screens, inconsistent enemy damage, background geometry not loading correctly during the first cutscene sequences, and much more. However, performance fell flat at times for a game priced as an AAA title. The core cast of characters that Coen interacts with are beautifully created, but a lot of the NPCs are just carbon copies of each other, so much so that I became confused when speaking to villager NPCs. That all being said, for a debut game, it is a marvel. The opening cinematic took my breath away, but it did set my expectations fairly high for cutscenes.
Verdict
Despite the issues I had with it, I loved The Blood of Dawnwalker. This has been a highly anticipated title, and it really gave me what I needed from a Vampire RPG. The exploration, the engagement with characters, the world and the storytelling were all a delight. When it comes to vampire media, I will always be willing to give it a try. Many other titles have left me disappointed. They only scratched the surface, leaning more into atmosphere and world-building than the experience of vampirism as a whole.
But The Blood of the Dawnwalker left me wanting more in the best way. I was immersed in the story as a whole, the characters and their lives and this fantastical world Rebel Wolves created. I often found myself thinking about the game after I had put the controller down, ready to go back and find more secrets and monsters to fight. It has such good bones for further creating a Dawnwalker series, something that I would not be angry about at all. If you’re a fan of dark, macabre fantasies, story-driven narratives with compelling choices and vampires as a whole, this is a game for you.
[The publisher provided a copy of the game for review purposes.]
Reviewed on: PlayStation 5
