The Blood of the Dawnwalker: A challenging action RPG, with nits

Playing The Blood of the Dawnwalker immediately brought to mind the first time I played The Witcher. It is clearly the work of Rebel Wolves, a studio composed of former CD Projekt RED developers who deeply love the mechanics they helped craft during their time there.

As a result, Dawnwalker benefits from that expertise, sticking close to the Witcher formula. From its dark fantasy setting to its sword combat, the only difference here is that the monster is you. A vampire that is hunting other vampires is always a good premise, and Dawnwalker succeeds in delivering, but a few rough edges keeps it from greatness. 

The people of Vale Sangora were freed from an oppressive regime that took their coin and left them to be consumed by the plague, until a group of vampires saved them and promised protection and healing from the plague, in exchange for a regular supply of blood. Set somewhere in the Carpathian mountains, you play Coen, a normal young man who went against the vampire’s blood tax and in exchange, was left for dead. Deemed a failure by the ancient vampire who turned him, Coen turns into something far scarier, a Dawnwalker (human by day, vampire by night). Whatever you do, you only have 30 days to save your family from the vampires, and put an end to their bloody rule.

The lengthy prologue serves as a great tutorial for the mechanics, and is also a way to get comfortable with the world while building up Coen’s saga. My first playthrough saw me breeze through the prologue, barely taking up any of the initial sidequests.

On the second playthrough, I realised that building up the story a bit leads to different outcomes. Once Coen becomes the Dawnwalker, the world opens up to you not as one, but as two — day and night. By day, you solve quests using witchcraft and swordplay; by night, the claws and teeth come out and you have other opportunities that come to light. 

Coen’s take is engrossing, courtesy the time mechanic and the way the game treats it as currency. For instance, do you spend time canoodling with a beautiful witch or do you rush to get medicinal herbs back to your family? Each decision carries its weight in time, and the quests you undertake also cost time.

The world is ideally open to tackle it however you want — you can spend time building up your powers or rush to the boss and end it. You can pull it off, because Dawnwalkers combat mechanics can take on monsters at any level, if you master its nuances. 

The combat is tough, and this is coming from someone with over 400 hours in Elden Ring, one of the toughest games out there. Dawnwalker has your regular parries and attacks, but it also introduces directional parries, where you need to move your thumbstick in the direction of the attack, to then parry. Easy to pull off, but a challenge in the heat of battle. 

Each enemy has a little ‘lock on’ icon, with corresponding arrows, showing you the parry direction, which if done right, grants you buffs and increases damage. It is a unique departure from the button mashing rhythm action of Witcher or other medieval action games, which truly makes you feel the intensity of clashing swords. Your concentration is on parrying blows from all directions and those openings where you can cast a spell or deflect an attack. Dawnwalker is one of the only games that have captured the feel of a duel, perfectly. 

Health is the biggest problem in the game. By day, you need to find canteens of water and herbs to craft healing items, which are hard to source. By night, you need to repeatedly suck blood out of a lot of rats for a tiny bit of health or hunt bigger animals.

Humans are tricky, because you get into combat and then have to wait 30 seconds for the sucking power to recharge, which is lousy. You can get away with dodges and normal parries, but you run out of stamina fast. The worst part is noticing icon prompts, along with screen effects, especially if you are a few feet away from the screen. Dawnwalker is best played on PC or sitting up close to the screen so you can see those arrows; though the directional combat is tough, mastering it will give you buff advantage.

It is clear the developers will have to find a fix for these small nits that otherwise tarnish a game with an excellent story, likeable protagonist, high production values and most of all, a seriously good setting. The Vale Sangora is much like what you see in The Witcher, with marshes, mountains and woods, teeming with monsters, failed vampires, thieves and factions of soldiers. And in the middle, are stories of people trying to survive this blood tax.

Dawnwalker, with the time mechanic, is meant to be played many times. There are several outcomes you can explore as you cut and claw your way to vampire overlords, with several small stories developing along the way. Do you give in to bloodlust and slaughter everyone mid-conversation or do you resist and be a hero to the masses? Do you save your family in 30 days or do you leave them to die and continue on your way? While you do have a ticking clock of 30 days, the twist here is, you can ignore it if you so choose.

The makers have nailed the experience of playing a vampire at night. The thrill is genuinely visceral as you teleport and claw opponents to death. The AI is excellent and people see your eyes and instantly fear you, while those who align with vampires know you from your growing infamy and attack you.

Being a vampire does not  lock you out of quests at night, but sometimes the outcome may not be the ones you want. Thankfully, save scumming which is the act of going back to the last save, could serve you well as you try and explore the best outcomes, or you can wing it and save it for the next playthrough as you take a whole different direction. From playboy vampire to misunderstood monster to a shadowy hero, the game lets you define your outcomes.

Dawnwalker takes inspiration from several games, the most being Witcher, with Coen playing a skinned version of Geralt. That said, there is a bit of Ghost of Tsushima thrown in for good measure. The world itself is beautiful, but at 30fps it is a drag, and as enemies surround you, it feels as if it is missing animation frames and Coen stutters at times.

Rebel Wolves has released a 60fps patch to counter this, but the game needs optimisations and balancing. The music is stunning, using similar Eastern European influences as heard in Witcher. Sound design is excellent as are the graphics; Unreal Engine does shine here. 

Blood of the Dawnwalker is a good game that is poised to leap into greatness. A superb debut effort from Rebel Wolves, with an excellent narrative-driven sandbox and an addictive and unique combat mechanic that immerses you into the intensity of sword fights, with no time to even flick the sweat of your brow. If you are up to the challenge, and are looking forward to playing a vampire, then Dawnwalkers has got you covered.