by Anthony O'Connor
Of all the mythical creatures spawned from humanity’s fevered collective imagination, the vampire is surely the most appealing. Werewolves? Too hairy. Witches? Too ugly. Frankenstein’s monster? Too lonely. Zombies? Too stinky. And gill-men? You’re not getting a root unless Guillermo del Toro is directing. Vampires, however, seem to occupy a sweet spot. Sure, you need to feast on the blood of the innocent to survive, but you get to live forever, stay young and beautiful and make the night your playground. It’s a fantasy that has enraptured everyone from teenage girls to earnest goths to sweaty nerds and beyond. Basically, vampires are cool.
Rebel Wolves, the talented game developers from Poland that include veterans from The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077, certainly hope players will think so. Recently, they allowed select members of the press to attend a 4-hour preview event of their much anticipated debut title, The Blood of Dawnwalker.
After said session, your humble scribe walked away with a great deal of excitement and maybe a couple of reservations.
For those unfamiliar, The Blood of Dawnwalker is an epic dark fantasy action focused RPG with oodles of combat and narrative choice. It puts players in the worn leather boots of Coen, a young peasant turned Dawnwalker who possesses the power of both a human and vampire, depending on the time. During the day? Coen is a skilled swordsman who can use hexes and spells to augment his sword swingery. At night, though? Ol’ mate Coco is a wall-climbing, shadow-stepping, claw-swinging, blood-drinkin’ vampire and his thirst for combat and delicious human juice is nigh on unquenchable. Will Coen be able to use his newfound vamp skills to save his family, or will he succumb to the darkness that already has its inky fingers wrapped around his soul? The answer very much depends on you.
The Blood of Dawnwalker is directed by Konrad Tomaszkiewicz who was the Game Director on The Witcher 3 and boy, does it show! The opening prologue feels almost like a Witcher 3 side DLC, replete with grimdark aesthetics, tough narrative choices and an uncomfortable, discordant score that really hammers home the unsettling vibe. Once the story progresses, however, it becomes more its own thing and the world building in particular is very impressive. The way the vampires have multiple locations under their manky, undead thumbs by demanding a regular blood tithe feels clever and fresh and a perfect framework for a video game world. Dismantling fangy fiefdoms while mastering your newly minted vampiric powers sounds like a pretty great gameplay loop. If you’re a fan of engaging game narratives, you’ll likely get hooked early and hard by this vivid premise.
Of course, it’s not all about the storytelling. The other pillar upon which The Blood of Dawnwalker is built is the combat, and this element feels a little less deft so far. So, as a human, Coen’s combat feels strikingly similar to The Witcher‘s Geralt, in that it is directional sword swinging combined with parrying, spells and various augments. It’s perfectly acceptable in theory, but in practice feels a little clunky and even janky at times. The timing of blocks in particular felt a little off. Now, we should add that this was raised with us at the preview and apparently loads of work is being done before launch and the vampire combat was much more nuanced and interesting – with an expansive and intriguing looking skill tree to boot – but it’s worth noting, nonetheless.
The other mechanic that has us intrigued, and perhaps a little nervous, is the time-passing conceit. Put simply, every action or choice moves time forwards, and you only have a limited amount of it to become powerful enough to achieve Coen’s goals. Basically, you’re not going to be able to get everything done in a single playthrough and the weight of some of those choices is going to fall heavily on players. This is a game designed for multiple playthroughs and for that to be appealing, your narrative choices are going to have to result in radically different outcomes. Is that the case with The Blood of Dawnwalker? After four hours, we have no idea, but your humble word janitor was certainly left intrigued, cautiously optimistic and very keen to return to the medieval hell hole that’s spattered with mud and blood.
Expect a full review on or around September 3rd when the game releases.
