The Blood of Dawnwalker, the review of the action RPG that promises freedom and fresh blood!

The Blood of Dawnwalker: The Plot of the New Vampire-Themed Action RPG

The Blood of Dawnwalker was able to attract our attention from its very first announcement, both because it was developed by the team created by brothers Konrad and Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz, and for its fascinating gothic medieval atmosphere. Here we are at the moment of our review of The Blood of Dawnwalker, where we will discover if we are truly facing one of the most interesting action RPGs in the gaming landscape. For the occasion, we played it on PS5, but you can also experience it on PC and Xbox Series X/S. Regardless of the platform you play it on, the presence of the Tomaszkiewicz brothers and their nascent team, Rebel Wolves, is a significant calling card, given that we are talking about two former CD Projekt Red members, with Konrad having been director of The Witcher 3 and head of production for Cyberpunk 2077. A calling card 

The Blood of Dawnwalker takes us to 1347 in Vale Sangora, a remote area nestled in the Carpathian Mountains. While Vale Sangora is a fictional valley, the rest of the setting is absolutely real, with several references to history and characters who lived at the time. As the plague rages and nobles exercise a bloody rule, Brencis appears, a vampire or vrakhiri, as the blood-sucking undead are called here, who decides to establish his new fiefdom in Sangora. Although Brencis and his followers are decidedly violent and cruel, they initially seem to bring a new order to the citizens, because by making everyone drink their vampiric blood, they manage to cure the population of the plague and make them immune to diseases. In return, the vrakhiri take absolute dominion of the valley and claim the freedom to drink people's blood for sustenance. In a short time, the nobles of the various villages are deposed, and Brencis sits at the head of a system that ensures justice and health, with many citizens accepting the sacrifice of having become reserves of precious hemoglobin. On the other hand, on paper, it's a big step forward compared to the devastations of the plague and the abuses of the previous local lords… provided you turn a blind eye to the fact that Brencis and his three vampire boyars demand to be literally worshipped, as in a kind of blasphemous religion.

As time passes, some commoners begin to plot a rebellion, also because the vampire government proves to be extremely harsh: just a word against Brencis can lead to a very bad end, between tortures and prisons from which it is impossible to escape. Our hero, Coen, is an ordinary boy who finds himself embroiled in the revolt of Laslea, a small village in the valley. Brencis's repression is terrible, and the rebellion is stifled in blood, and Coen awakens to find himself vampirized, becoming one of the monsters he so hates. Unlike Brencis and his boyars, however, Coen does not fear sunlight, and if he becomes a vampire at night, he remains a human being during the day. Thus begins his adventure to try to save his family, imprisoned by Brencis as retaliation for the Laslea revolt. Coen will have thirty days and thirty nights to succeed in the endeavor, or risk losing his loved ones and seeing Brencis gain even more power.

The Blood of Dawnwalker: Gameplay and Game World

After a substantial prologue, our story begins, and it is immediately clear how The Blood of Dawnwalker is a child of The Witcher, both in appearance and gameplay, although one should not fall into the trap of thinking it is a mere clone. Certainly, Rebel Wolves' title does not do too much to deny the resemblance, starting from the setting, linked to Eastern European history and folklore, and Coen's design, who even sports the same hairstyle as Geralt of Rivia. The structure is classic, with an open-world style map to explore, battles to win, and points of interest to discover from time to time. Coen divides his time between exploration, dialogues, and battles, growing through a classic role-playing system where, by leveling up, he increases his stats and can develop three different skill trees. These are linked to the protagonist's dual nature, which changes from day to night.

There are combat-related abilities, usable at any time, while vampiric abilities can only be used at night. Conversely, magical arts only work during the day, balancing what risked being a huge balancing problem, given that between regeneration and vampiric bites, the nocturnal form is, at its core, more useful and resistant. Rebel Wolves have done careful work that does not deny the advantages of being undead but cleverly compensates for them, especially for gamers who pay a little attention to their choices in the skill trees. As a vampire, Coen can teleport short distances, regain energy by sucking blood from opponents and animals, regenerate his wounds, and so on. But in human form, especially after gaining a few levels, sorcery and sword skills make their presence felt, in a decidedly more balanced system. While to learn the most evolved magic and sword arts we will have to find and read manuals, the more we exploit the qualities of the vrakhiri, the more we will have access to bloodthirsty abilities, even if we will always be more tempted to give in to the desire for blood and bite some peasant.

The game map is dotted with points of interest, missions, and actions to perform, which we will discover by exploring or by activating (thanks to vampiric abilities) watchtowers that will show us the surrounding landscape in pure Assassin's Creed style, where there will be no shortage of classic question marks indicating where it might be interesting to poke around. The gameplay of The Blood of Dawnwalker is strongly based on the alternation between day and night, and there will be specific actions that we can only perform at one of the two times. At its core, there is a system linked to the passage of time and the fact that everything starts with the famous 30 days available to save our family. We are not talking about real-time hours passing, but a system that assigns a specific duration to certain activities. Day and night are divided into eight time units each, and it will be up to us to decide how to use them. Only some actions will consume the slots available to us, while many others will be irrelevant from this point of view. For example, classic exploration will not make time pass, while undertaking missions, learning abilities by reading a book, or other specific actions will consume time segments and mark the passage between day and night.

The Blood of Dawnwalker: Freedom of Action and Combat System

Into all of this, the concept of freedom of action strongly enters, with Coen able to decide what to do. Of course, the main storyline is always about fighting Brencis, but we can decide how to achieve our goal. We can diligently begin to weaken the vrakhiri by attacking their troops and ruining their plans, until we reach face-to-face confrontations with Brencis and his boyars, but nothing prevents us from exploring Vale Sangora far and wide, discovering secrets of the setting and better understanding the lore. Seek allies? Save rebels? Perhaps trust no one and proceed alone? Become a bloodthirsty monster who succumbs to his dark side and uses anyone as a blood bag, including his potential companions? The choice is yours, just as you can decide to make important decisions in specific missions, changing the plot lines, the idea that NPCs will have of you, and how the game world will evolve. Both in small and large ways, the player is given great freedom and can easily see the consequences of their actions. The thirty-day limit itself offers different interpretations, and we can try to achieve our goal sooner than expected and even discover what might happen if we don't achieve it at all.

I don't want to enter the minefield of spoilers, but with due attention, you can notice changes in your surroundings even after some seemingly minor side missions. Having said a certain phrase rather than another could change an NPC's behavior, or having spared an opponent could create a future ally or even a free assassin who could slit the throats of other characters whose corpses we will find and with whom we can no longer interact. Naturally, everything is clearer when it comes to the main quests, and we will be faced with situations capable of raising more than one doubt, both for moral reasons and for mere interest. Some choices bring a clear change to our adventure and make a very pleasant system based on freedom of action breathe. A special screen will allow us to see our situation relative to Brencis and his boyars, and we will have a complete overview of all possible missions to thwart them and increase our reputation as wanted by the vrakhiri and their men. This will also have repercussions, and the more wanted we are, the more actions will be taken against us, such as roadblocks or increased trade taxes to convince the people to be hostile to us.

This enormous freedom of action is combined with an excellent plot and quality gameplay. The story is narrated with great detail and respectable direction, managing to captivate the player like the best dark fantasy works. Some passages are truly engaging and make the choices to be made even more difficult and contested. Coen is a good protagonist, perhaps a bit too stereotypical in the early stages of the game, but he undergoes personal growth that makes us fond of his journey. The gameplay requires a few hours of getting used to, partly due to some cumbersome choices in menu usage, and partly due to the combat system which, both in parrying and attacking, uses a combination of action and directional commands. Except for the use of special abilities and items (differentiated based on vampiric or human form), attack and parry can be directed up, down, right, or left and combine with the actions our opponent is performing. A sequence of attacks directed at different parts will be very effective, and similarly, a parry made in the right direction and at the perfect moment will allow us to counterattack and put the enemy in great difficulty. This could also attack us with an unstoppable move, and in this case, the best way will be to use the dodge. Furthermore, Coen enjoys enviable observation skills and, by activating the appropriate command, can search the surrounding environment for objects or clues, an ability that we will use very often in the investigative phases of many missions.

There are many difficulty options, and you can make The Blood of Dawnwalker a truly complicated experience, even giving up visual cues that help land parries, but also very simple, if what interests you most is following the plot. The basic difficulty allows you to get familiar with the system and after a few hours allows you to navigate combat with extreme fluidity, recreating duels that manage to provide satisfying sensations and translate into extremely spectacular battles.

The Blood of Dawnwalker: Graphics, Audio, and Final Verdict

As for the technical side, while we await the day 1 patch that should bring the performance mode to 60 FPS, we already have a respectable graphical rendering. Vale Sangora is lush but wild, the inhabited centers are full of life (albeit under Brencis's rule) and show excellent historical research, while crypts and dungeons are dark and gloomy, with all these elements contributing to creating a respectable atmosphere. Models and environments are well-made and carefully animated, although some NPCs are a bit subdued. Even now, before the aforementioned patch, the graphics mode allows for a more detailed visual impact and 30 FPS, while the performance mode is smoother but doesn't deviate much from the previous one in terms of visual quality. Of course, there are some artifacts like textures that load late when a scene opens and some sporadic bugs, but nothing that can ruin the gaming experience in an otherwise very vast world. The sound compartment does its job, but there are no memorable musical themes, although they manage to support the atmosphere. I am pleased to note excellent Italian voice acting, an increasingly rare commodity in the world of video games and one that deserves an honorable mention. 

You will hardly be able to finish The Blood of Dawnwalker in less than 40 hours, but my advice is to take all the time necessary to experience Vale Sangora and get to know it. Initially, you might think that Rebel Wolves' creation presents too many battles and too little narration, but as time passes, you will discover a setting full of mysteries, nuances, and lore, capable of captivating you and giving you an epic adventure. If you are looking for a quality action RPG, The Blood of Dawnwalker is a title to be absolutely considered. Rebel Wolves has brought barrels of fresh blood to our favorite hobby, offering us a title recommended to all lovers of the genre.