One thing is clear: The Blood of Dawnwalker definitely doesn’t suck.
In fact, after over 50 hours with The Blood of Dawnwalker, I’d go as far as saying it’s one of the best RPGs I’ve played this year. It just has some teething problems…
Developed by Rebel Wolves, The Blood of Dawnwalker is an incredibly ambitious RPG built around freedom. You play as Coen, a young man turned vampire who has just 30 days to rescue his family. How you go about doing that is almost entirely up to you.
READ MORE: Review | Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy: ‘Struck The Right Chords’ (PC)
You can hunt down big bad Brencis’ army, empower a rebellion, track down the pieces of a mighty weapon, storm his castle and take him on directly — or, if you’re feeling particularly brave, leg it to the far edge of the map and flee from your troubles.
It’s the type of game that keeps asking you what kind of person you want to be, and then has the good sense to let you live with the consequences.
Unfortunately, it’s also a game that crashed a dozen or more times during my review period.
A vampire of your own making
The Blood of Dawnwalker is a highly customisable RPG where your decisions genuinely shape Coen’s journey.
Initially, I went into my playthrough intending to be the good guy. That didn’t last particularly long.
Coen needs blood to survive, and you have a choice in how you satisfy that hunger. You can feed from humans or stick to draining animals of their blood. Weirdly, I felt more guilty killing animals than humans, so I eventually gave in and drained a few of Brencis’ men dry.
There’s something wonderfully liberating about the way the game handles these decisions. I made choices that gradually pushed me towards my more evil tendencies, rather than deliberately setting out to play an evil character.
The game simply gave me the freedom to make those choices.
That freedom extends well beyond morality. You can go off and pursue almost any quest you wish, and the game is perfectly happy to let you make decisions that can fundamentally alter what content you experience.
Early on, I came across one of Brencis’ generals. I fought them, killed them and seemingly skipped a major aspect of the game. There was no invisible wall stopping me from making that decision, nor did the game force me back onto the intended path.
On another occasion, I let a particular character live despite being unsure about my decision. Before I had moved too far beyond the quest, I changed my mind and went back and killed them.
That freedom of choice is fantastic.
Even better, the game makes those decisions feel meaningful.
One character I could have killed when I first met them would have disappeared from my story entirely, locking me out of an exceptional questline that eventually directed me towards the finale. It’s the sort of thing that makes you wonder just how much content you’ve unknowingly missed.
After experiencing four vastly different endings already, I’m still keen to go back and discover what else I could have done differently.
Loot, lore and love
The 30-day deadline gives The Blood of Dawnwalker a fantastic sense of urgency, but it never feels like you’re simply being pushed from one objective to the next.
That said, time is of the essence. Every quest or outpost you take out moves time forward. The world constantly tempts you away from your immediate goal.
Moving off the beaten path through forests, up hilltops and across rocky outcrops, there was almost always something to discover. Sometimes it was as simple as a small chest with some gold wedged between two rocks. Other times, I stumbled across towering outposts featuring strange characters and encounters — including one dream-altering cannibal I had absolutely no intention of crossing.
There’s an enormous amount of loot scattered throughout the world, too.
It’s a looter lover’s dream. There’s so much gear to find and use in this game.
As the name of the game suggests, Coen can move through the game as a human by day and a vampire at night. It gives you an opportunity to build two completely separate loadouts depending on your abilities. Each weapon and armour piece has abilities they cater towards a human or vampire, some lean more into witchcraft and others just simply look badass.
But it’s the quests and characters that make the world feel truly alive.
Each prominent character has their own narrative, from the protagonist to the antagonist, and you’re able to explore their stories at your own pace. Relationships develop gradually, allowing you to build friendships, fall in love — or fall into lust.
Yep, there’s detailed sexy time depending on your dialogue choices.
The relationship between Anca and Coen is particularly compelling, with a constant tension between the two that could rival Yennefer and Geralt.
And then there was St. Tyna’s convent.
A single quest to investigate the convent sold me on the game even more. It combines wonderful storytelling with detailed environments, fun objectives and a pace that keeps things moving without rushing you through the experience.
More importantly, there were several different ways the quest could have played out. I was happy with the outcome of my version, but knowing that another player could have experienced something completely different is one of the things that makes The Blood of Dawnwalker so compelling.
There are seemingly endless possibilities here, and after already experiencing four different endings with vastly different final moments, I’m most excited to explore those alternate outcomes.
Slicing and dicing
Combat is some of the best I’ve played in an RPG like this in a long time.
The standout feature is the directional blocking system, or “omniblock”. When an enemy attacks, an arrow indicates the direction their attack is coming from, and you need to use the thumbstick to block from that direction. Not too dissimilar to Kingdom Come Deliverance II, just more fast paced.
It took me a little while to figure out the intricacies of the system, but it soon became second nature.
Before long, I was blocking attacks from all angles before immediately retaliating by slicing off heads.
And there’s a lot of head slicing.
There’s also a surprising amount of hand cutting involved when casting spells. Luckily, Coen heals quickly.
As you progress, you’ll learn a range of increasingly deadly abilities from each skill tree, allowing you to lean fully into the vampire lifestyle, hone your witchcraft or get a firm grip on the sword.
Witchcraft is particularly brutal. You can slowly kill enemies from the inside or simply make them explode, while other abilities allow you to turn Coen into an absolute killer in close combat.
By the end of the game, you’ll be slicing heads off in a single swing.
That progression feels fantastic.
Unlocking new abilities in the skill trees makes both combat and exploration more accessible and enjoyable. There’s a genuine sense that you’re becoming more capable as the game moves forward, and the reward for investing in a particular skill tree is immediately noticeable
The cost of ambition
Unfortunately, all of this praise comes with a pretty significant downside.
The Blood of Dawnwalker desperately needs more polish.
Playing on PS5 Pro, I encountered frequent framerate issues and prominent visual glitches. There were moments when enemies fell through the floor, the game completely locked up, and the lighting began flashing uncontrollably as I ran across the map.
The game also crashed a dozen or more times throughout my review period.
These weren’t isolated little quirks that I could simply laugh off. They repeatedly interrupted an otherwise fantastic experience.
That’s particularly frustrating because the underlying game is so good.
READ MORE: Review | SAROS: ‘Bullet-Hell Bliss’ (PS5)
There’s a brilliant RPG here. The combat is excellent, the world is packed with things to discover, the characters are compelling and the sheer number of ways your story can unfold is impressive.
But when the game crashes after pivotal story moments or I’m left to fight a group of enemies all over again, it becomes difficult to ignore the cracks.
While some NPCs lacked depth and enemy AI struggled at times, interacting with — and fighting — the people of Laslea was mostly a joy.
Rebel Wolves has its work cut out for it as launch approaches.
A new patch seemingly rolled out today, and I genuinely hope it addresses the issues I encountered during my playthrough.
A brilliant RPG that needs time
The Blood of Dawnwalker is easily one of the best games I’ve played this year, and that’s saying something considering the bugs, glitches and crashes I ran into along the way.
It’s ambitious, inventive and, most importantly, gives you an incredible amount of freedom to determine what kind of story you want to tell.
I love that my initial plans to play as a good guy gradually fell apart. I love that killing one character could completely change the path my story took. I love that I can already see multiple reasons to return and play the game again.
And I absolutely love the combat.
But I can’t ignore the technical problems.
The Blood of Dawnwalker is in much need of polish, and despite how much I love it, I’d recommend waiting a little longer before jumping in. If the upcoming patches can iron out the performance issues and crashes, there’s a genuinely exceptional RPG waiting underneath.
For now, though, this is a vampire epic worth keeping an eye on — even if you might want to give it a little more time before sinking your teeth in.
Quest Daily scores The Blood of Dawnwalker:
8/10
The Blood of Dawnwalker is coming to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC on September 3rd.
Early access to the game was provided by the publisher.
