From the moment you’re thrown into the world of Vale Sangora, it’s obvious that developer Rebel Wolves has the sauce with The Blood of Dawnwalker. Maybe it’s just my nostalgia talking, but the debut project is an earnest love letter to some of the best RPGs of the 2000s – think Mass Effect 2, Alpha Protocol, Dragon Age: Origins and even elements of Deus Ex. It’s not perfect by any means, but for me, it’s easily one of my favourite adventures in years and an incredibly strong debut for Rebel Wolves.
Put simply, The Blood of Dawnwalker follows Coen, a newly sired vampire on his quest to save his family from a powerful ruler named Brencis. During the initial siege on his village, Coen is turned by Brencis into a vampire, but the process goes awry. Instead of becoming a Vrakhiri, or standard vampire, Coen becomes a Dawnwalker. A phenomenon in which a person walks the day as a human, but the night as a vampire. With only thirty days to rescue his family before they are sacrificed in service of Brencis’ coronation, Coen sets out to take revenge.
And how you do that is entirely up to you. The Blood of Dawnwalker allows you to take on Brencis in whatever way you want – no quest is mandatory. You can go straight for him if you want, inexperienced and all, or you can work behind the scenes to topple his regime by taking out his three generals and their operations. Every approach has its own pros and cons, and even when you think you’ve got everything worked out, the game is great at throwing a few curveballs your way too.
But what really helps with Dawnwalker’s emphasis on choice is the strong writing and worldbuilding. The characters you’ll meet along the way are all interesting, and many of them have conflicting political opinions on how things should be done in Vale Sangora. I definitely found my favourites as I spent more and more time in this world, though there were also times when their opinions clashed with mine and I questioned the friendships I’d made. It’s all part and parcel of games like this, but it feels especially strong in Dawnwalker.
But no amount of writing or worldbuilding can save a game if the game itself isn’t good. On paper, Dawnwalker sounds great, filled with all the trademarks and conventions you’ve come to expect from games in this genre. In reality, while this is true, The Blood of Dawnwalker is greater than the sum of its parts. It brings together very familiar elements but binds them in a way that still makes them feel unique. The most omnipresent comparison people will make is with The Witcher, and you can certainly see how CD Projekt Red’s most celebrated franchise has informed the design of Dawnwalker. But what makes Dawnwalker feel special is how it differentiates itself.
Without a doubt, the most contentious element of Dawnwalker’s design is the time system. Coen has thirty days to do what he can to prepare to topple Brencis and his court. This isn’t real time, mind you. Standing still in the world will not move time. Instead, hitting certain points in a quest or completing certain activities moves time forward. Kind of like Persona. The game will always tell you how many “pips” of time an activity will take, and while there are some surprises on some of the paths you choose, it highlights how important the choices you make will be.
At first, I felt this system was going overboard. You would sacrifice time by rebuilding certain fast travel points, by opening certain chests in dungeons and even to learn skills. But as time went by, I had to reprogram my completionist brain. I wasn’t getting everything done, and I wasn’t min-maxxing my way to the perfect run. Instead, as I learned to let go, I found that Dawnwalker was rather lenient in providing you with enough time. You won’t get everything done, but at the same time the system isn’t intrusive enough that you’ll find yourself underprepared unless you’re playing deliberately to do so. But it’s interesting just how much you think about whether you need to fill out that next skill tree, or complete that seemingly pointless quest when there’s an economical decision behind it.
Depending on the time of day, Coen has access to two move sets, with some overlap. No matter when, Coen always has access to his sword. During the day, he can use witchcraft, while at night, he can use his vampire claws and vampiric abilities. Both movesets are fun to use, with clear pros and cons. The differences in the two movesets meant that I would find myself planning each day to take advantage of each skillset too, but I think ultimately playing as a vampire was my favourite.
The flow of combat itself is quick and satisfying. Both attacking and defending can be done neutrally or with a direction, though it is more advantageous to engage with the direction-based combat system. Notably, blocking an enemy’s attack in the right direction can remove the stamina cost that a neutral block would take, providing good incentive to watch your enemy. It’s a simple combat system made better by great enemy AI that doesn’t just stand around and take turns. When you line up those counters and get those kills, some gnarly sound design makes every kill satisfying.
That’s really the core ethos underpinning the entirety of Dawnwalker’s design – satisfying. Rebel Wolves has blended combat, quests, writing, and worldbuilding into something equal parts cohesive and clever. I mentioned earlier that this game feels a lot like Mass Effect and Dragon Age in a few ways – but primarily in the way that it deals with player choice. You’ll make a lot of choices throughout your journey, which will take most players around thirty or so hours to complete, and it’s the way these choices rear their heads that pays dividends to players the longer they spend in the world.
There is just something so validating about meeting somebody you freed several hours prior, offering you a quest that you might have otherwise completely missed. Or to hear a few sentences at the beginning of dialogue to mention to a character something you already know, or even skipping steps of a quest entirely. Or, as the game comes to a close, seeing how your choices culminate in the allies who fight with you, the people you fight against and the options you have to yourself. It’s by no means the most extensive, branching tree of choices ever seen in a game, but it’s all of these little things sprinkled throughout Dawnwalker that add up to make your journey all your own. And I really appreciate that.
That being said, it’s not all great. While these moments were rare, the times when I felt Dawnwalker was becoming a chore could be found in a few quests where the design threw multiple waves of enemies at you. The combat is fine, and the enemy variety is good, but having these quests where you walk through a tunnel, fight some enemies and repeat three times is tiresome. Finally, while I had no bugs that outright locked me out of quests or outcomes, I did have some crashes on console, which I am assured will be fixed by launch, but I’d be remiss not to mention.
In terms of presentation, Dawnwalker is mixed. On one hand, some incredible scenes really play with lighting and colour to deliver visually striking setpieces. On the other, the world does feel a bit done-to-death in terms of its visual design. From a performance standpoint, while a 60fps mode is coming, I played the entire game in the “balanced” 40fps mode and felt it performed admirably with barely (if any) slowdown. The voicework and sound design are also strong, really helping to pull you into the world of Vale Sangora and add weight to the choices you’ll make by making you actually care about the characters, which always helps.
So while The Blood of Dawnwalker has its flaws, I have to say there was rarely a moment where I didn’t want to be playing it. In fact, it’s one of the most recent games that I visibly remember being upset that I was drawing closer to the end, made only more obvious by the time counter. Regardless of its flaws, it’s clear – The Blood of Dawnwalker is a stellar debut by Rebel Wolves, and I cannot wait to see what they do next, especially if that post-credits scene is any indication.