The Blood Of Dawnwalker

Let's get this out of the way, I'm a big fan of vampire RPGs. I consider the OG Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines to be one of the greatest RPGs ever made, so I'm always busy looking for something that can scratch that particular itch. The Blood of Dawnwalker definitely did that for me and I in return fully sunk my teeth into it! This game is pretty much everything I wanted it to be. It's not perfect by all means, but the atmosphere, the world, the characters and especially the freedom you have in shaping your own adventure are fantastic. One of the things I enjoyed the most is how organically you can find and start quests. You can simply stumble across something happening in the world, find a quest item on an enemy you just fought, or simply come across something while exploring that pulls you into a completely unexpected situation. There's something really satisfying about not having every single quest handed to you by an NPC with a marker above their head. It makes exploring feel worthwhile, and it's one of my favorite things about RPGs in general. The time system is another thing I really liked. Having that clock constantly ticking in the background makes even small decisions feel like they could have consequences later. You can't do everything, and I actually think that's a good thing. Sometimes you have to choose what matters to you and accept that something else might happen without you. It makes the world feel like it's actually moving rather than waiting for the player. My only real issue with the time system is that learning skills and perks also takes up time. I don't mind quests taking up time at all, that's part of what makes the system interesting. But losing a time slot just because you wanted to learn something new feels a bit like being punished for engaging with the progression system. I'd rather spend that time actually doing something in the world. The combat takes a little getting used to, but it mostly clicks by the end of the prologue. Once you have more abilities and start figuring out how everything works together, you can pull off some pretty fun stuff. It's not the main reason I'm playing Dawnwalker, but it gets the job done. What really makes the game work for me is how ambitious it is. It feels like the developers genuinely wanted to give the player room to make their own story instead of creating a world where there is always one obvious "correct" way to do things. Your choices matter, sometimes in ways you don't immediately realize, and I really like that approach. I'm also really happy to see Rebel Wolves doing well with the game. A new studio taking on an RPG this ambitious is a pretty big gamble, so seeing the game succeed makes me even more excited for what's next. If this really is the beginning of the larger saga they've talked about, I'm absolutely here for it. The idea of seeing this world evolve, especially with the hints we've already gotten about future time periods, is something I'm genuinely looking forward to. I'm far from being done with the game, but I just find myself completely lost in it every time I click the "Play" button and I think this is one of the biggest compliments I can give to Rebel Wolves, so I wanted to share my thoughts asap!

Honestly, I stumbled upon a game that turned out way better than I expected. After all the recent disappointments, playing a proper vampire game felt exceptionally goood. We're in the mid ages, and humanity is literally gasping for breath due to the plague; the vampire race (Vrakhir), ruled by a bald lunatic psycho named Brencis, offers their own blood as a cure for this disease, but in doing so, they end up enslaving humans. In the midst of all this, we go through some personal drama while trying to save our lovely family from Brencis's clutches. Our main character, Coen, is a total wildcard.. depending on your choices, he becomes either an absolute maniac or a complete paragon of virtue. Depending on which direction you develop your skills, your notoriety increases, and killing people directly affects your reputation and even your savagery. I found the main storyline quite engaging. Without giving away any spoilers, I can say this: the replayability of this game is extremely high. I was most surprise by how a simple side quest you start purely out of curiosity ends up impacting the main story to such a massive degree. I'd suggest paying close attention to time in the game because time is a critical factor yayy! You need to get certain things done within a given time frame or things quickly go sideways.. Time even passes while you r upgrading skills, so you really have to plan meticulously. The day night cycle adds a completely different atmosphere to the game. We are a "Dawnwalker," a different type of Vrakhir to put it simply, during the day you're a young, black haired Geralt, and at night you r a vampire, black haired Geralt. And yes, we are much, much stronger at night... Yea, soundtrack isnt bad, but don't expect bangers on the level of Witcher 2 or 3. That said, I can comfortably say the combat mechanics are better than Witcher 3 they feel much more fluid and responsive. Aaa there's a woman named Xanthe, and shes the one I'm most terified of I was just thinking, "I hope she pops up near the end of the game so I can take her down with my newly unlocked high/usefull skills." Right before writing this review, I ran into her, and let's just say our meeting didn't go so welll. Long story short, I dont get along well with women in real life, and nothing changed here either... The map feels both huge and packed with content. I dont know, maybe it feels that way because I haven't played a decent game in a long time, but Blood of dawnwalker managed to leave me really satisfied on the content front. As for optimization, it is typical Unreal engine 5 stuff.. Don't go in with massive expectations, but it's not bad. On my weary RTX 4070 that keeps trying its best, I haven't had any major issues yet with Dlss and Frame generation enabled. Overall, I'm really pleased with Blood of Dawnwalker. I didnt want to write a review right away because I expected it to start strong and then become generic, but I'm glad I waited. It turned out muuch better than I thought. The Rebel Wolves team did a great job, hats off to them!

As a massive The Witcher fan, my hype levels were through the roof when I found out this game was made by the Witcher devs. You can practically smell the dark, gritty fantasy DNA the second you enter the game. The atmosphere is top-tier, but after putting some real time into it, I need to be honest: it is not a perfect game. First, the good stuff: I really like the combat. It feels sharp and weighty, and pairing traditional swordplay with supernatural abilities gives a genuinely satisfying rhythm to every encounter. The biggest surprise for me was the pacing. I have never played a game with a time limit before, and usually, that kind of pressure stresses me out. But against all odds, I actually like the mechanic here. It forces you to make meaningful, tense choices about how you spend your days, adding a layer of strategy I didn't expect to enjoy. The story so far is great. I can count on the fingers of one hand the amount of good vampire story games I've played, and this is by far one of the best. Now for the bad: the performance absolutely needs to be fixed. The frame rate dips heavily in dense areas, and the optimization is rough around the edges. I absolutely hate that I need to press a key to switch between abilities and potions. I'm playing on PC put a damn hotbar from 1 through 9 for the items I could use! My Verdict: Although it is a great game at its core with an awesome world, the technical hiccups and minor bugs drag it down. Some animations need to be polished, as they sometimes feel robotic, and the lipsyncing is a little bit off, which leads to a few NPCs not moving their mouths at all. I would highly recommend buying it if you love narrative-driven RPGs, because its strongest point is there. If you are a The Witcher 3 fan, you will absolutely love this game because it takes a lot from it. After a few patches that fix the performance, bugs and some animations, I'm sure that this game is going to be a gem.