A detailed gameplay review of The Blood of Dawnwalker left no doubt about the quality of the new RPG from the creators of The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077

Bandai Namco and Polish studio Rebel Wolves, founded by CD Projekt veterans, held a detailed gameplay demonstration of the ambitious action-RPG The Blood of Dawnwalker.

Since the announcement the game has been attracting great interest of the public, but now gamers should have no doubts that the authors of The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 are able to repeat the success of these games.

Here's What We Know

The audience was shown 20 minutes of The Blood of Dawnwalker, during which the authors revealed the details of the combat system, the nuances of progression through the story and explained their approach to the construction of dialogues.

There is not much to say about the combat system, it is standard for modern action-RPGs and provides several types of attacks, dodges, blocks, parries and use of supernatural vampire abilities. Everything is done pretty much the same way as in The Witcher 3 and will be familiar to players.

In terms of story and narrative, The Blood of Dawnwalker has two crucial aspects: time and discretion. In each quest, the player will have several choices to make and many of them will be morally ambiguous, and the completion of each story quest advances the in-game timer, and when 30 days have passed, an irreversible event will occur and the game will end.

The narrative is structured in such a way that it's impossible to see all the content in a playthrough, as one event precludes another.

Another important feature of The Blood of Dawnwalker is the dual nature of the protagonist Cohen: he is infected with vampirism and only the player's actions will determine whether he will finally become a monster or keep his human form. During the day the protagonist does not differ from an ordinary person, which allows him not to attract attention, and at night he has access to supernatural powers, but to use them Cohen needs to drink people's blood.

Conceptually, The Blood of Dawnwalker gives the impression of a harmonious combination of the main ideas of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and some features of the action-RPG Vampyr (2018) - a little-known game from the French studio Don't Nod. Everything looks incredibly atmospheric, it is impossible not to mention the excellent graphics, highly detailed locations and extremely authentic scenery.

When We Can Expect It

The Blood of Dawnwalker is expected to be released in 2026 on PC, Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5.

Flashback

The events of The Blood of Dawnwalker will unfold in XIV century Europe, and in the centre of the plot will be a clan of ancient Carpathian vampires. During this period, a plague epidemic was raging in Europe, but vampires are immune to the disease and can even save mortals, but the consequence of this will be not only the expansion of vampire power, but also the partial transformation of people into bloodsuckers.

Source: Bandai Namco