The Blood of Dawnwalker is not a game to be slept on, even amidst the jam-packed release schedule that awaits us in September. In fact, there’s not a whole lot of sleeping taking place in this action RPG, with Coen a vampire by night and (quite mysteriously) a human by day.
It’s the 14th century and Europe is being ravaged by the Black Death, but not the region that Coen and his family lives in. No, they find themselves under the protection of the Vrakhiri, who are able to stave off the sickness within the populace, and ask for just one small tithe every month. Admittedly, that tax is a pint of blood from every adult in the region, and a weekly communion to consume the Vrakhir restorative ichor, but this deal sounds idyllic, doesn’t it? Well, not really to the inhabitants of Laslea. There’s certain side effects, an understanding that they’re being kept like cattle, and Coen’s mother has tumbled both mentally and physically.
The game’s prologue gives a taste of what’s to come. Coen’s father asks him to visit the lady in the woods to ask for stronger herbs to save his mother, and as you go about this you’ll run into the various village folk, each with their own problems. A banner has gone missing, there’s a jackass running around taunting you about your mum, someone’s brother hasn’t come back yet from gathering peat, and Coen’s siblings would like a bit of company as they go fishing.
What this introduction to the game teaches you, beyond an early foundation in world exploration, storytelling and combat, is how time passes. Instead of having the world fixed to a set time or an accelerated day-night cycle that plays out across 40 minutes, for example, time progresses only as you complete quests and pass certain narrative goals. Through this day-in-the-life segment, rescuing that brother from the peat bog takes one pip of time, visiting the lady in the woods takes another, and if you decide to stay indoors to avoid some torrential rain and practice Coen’s Latin? That’s another pip of time gone as well.
It’s a frankly brilliant approach to a common issue within open world games, of keeping a sense of urgency while also giving you freedom and agency. You will want to make sure you get back at some point to brew the restorative drink for your mum, but do you complete that immediately? Or do you fritter away moments with other, potentially time sensitive quests instead? There’s also too many things to do within the amount of time that you have, making it very easy to miss things.
It builds up to a climax, with rebellion fomenting among the people, at the Communion held by Brencis, the Knyaz of Vale Sangora, and it was fascinating talking to other press at the event to see who had done what, what outcomes had differed, and even what possible missions and people I had completely missed out on seeing.
“There is a lot of stuff like this,” Game Director, Konrad Tomaszkiewicz told us. “We’re speaking and we are excited inside the company where we hope that when people will share their playthroughs experiences and so on, it will be different and they will compare it and they will see, you know, how differently you can play the game and play the game, you know, if you want.”
As you break out into the open world, the direct consequences of your choices could be similarly immediate, or they could be spread across the game. Konrad continues, “We don’t use the one way of designed things because then you can predict it and you feel that it’s repetitive, and when you feel it, immersion breaks, you know? We approach every kind of decision really in a hands-on way and we’re thinking, what kind of reaction and when will be the best. And this way of thinking is creating the word which you cannot predict and it’s fun because you don’t know. Sometimes it’s quite soon and sometimes it’s in the end of the game. And there is one choice in the prologue, which change the epilogue…”
It’s after the Mass that the people rebel, looking to break into the mines and gather and forge silvered weapons, to take up arms against the Vrakhiri and reclaim their freedom.
It does not go well. When all is said and done, the town is burnt down and Coen is now a vampire himself… with a twist. Firstly, he’s not going to bend a knee and join the ranks of the other Vrakhiri, and secondly, he doesn’t actually burn up in the sunlight and instead turns back to a human – he’s a Dawnwalker, get it?
From here it feels like the game will race on at breakneck speed. The people of the village including Coen’s family have been taken to Brencis’ castle and have just thirty days to live. That’s thirty days and thirty nights-worth of time for Coen, though, allowing you to wage a war back against the Vrakhiri, dismantling his regime from the bottom up. It’s rather Far Cry 5 in its set up, I feel, with different regions aligning to different lieutenants and warlords that you’ll look to take down.
“The infamy growing opens up new stuff for you in the world,” Konrad said, “but also is the source of the edicts which Brencis is putting on your, because he’s aware that something happens and he reacts this way. And some things [are] appearing in the world, which makes your life, you know, harder. He tries to, you know, predict [how you will] complete your goal.
“This is the one thing. The other thing is that the anger of those generals and when the anger grow to the maximum, some stuff will be open and you will have additional options in the game, let’s say.”
From the opening area, as night fell on the first day and we set out in Vrakhiri form, I really enjoyed exploring this region and getting to grips with the combat and early abilities. Being a Vrakhir gives you a bunch of latent abilities, including teleportation, being able to walk up walls, and having elongated nails which can let you claw-grind your way down surfaces.
You can fully embrace your vampiric form and go bare-handed into combat, parrying incoming blades with your nails, and slicing and dicing. Alternatively you can opt for consistency between night and day, sticking with a more traditional sword for your parries and ripostes. You have loadouts specific to night and to day, and some of the weapons and loot can have distinct attributes that play into Coen’s different forms.
What makes this combat system really special is how it layers directional combat on top of a more standard attack, block and dodge system. Simply holding the button will guard against most attacks, but these will also be signalled with a direction – enemies have small symbols and indicators – and if you time a flick of the left analogue stick in the matching direction, it will parry and open them up to counterattacks. Your attacks can also be directional, and an early ability lets you deal critical damage if you successfully match them up.
It works brilliantly for one-on-one combat – the first time it really clicked was down in a crypt within the starting area – but can be a little unwieldy with groups as additional enemies can jump in, and you need to quickly track the direction that you need to now block. I ended up brute-forcing and save-scumming my way through an enemy fort because of this, as each segmented area featured two or three enemies to tackle. Of course, it didn’t help that I kept forgetting the control scheme and pressing the button to switch weapons instead of attacking… A rookie mistake to make, for sure, but there’s a scalable difficulty available which could, for example, remove those symbols and indicators.
Konrad told us, “The beauty of this system is that you can use this omniattack and omniblock if you develop your character the proper way, and if you want to use directions, you will feel that your skill is you growing, not only like, you know, the stats from your weapons or armour and so on.
“Most people, and I’m not speaking about the people who are experienced players, but most people who played our game, obviously on this lower difficulty levels in a few hours know how to deal with the groups. Also, when you have the groups, it’s really worth to use active abilities because there are abilities which will give you the crowd control, there are abilities which give you AOE damage and so on. It’s constructed this way that if you feel that it’s hard for you, then you can use the crafting or the active abilities to help you out.”
Coen has a lot to learn if he’s going to be able to stand up to Brencis, adding new abilities through three different skill trees – learning an ability costs a unit of time at a shrine, incidentally. There’s swordsman skills, such as chucking sand in an enemy’s eyes and blinding them for a while, and vampiric abilities, like learning to leap from above and immediately take down an enemy – there’s no real stealthy options, outside of this. And then there’s witchcraft.
Yes, shortly after being turned into a vampire, Coen is also granted the first ability and understanding to wield magic as a witch, these abilities indelibly marking and cutting symbols into his arms…. until he transforms back into a vampire at night and these wounds heal. There’s a strict divide between nighttime and daytime, so you can only cast magic and consume food to heal during the day, and then you can only use vampiric abilities at night and need to heal by consuming blood from enemies and animals.
How you use and master these abilities will be up to the player. With 30 days and 30 nights in which to take down Brencis, you can naturally try to blend all of the abilities together, or you can lean into a particular style of play. Consuming blood increases Coen’s corruption, in turn allowing you to unlock more of the key abilities, and that, alongside how you act in dialogue and make decisions through missions, is sure to play into how the wider story unfolds, with multiple endings available to unlock.
In my time with The Blood of Dawnwalker, I only just scratched the surface of what it promises. There’s so many more fantastical elements and creatures to encounter, so much potential within the approach to time and how it can affect the story unfolding, and I’m keen to see just how powerful Coen can get by the end of the game. But most importantly, I really want to see more and am excited for what Rebel Wolves has created.
