After 4 hours, The Blood of Dawnwalker feels like a true Witcher 3 successor

Game intros are hard to get right. Many are boring and over-tutorialized. Most fail to get you invested in what you’re about to play. Some are random sections of action just to get something flashy in front of you. The Blood of Dawnwalker’s may not be perfect, but it does set out a very compelling snapshot of what Rebel Wolves has as a goal for its upcoming open-world RPG.

The opening hours I’ve played in the game’s prologue are an impressive mission statement for the studio’s debut game, distilled into a smaller and more approachable environment.

It’s clear that we’re in for a story-first and choice-driven adventure, and while some elements of the game feel a little rough, I’m more than willing to accept a few missteps for the sake of ambition and personality.

Unsurprisingly, given a large chunk of the talent involved in the game’s creation, the structure and pacing of The Blood of Dawnwalker’s first few hours are very reminiscent, in a way, of the introductory White Orchard segment in The Witcher 3.

It introduces Coen and his family, who are living in a small town as part of a kingdom that’s under the grip of a vampire lord named Brencis. His rule demands that the populace pay a regular blood tax at night, allowing him to feed from them, while they also take on his blood so they remain free of any sickness or disease.

Understandably, not everyone is too pleased with this forced arrangement, so there’s growing discontent among some of the townsfolk and a plan is hatched to strike back after this latest feeding to reclaim independence.

Try not to get distracted

However, my first task towards that goal is a much simpler one: collect some medicine for Coen’s mother so she can attend mass. Seems easy enough, but we’ve got The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 veterans working on this, so the small path through the town is littered with potential side quests and distractions — and the kicker this time is that I couldn't do them all.

Yes, The Blood of Dawnwalker has an ever-present timer, where certain actions and quest progress will progress time forward by a specific amount. So, when there’s only a set amount of time available, I have to decide where to focus my attention and what to ignore — and face the consequences of those choices.

Is it a nightmare for completionists? Maybe. But it did get me to think more about the choices I made, which quests I wanted to tackle, and how I spent my time in those opening hours.

Helping Coen’s family catch some fish for a nice family bonding moment and finding a stolen banner to prevent an innocent person from being murdered by Brencis and his lackeys? Yeah, those feel like good ways to spend my time. Hunting a lost pig and chasing down a local who’s going around calling people rude names? Maybe less so.

That was my view, though. And what I liked was that the game didn’t break down all these options as right or wrong, as good or bad, or as benevolent or evil. I just chose what I wanted to do with my limited time.

But there will be consequences. Speaking with a few others who played out this same section, it was interesting to hear what different outcomes were possible in the nighttime mass that serves as a pivotal moment in the prologue, with events unfolding differently and characters living or dying depending on earlier choices.

Naturally, at this early stage, you’re still being funnelled towards the same kick-off point for the main story, but it’s good to see that the quests you complete and the decisions you make are reflected right from the very start.

The challenge Rebel Wolves faces is carrying this choice system into a much larger and wider sandbox where events aren’t quite so focused.

And while I did get a chance to see what awaits beyond the game’s introduction, it was only a very small glimpse. What it promises right from the word go, though, is more choice.

Cut the head off the serpent

Somewhat similar to Shadow of Mordor’s excellent Nemesis system, Brencis and his lieutenants assert their control over different areas of the kingdom. It’s up to you to undertake various quests or participate in several different events to reduce their influence over a region and make rescuing your family easier — be that disrupting supplies, reducing their forces, and so on.

Obviously, they won’t stand idly by as you destabilize their rule. As you start to become more of a disruptive menace, they’ll enact edicts that will make it harder for you to continue your fight back, with more defenses or tougher enemies to stand in your way. But you’ll be gaining more power all of the time, too.

Another major part of The Blood of Dawnwalker is that Coen has two forms. During the day, he’s your fairly average RPG protagonist with some sword skills and a bit of hex magic. At night, he goes half-vampire mode, gaining clawed hands, surprising agility and a taste for blood.

While the game’s directional combat is the one throughline, it does feel different to fight or impact how you choose to tackle certain situations depending on whether it’s day or night.

In the darkness, I might choose to scale a wall in secret and try to take out guards from the shadows. During the day, conversation might be the better approach to explore an area and avoid combat.

Fighting fang and claw

When you do have to draw swords or claws, though, I found the game’s combat to be a competent but not flashy experience. The main gimmick is that small indicators on opponents tell you which direction they will attack from, so you can block, or when you need to dodge more powerful attacks.

Simple enough at first and not unlike many similar systems I’ve seen before, but with a few early upgrades, you elevate it a little beyond basic swordplay. There are perfect parries that reduce the stamina cost if you block right before an attack lands, which can also allow for powerful counterattacks when you swing in specific directions.

Mix in a few spells and some brutal vampiric powers and you have a combat system that’s fun enough to play but not something I found to be the main draw of The Blood of Dawnwalker. Maybe once there’s time to dive into the skill trees, find some good equipment, and get into more testing battles, it’ll open up more. In any case, it certainly hasn’t done anything to dramatically put me off the game.

I came away from these opening hours exactly how you want to feel after an introduction to a brand new game. I’m drawn into its choice-heavy storytelling, intrigued by how the constant timer will affect how events unfold and suitably teased by some of the exciting possibilities that await in the game’s open world.

Hopefully, the full game can raise the stakes even further and deliver on this promising start.