The Blood of Dawnwalker reinvents open-world RPG with a dark new twist

The director behind The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is back, and this time he is sinking his teeth into vampires. The Blood of Dawnwalker marks Konrad Tomaszkiewicz's return to the open-world RPG, with his new studio Rebel Wolves bringing lessons from one of the genre's most celebrated games into a dark fantasy adventure of its own. 

While Dawnwalker carries plenty of familiar Witcher DNA, its 30-day time limit and day-and-night transformation system give it a distinct identity, turning time and choice into some of its most important mechanics.

You play as Coen of Laslea, whose home is seized by vampires before he is infected with vampirism and begins learning witchcraft. As a Dawnwalker, Coen exists between two worlds: human by day and vampire by night. His mission is to overthrow Brencis, the vampire ruler controlling Vale Sangora, while navigating a conflict where the line between good and evil is rarely straightforward.

The premise itself is fairly conventional, but the characters make the story considerably more interesting. Anca, a witch with a tragic past, quickly becomes a compelling companion, while rebel leader Crake is capable of disturbing cruelty despite fighting against the vampires. Lacra, an allied vampire, is equally unpredictable. Even the villains have motivations beyond simply being evil, with Brencis genuinely believing that vampires could build a better world and Ambrus embracing the collapse of the old social hierarchy.

The game's biggest strength is its day-and-night system, which makes Coen feel like two different characters. During the day, he fights with swords, uses witchcraft and relies on food and medicine for healing. At night, his vampire abilities emerge, replacing conventional healing with blood consumption and giving him powerful new ways to fight and move. He can attack with his claws, transform into a cloud of smoke, walk across walls and ceilings and even turn into a wolf.

These differences extend to character progression. Dawnwalker effectively requires you to maintain two separate builds, allowing you to develop distinct human and vampire playstyles. My human build focused on dangerous spells that inflicted status effects while consuming Coen's own health, while my vampire build centred on claw damage and feeding on enemies to replenish my health. Thankfully, the game automatically switches between the two loadouts when Coen changes form, making experimentation much less cumbersome.

Combat is similarly distinctive, although it takes time to appreciate. Dawnwalker uses a directional parry system that requires you to match the direction of an incoming attack, creating a rhythm somewhat reminiscent of For Honor. Blocking is available, but becomes less useful at higher difficulties because it drains stamina without creating the same opportunities for counterattacks.

The learning curve can be steep, and the first few hours were often frustrating as I struggled to read enemy attacks. Once the system clicked, however, successfully parrying and countering opponents became genuinely satisfying. Combat felt rewarding because improvement came from mastering the mechanics rather than simply increasing Coen's statistics.

There are some annoyances. The lock-on system can struggle when several enemies are nearby, while the camera occasionally finds itself in awkward positions. Wolves and boars also appear far too frequently, eventually turning routine encounters with them into more of a nuisance than a threat.

Exploration is closely tied to Coen's two forms. Some activities can only be completed as a human or vampire, while others change depending on which version of Coen you use. Vampire abilities allow him to reach high lookout towers, for example, while certain blood-magic rituals require his human form. Characters can also react differently depending on whether they encounter Coen as a man or a monster, and making the wrong choice while suffering from bloodlust can have disastrous consequences.

But Dawnwalker's most interesting idea is how all of this connects to its treatment of time.

After the opening chapter, Coen has 30 days to stop Brencis. There is no constantly ticking clock; instead, time is treated as a resource. Training skills, completing quests and performing certain activities consume portions of the available time.

This fundamentally changes how you approach an open world. You cannot simply complete every side quest, unlock every ability and investigate every corner of Vale Sangora. Helping someone with a minor problem might mean losing the opportunity to pursue another quest. Spending several hours training could leave you without enough time for something more important.

Rather than making the game restrictive, this limitation gives your decisions genuine weight. Dawnwalker forces you to decide what matters and what you are willing to leave unfinished. The time system also makes Coen's gradual descent into vampirism feel more meaningful, as repeatedly choosing efficiency over compassion can make you question how much of his humanity remains.

The consequences extend to the ending. Different decisions and relationships can unlock different outcomes, while entire characters and storylines can be missed during a first playthrough. A second run can therefore feel surprisingly different, encouraging you to approach Vale Sangora with an entirely new set of priorities.

For fans of The Witcher, vampires or simply great open-world RPGs, The Blood of Dawnwalker is well worth sinking your teeth into.