The Blood of Dawnwalker is not a game you can sleep on, even amid the busy release schedule that awaits us in September. In fact, there’s not much sleep in this action RPG, with Coen a vampire by night and (somewhat mysteriously) a human by day.
It’s the 14th century and Europe is ravaged by the Black Death, but not the region Coen and his family live in. No, they find themselves under the protection of the Vrakhiri, capable of keeping disease away from the population and only asking for a small tithe each month. True, this tax represents a pint of blood for each adult in the region and a weekly communion to consume the restorative ichor of Vrakhir, but this affair seems idyllic, doesn’t it? Well, not really to the people of Laslea. There are some side effects, we understand that they are raised like cattle, and Coen’s mother has deteriorated 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 progress you will meet the different villagers, each with their own problems. A banner is missing, there’s a jerk taunting you about your mother, someone’s brother hasn’t returned from peat collecting yet, and the Coen siblings would like some company while they go fishing.
What this introduction to the game teaches you, beyond an initial foundation in world exploration, storytelling, and combat, is how time passes. Instead of setting the world to a fixed time or an accelerated day-night cycle that plays out over 40 minutes, for example, time only progresses as you complete quests and achieve certain narrative goals. Through this segment of life, rescuing that brother from the bog takes one beat, visiting the lady in the woods takes another, and what if you decide to stay inside to avoid a torrential rain and practice some Coen Latin? This is also another bygone period of time.
It’s a frankly brilliant approach to a common problem with open-world games, that of maintaining a sense of urgency while still giving you freedom and freedom of action. You’ll want to make sure you come back at some point to make the restorative drink for your mother, but do you finish that right away? Or are you wasting moments on other potentially time-sensitive quests? There are also too many things to do in the time you have, making it very easy to miss things.
This comes to a head, with the rebellion fomented among the people, at the communion organized by Brencis, the Knyaz of Vale Sangora, and it was fascinating to talk to other media at the event to see who had done what, what results had differed, and even what possible missions and people I had completely missed seeing.
“There are a lot of things like that,” game director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz told us. “We’re talking and we’re excited within the company where we hope that when people share their gaming experiences and so forth, it will be different and they’ll compare it and they’ll see, you know, how differently you can play the game and play the game, you know, if you want to.”
As you move into the open world, the direct consequences of your choices could be just as immediate, or they could ripple through the game. Konrad continues: “We don’t use just one way of designing things because then you can predict it and you feel like it’s repetitive, and when you feel that, the immersion breaks, you know? We approach every type of decision in a really practical way and we think about, what type of reaction and when will the best and this way of thinking creates the word that you can’t predict and it’s fun because you don’t know sometimes it’s quite early and sometimes it’s at the end of the game. And there’s a choice in the prologue, which changes the epilogue…”
It is after mass that the people rebel, seeking to enter the mines, gather and forge silver weapons, take up arms against the Vrakhiri and regain their freedom.
This is not going well. In the end, the town is burned down and Coen is now a vampire himself…with a twist. Firstly, he’s not going to get down on his knees and join the ranks of the other Vrakhiri, and secondly, he doesn’t actually burn in the sun and become human again – he’s a Dawnwalker, get it?
From there, it feels like the game will continue at breakneck speed. The village’s residents, including Coen’s family, were taken to Brencis Castle and given only thirty days to live. That’s thirty days and thirty nights for Coen, however, allowing you to wage war against the Vrakhiri, dismantling his regime from the ground up. It’s more Far Cry 5 in its setup, I think, with different regions aligning themselves with different lieutenants and warlords that you’ll seek to eliminate.
“Growing infamy opens up new perspectives for you in the world,” Konrad said, “but it is also the source of the decrees that Brencis imposes on you, because he is aware that something is happening and he reacts that way. And certain things appear in the world that make your life, you know, more difficult. He tries, you know, to predict (how you will) achieve your goal.
“That’s one thing. The other thing is that the anger of these generals and when the anger peaks, certain things will be opened and you will have additional options in the game, let’s say.”
From the opening zone, as night fell on the first day and we left in Vrakhiri form, I really enjoyed exploring this area and getting to grips with the combat and early abilities. Being a Vrakhir gives you a bunch of latent abilities, including teleportation, the ability to climb walls, and elongated nails that can allow you to claw your way across surfaces.
You can fully adopt your vampiric form and go into combat unarmed, parrying incoming blades with your nails and slicing and dicing. Alternatively, you can opt for consistency between night and day, sticking to a more traditional sword for your parries and ripostes. You have night and day specific gear, and certain weapons and loot can have distinct attributes that play into Coen’s different forms.
What makes this combat system truly special is how it layers directional combat on top of a more standard attack, block, and dodge system. Simply holding the button will protect you from most attacks, but these will also be denoted by a direction – enemies have little symbols and indicators – and if you time a flick of the left analog stick in the corresponding 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 manage to match them.
This works wonderfully for one-on-one fights – the first time you really clicked was in a crypt in the starting area – but can be a bit cumbersome with groups as additional enemies can intervene and you have to quickly follow the direction you now need to block. I ended up brute forcing and saving my way through an enemy fort because of this, as each segmented area had two or three enemies to face. Of course, it didn’t help that I was constantly forgetting the control scheme and pressing the button to change weapons instead of attacking… A rookie mistake to make, sure, but there is an upgradeable difficulty available that could, for example, remove these 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 in the right way, and if you want to use directions, you will feel that your skills are growing, not just like, you know, the stats of your weapons or armor etc.
“Most people, and I’m not talking about experienced players, but most people who have played our game, obviously on lower difficulty levels in a few hours, know how to deal with groups. Also, when you have groups, it’s definitely worth using active abilities because some abilities will give you crowd control, some abilities will give you AOE damage, etc. It’s built that way that if you feel like it’s hard for you, then you can use crafting or active abilities to help you.
Coen has a lot to learn if he wants to be able to stand up to Brencis, adding new abilities across three different skill trees – learning an ability costs a unit of time in a sanctuary. There are swordsman skills, like throwing sand in an enemy’s eyes and blinding them for a moment, and vampiric abilities, like learning to jump from above and immediately take down an enemy – there are no real stealth options, other than that. And then there is witchcraft.
Yes, shortly after being turned into a vampire, Coen also gains the first ability and understanding to use magic as a witch, these abilities indelibly marking and cutting symbols in his arms…. until he turned into a vampire again at night and those wounds healed. There is a strict separation between night and day, so you can only cast magic and consume food to heal during the day, then you can only use vampiric abilities at night and must heal by consuming the blood of enemies and animals.
How you use and master these abilities will depend on the player. With 30 days and 30 nights to defeat Brencis, you can naturally try to mix up all abilities, or you can lean into a particular playstyle. Consuming blood increases Coen’s corruption, allowing you to unlock more key abilities, and this, alongside how you act in dialogue and make decisions throughout missions, will certainly play into the flow of the wider story, with multiple endings available to unlock.
Since my time with The Blood of Dawnwalker, I’ve only scratched the surface of what it promises. There are so many other fantastical elements and creatures to encounter, so much potential in approaching time and how that can affect the flow of the story, and I can’t wait to see how powerful Coen can become by the end of the game. But more importantly, I really want to see more and I’m excited about what Rebel Wolves has created.
