The Blood of Dawnwalker gets a 20 minute gameplay overview
Back in January, we got a first look at The Blood of Dawnwalker, the brand new RPG from Rebel Wolves which is a studio made up of former CD Projekt RED developers including the game director of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Konrad Tomaszkiewicz. He has been joined by other CD Projekt RED alumni, including Chief Publishing Officer Tomasz Tinc, and Narrative Director Jakub Szamałek. Now, a 20 minute gameplay overview video has been released giving a look at different gameplay mechanics.
The gameplay overview starts with Coen heading towards a cathedral in search of a powerful weapon, but on the way he gets into a fight with some bandits. This early encounter shows the combat system that will be in The Blood of Dawnwalker, with players using a sword to fight. With the sword, Coen can attack in different directions to hit enemies and avoid their blocks. When on the defence, you will need to take into account the direction enemies are coming in to attack so you can parry it. In addition, Coen has different abilities to use with this combat encounter introducing Acrid Dust, which stuns enemies, and Burning Blood, a hex that boils an enemy’s blood and burns the skin. Artery Attack is another ability and in this case it decapitated the enemy. Coen then loots the enemies which allows him to find a better weapon. He also eats some food to replenish health. The successful encounter has also levelled Coen up and this provides a skill point that can be spent in one of three skill trees; human, vampire, and shared.
In The Blood of Dawnwalker, players will need to make decisions that will influence how the world around Coen reacts to him. When approaching the city where the Cathedral is the guards wave Coen through, but if he had done things that upset the vampire lords or the population the guards could have been much more aggressive and not let him in. Interestingly, one of the main things you will need to do is storm the castle Greisberg where the vampire lord is holed up to overthrow them, and it seems you could attempt this at any point of the game though if it is the first thing you try it will be very challenging. As you wander the streets, there will be scenes playing out that having nothing to do with Coen but they could open up new quests. Rebel Wolves has stated that there are multiple paths to follow in the game which each one impacted by the relationships you have with different characters, and the choices you make when completing quests. You can also choose to abandon quests and choose different paths.
Exploration in The Blood of Dawnwalker will vary based on the time of day. During the day, Coen is a human so can only explore like a human would, and most places are open to him. At night though things change, as when the sun sets Coen is a vampire and has new traversal abilities like jumping across rooftops using Shadowstep. Coen also gets a Focus mode that highlights points of interest and loot. As a vampire, Coen’s health is represented as a thirst level and he needs blood to replenish that health. That means having to feed on humans but if you feed on certain people it could have lasting consequences on the story. While feeding you can decide how much blood to drain. Taking a bit which render the victim unconscious, but taking it all will kill them. This decision can only be made if Coen hasn’t gone hungry at which point he will just drain victims. You can choose not to use humans as a blood source with animals being an alternative.
Another ability Coen has is Planeshift, and this lets him walk up walls and across ceilings, making those hard to reach places as a human much easier to reach at night. When in vampire form, combat is also different as Coen uses his claws rather than a sword to attack, but it still follows the same directional mechanics. In this scenario he is facing Blood Guards, soldiers that use vampire blood to become stronger. They are dual wielding enemies with strong attacks so you have to be smart fighting them. If you want to you can switch to using your sword instead of claws while in vampire form. The Blood of Dawnwalker is due to be released in 2026 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series XS.
Source: YouTube
