The Blood of Dawnwalker would be the debut recreation from Insurgent Wolves, a studio based by former CD Projekt Purple builders. As one may anticipate, this has led to quite a few comparisons between The Blood of Dawnwalker and former CDPR video games, particularly The Witcher 3. It will appear that Insurgent Wolves welcomes such comparisons, to an extent, being fairly clear about Blood of Dawnwalker‘s CDPR alumni.
It is not simply pedigree that hyperlinks Blood of Dawnwalker and The Witcher 3. Dawnwalker is a third-person action-adventure-RPG set towards a medieval-fantasy backdrop, designed round structured quests, NPC interplay, and sword-and-magic fight. Even the music, artwork design, and consumer interface (based mostly on public, pre-alpha footage) is harking back to The Witcher 3. However make no mistake, Blood of Dawnwalker is not attempting to only journey the coattails of The Witcher, nor does it appear to be aping that seminal RPG’s basic design. Certainly, Blood of Dawnwalker guarantees to be totally distinctive, introducing novel concepts via each its gameplay and narrative.
The Blood of Dawnwalker’s Story Defined
One of the crucial hanging variations between The Blood of Dawnwalker and The Witcher, or most excessive fantasy franchises for that matter, is its setting. Dawnwalker isn’t set in a fictional country or theoretical civilization, however precise 14th-century Europe, in a area known as Vale Sangora, which has been taken over by vampires intent on subjugating humanity. These vampires, led by one known as Brencis, impose a blood tax on the populace of Vale Sangora, a lot to the individuals’s discontent.
Vale Sangora itself is fictional, but it surely’s meant to be nestled within the very actual Carpathian Mountains, which might place it someplace in Japanese or Southern Europe. Price noting is that a lot of Dawnwalker‘s folklore, naming conventions, and traditions appear impressed by Romanian tradition.
Gamers assume the function of Coen, a peasant affected by silver poisoning. Within the Blood of Dawnwalker cinematic reveal trailer, Coen is proven fleeing from a neighborhood authorities, which is razing villages seeking bubonic plague victims, whom they execute on sight. Coen’s sister Lunka has the plague, and the siblings are caught throughout their flight. However earlier than Lunka is killed, a gaggle of vampires led by Brencis intervenes and brutally dispatches the would-be executors. Brencis subsequently cures Lunka of her sickness.
However that is no act of altruism: Brencis makes use of this favor as leverage towards Coen, and takes his household hostage. Brencis and his crew additionally try to show Coen right into a vampire, however the transformation fails, and he turns into a Dawnwalker, a uncommon being that’s human in the course of the day and a vampire after darkish. Although the circumstances are unclear at this level, Coen might be given 30 days to avoid wasting his household from Brencis’ ruling vampiric class.
It is doable that Coen’s silver poisoning is what triggered his Dawnwalker transformation, although this hasn’t been confirmed.
Is The Blood of Dawnwalker a Selection-Pushed Recreation?
By way of broad-strokes design pillars, akin to an open-world with NPCs, quest and mini-quest development construction, dialog choices, and non-linear storytelling, comparing Blood of Dawnwalker to The Witcher is kind of apt. However Dawnwalker‘s aforementioned narrative premise shakes issues up.
The Blood of Dawnwalker could have a day-and-night cycle, adhering to Coen’s distinctive Dawnwalker curse. As one may anticipate, Coen’s talents and limitations rely upon his kind at a given time, and this will have each narrative and mechanical results. In a single Blood of Dawnwalker gameplay showcase, a human Coen is ready to enter a cathedral with none points, converse to the priest and deacon, and proceed alongside a quest path. Later, he finds a corpse and is ready to reanimate it with magic, a capability he wouldn’t have had entry to if he had been in vampire kind.
However this quest might be approached fairly otherwise when Coen is a vampire. At evening, he can scale buildings with ease, which permits him to achieve entry to the cathedral’s catwalk, offering a vantage level for a secret vampire ritual. By sneaking across the cathedral’s higher degree at evening, Coen and the participant achieve distinctive insights into the vampire opposition, and may ultimately even struggle one in all Brencis’ main allies, an enterprise that Insurgent Wolves describes as “doable, however hellishly tough.”
This “narrative sandbox,” as Insurgent Wolves calls it, is pushed by Coen’s vampire-human duality, however this is not the one variable. Blood of Dawnwalker‘s story might be impacted by quite a lot of elements, together with NPC relationships, dialog decisions, and development in different quests. All in all, The Blood of Dawnwalker‘s choice-based sandbox appears to be its most bold, affecting world, narrative, and mechanical features.
Blood of Dawnwalker‘s predominant quest does have a time restrict, although time is described as extra of a useful resource than a “ticking clock,” lowering after finishing sure duties, like in the Persona games.
The Blood of Dawnwalker’s Gameplay
Vampire and Human Fight
The closest anchor factors for Blood of Dawnwalker‘s fight would arguably be the next three video games:
- The Witcher 3
- Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
- Kingdom Come: Deliverance
Like The Witcher 3, gamers struggle with a mix of blades and magic, tackling small teams of enemies at a time and choosing particular talents via a radial menu. However fight can be a bit extra grounded and fewer acrobatic, which is the place the Kingdom Come: Deliverance comparability applies. Like that recreation, The Blood of Dawnwalker features directional combat: gamers should choose one in all 4 instructions earlier than attacking or defending. When parrying a blow, the enemy’s stamina will lower, which might culminate in a stun-enabled highly effective blow. Like Sekiro, this fight system provides protection an offensive edge.
Identical to within the narrative sandbox, fight might be outlined by Coen’s present kind. When he’s a human, he could have entry to particular hexes and spells; when he’s a vampire, he’ll develop claws and have elevated agility. Swords can nonetheless be used when Coen is in vampire kind.
Coen’s Vampiric Traversal
Whereas in vampire kind, Coen could have entry to distinctive locomotion choices. As an illustration, he can use a talent known as Shadow Step, permitting him to teleport to a location inside vary, and Airplane Shift, which lets him stroll up partitions and throughout ceilings. These abilities, together with Coen’s different vampiric talents, are dictated by his starvation degree, which must be assuaged by feeding on people, animals, and different creatures.
The Blood of Dawnwalker Launch Date
Insurgent Wolves has but to subject a agency release date for Blood of Dawnwalker, although it is anticipated to launch someday in 2026. Nice vampire video games might be few and much between, as evidenced by disappointments like this 12 months’s Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2; Hopefully, The Blood of Dawnwalker manages to supply the blood-sucking thrills so many players have been thirsting for.
- Developer(s)
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Insurgent Wolves
- Engine
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Unreal Engine 5
- Variety of Gamers
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Single-player
- Steam Deck Compatibility
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Unknown
