The Blood of Dawnwalker

Overview

The Blood of Dawnwalker is a single-player dark fantasy action RPG developed by Rebel Wolves and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. The game is set in Vale Sangora, a fictional 14th-century valley in the Carpathian Mountains, during the Black Death. Players control Coen (voiced by Will de Renzy-Martin), a man caught between two worlds after a botched vampire turning left him as something neither human nor vampire, a Dawnwalker.

Game director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz has cited Fallout 1 and Fallout 2 as direct design inspirations. The pitch: give the player one goal, a time limit, and let them figure out the rest. There is no main quest in the traditional sense. There is just the goal (save your family) and everything else is optional.

The game runs on Unreal Engine 5 and is coming to PC (Steam), PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S in 2026. It features full voice acting in six languages: English, Polish, French, Italian, German, and Spanish. It is the first installment in a planned Dawnwalker saga.

Setting

Vale Sangora is an isolated valley encompassed by mountains, accessible only through narrow gorges that are passable in summer months. The setting draws from Polish, Romanian, Ukrainian, and Balkan cultures. Two years before the game begins, the vampire lord Brencis and the Vrakhiri (his cadre of ancient vampires) seized control from the tyrannical Skender Dragosti. Most humans now live under vampire rule, and many are grateful for it, since vampire blood cures the plague.

The valley contains the city of Svartrau, smaller villages, forests, swamps, mountains, silver mines, ancient ruins, and cave systems. The world changes between day and night beyond just visuals. Coen's abilities, the threats he faces, and the routes available to him all shift.

Story

Coen was born to a peasant family and grew up working in silver mines. When his sister Lunka fell ill with the plague, Brencis offered to save her with vampire blood. The cure worked, but Brencis used the debt to trap Coen's family. He then attempted to turn Coen into a vampire, but the silver poisoning in Coen's body from years of mining prevented a full conversion. He became a Dawnwalker.

After the prologue, the player has 30 days and 30 nights to rescue the family. Time only advances through narrative decisions, each marked with an hourglass showing its cost. If the deadline passes, the game continues but with consequences for the family. Roughly 80% of content is accessible per playthrough.

Gameplay

Gameplay splits across day and night. During the day, Coen fights with his sword Peregrini Aurorae and Hex Magic rune scars on his left arm that channel offensive, defensive, and investigative spells. At night, he fights with claws and uses Vampiric Powers: wall-walking, teleportation, bat transformation, and blood draining.

The combat system uses a four-directional attack and parry system (with an optional omniblock mode for accessibility). A Blood Craving system ties hunger to self-control, let it drop too low and Coen can involuntarily drain an NPC mid-conversation, killing them and locking off questlines. New vampire abilities are acquired by draining other vampires.

The open world was originally scoped as Blood and Wine DLC-sized but grew during development. There is no horse, exploration relies on supernatural traversal at night and fast travel. Difficulty increases heading south, and each region locks to your level on first entry.

Development

Rebel Wolves was founded in February 2022 by Konrad Tomaszkiewicz (game director of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt) along with veterans from CD Projekt Red. The team is 120-155 people. Bandai Namco publishes; NetEase is a minority shareholder. The soundtrack is composed by Nikola Kolodziejczyk, Piotr Musial, and Mikolai Stroinski.

Key details