The Polish studio Rebel Wolves is revealing the first details of its video game debut, and we want to know if you’re interested yet?
Update from January 14, 2025, at 12:23 p.m.: In a livestream by the studio of former The Witcher 3 lead developer Konrad Tomaszkiewicz, the new role-playing game The Blood of Dawnwalker was presented in detail for the first time. The special twist: you only have 30 days and 30 nights to explore the open world and find your own way through the story.
If you’ve already soaked up everything there is to know about Dawnwalker, you can go directly to the survey and tell us your first impressions. Otherwise, here is a quick rundown of all the important information, along with the first trailer. What’s more, our editor Kevin has already given his opinion on the controversial time limit, which may surprise some people!
The most important details about The Blood of Dawnwalker:
- Setting: 14th century Eastern Europe, Carpathians (Romania)
- Story: Vampires take power over humans weakened by plague and war. Protagonist Coen is turned (dawnwalker) and now has 30 days to save his family or take revenge.
- single-player gamewith third-person perspective and action-packed fights
- day and night cycleplays an important role: during the day, Coen fights with a sword and other weapons, at night he uses his vampire powers.
- 30-day time limit:Whenever Coen completes an important quest, time advances. It is not possible to complete everything in the game in a single playthrough.
- You are not racing against the clock, however; rather, time in Dawnwalker functions as a resource
- Bloodthirst:Coen can satisfy his need for blood in a variety of ways.
- The antagonist is the vampire Brencis, who reacts to your decisions
The first trailer is also the opening of the game and shows Coen during his first encounter with the vampires two years before the events of the game!
Original report from January 13, 2025, at 11:18 p.m.:You probably know the problem from other open-world games: World: the world is on the brink of disaster, humanity must be saved, but the game world offers so many stories and discoveries that the actual main quest is forgotten for hours.
In The Blood of Dawnwalker, you can’t keep yourself occupied with side quests forever, because despite the open world, time always works against you.
Time is relative…
.. short. The game from Polish studio Rebel Wolves is a dark fantasy RPG in which time is of the essence. It is designed to give a “feeling of urgency,” explains Konrad Tomaszkiewicz, who, as with The Witcher 3, is working on the game as game director.
But why the rush?
The story and setting of The Blood of Dawnwalker. In an alternative 14th century, conflicts and the plague have weakened the population in Vale Sangora, a fictional place in the Carpathians.
Vampires take advantage of this circumstance to take power. In the course of this, protagonist Coen is transformed into a daywalker. Daywalker and Marvel hero Blade sends his regards. As a being between human and vampire, Coen now has 30 days and 30 nights to save his family or take revenge.
Time as an important gameplay element
According to Tomaszkiewicz, you should be able to decide for yourself how you use the 30 days in the game. There should be several ways to approach the main quest and no clear demarcation from the side quests.
However, it is not intended that you can complete everything within the time limit. You will have to play the game multiple times to see everything.
Both Coen’s stories and abilities depend on the time of day In addition, the decisions you make determine whether he will become a hero and savior of humanity or a villain who embraces his vampiric powers.
The Blood of Dawnwalker is being developed in Unreal Engine 5 and is scheduled to be released for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X & S. There is currently no release date, but a deeper insight into gameplay is planned for summer 2025. Presumably, there will also be specific information about how time management works in the role-playing game. The game is supposed to be just the beginning of a multi-part saga.
