The Blood of Dawnwalker—a brand new vampire RPG from former CD Projekt devs—has been half on my radar, however its newest gameplay trailer (following a primary one in June) actually has the sauce: There’s a number of very obvious Witcher 3 DNA on show, however that simply appears to be a snug place to begin for a really completely different type of RPG.
The trailer begins out trying prefer it may nearly be a Witcher spinoff: The UI, music, voices, even the way in which the medieval metropolis resembles Novigrad all smacked me within the face. Junior cadet vampire Coen has Geralt’s signature messy excessive ponytail (however in brunette), and he additionally shares a reputation with a distinguished e book witcher absent from the video games.
The hunt in query is a Witcher 3 monster hunt nearly to a T: Coen talks to some “cor blimey” yokels—with, I do should say, delightfully craggy, diverse, character actor-type faces—who level him within the path of monster-type happenings to earn entry to a cathedral’s library. Coen makes use of the actual identical Witcher Senses as Geralt (all the way down to the sepia filter and purple outlines!) to uncover a feral vampire’s lair, and the beast even cribs the Bruxa scream assault from Blood and Wine.
![The Blood of Dawnwalker — Gameplay Overview (Part II) [4K] [subtitles available] - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/arbNkIdeAVs/maxresdefault.jpg)
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Dawnwalker’s fight continues to look good and crisp. It has a Sekiro parry (which I really like), and dismemberment kills are all the time an enormous plus for me. I began actually paying consideration, although, after we obtained to see Coen accomplish the identical goal—get into the church library—however at night time.
Coen will get completely different powers relying on time of day: Sword and hexes by day, claws and vampire powers at night time. Time seems to advance extra like Disco Elysium or Pentiment, with essential dialogue or quest completion transferring issues ahead as an alternative of the simulated, realtime days you see in different RPGs. Insurgent Wolves is promising drastically completely different quest paths relying on day or night time, with much more potential variations of these primary branches.
As an alternative of speaking to individuals, investigating, and killing a monster miniboss, Coen makes use of his wall strolling energy and Dishonored blink to take to the rooftops and enter the cathedral from above. Whereas some nefarious ritual goes on down under, Coen warps between rafters to get to the library, utterly ignoring a climactic boss struggle proven within the earlier video—although the elder vampire in query can apparently present up elsewhere, and thus be utterly absent from later story beats should you kill her early.
That very elastic reactivity is severely spectacular and thrilling to me. You can probably skip main subplots, kill main NPCs properly earlier than you are imagined to, and resolve quests in a number of methods—a few of my favourite issues to see in an RPG. If Insurgent Wolves can maintain that expansive design over a full sport, The Blood of Dawnwalker might be very particular. We’ll discover out for positive a while subsequent yr. For now, you may wishlist The Blood of Dawnwalker on Steam.
