The Blood of Dawnwalker comes from the same director as The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. This vampiric RPG is plenty different, but similarly ambitious, trading a massive open world for a dense valley, where every choice our half-vampire hero Coen makes has consequences, and how you spend your constantly passing time matters. For a long time we've been desperate to know how that will actually feel to play. Now, we've gotten the chance to play for several hours, and to chat to developer Rebel Wolves.
Filled with dense systems, The Blood of Dawnwalker has loads of great ideas that genuinely feel like an evolution of the best action RPGs we've devoted so much time to across the years. But, crucially, they don't feel like gimmicks, fitting naturally into play. This supernatural RPG is well deserving of being one of our most anticipated new games of the year. Our Big Preview this month focuses on our hands-on, with new interviews and insights into The Blood of Dawnwalker as the September 3 release date looms.
Join us below to explore our The Blood of Dawnwalker Big Preview with us on GamesRadar+
The Blood of Dawnwalker: The Big Preview
The Blood of Dawnwalker hands-on: Finally able to jump into Vale Sangora, we experience how this vampiric RPG plays for ourselves as we begin Coen's journey across four hours with the early game. Answering a lot of questions we had, we're already impressed with the 'time cost' mechanic in questing, the punchiness of combat, and the dense feeling of consequence.
"We miss when genre wasn't a thing," say The Blood of Dawnwalker devs making their dream RPG: "We want to have our own identity," says game director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz, who helped define the modern RPG by also directing The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. While that game's influence is felt, so much of Dawnwalker stands in defiance of genre convention, carving its own path.
The Blood of Dawnwalker star was "slightly too excited" in his audition to veteran Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 devs: "I probably shouldn't have looked that up," Will de Renzy-Martin tells us about starring as Coen and embracing going half-vampire. As an RPG, we'll be spending plenty of time with him yet.
The Blood of Dawnwalker director compares the RPG's excellent fantasy combat to Max Payne and Guitar Hero: "Oh god, it was a lot of iteration," says Tomaszkiewicz. With different fighting styles depending on day or night, there's a lot of room to have combat your way, whether using fang or sword.
The Blood of Dawnwalker Video
Dive Deeper
As The Blood of Dawnwalker reveals a modern-day twist, devs confirm our choices in the vampire RPG will carry into a "saga" of sequels
The Blood of Dawnwalker is just the beginning. Rebel Wolves has revealed they're planning a saga that'll extend into the modern day, with CEO Konrad Tomaszkiewicz telling us it's a "promise" to the players.
The Blood of Dawnwalker is one of the most ambitious games of 2026, driven by Rebel Wolves' desire to "get a few steps closer to pen-and-paper RPGs"
The Blood of Dawnwalker devs "were afraid that people wouldn't want to play as human Coen" so it set out to create "a combat system that can set a new standard"
Rebel Wolves isn't afraid of creating its own vampiric folklore: "We want to tell a story with vampires, not a story about vampires only"
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