The way The Blood of Dawnwalker plays with time itself is making it one of my most anticipated RPGs of 2026, especially now that Rebel Wolves has changed how closely the camera sticks to your shoulder

Rebel Wolves is listening. That's less a threat and more a declaration. If there's anything you should take away from the latest gameplay showcase for The Blood of Dawnwalker, it's that this new studio – founded in 2022 by former CDPR veterans, including the game director of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – is willing to make reasonable revisions to its upcoming RPG to make it more accommodating to a wider group.

I've been impressed by what I've seen of The Blood of Dawnwalker so far, although I have wondered why the camera hung so closely to the shoulder of Coen – the protagonist suffering from both a vampiric curse and silver poisoning, locking them between worlds of light and darkness. My assumption was this was to facilitate combat rhythms, with the dawnwalker able to change the direction of attacks and blocks with responsive ease to meet enemy motions. I'm getting big 'For Honor with vampire abilities' vibes from the directional combat, although Rebel Wolves is introducing a more conventional action mode should you be so inclined.

Either way, the perspective seemed claustrophobic, particularly in a 14th-century medieval-inspired world just begging to be seen. Thankfully, a change is being made. "After our June gameplay show, we got a lot of feedback regarding the camera position," says a Rebel Wolves spokesperson. "We decided to use this feedback and add a new way of viewing things. A way of putting the camera a bit further away from Coen, for those of you who would like such a thing. You can do so in both combat and exploration."

Being able to pull the camera out more widely is welcomed, especially with so much emphasis being placed on exploration and introspective decision-making. Truth be told, this may be the most compelling component of The Blood of Dawnwalker, the way in which Rebel Wolves is harnessing time itself to be the most valuable resource within the world. For all the wild and wonderful ideas pursued within video games, precious few truly grapple with the idea of time being our most valuable commodity – a resource which is both finite and irreplaceable.

Fangs for your time

For Coen, who has 30 days on the clock to save his family, time is quite literally running out with every major action you undertake in The Blood of Dawnwalker. While you're free to explore the realm of Vale Sangora to your heart's content, pursuing side-quests and levelling your abilities, some actions have consequences. A mainline quest to uncover an ancient silver sword, for example, has multiple paths of completion – some paths will prove more costly than others. Major actions, vital to progressing through the story, require the expenditure of quadrants of time.

I think that this is a fascinating concept, and perhaps what's drawing me to The Blood of Dawnwalker far more than its compelling world design and Vampiricly-enhanced movement – although the ability to Planeshift (letting Coen walk up walls) and Shadowstep (allowing Coen to teleport to nearby places) is giving off big Dishonored energy, which I'm certainly here for.

But this use of time is compelling, particularly with so many options. Do you spend two or three quadrants at the first opportunity, perhaps a faster or less invasive route through the quest; do you opt to only spend one and instead find your journey routed through a series of challenging encounters as a counterbalance; do you choose to spend none, instead using your intuition to guide you through the quest and only spending the time when you absolutely have to? The potential for a dizzying amount of choice and consequence is built in here by design.

I also love that the literal time of day can also have massive consequences on how you play and your path through any quest assigned to you. As Coen is a Daywalker, forever treading the line between the world of day and the realm of night, the opportunities and abilities available to you differ depending on whether the sun has set. Objectives can change complexion, sword fighting is swapped out for more bloodthirsty vampiric scraps, and paths through environments may open or close. Again, the degree of experimentation, particularly for a new studio working on its debut release, is lovely to see.

If there's anything I'm slightly concerned by at this stage, it's how expectations are being managed. For all that impresses me about The Blood of Dawnwalker, it can oftentimes look a little rough around the edges – stilted in its movement animations and jagged in combat, particularly the boss battles.

This video game is still in active development though, so hopefully much will improve in this respect as Rebel Wolves marches on towards its 2026 release. The studio spent a quadrant of time to show us this new demo, here's hoping the next gives us an even broader look at the true scope of this open world RPG.

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