I played The Blood of Dawnwalker for 4 hours, and this vampire RPG already exceeds its Witcher 3 comparisons

The Blood of Dawnwalker is shaping up to be this year's most ambitious RPG. Helmed by The Witcher 3 game director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz, the debut game from developer Rebel Wolves will see players dropped into south-east Europe during the 14th century – where time is not on their side.

As the remote Vale Sangora reels from the Black Plague, ancient vampire Brencis muscles in on the region, enforcing blood tithes in exchange for protection from the sickness. When village-boy protagonist Coen is forcibly turned into a vampire by Brencis, the process goes wrong and Coen is caught between two states – fang-toothed undead by night, (mostly) human by day. As Coen, we'll have just 30 in-game days and nights to save his family from Brencis; set loose in an open-world where our actions move time forward and cause rippling consequences.

I got to play the first four hours of The Blood of Dawnwalker, and found that while Rebel Wolves' many CD Projekt Red veterans have continued to build upon The Witcher 3's open-world sensibilities, there's a degree of the old-school RPG friction we're seeing make a comeback in the likes of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, Baldur's Gate 3, and Dragon's Dogma 2.

From Dusk Till Dawn

Much has been made of The Blood of Dawnwalker's time mechanics, but in play, the feature is unobtrusive. I step into Coen's shoes on the morning before mass, which, under Vale Sangora's new ruler, has been perverted into a bloodletting ritual. A bar on the top-right of the screen, broken into eight segments, shows how much time you have left in the day or night. Only specific activities move time forward. Exploring and fighting won't, for example, but quests, certain side activities, and even leveling up will. These are clearly signposted and often only take one hour, creating the sense not that you're rushing through The Blood of Dawnwalker to meet a deadline (the game doesn't end with Coen's 30-day limit), merely being asked to consider how your time in its world is spent.

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To begin the day, I'm asked to visit the local healer to fetch herbs for Coen's sick mother, to ensure she's strong enough to survive the upcoming mass. Along the way, I bump into Coen's siblings and decline their request to help them fish – which would take an hour – but a little further down the road, agree to find a villager's missing brother. It's on the way, so I do so – taking the time to track him down with Witcher-esque heightened senses and investigative powers – and rescue him from an unearthed barrow, though decline to spend longer escorting him home.

With all of that done, I still have time to fetch the herbs, set two hours aside from an optional Latin lesson, teach the neighborhood bully some manners, spar with Coen's ex-mercenary father, and solve the case of a missing banner – all in time for mass. Frankly, I manage more in one day here than I do in the real world. And as a reluctant congregation gathers at the church, I realize that The Blood of Dawnwalker is less interested in tracking the minutes, and more focused on how they're spent.

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All day, I've heard whispers of rebellion. The banner hanging over the church font – stolen by another villager and returned by Coen earlier in the day – doesn't help ease the tension, depicting humans bleeding to death on a tree of thorns. The priest begins his sermon with a speech acknowledging the tapestry's horrors, while it visibly agitates the congregation, and I'm pleased to see just how much of an impact my decision to return it makes. Similarly, having retrieved medicine for Coen's mother and correctly prepared it, her distress is kept mostly in-check. Comparing my experience to another, I learn that not only can she die during the mass if not properly medicated, and by returning the banner I unknowingly saved its maker from a grisly execution.

Later that night, the townsfolk rise up against Brencis' garrison – fighting their way into an off-limits silver mine to arm themselves. But, as is apt to happen in game prologues, catastrophe strikes. The would-be rebellion is rumbled, Brencis turns Coen into a vampire, and his family is hauled away as their village burns. It's a brilliant opening salvo: for as much as I've waited to see The Blood of Dawnwalker's open world for myself, I'm now itching to hunt down Brencis and his lieutenants.

In theory, I can do just that. Similarly to how The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild lets players beeline to their showdown with Ganon at any point, it's possible to march straight to Brencis' fortress. But, my preview is limited to one segment of the map, so instead I take stock of the leads I'm offered and step into the night.

Creatures of the night

The Blood of Dawnwalker's passing of time creates an interesting dynamic with Coen, whose vampiric transformation leaves him with a foot in both worlds. By day he's human, relying on a sword in combat and left to make do without his supernatural powers. When the sun goes down, the fangs come out.

A Dishonored-style blink can be used to vanish and reappear elsewhere at will, while Coen takes notes from Dracula and can walk up walls and on ceilings – meaning he can only climb towers to reveal nearby locales at night. Get into a scrap, and Coen can keep his sword sheathed to instead put his claws to work. Eating food will only heal him during the day – when the moon is out, only blood will provide succor. Wildlife can be hunted for small amounts and you can shadowstep behind humans for quick gulps in combat, but the most filling meals are found by sneaking up on someone unaware and draining them into unconsciousness or even death.

As a long-suffering Oblivion vampire, I'm giddy to see Rebel Wolves commit entirely to vampiric mythology – limitations and all. If you don't keep Coen's thirst slaked, he can lose control during dialogue and fatally feed upon his conversation partner. At one point in my preview, I convince someone to leave a burning building – dying inside is supposedly preferable going outside with a vampire – and inadvertently prove him right, as I lose control and set upon the toasty treat.

In fairer fights, The Blood of Dawnwalker's combat lands somewhere between Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2's exacting swordplay and The Witcher 3's sword-and-sign dance. Trading blows with sword and claw, directional input means you decide which angle to attack from (mixing it up makes your opponent less likely to block), while parrying attackers requires the inverse, matching your defense to wherever the blow is coming from. It's quick, fluid, and can be very challenging – particularly when outnumbered – but feels thrilling, particularly against tougher foes who can trade consecutive blows for longer. I did find Coen's active abilities tricky to use, however, as I could only use them by bringing up a clunky ability wheel – leaving them ignored more often than not.

The Blood of Dawnwalker's willingness to put players on the back foot is right up my street. More surprising is how quickly and effectively the RPG draws me into its world. The effect is partly physical: hemmed-in by the Carpathian Mountains, Vale Sangora perpetually has a second horizon above the eyeline. More engrossing still, the valley feels old. Vale Sangora is a melting pot of central to Eastern European mythology, and although vampires here have become a reality, other folklore creatures make their home here too. An abandoned mine, thought haunted, is actually infested with sneaky goblin-like creatures with a penchant for mischief and flesh; while wall paintings in a tomb detail heroic tales so old they seem to have been forgotten entirely.

By planting one foot in fairy tales and another in the realities of medieval life, Vale Sangora reaches similar liveliness to The Witcher 3's Continent. Both come across as believably ancient, and as an RPG fan drawn to worlds that feel like they've existed long before I joined them, I'm immersed in The Blood of Dawnwalker from the get-go. That's no small feat, playing in a crowded room filled with PCs.

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Even after playing for four hours, I still feel like I've barely scratched The Blood of Dawnwalker's surface and would have gladly played for longer in a single sitting. From its combat to story and world, there are a lot of beat-by-beat draws. But frankly, I'm thrilled to play a fresh RPG with the nerve to be so big from the get-go. Every game I've compared The Blood of Dawnwalker to was built upon an existing series – success affording them the luxury to iterate – whereas Rebel Wolves has outlined plans for a "saga" before its first game has debuted.

With the RPG's passing time and Coen's uneven powers, I get the impression that the veteran cohort at Rebel Wolves see their fresh start as an opportunity. But what truly surprises me is how well The Blood of Dawnwalker comes together already – for all of the boundaries it pushes, nothing feels risky or gimmicky in play. What remains, then, is an ambitious love letter to role-playing itself – and although The Blood of Dawnwalker is launching in a slew of new games, what I've seen so far is enough to guarantee I'll be back to play more come September 3.

We have interviews with The Blood of Dawnwalker's developers, and more thoughts from our own playtime, still to come. In the meantime, here are the best RPGs to keep busy with.