The Blood of Dawnwalker only released last night, but the new vampire RPG headed by CD Projekt Red veterans is seeing a mixed bag of feedback from fans – and it all seems to boil down to the game's performance on PC.
Stop me if you've heard this before, but a big new game that's performing relatively well on consoles is, erm, not exactly performing as well on PC – you know, poor optimization and all that.
That's precisely the fate that The Blood of Dawnwalker is currently suffering, having initially launched to "Mixed" reviews on Steam (which have now risen to "Mostly Positive" overall) thanks to hardware-related problems.
You can read through the feedback yourself to get a taste of fans' thoughts, with many saying that, while they're "really digging the vibe" of the game, "the optimization needs some work." Folks also report that The Blood of Dawnwalker "runs poorly" despite their PC meeting the recommended requirements outlined on Steam.
The discussion has spread further online, too, with one thread over on Reddit simply declaring the "optimization is way beyond trash."
Optimization is way beyond trashfrom r/DawnwalkerOfficial
There are plenty more where that came from as well, with another post pointing out that most of the negative reviews on Steam "are about performance" and more sharing their disappointment in the game's lack of HDR support.
Rebel Wolves, the studio behind the RPG with talent from The Witcher 3, is aware of the community's complaints, however… and, while it works on a more concrete update, it offers some quick solutions.
Over on Twitter, the team outlines some of the "known issues" flagged in reviews and the like before giving some "fixes and workarounds," because, thankfully, there are some measures we can take as players ourselves to improve performance on PC.
For example, if the game is stuttering for you, "please try launching the game in Full Screen" mode instead of windowed or borderless – a fix that I can safely say worked for me, at least.
Rebel Wolves has others, too, like updating your BIOS to avoid crashes – and, as for the issues we can't resolve on our end, the developers say, "we're already working on it."
So, keep an eye out for patches over the next few days… perhaps they'll remedy the game feeling like it has a "AAA price tag without AAA performance," as a commenter writes.
Read our The Blood of Dawnwalker review to find out why we think it has "clear Witcher DNA" if you're thinking about playing one of this year's biggest new games yourself.
