"The Blood of the Dawnwalker" preview: not an anaemic "The Witcher" clone

Philipp Rüegg

29/8/2025

Translation: machine translated

The new open-world game from the team behind "The Witcher 3" has unmistakable parallels to the Witcher adventure. However, with a sun-resistant vampire in the lead role and a ticking clock on his neck, it looks set to be more than just a pale imitation.

The hands-on demo of «The Blood of Dawnwalker» at Gamescom really impressed me. I felt like I was saying every three minutes: This reminds me of «The Witcher 3». That's no surprise. Rebel Wolves, the Polish studio behind the new open-world role-playing game, is made up of numerous ex-CD Projekt Red employees who have already worked on «The Witcher 3» and «Cyberpunk 2077».

«The Blood of Dawnwalker» is set in a dark fantasy world in 14th century Europe. You take on the role of Coen. Due to unexplained circumstances, he is transformed into a Dawnwalker. This unusual species is something like the Blade of the Middle Ages. Coen seems to lose most of his vampiric superpowers during the day. He only becomes a bloodsucker at night.

I get to see just under an hour of this during a live demo in a replica church in the centre of the game fair. The focus is on the different approaches of Coen's day and night form. In search of a sword he thought was lost, he has to gain access to a church - or more precisely, to the church's library. This is where a crucial clue to the whereabouts of the sword is said to be found. The main story revolves around saving his family, for which he still has 22 days according to the quest log. Certain decisions and quests turn the clock forwards. Whether and how Coen saves his family, there seem to be many ways to do so.

The cathedral is easy to spot. The imposing building sits enthroned in the middle of a huge city and is reminiscent of Notre-Dame in Paris. The Rebel Wolves employee controlling the demo knows how to set the scene so that the blood-red moon in the background is shown to its best advantage. I can't help but let out a brief wow.

Coen sets out to infiltrate the church. As a vampire, he can easily walk along walls - that's right: walk, not climb. Two homeless people sitting in front of the wall around a fire are startled by the sight. Coen doesn't even wait to see if they alert the city watch. Instead, he uses another vampire power - teleportation. This allows the Dawnwalker to move from roof to roof in the blink of an eye. Thanks to the open design of the cathedral, it is easy to get inside the building.

One goal, two very different paths

While searching for the library, Coen observes a mysterious cult performing a dark ritual in the mess hall. However, we give them a wide berth. The leader is a powerful vampire - too powerful for Coen. Instead, we sneak past unnoticed and enter the library without incident. We read in one of the books that the sword we are looking for is in a crypt. The entrance to it is hidden under a grave. We now know both the location and the gravestone symbol and can make our way there. Before doing so, we insert the key so that we can return without detours during the day if necessary.

Here Rebel Wolves stop the demo and load an earlier savegame. Coen stands in the blazing sunshine at the edge of a forest on a small hill and sweeps his gaze over the imposing city walls. The cathedral is immediately recognisable even from outside the city. On the way there, Coen encounters bandits who immediately serve as demonstration objects for the combat system. It is reminiscent of «Kingdom Come Deliverance 2». Coen can attack from four directions with his two-handed sword. The same applies to enemies. This is indicated by four golden arrow symbols. Coen must choose the right direction to parry or counterattack.

The battles look powerful and dynamic. The first heads and limbs fly around pretty quickly. As a vampire, Coen can also use his claws and magic attacks. Just like «The Witcher 3», «The Blood of Dawnwalker» is aimed at an adult audience in terms of both content and gameplay.

After the brief skirmish, Coen makes his way to the cathedral. A short-tempered altar boy knows nothing about a secret crypt and won't let us into the library so that we can see for ourselves. The dialogues with freely selectable answers are set to great music and the faces are expressive. At our insistence, the altar boy grants us access on the condition that we find the missing gravedigger.

Death whisperer

The trail of the gravedigger leads to a poorhouse. There we learn that the gravedigger looked after the plague victims. When it became clear that they could no longer be helped, they were walled in. We find the secret way there behind a cupboard. There, a pungent odour of decomposition makes any hope that anyone is still alive vanish. We discover the gravedigger among the corpses.

In human form, Coen can talk to the dead thanks to witchcraft. This is how we learn that the deceased was not Mother Theresa after all. Whoever killed him is revealed the next moment when a kind of ghoul attacks us. This one is much quicker than the bandits. It can also briefly vanish into thin air to dodge and quickly attack from another side.

Our demo player also makes short work of the ghoul and a little later we are back at the altar boy's mat. He mourns less for his gravedigger than for the fact that he has to fill a new position. At least he lets us into the library, where we find the same clue as before with the night-time game.

No wallflower

After gaining access to the crypt, we hear a groan coming from the wall. With the help of a candlestick, Coen breaks out stones and sees the sword he is looking for behind them. Unfortunately, it's in the hands of a rather bad-tempered monster that immediately attacks us. It is even more aggressive and agile than the ghoul in the poorhouse. It can make itself completely invisible and attack us out of the fog. Once again, I'm reminded of «The Witcher 3», where ghosts fight in a very similar way.

The time windows to dodge attacks seem relatively generous and after a few minutes the battle is decided. However, the second Rebel Wolves developer commenting on the action says that, unlike his colleague, he has not yet survived this duel. After the fight, we learn that the monstrosity pounced on us because it mistook us. The person called Mihai was locked up alive behind the wall. Not only that: with his last breath, he reveals to us that he is also a Dawnwalker. The demo ends here. The music swells one last time and the medieval soundtrack with its string instruments cements once and for all that the makers of «The Witcher 3» are at work here.

«The Blood of the Dawnwalker» looks like nothing could go wrong between now and its launch in 2026. Graphically, it looks good enough to eat. The story sounds exciting and the two play styles of human and vampire promise more than the usual approaches of sneaking, fighting and persuasion. High expectations rest on the shoulders of Rebel Wolves. After the Gamescom presentation, I am more confident than ever that they will live up to them.

Philipp Rüegg

Senior Editor

Philipp.Rueegg@digitecgalaxus.ch

Being the game and gadget geek that I am, working at digitec and Galaxus makes me feel like a kid in a candy shop – but it does take its toll on my wallet. I enjoy tinkering with my PC in Tim Taylor fashion and talking about games on my podcast http://www.onemorelevel.ch. To satisfy my need for speed, I get on my full suspension mountain bike and set out to find some nice trails. My thirst for culture is quenched by deep conversations over a couple of cold ones at the mostly frustrating games of FC Winterthur. more

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