The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is one of those games that never really end. No matter how many hours you put into it, there’s always something else to do and always a reason to come back. The reason is obvious. Its charismatic characters, its excellent side plots, and some addictive and very interesting systems. And if we add to that the fact that CD Projekt has kept expanding it over the years, they’ve given us every reason to come back when it seemed we’d already moved on from it.
But with 11 years behind it, every game wears out. Even if it doesn’t end. That’s why it’s normal for even the most die-hard fan to look for a game to sink their teeth into. That couldn’t be more fitting. Because the game that seems to want to take its place is one about vampires and it’s made by the director behind it, who has left CD Projekt. Its name is The Blood of Dawnwalker and it aims to be the new The Witcher.
A paler Geralt
The premise couldn’t be simpler. In the 14th century a plague is wiping out a kingdom in the Carpathians, and taking advantage of the situation, an ancient vampire takes power by promising his blood to humans, which offers immunity to the plague, in exchange for their vassalage, which leads to a regime of oppression. This is when our protagonist, Coen, tries to become a vampire, but for unknown reasons, he ends up becoming something else: a Dawnwalker. Neither human nor vampire, but something else entirely. But the vampires leave him for dead and kidnap his family, giving Coen thirty days to save his family or they’ll die at the vampires’ hands.
From here on, it’s everything we can expect from an Action RPG in the style of The Witcher 3. We have to explore, do side quests, advance the story, and uncover all kinds of secrets. But with one clear limitation. We have thirty days and thirty nights to finish the game. This is non-negotiable and we have to keep it in mind.
This also makes the game feel more intense and more exciting. We not only have to move forward, we have to do it consciously. As the final days draw near we feel the pressure and the threat of the vampires, pushing us ever closer to them. And while it’s never really a danger that we’ll run out of time, this limitation is exciting and interesting with it always present in our heads.
A team familiar with this kind of game
It also shouldn’t surprise us that at Rebel Wolves, the studio developing The Blood of Dawnwalker, they seem to clearly understand what makes this kind of Action RPG work. After all, they helped make one. Its director is Konrad Tomaszkiewicz, director of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and head of production on Cyberpunk 2077, who left his position at CD Projekt in May 2021 after internal investigations into allegations of bullying.
After that, in February 2022 he founded Rebel Wolves with his brother Mateusz and with design director Daniel Sadowski, narrative director Jakub Szamalek, and art director Bartłomiej Gaweł, all of whom he worked with on the Witcher series and Cyberpunk 2077. Thus bringing everything they learned at CD Projekt to this new project.
With a warm reception from the public, critics have been just as positive: it currently sits at 83 on Metacritic, far from The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt’s excellent 92, but it’s a very good score. Especially for the first game from a new studio, even if it is made up of veterans who worked on The Witcher 3. That’s why, if you’re a fan of CD Projekt’s games, you should give The Blood of Dawnwalker a chance. Because it has the makings to become your new obsession, at least until we get something new from The Witcher.
