Ever since I first obtained contaminated with Porphyric Hemophilia in The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind or ran amok in Los Angeles in Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines, I’ve been patiently ready for an open-world vampire RPG that I may actually sink my tooth into. Frustratingly, regardless of quite a few makes an attempt in all these years, I hadn’t discovered something that quenched that long-standing thirst. With The Blood of Dawnwalker, an RPG that shares a ton of DNA with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt made by some of its former builders, my hunt is lastly over. Not solely does it take the vampire fantasy to the neck-xt stage, it additionally well finds workarounds for some of the constraints that may be a bit annoying (like having to remain out of the sunshine), and introduces different attention-grabbing and intelligent concepts alongside the best way. The day/evening cycle that has you switching between human and vampire constantly makes for compelling questing, the restricted time you’re given to finish your journey makes even minor selections carry huge stakes, and the quite a few methods to make its bloody story your individual have motivated me to rise from the coffin and replay this journey greater than any sport has in fairly a very long time. That is the vampire RPG I’ve been ready for and I discover myself completely underneath its spell.
The Blood of Dawnwalker is a third-person motion RPG that places you within the footwear of a no-longer-fully-human protagonist with lengthy hair and facial scars who runs round utilizing swords and magic to kill monsters in a gritty, darkish fantasy setting. Maybe not probably the most authentic premise from a bunch of former Witcher devs, however hey, if it ain’t broke, don’t pull it off the stuffed unicorn. You play as Coen of Laslea, whose city is taken over by vampires, then via a sequence of unlucky occasions, is contaminated with vampirism and begins training the darkish artwork of witchcraft on the identical day. Robust break! Naturally, you set out on a roughly 40-hour quest for revenge towards these evil bloodsuckers, utilizing your distinctive talents as a Dawnwalker (somebody who has all of the strengths and weaknesses of a vampire by evening however a human by day) to save lots of the valley of Vale Sangora from the clutches of evil.
Whereas the premise is fairly primary, Dawnwalker excels within the telling, with a forged of extraordinarily well-written characters throughout the board, a world that’s full of extra mysteries than you may ever hope to uncover throughout your time-constrained journey, and a few weirdly spectacular arguments for why perhaps vampires ought to be in cost of the world that made me pause to surprise if I used to be, the truth is, the baddie. I immediately discovered myself eagerly spending time with Anca, the type witch with a tragic previous who cut up her time between both instructing me latin and magic or shamelessly flirting with me. In the meantime, Crake, the insurgent chief with a bent to be heinously merciless in service of the trigger, and Lacra, an allied vampire who casually dedicated battle crimes half the time I frolicked together with her, managed to win me over regardless of being enormous pains in my ass. Even the first villains, like Brencis, who envisions a world dominated by vampires, and Ambrus, the footsoldier who revels within the displacement of the hierarchy of the Aristocracy and fancies a gentleman’s duel, had been all extremely compelling figures.
Dawnwalker’s greatest and most original function, fairly appropriately for a sport all about vampires, is its day/evening cycle and the time mechanics constructed round it. As a spell-slinging human by day who turns right into a blood-sucking monster by evening, nearly every little thing you do adjustments relying on the time of day. For instance, in your human type you’ll guzzle down meals and medication to heal your self, battle with swords and a fistful of witchcraft spells, and transfer across the quaint manner by operating, leaping, climbing, and whatnot. As a vampire, all that meals and medication is totally ineffective to you and your well being can solely be restored by consuming blood, plus you’ll primarily combat together with your naked claws and achieve an entire bunch of neat motion choices – that features teleporting round as a cloud of smoke, strolling on partitions and ceilings just like the creepy little creature you might be, and even turning right into a wolf.
Meaning as an alternative of constructing one loadout of armor, weapons, consumables, and skills you’re pleased with, Dawnwalker requires you to keep up two separate builds, which gave my stat-obsessed mind twice as a lot to joyfully tinker with. My vampire construct was an absolute terror on the battlefield, with all my talents centered round feeding off enemies to repeatedly restore my well being, and I sought out as many gadgets as attainable that elevated my claw harm to show myself into an unkillable unarmed freak of nature. In the meantime, my human construct primarily relied on excessive danger/excessive reward spells that put an entire bunch of nasty standing results on my foes on the value of draining my very own life and making me fairly squishy. These two extraordinarily alternative ways to play meant I used to be virtually sitting ahead throughout fight. Finest of all, every of these loadouts is saved separate and mechanically toggled between whenever you change types, so that you don’t must manually swap out all of your armor and weapons twice a day.
Talking of preventing, you’ll be doing fairly a bit of that, because you’ll primarily clear up your issues in Vale Sangora with the sharp finish of your blade. The fight is sort of good, with the caveat that it has a bit of a steep studying curve I believe will probably be equally divisive. The primary manner through which it units itself other than most RPGs of this type is that it makes use of a directional parry system the place you must match the path the enemy is swinging, which kinda jogged my memory of For Honor. You may as well simply block assaults like regular, however doing so is pretty impractical (at the least on increased difficulties) because it drains your stamina and doesn’t present the openings for counterattacks which are so very important to success.
It sounds easy, but it surely took me longer than I’d prefer to admit to really feel snug with it. The first handful of hours had been pretty irritating, and I incessantly discovered myself fumbling via most fight encounters whereas cursing my ancestors. However there was mild on the finish of that tunnel – as soon as I obtained over the hump and this technique clicked, I grew to not solely prefer it, but additionally really feel fairly rattling good at it. Now I’m in a position to down even probably the most formidable hordes with out breaking a sweat, and that mastery felt earned past my stats going up. (Granted, I insist on taking part in most video games on the toughest problem, so it’s fairly attainable I used to be simply making issues particularly exhausting on myself and also you’ll have a better time from the leap.)
Apart from parrying, although, you’ll be utilizing a fairly acquainted bag of methods for an motion sport like this, with a mix of normal assaults, particular maneuvers which are particular to whichever weapon you’ve obtained geared up, and a bunch of talents you’ll be able to activate on a cooldown. Naturally, all of it will differ relying on whether or not or not you’re in human or vampire type, which fits a great distance towards protecting issues from getting too repetitive. For instance, as a human, I fancied standing impact spells that drained well being and shocked enemies on the value of my very own life drive, however as a vampire, I’d pummel issues mercilessly with my naked palms and banshee shriek in my enemy’s face if I used to be feeling cheeky.
That mentioned, these bouts undoubtedly have some comparatively minor however fairly apparent locations they might enhance. For instance, the lock-on perform constantly gave me hassle when attempting to focus on a selected enemy, and it stayed annoying regardless of how lengthy I practiced with it. The digital camera may additionally get caught in odd spots in a manner that was equally aggravating. And whereas the variability of enemies you encounter is fairly good total, the extra widespread beasts you run into within the wild, like wolves and boars, seem manner too incessantly – by the top of my time with Coen, I used to be totally pissed off on the mere sight of the overpopulated canines.
Whereas adventuring out on this planet, sure actions are solely obtainable at particular occasions of day. For instance, you’ll want entry to your vampire type’s superior motion capabilities with a purpose to climb to the highest of lookout towers and add close by factors of curiosity to your map, whereas rituals that require blood magic are solely obtainable in human type. However even actions obtainable at any time, like most facet quests, can have drastically completely different outcomes relying on which type you’re taking. Some characters will probably be much less prone to belief you should you work together with them in vampire type, whereas some areas is likely to be inaccessible should you select to deal with it whereas human. For those who actually muck issues up, your character would possibly simply straight up homicide a brilliant vital NPC since you stupidly interacted with them whereas in a state of overwhelming blood thirst. Not that I ever did that in any respect, as a result of I’m tremendous good and superb at video video games.
The most attention-grabbing facet of The Blood of Dawnwalker’s day/evening cycle is the way it ties the passage of time to particular actions you’re taking, providing you with a finite quantity of time to finish your overarching quest. After the story’s opening chapter, you’ll have precisely 30 days to convey Brencis’ rule to an finish, and that deadline is stressfully enforced as virtually each motion you’re taking prices a certain quantity of time to finish. There isn’t a ticking timer or something – the truth is, you’ll be able to freely discover the world or simply stand round idly so long as you need with out time passing. As an alternative, time is handled as a useful resource: wish to purchase the following stage in a selected ability? Properly, along with the ability factors required, you’ll additionally must pay the far more expensive worth of the hours it takes you to coach in it. Wish to assist that previous man together with his minor drawback since you’re roleplaying as a very good individual? Wonderful! Go proper forward… however that’s one fewer phase of time you’ve obtained to doubtlessly full a extra substantial sidequest.
At first I assumed I would discover this limitation irritating, since I fairly take pleasure in taking my time to scent the roses and mark each checkbox off my record in these sorts of open-worlds, however I shortly realized how treating time as a forex makes nearly each facet of Dawnwalker higher. Irrespective of how exhausting you strive, you received’t have sufficient hours to finish each facet quest, purchase each ability, or tie up each free finish in addition to you’d like, which implies you’re compelled to compromise, choose your battles, and make exhausting however impactful selections virtually consistently. For instance, early on in my travels, I talked my manner into a jail camp to get some intel from a prisoner there, one I might have gone out of my option to rescue underneath regular circumstances. However once I noticed that it will value me three pips of time to take action (every day has 16 complete), I made a decision to depart him to rot as an alternative. I used to be compelled to make compromises like this each step of the best way, all in service of guaranteeing I had sufficient time for the vital stuff, and I usually discovered myself stunned at my very own selections. Fittingly, it made me really feel like I really was letting the darkness of my new vampiric talents compromise my humanity in my quest for revenge. It’s brutal, nerve-wracking, and fully superior.
This harrowing time-crunch in the end has a fairly huge influence on how your journey ends as properly. I received’t spoil something, however alternate endings will solely divulge heart’s contents to you should you’ve met sure characters or taken particular actions. On my first playthrough, there have been whole supporting characters and story elements I fully missed out on, and I didn’t notice the scope of what I hadn’t seen till I took a completely completely different strategy on my second playthrough. In a 3rd (a lot shorter) playthrough, I simply went for a brute drive strategy to see what would occur if I rushed straight to the top with out assembly anybody whereas leveling up as little as attainable, and I used to be not dissatisfied by the hilarious outcome. That is one of these video games the place I not solely wished to play via a number of occasions, but it surely virtually felt necessary with a purpose to see every little thing Vale Sangora had in retailer. I can’t keep in mind the final time I’ve felt that manner about an RPG.
One factor I usually fear about with open-world RPGs is simply how dangerous their efficiency and technical bugs is likely to be, and The Blood of Dawnwalker fortunately finds itself on the much less egregious facet of the spectrum. Certain, on an ordinary PlayStation 5 it’s obtained the occasional framerate wonkiness, the digital camera generally clips via stuff in awkward methods, and an enemy will often go proper via the ground whenever you kill it – however virtually every little thing I noticed like that was fairly minor and unusual, and I by no means had a single exhausting crash, damaged questline, or the rest irritating like that. The worst factor I encountered with regularity had been blurry textures on characters’ garments (or generally element of their faces), which might distractingly by no means clean out infrequently. Importantly, the model I performed didn’t embrace the 60fps efficiency mode that was not too long ago introduced, so I can’t say simply how properly it holds up on that entrance, however I wasn’t notably bothered by the 30FPS high quality mode because it often regarded and ran properly sufficient anyway.