---
title: 'Blood of the Dawnwalker Preview: The Most Hyped Game of 2026'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=9bcDvpw_mOw'
video_id: '9bcDvpw_mOw'
date: 2026-07-11
duration_sec: 1351
---

# Blood of the Dawnwalker Preview: The Most Hyped Game of 2026

> Source: [Blood of the Dawnwalker Preview: The Most Hyped Game of 2026](https://youtube.com/watch?v=9bcDvpw_mOw)

## Summary

This video provides an in-depth preview of the upcoming RPG 'Blood of the Dawnwalker' from developer Rebel Wolves. The creator played the prologue for 4 hours and shares impressions, highlighting the game's dark world-building, morally gray decisions, and unique time-based mechanics, while addressing concerns from an earlier IGN gameplay reveal.

### Key Points

- **Initial IGN preview was misleading** [00:14] — The 8-minute IGN gameplay reveal focused on stiff combat and wooden facial animations, but the creator's 4-hour hands-on experience shows a much deeper game.
- **World-building and moral choices are compelling** [01:07] — Despite presentation flaws, the dark world-building, morally gray decisions, and unique vampire lore kept the creator completely hooked.
- **Rebel Wolves' lineage from The Witcher 3** [02:02] — Many key staff (game director, quest director, senior writer) came from CD Projekt Red and worked on The Witcher 3, giving the game a similar feel.
- **30-day clock and non-linear progression** [03:11] — The game runs on a 30-day clock; players can beeline to the final boss immediately or spend 70+ hours exploring. Time only advances when committing to actions.
- **Brencis: a complex vampire lord** [04:02] — Brencis is not a simple evil tyrant; he provides protection from plague and war in exchange for blood tributes, creating a morally ambiguous dynamic.
- **Familiar Witcher 3 elements** [06:58] — The game's setting, color palette, inventory, map icons, and music are very reminiscent of The Witcher 3, but structural differences emerge over time.
- **Time management and consequence system** [09:03] — Players must choose which quests to complete within a day; ignored quests resolve without the player, leading to consequences like the mother's death.
- **Example quest: moral dilemma with the banner thief** [10:24] — A quest involves a thief who stole a banner he considers heresy; players decide whether to turn him in or let an old woman die, with no clear right answer.
- **Combat improvements over The Witcher 3** [13:44] — Combat focuses on directional inputs and stamina management; blocking correctly costs no stamina. It's simple but satisfying, though animations are stiff.
- **Vampire transformation and hunger mechanic** [15:17] — Cohen becomes a vampire but retains day-walking ability due to silver exposure. Hunger can force him to feed on NPCs during dialogue, potentially killing important quest givers.
- **Play as human or vampire** [16:51] — Players can skip all night cycles to play as human, or skip days to play as vampire, each with different abilities and quest approaches. Skipping reduces available time.
- **More than just a Witcher clone** [18:11] — Despite surface similarities, the game offers new moral complexity, time mechanics, non-linear storytelling, and dual human/vampire gameplay that differentiate it.

### Conclusion

Blood of the Dawnwalker shows great promise with its deep world-building, innovative time mechanics, and moral complexity, despite some rough edges in presentation. The creator is highly excited for the full release on September 3rd.

## Transcript

boot.dev. Click the link below and use offer code skill up 30 at checkout to the annual plan. That's an even bigger More details after the video.
most hyped games of 2026, or at least it was until IGN uploaded an 8-minute gameplay reveal. Now, this wasn't IGN's fault, at least I were provided this footage by Studio Rebel Wolves, and they just uploaded it,
but this really wasn't a great showcase of what this game is, or any game really. I mean, they spent like 4 minutes of this 8-minute video literally doing that, it was showing off some combat that looked a little stiff, some
some facial animations that looked a little wooden. But that was 8 minutes of gameplay. Today, I come to you bearing 20-ish minutes of gameplay, none of provided B-roll, but I did play the game for about 4 hours, completing the game's
ambitious prologue. I'm here to tell you that the IGN preview you saw was largely guess. That was a bit disproportionate. Combat is a little stiff, visuals certainly aren't cutting edge, and facial animations could definitely do
on which character you're talking to. But honestly, I really don't give a [ __ ] about that, because I was 100% locked in during my 4 hours with this, completely hooked by the dark world building, these ambitious morally gray decisions I was
forced to make, this intriguing spin on vampires as both dictators and saviors, and this novel approach to vampirism, where the hunger can force you to do forever altering your path as you kill important NPCs or become infamous among
storytelling web. I also like the combat, simple though it is. I also like the visuals, too, simple as they are. The facial animations, yeah, I agree, mind an awareness that this is not a game from CD Projekt Red with their
dollars. This is a debut title from an independent studio that started with just 20 people back in 2022, and is now now at around 150 people as they're context, I am more than willing to look past some presentation issues,
especially when the source is this good. That source may, at first glance, look, reheated. It's little surprise, of course, almost all of the leadership of making The Witcher 3, including game director, quest director, senior writer,
lead concept artist, composers, and more. Rather than shy away from that legacy, Rebel Wolves have embraced it with two clawed hands, delivering a rhythm, and storytelling vibe that is so Witcher, you'd be forgiven for thinking
spin-off. I suspect there will be plenty of commentary based on these previews Witcher, and I think it's a fair question, but I promise you there is a lot more to this game than the very Witcher-esque inspirations. Its
even darker and more bleak than The Witcher did. Its dual gameplay model is vastly different, spending time as both a human and a vampire, depending on the by the way, more on that later. Speaking of time of day, that's a huge thing
here, since the entire game runs on a 30-day clock, where every major action the quest outcomes will depend on how you choose to spend your limited time. Speaking of quest, did you know that you don't actually need to do any of them in
step out of the prologue, you can beeline straight for the main objective and finish the game immediately, just like Breath of the Wild, or you can do absolutely everything and spend an estimated 70 hours plus to see it all.
walking a fine balance of the familiar and the new. I won't lie, if I squinted around the foothills of Kaer Morhen again. But, when my eyes were wide open, small ways that Blood of the Dawnwalker is looking to move beyond Geralt's long
shadow, and all I could think when I put down the controller after 4 hours was, "God damn, man, I cannot wait to lose like 60 plus hours to this game."
we haven't got time. >> Hurry up, Cohen. They're waiting. embracing a grim, almost nihilistic tone
moment. While the plague ravages 14th-century Europe, this little pocket of the world is protected by way of a Faustian bargain. A vampire lord by the protect people from the plague and protect them from outside aggressors who
might otherwise pillage their lands. Health and security is a rare gift during such a dark time, but a great price must be paid for this protection. tax to their lord in order to satiate his hunger, something that occurs once a
month at a ceremonial blood mass. It's not enough to kill those he drinks from, already weak enough not to survive the mass, in which case Brencis is perfectly flock. It's on the eve of one of these masses that we meet our hero, Cohen, a
customized in any way. He's a miner's son and worked in the silver mines from insignificant. He and his family do their mother is suffering from a psychological ailment that leaves her
weakened state, she's unlikely to survive the next mass, and Cohen's trying to get her to eat so that she might have strength enough to see another full moon. As Cohen begins his quest, the contours of this bleak world
just provided, you might imagine that Brencis is maniacal and keeps a firm boot on the neck of the local populace, but it's more complicated and frankly more interesting than that. Brencis is ruthless, but he doesn't seem cruel.
He's omnipotent, but he isn't a mad king. His grip is firm, but he seems his fiefdom than he does torturing it for sport. In turn, many of the locals acknowledge and even appreciate this accord. While they fear Brencis, they
fear disease and war even more, and so they see the price he extracts as a fair evils. That's an interesting idea in a story such as this, where we might imagine that a ruling vampire who feeds on his subjects must be capital E evil
and the entire population eager to overthrow him. Instead, Brencis seems his rule is a form of benevolent dictatorship, one that many of his of the alternative. The world building has layers beyond that, too. There are
military forces aligned to Brencis as well as those representing other regions Brencis's territory. There's a growing insurgency among the populace hoping to strike when Brencis is weak so they can regain their freedom. Though not
witchcraft here, too, like the ability to heal or reanimate corpses so you can and all of this is served up in just the opening hours of the game. Right off the and interesting. Blood of the Dawnwalker may not have the graphics or facial
but it has something far more valuable to me, at least, a feeling of people imagined a world and wrote it to life. None of the presentation blew me away, but I vividly remember many of the NPCs that I met, the storylines I found
sense around me at all times. That stuff like this, I think, and so far Blood of the Dawnwalker is delivering in spades. Give it back. >> Should have minded your own beeswax,
lad. >> I weaved it knot by knot and look how my neighbors repaid me. >> Just as Dawnwalker is looking to deliver looking to deliver a fresh new spin on the open-world RPG formula. But where
immediately look to differentiate themselves, Dawnwalker's structural differences take more time to make themselves felt, pun intended. Starting point is familiarity, especially if you've played The Witcher 3. The game
of its setting, color palette, architecture, and NPC attire. Open up inventory that looks perhaps a little too familiar and a map with perhaps too many icons on it. The music is, yeah, it's very Witcher, to the point where
more here. >> Look out! Add to that a choice-based dialogue system powering branching narratives and that we'll talk a little bit more about later, and the opening act of Dawnwalker
for anyone willing to argue that we have the Witcher at home. It's not until you that things start to feel a little different. The quest to save your mother you're sent out your door at the start of the day, but consistent with the rest
of the game's design philosophy, you can completely ignore that quest if you want for doing so. This is where we need to start talking about the way the prologue, you have a full day to complete your task, and this little bar
you've spent. Important to note that time does not flow freely. There's no timer constantly running that forces you to move quickly. Instead, time only moves forward when you make decisions and commit to courses of action. For
a villager asking for help, and their request won't move the clock forward. countryside for like 5 hours. Doesn't matter, as long as you like, right? But asked you to go, and you speak to the relevant NPC, and you select the
relevant dialogue option, you are now committing to the act of moving that moves forward. >> Make it quick, then. Nice pig you have here. It's the Olgierd's though, isn't it?
>> I felt this system very keenly as I was working my way through the prologue could have completed in a single day. I had to choose which ones I would complete versus which ones I would skip, and that simple decision had numerous
example, you can choose to ignore that quest to save your mother entirely, spending your time helping others instead. Time will march on, and when the day is done and it's finally time for mass, your mother's fate is sealed.
quest line to the exclusion of all else since there's a time jump option once skip straight to the mass. At that point, you'll see the consequences of having ignored everyone else in the village since some of them also needed
you wouldn't have known had you not spent time exploring the village and example of this begins this way. >> Gremler? What happened? >> Someone took the banner. The one Knyaz Brenac ordered for the church to replace
the old cross. And mass is tonight. When Knyaz Brenac for the church, no one was willing to. So, I took it upon myself to protect the village, save you all
from the Knyaz's wrath. If you work out who did it, who did it, you come right back to me, lad. I'm good as dead. >> So, that's the setup. An old lady was
and she volunteered to do it because she wanted to spare other villagers the wrong. Now, someone has stolen the banner and the old lady is sure to be the mass begins. At this point, you'll use your Witcher senses, and yes, they
really do have Witcher senses here, to track down the thief, learning that they were wounded and they used a cane to walk. When you confront him, he freely admits to his crime because the banner was a form of heresy, depicting vampires
as deities in place of their traditional god. He says his act of defiance is one price for, but he says that his death is worth it if it inspires others towards choose what to do. Do you keep this man's secret and let the old woman die,
or do you reveal it and damn him instead? Does he deserve to die because because of his higher purpose? And that old woman who does Brenac's bidding, or does it matter that she only volunteered to protect others from a
much reminded me of one of the first burns down a dwarf's house because the army, even though the dwarf doesn't really want to be doing that. If Geralt
turns in the man out of a sense of moral righteousness, the man is summarily executed, a punishment that seems to far outweigh the crime. The moral tensions the structure of them is different because of your limited time and because
of how the outcomes of these quests are resolved. In The Witcher, that quest will only resolve itself if you intervene. The events of that quest essentially don't exist until you set them in motion, but in Dawn Walker's
forward with or without your intervention. If you never discover this woman and you never begin her quest line, she will still die and you'll see the mass, a reminder that in Dawn Walker, your inaction defines events as
could be said of the game's broader quest structure because what I've After the larger set of events are set in motion, you have 30 days and 30 nights to rescue your family from Brencis before a coronation ceremony.
you can walk right up to the castle immediately after the prologue and confront Brencis. Much like Ganon in Breath of the Wild, Brencis is always through his castle and your final battle with him will no doubt be significantly
weakened his hold on the region, dispatched his lieutenants and secured yourself weapons, armor and experience to steel yourself. We've obviously seen but to adopt it in a narrative-led open-world RPG is very ambitious. On the
the game a sandbox that allows you to pick and choose where to go and what you want to do. On the other hand, it brings with it considerable risk when it comes with Brencis and his lieutenants? The moment I saw this, I got flashbacks to
years. The freedom to complete objectives in any order sounds good on paper, but it's much harder to construct compelling narratives and character arcs deliberately fragmented so that it can be reconstituted in any order. Honestly,
the game at this point. It's not impossible to tell a good story this way, but it is much, much harder and I'm going to be very interested to see how because given how leveraged this experience is into its world building,
storytelling, and characters, a misstep here could see this entire experience collapse into a heap. >> [screaming]
and a novel structure that forces you to confront the consequences of both your actions and your inactions. But, it isn't stopping there. It's also that looks to respond to criticisms leveled at The Witcher 3's combat while
also offering a really unique spin on vampirism that affects not only your dialogue options, and reputation with the citizenry. Combat first though, yes, you are again a dude with a sword fighting other dudes with swords with
reminiscent of Geralt. And again, that is no accident since the person who did named Maciej Kwitkowski, and he was the same dude who did motion capture for Geralt in The Witcher 3. Rebel Wolves, you absolutely cannot keep getting away
with this. Anyway, the big difference here is the focus on directional inputs. in any direction, but doing so will cost stamina. If, however, you can block in properly, that block won't cost you any stamina, freeing you up to go on the
activation charge that can be used for various abilities, like throwing sand in So, look, this is pretty simple stuff, like Kingdom Come: Deliverance is incredibly satisfying when you're able
to read your enemy and actively block their attacks. And the overall flow and is a little stiff to the eye since it isn't putting a premium on flashy animations. It's functional to look at, but it's honestly much more fun to play
but it's honestly much more fun to play than it looks. guess we should explain how all of that works first. During the prologue, Cohen
becomes what he fears most, a vampire. This is a process initiated by Brencis who takes one of his teeth and rams it into Coen's heart, though that Brencis would have hoped for. Because Coen grew up in the silver mines, his
body rejected at least part of the transformation, and that's how he's able to move about in the day without melting into sticky goo. Hence, Dawn Walker. The only downside to that is that Coen is not as powerful as the other vampires
Still, Coen has at least some of the perks of being a vampire. A shadowy teleportation ability is useful in both exploration but also in combat. Coen can also walk on walls.
And during combat, he can feast on his enemies to regain health. fascinating tradeoffs outside of combat. If you aren't topped up and you enter a dialogue sequence, some of the dialogue will randomly change for just a split
sink your fangs into their neck. You could choose to wait for this text to change by timing it, or you can select it accidentally when the words just press that button. That's obviously meant to simulate Coen losing control.
very inconvenient moments when you're talking to NPCs you might want to keep alive. Rebel Wolves have confirmed that you can, in fact, kill important quest NPCs, which may forever close off certain quest lines to you. And while
bit of save scumming, it's cool to imagine a playthrough where you just urges. What makes this even more interesting is that playing as a vampire is always a choice. Rebel Wolves have also confirmed that you can skip every
night cycle, choosing to slumber while you wait for the break of day. That way, you can play through the entire game as a human. And of course, you can also do the exact opposite, skipping daytime sequences so you live only as a vampire.
since you're essentially giving yourself 50% less time on the clock to complete quests, vanquish foes, collect gear, and gain experience. And you'll also lose might come from one style of play, like hexes, for example, which are specific
doesn't need to be so binary, either, since the game will regularly let you objectives as either a vampire or a human with completely different paths you take. The infiltration of a stronghold might be challenging for
so long as he's willing to fight or sneak his way through. For vampire run straight up walls and teleport across distances. There's a little bit of immersive sim baked into this formula, and given the power and
think this approach is just what the doctor ordered. >> Ah, this is nothing. >> [screaming] >> So look, usual caveats apply here. This
development. The prologue was great, but the full game might suck. You never prologue was great. And to those of you who are rattled by that IGN clip, I do bit of comfort. I do want to come back to those Witcher 3 comparisons, though,
spoken about the many many ways that this game feels like a spiritual looks like The Witcher, it's in a similar setting and time period, the soundtrack sounds extremely Witcher, the combat feels very Witcher-inspired. I
capture, for Christ's sake. There's even Witcher senses. I mean, really, Rebel Witcher senses? So yes, that is all true, inescapably so. But I do hope that throughout this preview, I've showed you
the many many ways that this isn't just The Witcher. And those ways are far from tokenistic. This is obviously an all new world built on new moral and political complexity, challenging our expectations of what an evil vampire lord might be
like, or how citizens might respond to their rule. There's the time mechanic, and forego others. And unlike similar games, the things you forego can be just to. There's the freedom to beeline toward the final confrontation
immediately, or spend the 50, 60, 70 hours fully exploring the lands to ready There's a non-linear approach to storytelling that allows you to write your own saga in whatever page order you please, and there's effectively two
interface with, human and vampire, each with their own approach to combat and engage with both of them or just one if listed there is pretty core stuff. So,
yeah, the inventory looks like the inventory from The Witcher 3, but the similarities between these two games is rather skin deep. Scratch away at them going to find a very different game underneath. One that I really love
that I am very, very excited to play for dozens more when the game releases on September 3rd this year for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series consoles. I will have a full look forward to that. Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss that one, by
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