The Blood of Dawnwalker: Full Breakdown & Transcript

[00:02] players to pick and choose how to spend their time to its different take on action RPG combat, here's everything to action RPG combat, here's everything to know about the Blood of Dawn Walker.

[00:15] The Blood of Dawn Walker centers around Cohen, a villager living during the 14th century in the fictional town of Vale Sanguora, located somewhere in the Carpathian Mountains that stretch across Central Europe. In the game, the black

[00:30] plague has consumed the land with anyone infected sentenced to death by the king. Taking advantage of the situation is the vampiric lord Brencis, who promises the citizens of Vale Sanguora a cure in the form of his and his followers' blood,

[00:47] >> but in return, they must provide a few drops of their own during a monthly drops of their own during a monthly ritual. Brencis rules Vale Sanguora with an iron fist, culling the weak and putting the rest to work. Brencis

[01:00] attempts to turn Cohen into one of his vampiric henchmen, but the ritual fails. Believing Cohen to be dead, Brencis captures his family, saving them for the next month's ritual. However, Cohen is not dead. Instead, he's become a Dawn

[01:17] Walker, a half-human, half-vampire that can survive the sunlight. He must spend the next 30 days and nights attempting to save his family. In a curious bit of marketing, during this year's Summer Game Fest, a trailer for the Blood of

[01:32] Dawn Walker revealed the game's post-credit sequence, showcasing Cohen in the modern day. Developer Rebel Wolves state the entirety of the game will take place in the 14th century and that potential future installments are

[01:46] planned to take place in other locations and eras.

[02:04] by Konrad Tomaszkiewicz, [music] one of the directors on both CD Projekt Red's The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Cyberpunk 2077. Following the release of those games, Tomaszkiewicz was the subject of an

[02:18] internal investigation at the developer due to allegations of workplace bullying. While that inquiry found him not guilty, Tomaszkiewicz left the company in mid-2021 and claimed in a workplace letter that, quote, "A lot of

[02:33] people are feeling fear, stress, or discomfort when working with me." And apologized for, quote, "All the bad blood I have caused." He added that, quote, "I am going to continue working on myself. Changing behavior is a long

[02:48] and arduous process, but I'm not giving up, and I hope to change." A number of team members at CD Projekt Red left in order to join Tomaszkiewicz at [music] Rebel Wolves, with the studio now numbering around 160 employees

[03:03] developing The Blood of Dawnwalker with Unreal Engine 5. Tomaszkiewicz wants to keep the team smaller than CD Projekt Red, which is nearing 1,000 total developers, and have Rebel Wolves focus on one project at a time rather than

[03:18] becoming a studio with multiple games in development at once. Tomaszkiewicz points to Claer Obscur Expedition 33 [music] and Crimson Desert as examples of RPGs that are doing something different, and hopes that The Blood of

[03:32] Dawnwalker is similarly seen as a different kind of game.

[03:44] third-person action-adventure RPG. As previously mentioned, the protagonist Cohen has 30 days and nights to rescue his family, and players will have to make choices on how they want to spend that time. While players are free to

[03:59] explore the open world as much as they want, completing [music] quests advances time with each day and night broken up into eight segments. And players are notified ahead of undertaking a task how many segments

[04:14] said task will take up. Players will not be able to complete every single quest on a single play through, and decisions they make will affect how the story progresses. Cohen's choices will also impact his reputation in Velsen Gora.

[04:30] The higher Cohen's infamy, the more dangerous the world becomes as Brentis tightens his leash. The day-night cycle has an effect on the different kinds of actions available to Cohen as well. During the day, there are more options

[04:44] to resolve quests with pacifism, and when [music] in combat, Cohen will rely when [music] in combat, Cohen will rely on his sword. At night, Cohen's vampiric half takes over, now able to reach areas that he couldn't as a human, leaning

[04:58] more into stealth and utilizing his claws and fangs in combat. As a vampire, Cohen will need to regularly feed on either animals or humans to satiate his hunger. And if players fail to do so, he will go

[05:13] feral and take a bite out of the closest target, which [music] could have potential story ramifications. The more Cohen feeds, the higher his corruption level rises, unlocking new vampiric perks for the player to

[05:27] acquire. Players have two options when it comes to combat. The first is directional attacks and blocks, where players use the right thumbstick to choose the direction Cohen will either be attacking or blocking. The other is

[05:42] omnidirectional, which is akin to a typical action-adventure game, with Cohen attacking and blocking automatically without any additional directional input. However, this method consumes more stamina than the default

[05:57] option. As players face off against enemies, they'll build up magic charges that they can expend in order to deploy a variety of hexes in battle. Magic can be used inside and outside of combat. And depending on the time of day depends

[06:14] on the kind of magic available to Cohen. For example, by day he can do blood rituals as he lacks his vampiric healing abilities, allowing him to bleed unabated. And by night, he can transform into a wolf to get around the world more

[06:29] quickly. Brancys has a vampiric court with three deputies under his rule. As players make their way through the game, certain activities will unlock that tie directly to each of these deputies. It will be up to the player if they decide

[06:45] to face off against Brancys at full strength or weaken his operations by targeting his subordinates. Like other RPGs, there are more traditional gameplay mechanics such as swapping out new gear for different

[06:58] benefits and crafting. The Blood of Dawnbreaker releases on September 3rd, Dawnbreaker releases on September 3rd, 2026 for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S with the standard edition costing $70. If you buy the game

[07:13] physically at launch, you'll acquire the day one edition which includes a steelbook case and a physical copy of the world map. The $80 digital deluxe edition includes a digital soundtrack, compendium, and comic book. For $200,

[07:27] you can get the physical collector's edition which bundles all the items of the digital deluxe and day one editions along with a sticker set, a physical version of the compendium, and a 9-in Cohen statue. [music] Pre-ordering any

[07:42] edition will unlock the Scion Golem Wayfarer's armor set early. And that's everything [music] you need to know about the Blood of Dawn Walker. For more on the game, including our eventual review, stay right here on GameSpot.