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 a few 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 a few of the limitations 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 monumental 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 totally beneath 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 by a collection of unlucky occasions, is contaminated with vampirism and begins practising the darkish artwork of witchcraft on the identical day. Powerful break! Naturally, you set out on a roughly 40-hour quest for revenge in opposition to these evil bloodsuckers, utilizing your distinctive skills 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 fundamental, Dawnwalker excels within the telling, with a forged of extraordinarily well-written characters throughout the board, a world that’s stuffed with extra mysteries than you may ever hope to uncover throughout your time-constrained journey, and a few weirdly spectacular arguments for why possibly vampires ought to be accountable for 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 educating me latin and magic or shamelessly flirting with me. In the meantime, Crake, the insurgent chief with an inclination to be heinously merciless in service of the trigger, and Lacra, an allied vampire who casually dedicated struggle crimes half the time I frolicked along 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 finest and most unusual 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 all the pieces you do modifications relying on the time of day. For instance, in your human type you’ll guzzle down meals and drugs to heal your self, battle with swords and a fistful of witchcraft spells, and transfer across the quaint method by operating, leaping, climbing, and whatnot. As a vampire, all that meals and drugs is totally ineffective to you and your well being can solely be restored by consuming blood, plus you’ll primarily struggle together with your naked claws and acquire a complete 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 proud of, Dawnwalker requires you to take care of 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 skills centered round feeding off enemies to repeatedly restore my well being, and I sought out as many objects as doable that elevated my claw injury to show myself into an unkillable unarmed freak of nature. In the meantime, my human construct primarily relied on excessive threat/excessive reward spells that put a complete bunch of nasty standing results on my foes at the price of draining my very own life and making me fairly squishy. These two extraordinarily other ways to play meant I used to be virtually sitting ahead throughout fight. Better of all, every of those loadouts is stored separate and robotically toggled between while you change varieties, so that you don’t should manually swap out all of your armor and weapons twice a day.
Talking of preventing, you’ll be doing fairly a little 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 little bit of a steep studying curve I think shall be equally divisive. The principle method through which it units itself aside from most RPGs of this type is that it makes use of a directional parry system the place you need to match the course the enemy is swinging, which kinda jogged my memory of For Honor. It’s also possible to simply block assaults like regular, however doing so is pretty impractical (not less than on increased difficulties) because it drains your stamina and doesn’t present the openings for counterattacks which might be so important to success.
It sounds easy, nevertheless it took me longer than I’d prefer to admit to really feel comfy with it. The primary handful of hours had been pretty irritating, and I steadily discovered myself fumbling by 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 capable of 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 issue, so it’s fairly doable I used to be simply making issues particularly onerous on myself and also you’ll have a better time from the bounce.)
Other than parrying, although, you’ll be utilizing a fairly acquainted bag of tips for an motion sport like this, with a mixture of normal assaults, particular maneuvers which might be particular to whichever weapon you’ve obtained outfitted, and a bunch of skills you’ll be able to activate on a cooldown. Naturally, all of this can differ relying on whether or not or not you’re in human or vampire type, which fits a great distance towards preserving issues from getting too repetitive. For instance, as a human, I fancied standing impact spells that drained well being and shocked enemies at the price of my very own life power, however as a vampire, I’d pummel issues mercilessly with my naked fingers and banshee shriek in my enemy’s face if I used to be feeling cheeky.
That mentioned, these bouts positively have some comparatively minor however fairly apparent locations they might enhance. For instance, the lock-on perform constantly gave me bother when attempting to focus on a selected enemy, and it stayed annoying irrespective of how lengthy I practiced with it. The digital camera may additionally get caught in odd spots in a method that was equally aggravating. And whereas the number of enemies you encounter is fairly good total, the extra frequent beasts you run into within the wild, like wolves and boars, seem method too steadily – by the tip of my time with Coen, I used to be totally pissed off on the mere sight of the overpopulated canines.
Whereas adventuring out on the planet, sure actions are solely accessible at particular occasions of day. For instance, you’ll want entry to your vampire type’s superior motion capabilities as a way 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 accessible in human type. However even actions accessible at any time, like most aspect quests, can have drastically completely different outcomes relying on which type you’re taking. Some characters shall be much less prone to belief you in the event you work together with them in vampire type, whereas some areas is perhaps inaccessible in the event you select to deal with it whereas human. In the event you actually muck issues up, your character would possibly simply straight up homicide a brilliant necessary 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.
Probably the most attention-grabbing side of The Blood of Dawnwalker’s day/evening cycle is the way it ties the passage of time to particular actions you’re taking, supplying you with a finite period of time to finish your overarching quest. After the story’s opening chapter, you’ll have precisely 30 days to carry Brencis’ rule to an finish, and that deadline is stressfully enforced as virtually each motion you’re taking prices a sure period 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 a substitute, time is handled as a useful resource: wish to purchase the subsequent stage in a specific talent? Effectively, along with the talent factors required, you’ll additionally should pay the rather more pricey value of the hours it takes you to coach in it. Need to assist that outdated man along with his minor downside since you’re roleplaying as a very good particular person? Wonderful! Go proper forward… however that’s one fewer phase of time you’ve obtained to probably full a extra substantial sidequest.
At first I assumed I’d 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 rapidly realized how treating time as a forex makes nearly each side of Dawnwalker higher. Irrespective of how onerous you strive, you received’t have sufficient hours to finish each aspect quest, purchase each talent, or tie up each free finish in addition to you’d like, which implies you’re compelled to compromise, choose your battles, and make onerous however impactful selections virtually consistently. For instance, early on in my travels, I talked my method into a jail camp to get some intel from a prisoner there, one I might have gone out of my option to rescue beneath regular circumstances. However after I noticed that it might price me three pips of time to take action (every day has 16 whole), I made a decision to go away 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 necessary stuff, and I commonly discovered myself shocked at my very own selections. Fittingly, it made me really feel like I actually was letting the darkness of my new vampiric skills compromise my humanity in my quest for revenge. It’s brutal, nerve-wracking, and utterly superior.
This harrowing time-crunch finally has a fairly monumental influence on how your journey ends as properly. I received’t spoil something, however alternate endings will solely speak in confidence to you in the event you’ve met sure characters or taken particular actions. On my first playthrough, there have been complete supporting characters and story elements I utterly missed out on, and I didn’t notice the scope of what I hadn’t seen till I took a wholly completely different method on my second playthrough. In a 3rd (a lot shorter) playthrough, I simply went for a brute power method to see what would occur if I rushed straight to the tip with out assembly anybody whereas leveling up as little as doable, and I used to be not dissatisfied by the hilarious end result. That is a kind of video games the place I not solely wished to play by a number of occasions, nevertheless it virtually felt necessary as a way to see all the pieces Vale Sangora had in retailer. I can’t keep in mind the final time I’ve felt that method about an RPG.
One factor I usually fear about with open-world RPGs is simply how unhealthy their efficiency and technical bugs is perhaps, and The Blood of Dawnwalker fortunately finds itself on the much less egregious aspect of the spectrum. Positive, on a normal PlayStation 5 it’s obtained the occasional framerate wonkiness, the digital camera generally clips by stuff in awkward methods, and an enemy will often go proper by the ground while you kill it – however virtually all the pieces I noticed like that was fairly minor and unusual, and I by no means had a single onerous crash, damaged questline, or anything 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 occasionally. Importantly, the model I performed didn’t embody 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 normally appeared and ran properly sufficient anyway.