The review embargo for former vampire ARPG The Blood of Dawnwalker has shriveled up, and in its place has arrived a respectable gush of primarily positive ratings. The game’s creative director and former CD Projekt Red lead Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz can finally relax.
He writes on Twitter, “Waiting for the reviews to come in has been nerve wrecking to say the least, but they’re finally (mostly) here!” The Blood of Dawnwalker reviews began marching out on August 31, ahead of the game’s September 3 launch. “Great relief, can’t wait to see you all play the game and to hear your thoughts!”
GamesRadar+ gave the open-world bleak fantasy game a cautious three-star rating in our The Blood of Dawnwalker review, in which our games editor Oscar Taylor-Kent writes, “For an RPG that keeps telling me that it matters I’ve been cursed to be a vampire, and constantly has a clock hanging over my every move, The Blood of Dawnwalker feels too frictionless and forgiving once you get used to its almost theme park-like static nature.”
The Blood of Dawnwalker currently sits at an honorable 83 score on Metacritic, placing it just slightly behind The Witcher (86 score) and about 10 feet away from another one of Tomaszkiewicz’s projects, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (92 score). Tomaszkiewicz was a lead quest designer on The Witcher 3, plus he directed Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales and co-directed fan-favorite Gwent: The Witcher Card Game.
So it’s understandable why our GamesRadar+ review of The Blood of Dawnwalker also notes that “much of The Blood of Dawnwalker feels like The Witcher 3 to control”; developer Rebel Wolves was founded by The Witcher 3 director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz, too. So the two games’ histories are as fused together as bat wings, and Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz seems rightfully glad about it.
The creative director continues to say on Twitter, “It’s a privilege to work with such a talented Team.”
“Every shipped game is a small miracle,” Tomaszkiewicz adds in another Twitter post. And as long as that miracle isn’t topped with garlic or holy water, The Blood of Dawnwalker should be able to take its solid reviews and make the most of it.