The Blood of Dawnwalker, the new vampiric RPG from The Witcher 3 director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz and the team at Rebel Wolves, is finally releasing this week, and early reviews paint a bloody, but overall very positive, picture.
I’ve been following Blood of Dawnwalker very closely since its announcement and, having spoken with the devs myself and read countless encouraging hands-on previews, I’m not surprised to see it’s a hit with critics now that the full review embargo has lifted. As of now, it has a mightily impressive 83 score on Metacritic, which puts it just behind beloved RPGs like The Witcher 1 and 2.
For reference, The Witcher 3 still holds a sizeable lead on all of those games with a 92 Metascore, but it’s really not fair to compare any RPG to CD Projekt Red’s magnum opus.
While the overall reception to Blood of Dawnwalker is positive, several high-profile outlets with lower than average reviews are noteworthy. The GamesRadar+ Blood of Dawnwalker review is one such example, giving the game 3/5 stars and noting its “odd pacing” and “repetitive” quests while praising its combat and worldbuilding.
“The Blood of Dawnwalker is a freeform vampiric RPG that does everything possible to make its unusual time-based questing feel frictionless, resulting in an adventure that’s not as interesting as it feels like it should be,” reads our review. “Even vampiric abilities are defanged with little in the way of moral choices. More interesting for its folkloric world, this is an historic adventure that constantly stops me from getting immersed, though I’ll always love sucking blood.”
Likewise, Game Rant’s 6/10 review is highly complimentary of the RPG’s world and story, but critical of the level of jank and, echoing our review, the repetition of activities. That repetition critique is prevalent in Game Informer’s 7/10 review, which also takes off points for uneven mechanics, including the game’s central “time as a resource” clock system.
Again, the broader picture is a lot more positive. Vice awarded the game a perfect 10/10 review and called it “one of the best RPGs since The Witcher 3,” while IGN’s 9/10 review described it as the reviewer’s “new favorite vampire game and one of the best story-driven RPGs I’ve played in a long time.” Destructoid agreed, giving the game a 9.5/10 review and boldly calling it “the perfect game in almost every conceivable way.” GameSpot gave the game an 8/10 and lauded its “great writing” and “compelling” combat while noting technical issues and lack of distinction between vampire and human form.
Honestly, the fact that critics are somewhat split, but still largely in agreement that Blood of Dawnwalker is a quality RPG, makes me even more interested in Rebel Wolves’ debut release. Although universal acclaim rarely steers me wrong, it also raises my expectations to a level that can rarely be satisfied, whereas a healthy mix of reviews to me suggests a boldness that inevitably doesn’t work for everyone. All that said, there seems to be a consensus forming that Rebel Wolves built a compelling dark fantasy world with rich characters and a story that does the CDPR name justice, but perhaps with some jank and repetition that hold it back from being an instant classic.
The Blood of Dawnwalker releases September 3 for PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC.