Review

The Blood of Dawnwalker

A single-player dark fantasy action RPG in an open world, seen from behind the hero. You play Coen, who lives as a human by day and a vampire by night, and the choices you make along the way shape how the story unfolds. Expect swordplay, exploration and a brooding, atmospheric tone. Is it your kind of game?

Dark fantasyOpen worldVampiresXboxPCPlayStation

Games like The Blood of Dawnwalker

8/10

Game Avant verdict

A genuinely fresh vampire RPG whose day/night split and ticking clock make choices matter more than almost any open world released this decade, held back by simplistic combat and a back half that repeats itself.

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By GameAvant · Published Sep 26, 2026 · Updated Oct 9, 2026 · 14 min read

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IGDB

80%

25 ratings

Steam:

86%

18,149 reviews

Fits you if

you want a dark, story-driven action RPG with an atmospheric open world.

Skip it if

you want multiplayer or a light, breezy adventure.

Availability

Where to play

Steam

$69.99

Buy

Facts

Platforms: Xbox · PC · PlayStation
Release date: September 3, 2026
Length: About 41 hours
Difficulty: 3/5 (estimated)
Genres: Role-playing (RPG) · Adventure
Themes: Action · Fantasy · Open world
Perspective: Third person
Modes: Solo only
Languages: 3 languages
Text in your language: Yes
Steam Deck: Unsupported
Microtransactions: None

More about The Blood of Dawnwalker

The Blood of Dawnwalker is the debut release from Rebel Wolves, a Polish studio founded by former CD Projekt Red developers who spent years working on The Witcher 3, and it announces exactly how ambitious it intends to be within its opening hour: a plague-ravaged medieval valley, a vampire aristocracy that has fully replaced human rule over the region, and a hard, unforgiving deadline the player cannot simply ignore or work around. Published by Bandai Namco, it released on 3 September 2026 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC. The game plays as though its developers spent a decade watching open-world RPGs balloon toward hundred-hour completion times and specifically asked what would happen if a game made every single one of those hours feel like it genuinely cost the player something tangible, rather than simply accumulating toward an arbitrary total. The answer the studio landed on is a strict thirty-day countdown clock that never pauses for the player's convenience, running in the background of every decision from the opening hour onward. Protagonist Coen must save his family from a looming ritual sacrifice within that window, and the game splits every single day in half between two genuinely different characters: a human swordsman by daylight, constrained by ordinary mortal limitations, and a far more powerful vampire predator once night falls, capable of things the daytime version of Coen simply cannot attempt. That day-night split is not cosmetic. Quests, available paths, and even which NPCs are reachable change substantially depending on which version of Coen the player is currently controlling, which turns basic time management into one of the game's central strategic systems rather than a background clock ticking for flavor. What genuinely sets this apart from most open-world RPGs released this decade is how seriously the ticking clock makes every choice feel. Because thirty days is a hard, visible limit rather than an open-ended total, choosing to help one person directly costs the time that could have gone toward saving someone else, and the game is willing to let the player fail people they genuinely like as a direct consequence of earlier decisions, rather than quietly engineering a way for a sufficiently careful player to save everyone regardless of how they spent their time. That willingness to let failure be real and specific, rather than theoretical, is rare enough in the genre to be the game's single most distinctive achievement. The combat and the back half of the campaign are where the ambition noticeably cools. Combat itself stays relatively simple throughout, built around straightforward swordplay and vampire abilities that never develop the same depth the narrative structure does, and the game's second half leans on repeated mission structures and locations that start to feel familiar well before the thirty-day clock finally runs out. Those are real shortcomings for a studio's first release, not minor nitpicks, but they sit alongside a day-night split and a ticking deadline that make player choice matter more consistently than almost any open world released this decade, and that specific achievement is what earns The Blood of Dawnwalker its score despite the rougher edges surrounding it.

The thing you'll love. Or hate.

A clock that never stops

Two characters sharing one body

A dark, unglamorous vampire fantasy

Not quite for you?

Three alternatives, one line each on why.

Shorter

Similar, but noticeably shorter.

With co-op

Similar, but playable together.

Cheaper or free

Similar, for less money.

Frequently asked questions

How long is The Blood of Dawnwalker?: About 41 hours to finish the main story.
Which platforms is The Blood of Dawnwalker on?: The Blood of Dawnwalker is available on Xbox · PC · PlayStation.
Does The Blood of Dawnwalker have co-op?: No, The Blood of Dawnwalker is single-player only.
Does The Blood of Dawnwalker run on Steam Deck?: Unsupported
What does The Blood of Dawnwalker cost?: $69.99 on Steam.