First Impressions: The Blood of Dawnwalker

New games come out all the time. Sometimes it’s hard to fight the urge to get every new thing that drops, but with new games starting around $70, you really need to pick and choose.

Sometimes I make the mistake of picking something up just because I am “in the mood” for it. I think Marvel Tokon was that for me recently. I just really wanted to play a fighting game, but I absolutely should not have paid full price ($60) for that. I should have gotten an older fighting game or waited for the price to drop.

But that’s beside the point. I am here to tell you about something I am currently playing—and loving.

It’s called The Blood of Dawnwalker.

It’s a new RPG created by a team that includes developers who previously worked on The Witcher 3, and you can feel that inspiration oozing from the game at every turn. From the camera angle to the combat, it’s quite impressive.

But it also holds its own identity so well.

You play as Coen of Laslea, who is turned into a vampire and has 30 days to save his family. There’s a lot of setup to the story, and it took me about two to three hours to get through the prologue. So far, it’s truly the best new title I have played in ages.

A lot of times nowadays, you’re given remakes or sequels to literally everything. We are literally on Toy Story 5! Don’t get me wrong, I complain, but I still consume them. I love a good sequel, but I LOVE an original idea so much more. I think it’s part of why the movie Obsession did so well (along with Inde Navarrette’s performance).

Combat may be my favorite part.

It’s kind of like For Honor, where the combat is directional, but you’re fighting like a normal RPG where the NPCs don’t really hold back. So, you’re balancing multiple enemies coming at you from all different directions.

You mix that with witchcraft and vampire skills that you unlock throughout the game, and you can really build out your character however you please. I remember in The Witcher, I was the type of player who never really used spells. You can do that here too. Maybe you spec all the way into vampire abilities. Maybe you go all-in on witchcraft.

Either way, choice is the entire point of this game.

Choice is found at every corner. Like I mentioned earlier, you have a 30-day time limit to kill the leader of the vampires, Brencis, and save your family. Every mission, shrine you fix, and even certain skills you spec into can move time forward.

You literally cannot finish every mission and make every decision in one play-through.

Your choices throughout the game affect the outcome of the story. The developers have even stated that choices made in this game will carry over into the next, and so on and so forth.

In a drought of unoriginal games, I truly love this title, and I cannot wait to continue playing.

So far, I can say it’s money well spent—at least for me.