The Blood of the Dawnwalker is a gripping new role player game in the vein of CD Projekt Red’s Witcher series. The game was developed by Rebel Wolves, a studio in Warsaw headed by a number of former CD Projekt Red developers, and features many of the hallmarks that made the Witcher games memorable — from quests that involve detective legwork to interacting with characters whose motivations are unclear. Flowing through it is an Eastern European spirit alert to human failings, comfortable with moral opacity and matter of fact about sex.
Set in a secluded region near the Carpathian Mountains, the game opens during the Black Death in the 14th century. (The setting draws inspiration from Barbara Tuchman’s historical survey “A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century.”) Coen, a young man carrying his plague-infected sister, is set upon by soldiers charged with killing anyone who shows signs of infection. But the siblings are saved by Brencis, an elder vampire, who slaughters the armed men, and then later, with the assistance of his lieutenants, takes over the area. In return for expelling war, pestilence and tax collectors, Brencis imposes a blood covenant upon the people, forcing them to attend a vampire Mass on full moon nights; to drink his blood, which cures diseases; and to offer up a measured portion of their own in return. A critique of organized religion runs throughout the game. For anyone familiar with Poland’s history with the church — which stomped out the country’s older pagan faiths and, at different times, supported liberationist and repressive regimes — the historical allusions are obvious.
Jakub Szamalek, the narrative director on The Blood of the Dawnwalker, told me, “We do have a history of being subjected to violent power, and that interplay between power and violence was one of the themes that I wanted to explore.” Given the immiseration of Europeans in the 14th century, caused by violent turmoil and ominpresent illness, Szamalek found it challenging to try to create a scenario that could possibly be worse. “One of the questions that we ask to the player as they’re exploring this world is: Is this system worse than what these people had before?” he said. Returning to what is distinctly Polish in the game, there is “an undercurrent of pessimism about how things play out,” Szamalek said.
“I think that dark premonition that history doesn’t coddle and that few people live up to their promising reputations,” he added, “is something that we drink with our mother’s milk, you know?”
Smarting beneath the yolk of the vampires, Coen joins a group of rebels looking to overthrow their oppressors, but their efforts are roundly quashed. Amid the fray, Brencis — for his own cryptic reasons — attacks Coen and turns him into a vampire without him realizing it. An example of the game’s crafty storytelling occurs when Coen gathers himself up after losing consciousness and looks for survivors among his comrades. Coming upon a bloodied combatant, he loses control and drinks his companion’s blood. A tutorial screen then informs you that if Coen’s vampiric health falls below a certain threshold he may lose control while talking to someone — even a friend — and drain their blood, which can abruptly end a quest line.
Coen has 30 days to save his family before Brencis kills them as a part of a coronation ceremony. (The time constraint lends a feeling of urgency to Coen’s quest, addressing a failing of other R.P.G.s that give the player an all-important mission, but then encourage mucking around to your heart’s content.) For reasons that are later revealed, Coen is a dawnwalker, a rarity among vampires; when the sun rises, he reverts back to human. With the memory of Coen gorging on his companion in my head, I dreaded the first few nights in the game. I salute the developers for putting me in this head space since it synced perfectly with Coen’s misgivings over his condition. Yet, as time wore on, I came to relish the onset of night because Coen’s vampire form presents a more formidable foe to his opponents with its added health and special abilities such as Scarlet Shield, which allows you to recover some health upon executing a perfect block on an incoming attack.
The Blood of the Dawnwalker is truly elevated by its quest lines and intriguing characters. The Night of Horrors, for example, is a particularly memorable mission. On the hunt for a lost treasure, Coen accompanies a discreet, domineering vampire named Lacra into a swamp where they must entice will-o’-the-wisps (spectral lights) to guide them to their goal by offering up stories of their greatest emotional sufferings. I contend that the sign of a quality R.P.G. is how much it makes you long for the next conversation rather than the next fight, and in that respect The Blood of the Dawnwalker delivers handsomely.
The Blood of the Dawnwalker was reviewed on the PC. Also available on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.
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