The new role-playing game from Rebel Wolves, the studio founded by the developers of Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077, asks a bold question: what if Geralt was a vampire?
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When Rebel Wolves announced their first project back in 2022, PC Gamer’s Rich Stanton said it gave him “strong vampire vibesWhen the studio revealed the game’s title and new concept art in 2024, I said it gave me “Very strong vampire vibesToday we watched the debut cinematic trailer for Dawn Walker, and I’m very pleased to say: we were right.
Blood of Dawnwalker, as the game is now called, takes place in 14th-century Europe, amid a merciless war and the Black Death—not a good time for humanity. Sensing an opportunity, the vampires make a move to seize power, prompting other “creatures of the night” to do the same. One of these beings is you, a young man named Koen who has been transformed into a Dawnwalker, but may not be ready to fully embrace this lifestyle.
“Fight for your humanity or embrace cursed powers to save your family,” website at dawnwalkergame.com speaks. “Whatever your choice, the question remains: is your soul worth the lives of those you love?”
Ah, but that doesn’t necessarily mean all vampires are bad: “Fight your enemies—be they humans, monsters, or the ticking clock itself. But remember, true evil can bask in the sunlight, and its most trusted allies can lurk under the cover of darkness.”
Rebel Wolves is led by Konrad Tomaszkiewicz, who previously served as Game Director on The Witcher 3 and Head of Production on Cyberpunk 20777, and before that as Lead Quest Designer on The Witcher 2 and Story Designer on The Witcher. This background is actually visible in this video, which could very well be a trailer for The Witcher; Cohen himself essentially appears to be a young Geralt, given great powers through nasty supernatural rituals that have stripped him of most of his humanity – or maybe not!
Implied moral ambiguity –evil in the light of day, friends in the dark– obviously not unique to The Witcher, but certainly a central part of it: remember that one of Geralt’s best friends is a high vampire who wouldn’t be at all out of place eating poor soldiers in this video. Even the phrase “the world needs what it fears” is an imitation of Andrzej Sapkowski’s fantasy stories, set in a world that needs witchers but clearly doesn’t like them.
But even if The Blood of Dawnwalker doesn’t look like it’s going to set new standards for original ideas, I’m sold on the concept and am eager to learn more about how it will actually be executed. We’ll have to wait for that, though: Rebel Wolves said in a live stream today that the gameplay reveal will happen sometime this summer.