Rebel Wolves’ The Blood of Dawnwalker has been making waves since its announcement in January 2025. Vampires have largely been lacking in representation in modern gaming (the Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines franchise notwithstanding). This new title from the brains behind CD Projekt Red’s The Witcher franchise is set to change that with an intriguing premise and excellent gameplay that are sure to appeal to fans of sanguine immortals.
The Blood of Dawnwalker’s common ground with The Witcher franchise is something that Rebel Wolves has certainly not tried to play down. Instead, the studio has welcomed comparisons with the vastly popular title while deftly positioning the new game as something that brings the best of Geralt’s sprawling adventures to a more condensed, quality-focused experience.
The Best of The Witcher in The Blood of Dawnwalker
Differentiating The Blood of Dawnwalker from The Witcher is no easy task, even with all the information the studio has already dropped about the upcoming epic. With The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt being one of the most iconic titles in modern gaming history, Rebel Wolves’ handling of the two games’ similarities showcases their love for what they have achieved in the past while also shining a spotlight on their enthusiasm for the future.
Both titles feature a protagonist with superhuman powers stemming from a painful, almost traumatic past. Both titles are set in medieval Europe and feature a lot of architectural references to its rich and varied history. Both titles feature antagonists whose motives take players to morally grey areas as opposed to the more traditional black-and-white presentation that other RPGs tend to follow. And most importantly, they share a creative team that treats their titles as a labor of love as opposed to profit-making machines.
However, a recent interview with Rebel Wolves’ creative director Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz showcases how the studio is less focused on creating a massive open world this time around but is instead focused on crafting an experience that is as memorable as The Wild Hunt in terms of its narrative, visuals, and playability.
A Quicker Path to Immortality
Considering the undeniable quality of The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt, it is heartening to see how Tomaszkiewicz and the Rebel Wolves team are focused on delivering a more focused experience this time around with The Blood of Dawnwalker’s main premise facilitating their mission to create a game that matches its past inspirations in quality while doing away with its length.
There is no denying that The Wild Hunt was a massive title that requires hours of exploring in order to fully experience all that CD Projekt Red thought to include in The Continent’s impressive maps. However, the title’s strength was also its weakness with many players missing out on a lot of its well-crafted side missions and content that added to the experience instead of taking away from it through the inclusion of repetitive missions and content.
However, The Blood of Dawnwalker is set to address that very problem with an experience that is more manageable but on par with The Wild Hunt’s quality. It helps that Rebel Wolves is a comparatively smaller studio focused on making games that are innovative and entertaining to its players.
Tomaszkiewicz’s assertion about the game’s smaller scale is a testament to that approach, clearly showcasing the respect that Rebel Wolves has for its inspirations while underlining its commitment to bringing similar levels of quality to the table. He showcased this in his reply during an interview with GamesRadar:
“Definitely, our games are not as huge in terms of amount of content and gameplay hours – we are a smaller studio, this is our first project, so we definitely are building something smaller. But we want to build something as robust in terms of quality, maybe a bit shorter.”
The Blood of Dawnwalker is sure to be a vampire-focused title like no other if its reveal trailer is anything to go by. While an official release date is still some time away, fans of The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt are sure to be keeping a close watch on the upcoming dark-fantasy RPG with all the confidence that Rebel Wolves’ illustrious ranks are sure to inspire.
For more Thumb Wars Gaming coverage, check out how The Blood of Dawnwalker looks to other great games for inspiration or how one of its gameplay mechanics justifies the shorter playtime it brings to the table.
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With a passion for gaming that is equaled only by his love for writing, Varun has either a controller, keyboard, or a guitar in his hands when he is not out exploring the middle of nowhere on a motorcycle. Soulslikes, RPGs, and action-adventure titles keep him awake at night and get him out of bed in the morning. He will never stop lamenting the lack of a Bloodborne sequel even as he spends another couple of hours exploring the Lands Between in Elden Ring.
