The Blood of Dawnwalker Review – Xbox Series X

New developer outfit Rebel Wolves steps into the RPG arena with a clear statement of intent – taking the dark fantasy blueprint and twisting it into a sharp and monstrous experience with The Blood of Dawnwalker.

Released in September 2026, this blood-soaked adventure drops you into Vale Sangora, a fictional 14th-century region in the Carpathian Mountains, where vampires rule the isolated area and offer desperate citizens salvation from the plague and taxes in exchange for a monthly blood tithe.

Story

The narrative hooks immediately – Coen is a poverty-stricken young man from the village of Laslea whose life is torn apart when vampires descend on his home. During the attack, he is cursed by Brencis, a centuries-old vampire and former Roman senator who has seized control of the dying region.

The curse transforms Coen into a Dawnwalker, where he possesses the supernatural ferocity of a vampire alongside the feelings and connections of a human.

This grants him a distinct edge over traditional vampires who abandoned their humanity long ago. With Brencis taking his family captive, Coen is given exactly 30 days to prepare an assault and rescue them.

Once past the initial prologue, the game removes the training wheels and introduces a highly reactive world where every action – and inaction – carries tremendous weight.

Coen’s vampiric nature introduces an additional layer of brutal consequence. You can choose to feed on almost any NPC to replenish your strength. However, draining a merchant or a quest giver permanently removes them from the game, completely locking you out of their subsequent storylines.

Minor interactions also cascade in surprising ways. Aiding a villager early on might result in a heartwarming reunion later in the city. Conversely, ignoring a seemingly small plea for help can lead to discovering that character’s gruesome fate days later.

These decisions ripple outwards and culminate in one of multiple distinct endings – with no do-overs or New Game Plus (yet, the developers have confirmed an intent to add it!)to retread your steps…so choose wisely.

Gameplay

The 30-day countdown is arguably one of the game’s best – if somewhat divisive – mechanics. Time functions entirely as an action currency.

Free roaming in the open world costs absolutely no time, while taking on a major quest advances the clock. You are forced to choose carefully whom to help and whom to leave behind, as the world waits for no one, with consequences unfolding naturally without explicit warning prompts.

As the timer advances when you commit to major quests, choosing to help one faction often requires abandoning another.

For example, delaying a rescue mission in a local cave means you will likely arrive to find the captive already dead – lending real agency versus many an RPG that let you rescue cats from trees when there’s meant to be an earth-shattering cataclysm impending…

The day and night cycle also forces players to master two completely different combat loops. During sunlit hours, Coen relies on traditional swordplay and powerful magic. When the sun sets, his vampire form unlocks, trading steel for supernatural skills, claws, and rage. You can even transform into a wolf to quickly traverse the open world.

Audio and Performance

The world of Vale Sangora is alive with unsettling details. The breathtaking score is a collaborative masterpiece, leaning heavily on its Slavic roots and blending traditional medieval instrumentation with harsh atonal strings that swell dramatically during combat encounters.

Will de Renzy-Martin anchors the experience perfectly with his phenomenal voice acting performance as Coen, balancing world-weary cynicism with moments of genuine terror, and the supporting cast of desperate villagers and sinister lords delivers exceptional performances across the board.

For this review, we tested the game extensively on the Xbox Series X. As a title running on Unreal Engine 5, it offers two distinct visual modes but currently struggles with optimisation. The quality-focused mode prioritises resolution at 30 frames per second.

While it delivers a dense atmospheric picture full of volumetric fog, it suffers from open-world jank and uneven frame pacing. Alternatively, the performance mode aims for 60fps to flatter the fast-paced nighttime combat. This option requires heavy visual sacrifices and still frequently drops frames during dense forest exploration or heavy encounters, so opting for the former was our preference.

Editions and Extras

Players looking to dive deeper into the lore can pick up the Eclipse Edition.

Priced at £69.99, this deluxe tier is a digital-only bundle focused completely on world-building and avoids locking any gameplay systems behind a paywall.

Alongside the base game, it includes the Sangoran Wayfarer’s Armour Set as a cosmetic bonus, a digital comic book prequel, the full soundtrack, and a comprehensive digital world compendium, representing a very welcome approach to premium editions that still respect the core single-player experience.

Verdict

The Blood of Dawnwalker is a confident entry into the dark fantasy genre and an amazing effort for a first-time studio.

While Rebel Wolves is a new name, the team consists of industry veterans, including The Witcher 3 director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz, and it wears that pedigree firmly on its sleeve through every narrative beat.

That deep genre experience shines through in every facet of the world design, whilst the dual nature of the combat gives the gameplay real bite, and the strict time economy ensures every decision carries immense weight.

Despite some technical issues on console, The Blood of Dawnwalker remains a triumphant debut and a standout RPG for the current generation.