The Blood of Dawnwalker Doesn't Need to Be the Next Witcher 3

The Blood of Dawnwalker was probably doomed to be compared with The Witcher 3 from the moment Rebel Wolves announced it. The studio was founded by former CD Projekt Red developers, its dark medieval world is filled with monsters and morally questionable people, and even the structure of its quests carries some familiar DNA.

With release only two days away and reviews already arriving, those comparisons haven't disappeared. But they are becoming less useful. Dawnwalker certainly borrows from the kind of RPG its creators know extremely well, yet its best ideas suggest Rebel Wolves is already trying to build something of its own.

The Witcher DNA Is Impossible to Miss

Coen travels through a grim version of 14th-century Europe where supernatural creatures have become part of everyday misery. Villages hide ugly secrets, seemingly simple jobs can develop into larger stories, and conversations regularly force the player to make decisions without an obvious correct answer.

It is easy to understand why Geralt keeps entering the conversation. Dawnwalker is interested in many of the same things: complicated characters, local tragedies and quests where killing the monster isn't necessarily the most interesting part.

Even some reviewers have described the game in terms that will sound very familiar to Witcher fans. The world, investigation and quest design frequently feel closer to CD Projekt Red's RPGs than to the enormous checklist-driven open worlds that followed them. But familiarity is only the starting point.

Coen Is a Very Different Kind of Hero

Geralt enters most situations as an experienced professional. Coen doesn't have that luxury. He is caught between humanity and vampirism, and that condition changes what he can actually do.

During the day, he relies more heavily on conventional weapons and magic. At night, his vampire abilities transform movement, exploration and combat. The same problem can therefore look very different depending on when Coen decides to deal with it.

That duality gives Dawnwalker an identity beyond simply replacing witchers with vampires. Coen isn't hunting creatures from the outside. He is gradually becoming part of the supernatural world he is fighting against.

The World Doesn't Want You to See Everything

The biggest difference is structural. The Witcher 3 encouraged players to disappear into its world for as long as they wanted. Dawnwalker gives Coen 30 days to rescue his family and attaches a cost to many important actions.

That means quests aren't simply waiting in a journal until the player decides to clear them. Choosing one path can mean leaving another unexplored, and some stories can end without Coen ever becoming involved.

It is a risky idea because modern RPGs have trained players to expect access to almost everything in a single playthrough. Rebel Wolves is asking them to accept that missing content can be part of the story.

Ambition Comes With Rough Edges

The reviews also make clear that Dawnwalker isn't arriving as a flawless new RPG benchmark. Combat has received mixed reactions, some systems don't reach their full potential, and technical problems have been reported, particularly on PC.

That matters because expectations around the game have been enormous. Put “former Witcher developers” next to a dark fantasy RPG and comparisons with one of the genre's most celebrated games become almost impossible to control.

But Dawnwalker doesn't need to win that comparison to succeed. Its time system, day-and-night transformation and willingness to let players permanently miss parts of the story already give it ideas that belong to Rebel Wolves rather than CD Projekt Red.

The Witcher 3 spent years influencing what open-world RPGs became. The Blood of Dawnwalker is more interesting when it stops chasing that legacy and starts showing what those games could do differently.