Rebel Wolves — a studio formed by developers who worked on The Witcher 3 — released an extended gameplay walkthrough this week for The Blood of Dawnwalker, their dark‑fantasy action RPG due in 2026. The 30‑minute video crystallises the project’s ambitions: a tightly timed narrative sandbox that blends Witcher‑style investigation and writing with supernatural mobility, brutal melee combat and a day‑and‑night split that can change a quest’s entire outcome.
Two faces of Coen: day sleuth, night predator
You play as Coen, a charismatic but taciturn protagonist who is human by day and vampiric by night. During daylight hours Coen fights with sword and hexes, interrogates townspeople, traces clues using a Witcher‑like “senses” system and makes deductions to advance objectives. After dusk he becomes faster, gains claw attacks, wall‑walking and short teleports between rafters — abilities that let players bypass combat or approach objectives from unexpected angles.
The footage demonstrates both approaches on a single cathedral quest: a daytime path that resembles a classic investigation and pitched fight, and a night route where Coen climbs rooftops, blinks between beams and slips into the library from above, entirely avoiding the climactic boss shown earlier in the video. That elastic reactivity — where the same objective can be resolved by stealth, combat, parkour or preemption — is the feature most reviewers flagged as potentially special.
Time as a resource: 30 days, hourglasses and meaningful tradeoffs
A core hook is a 30‑day in‑game timer: Coen has 30 in‑world days (and nights) to save his family. But the clock isn’t a real‑time countdown. Rebel Wolves treats time like currency: exploration is free, while resolving major quests or making key decisions advances the calendar. The walkthrough shows an interface that pauses time within discrete periods until players choose to end the period by interacting with hourglass markers, and the game indicates how many days an action will cost before you commit.
That design aims to sustain urgency without punishing players who value sidestories. Reviewers note the tradeoffs are deliberate — help a village and push the main objective closer to disaster, or hoard days and risk being underprepared — and that those choices shape the version of Coen you play.
Combat, traversal and investigation: familiar mechanics, new spins
The game wears its influences openly. The investigation UI, the sepia‑tinted clue mode and some of the town aesthetics echo The Witcher 3; combat shows directional blocks, execution moves and a Sekiro‑style parry. At night, vampiric powers supplement melee with mobility, sustain and lethal finishing moves — including grisly dismemberments that made an impression in the footage.
New or distinct touches include a limited “hex” that lets Coen converse with certain corpses, and a system that tracks Notoriety: leaving sentries in pieces can increase guard presence in settlements. Players must also manage Coen’s thirst for blood — neglect it and his behaviour can become unpredictable. The hourglass/time‑cost UI and the split‑playday design together aim to force players into meaningful decisions rather than letting the world wait while they clear every side marker.
A reactive world — and the risks of high ambition
One of the most promising aspects shown is how choices ripple through the game: an elder vampire you kill early can simply be absent from later story beats; quests can be skipped or resolved in multiple ways; timed dialogue and timed decisions appear in some exchanges. That kind of reactivity is rare at scale and, if maintained across a full release, could distinguish Dawnwalker from other open‑world RPGs.
But reviewers also raised cautions. Some noted limited dialogue options in the walkthrough and questioned whether the branching will remain deep beyond the demo moments. Others flagged the protagonist’s understated personality and wondered if Coen will feel compelling across 30 days of play. And any ambitious, systemic design carries the usual risk of bugs or balance issues before launch — a concern given the game's scope and the developer founders’ high pedigree.
Where it will appear and when
Rebel Wolves has slated The Blood of Dawnwalker for 2026 on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. No firm release date was announced in the gameplay reveal.
Why the game matters
The Blood of Dawnwalker is drawing attention for two reasons: its team’s roots in CD Projekt RED and for promising a compact, consequential open‑world experience that trades some of the usual open‑world sprawl for time‑limited, reactive storytelling. If Rebel Wolves can sustain the branching shown in the walkthrough across a full game — and polish the complex day/night and time‑cost systems — Dawnwalker could be a notable addition to modern action RPGs. If not, it could join a long list of ambitious indie and AA projects that overreach in scope.
For now the takeaway is straightforward: the game looks and sounds like a product of developers steeped in The Witcher’s design traditions, but it’s aiming to answer the old criticism of sprawling RPGs by turning time into a core design constraint. Expect more granular impressions as previews and hands‑on coverage arrive in the run‑up to its 2026 release.