The Blood of Dawnwalker Preview: My Most Anticipated Game of 2026 Just Arrived

Rebel Wolves’ debut title, The Blood of Dawnwalker, easily boasts the potential to join the likes of The Last of Us Part I, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, or Red Dead Redemption, to name just a few, as a certified modern classic. This statement shouldn’t come as a total surprise; Rebel Wolves was founded by former CD Projekt RED developers after all. Even without a released game on its roster, AAA game development is in Rebel Wolves’ lifeblood. That’s not, however, a guarantee for a surefire debut hit. After having attended a hands-off presentation for The Blood of Dawnwalker, though, at this year’s Gamescom, I can safely say that the Poland-based studio is cooking up something very, very special.

The Blood of Dawnwalker is a dark fantasy, open-world RPG set within a fictional gothic 14th century kingdom known as Vale Sangora, inspired by the real topography of the Carpathian Mountains. Within it, you’ll play as Coen, a young man turned ‘dawnwalker’, a rare being who treads both the human and vampiric realms, tasked with saving his family within a 30-day time frame.

I want to make it clear, first and foremost, that The Blood of Dawnwalker is most certainly more than just ‘The Witcher with vampires’, a tagline many have adopted online. Ahead of attending this preview, I was intrigued by what the game seemingly had to offer; I’m a sucker for a game - linear or open-world - that’s driven by a strong story. It seemed abundantly clear to me that that’s what The Blood of Dawnwalker would entail. Coen’s vampiric and human duality offered an additional appeal, and early trailers teased adept RPG mechanics. What my time with Rebel Wolves’ developers highlighted though is that The Blood of Dawnwalker is by no means a run-of-the-mill RPG. It’s one packed to the rafters with great ambition and originality.

There are two key mechanics in the game which tie into this. The first relates to Coen’s identity. As I mentioned, he’s a dawnwalker, essentially meaning that he inhabits both the human and vampiric worlds. This doesn’t just widen Coen’s available skillset; it makes for a game experience that is completely different from one playthrough to the next. Tackling quests during the day as a human will see them unfold differently to if you attempt them at night using your vampire abilities.

For example, the segment of the game that I saw play out featured a mission in which Coen had to infiltrate a cathedral in search of information on a saint integral to the surrounding town’s history. First, the level was played through at night. Via this approach, acquiring the intel depended more on platforming and exploration. Coen made use of his shadow-step to gain access to the rafters of the cathedral, avoiding the vampiric cultists who had gathered in the nave below.

The Blood of Dawnwalker, Credit / Bandai Namco

During the daytime, the cathedral operated as you might expect, catering to the local human townsfolk. In this iteration of the quest, Coen lacked the shadow-step he gains at night. Instead, in order to acquire the information he sought, he was tasked with locating the cathedral’s caretaker by the Dean. While I won’t divulge precisely what followed, the quest did see us fend off a grisly undead being and communicate with one of its victims via a necromantic spell.

While both versions of the quest got us from point A to point B, they did so in totally different ways adding immense replayability to The Blood of Dawnwalker. I can’t stress how distinctly different these two approaches felt - and to my understanding, this duality applies to all quests throughout the game. When you step back and think about the scale of what that looks like in practice, I can only admire the ambition.

It’s not the game’s only unique quirk. The Blood of Dawnwalker’s progress centres around a time mechanic. Interestingly, while priding itself on its story-driven formula, The Blood of Dawnwalker’s quests can actually be attempted in any order which, admittedly, is unusual. You may then be wondering how pace or progress is tracked or maintained. Well, that comes in the form of a time mechanic as Coen has just 30 days to locate and save his family.

When that was first explained to me, it rang an alarm bell; I don’t like playing games against a clock, but that’s not at all what’s happening in The Blood of Dawnwalker. There’s no real-world time limit on this game. Essentially, ‘main quests’ will chip away at Coen’s 30 day countdown. When you do reach one of these quests, that’ll be made clear with the UI informing you that this will see Coen’s remaining time lessened by, say, two hours. Completing all of the game’s main quests, and therefore ‘running out of time’ will trigger the game’s culmination, so you should really think of the time mechanic simply as a way to track your completion percentage.

The Blood of Dawnwalker, Credit / Bandai Namco

It’s a really interesting idea as while the player ultimately retains control of time, only running out when all main content has been completed, it still creates a sense of urgency and I think that’s crucially required when developers are essentially allowing players to meander as they please. I will add that it was stressed to me that both side quests and exploration will not affect the countdown, so you retain ultimate freedom in those departments.

There are other factors playing into my hope. The Blood of Dawnwalker graphically is looking wonderful, despite Unreal Engine 5 often yielding mixed results, plus what I saw of the sword-based human combat looked compellingly fluid. Already, developers have taken on early trailer feedback about the camera’s positioning, adding new options to cater to those who both wish the camera to be attached to Coen’s shoulder or positioned slightly further away. A quick-swap weapons wheel was also highlighted, as was the real-time nature of this, with combat simply entering a brief slow-mo period as players change weapons on the fly.

At this stage, there’s little to dampen my spirits when it comes to The Blood of Dawnwalker. In a year that already promises to bring us GTA VI, Fable, and Resident Evil Requiem, it’s a testament to the game’s ambition that it’s just usurped them all to become my most hotly anticipated title of 2026. Rebel Wolves hasn’t just used its AAA experience to adapt the modern RPG formula; it’s seemingly created something altogether unique that’ll surely make a mark if it sticks the landing upon release.

The Blood of Dawnwalker is scheduled to launch in 2026 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.