by Game of Review Team · published 2026-09-23 · updated 2026-09-23
A vampire with a deadline
The Blood of Dawnwalker is the debut game from Rebel Wolves, a studio founded by veterans of The Witcher and Cyberpunk 2077, and it's been sitting near the top of Steam's best-seller and trending lists since it launched on September 2, 2026. It's an open-world dark fantasy action RPG set in 14th-century Europe, and it sold over a million copies in its first three days out, which is not nothing for a new IP without a decade of built-in fans.
Sword by day, fangs by night
You play Coen, a Dawnwalker: human during the day, vampire at night, and mechanically the game leans hard into that split. Daylight hours are about directional sword combat and magic, while night unlocks vampiric tricks like wall-climbing and short-range teleportation. The whole story runs on a 30-day in-game clock to rescue Coen's family, though exploring and side content don't burn through the timer, only story-critical quests do.
What critics keep pointing out
- Non-linear structure, so which quests you chase actually shapes how the story ends
- Strong writing and dialogue, in keeping with the team's Witcher pedigree
- The day/night clock is either tense or barely felt, depending on who you ask
- Some technical rough edges and thin enemy variety noted in reviews
How it's landing
Reviews have been generally favorable: Metacritic has it around 83-84 on PC and PS5 and 88 on Xbox Series X/S, and OpenCritic shows roughly 93 percent of critics recommending it. It's priced at $69.99 for the standard edition on Steam, with a $79.99 Eclipse Edition that adds digital extras. Rebel Wolves was reportedly already hiring for a sequel within a week of launch.
Who it's for: anyone who wants a Witcher-shaped open-world RPG with a genuinely different combat hook, and who doesn't mind a ticking clock nudging them to actually make decisions instead of hoovering up every side quest.