The Blood of Dawnwalker is two RPGs in one, and it has me by the throat

There's something so alluring about a cathedral at night. Hallowed spaces meant for prayer and reflection, they almost take on a different form when the sun goes down, illuminated by flickering candlelight and oozing mystery. They're a reminder of times past, where belief in the supernatural was rife, be it vampires and werewolves, or ghosts and specters. If there's anywhere in the world where the veil feels thin, it's in a cathedral. In my Gamescom preview of The Blood of Dawnwalker, however, I see one of Vale Sangora's religious refuges in two different lights - literally. Once a monument to Christianity, during the day it's warped and twisted into a place of vampiric worship, while at night its eerie silence entices the creatures lurking in the shadows. In some ways, visiting during the day somehow feels worse.

Rebel Wolves' unique day/night system is a core part of The Blood of Dawnwalker. Put simply, during the day, our protagonist, Coen (the eponymous Dawnwalker), doesn't have access to his vampiric powers and instead can only use his sharpened fighting skills. At night, as the moon rises, the beast takes hold, granting him everything from superpowered jumps to bloodied, jagged claws that you can use to tear your foes asunder. The aforementioned church sequence is the perfect example: during the day, you peacefully approach the resident deacon in an attempt to find out more about a series of underground catacombs, while at night, you stealthily break and enter. During the day, the sun shines, and the villagers are out, with some of them even jostling for a fight. At night, however, there's a sense of deafening silence, and a single wrong step could end in hordes of guards descending with torches and pitchforks raised.

In many ways, it feels like Rebel Wolves has designed two completely different videogames - some elements of the combat carry across both day and night, but there are fundamental differences that make each feel unique. In a UK-exclusive interview with PCGamesN at Gamescom, I ask Rebel Wolves founder Konrad Tomaszkiewicz about the team's approach to Dawnwalker's design, and how they've grappled with ensuring that the time of day has a real impact.

"When I started this company, I said that I wanted to do some crazy stuff," Tomaszkiewicz says with a laugh. "The idea is that we don't want to just make another open-world, story-driven RPG; we want to evolve this genre and add something new. So we asked ourselves, 'what do we like in other RPGs, and what do we miss?' We figured out that we wanted to focus on the story and boost emotions, which is why we added the time limit to the game [the player has 22 days to find their missing family]. The time limit means that your emotions will be more intense as you know you're getting closer to something.

"Then we talked about creating a protagonist who is really unique that we haven't seen in pop culture before. We talked about many characters, and we thought, 'what would it be like if we had a protagonist that mirrors the world?' [Coen] is fragile during the day because he's human, but a beast at night. We thought that this character was so cool, but at the same time not overpowered - a lot of games make you feel like you're the GOAT. This led to the question, 'what should we do during the day and during the night?' We were really worried and scared about that because, when you start to think of it, it's two different games. But later on, we figured out that we can share some systems; we can build one combat system that is consistent, and then we can evolve it for the vampire and the human.

"We are all artists," he continues. "We want to create something that's fresh and that gives us the fuel and motivation - we know that designing these systems is hard, but then you evolve and your skills are better. We hope that what we've done here will inspire other companies to do something crazy, too."

And I'd argue that some "craziness" is needed right now. It's no secret that there's exhaustion around open-world RPGs. Many boast beautiful, sprawling settings, but they too often fall into the same 'go here, do this' routine. While Dawnwalker's day and night systems are a marked point of difference, it is an open-world game at its core, so I ask Tomaszkiewicz how the team plans to keep things interesting.

"We don't want to do repetitive activities," Tomaszkiewicz says, noting that the devs are constantly "iterating on the game" as it goes. "We're also all gamers; we've been playing everything that's been out there since the '90s. When I get the sense that something is becoming repetitive, we search for solutions - 'how do we make this unique?'"

Combat is one of the primary places where Rebel Wolves wants to channel that creativity. Tomaszkiewicz recalls looking at Batman: Arkham Asylum's combat, which he says "is in a lot of games. We liked the visuals, animations, and what was happening on-screen, but we didn't like the fact that it felt like we were watching a movie and weren't involved or immersed in what's happening. Then, on the other hand, games like Kingdom Come Deliverance and For Honor have directional combat and make you feel immersed, but their combat is quite difficult - you need to pay attention at all times. Our idea was to combine those two systems, which then allows you to choose how you want to play."

As demonstrated on a rather unfortunate group of bandits, skirmishes can play out in various ways, with slower, more methodical, block-centric combat for those who want to play a little safer (me), as well as more directional-focused and aggressive attacking for those who want to play faster, and hybrids that land somewhere in the middle. "We want to give you freedom of choice," he tells me. "We wanted to pull the videogame closer to the pen-and-paper tabletop RPGs. In our game, it's pre-defined content, but you choose how you do it."

There's a good deal of creativity to Dawnwalker's monsters, too, as on the surface it feels like a vampire-focused videogame, although one that's certainly more akin to the grit, grime, and gore of the Vampire: The Masquerade franchise versus Baldur's Gate 3's suave, flirtatious Astarion. Tomaszkiewicz is quick to clarify that Dawnwalker isn't about vampires, however, and that future installments in Rebel Wolves' dark fantasy saga may see other supernatural creatures take center stage.

"It's really important to note that our game is not a vampire game," Tomaszkiewicz stresses. "Our war contains a lot of different creatures of the night. In this origin story, we needed the vampires because Coen has this vampire nature, but when we're thinking about the saga, we'll include parts that are not about vampires at all, and are instead about other species. Our lore and our IP is so complex with its relationships between creatures of the night and humans that you'll feel that it isn't just a vampire game."

Dawnwalker is an undead chimera of all of the things I love. It's got the gothic moodiness of Bloodborne, the religious, rat-infested undertones of Plague Tale, and the supernatural elements of VTM and hardcore vampire media. Its day/night cycle and ever-changing combat are truly unique, and as a sucker for meaningful decision-making, its choice-driven narrative feels right up my alley. While I didn't get to go hands-on, I'm hopeful that Dawnwalker cures my aversion to all things open-world - it's saying all of the right things, but that's a big hurdle to vault. If it gets it right, though, Dawnwalker could be among the most special 'Witcher rivals' yet.