The Blood of Dawnwalker, the game that dares ask "what if Geralt was Blade?", dropped an all-new 20 minute gameplay trailer over the weekend that adds an exciting new layer to the inquiry: What if Geralt was Blade, and they were also Corvo Attano?
That aspect of gameplay becomes apparent midway through the video, when night falls and Coen—the hero of the tale—turns from human to vampire, granting him new powers including one that's basically Blink, although in this game it's called Shadowstep. (You have to draw the line on these things somewhere.) Mobility is the name of the game for vampires: Coen "has many more exploration abilities at his disposal" at night, as design director Daniel Sadowski explains.
Which isn't to suggest he's a useless meatsack as a human. Coen is clearly handy with a sword, as evidenced by his daytime encounter with a group of over-eager bandits, and he also has access to what looks like some low-grade combat magic too—not signs, as Geralt throws around, but hexes, which do things like stun enemies or inflict some small amount of damage over time.
And while being a vampire clearly has some upsides, especially in a world where vampires are in charge, it's no guarantee of protection from an untimely demise, as seen at the end of the video when Coen gets popped like a zit by one of the game's bosses.
I don't think there's any denying that The Blood of Dawnwalker borrows heavily from other sources, but that's not necessarily a bad thing if it's done well—I can think of worse ways to spend my gaming time than blasting around a corrupt medieval world as turbocharged Wesley Snipes.
Be aware, though, that none of this is carved in stone: The video is taken from a "pre-beta" version of the game, and everything in it is subject to change, although the fact that developer Rebel Wolves is willing to show off this much of it suggests to me that no big overhauls are planned at this point.
Assuming all goes well, we'll see next year. The Blood of Dawnwalker (honestly, that's one thing I would change, to Blood of the Dawnwalker, maybe it's just me but that's how my brain parses it anyway) is set to arrive sometime in 2026.
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