The Blood of Dawnwalker Director Backs Full Evil Playthroughs, Urges Players Not to Reload After Bad Choices

Yesterday was a big day for Rebel Wolves and their debut game, the open world action RPG The Blood of Dawnwalker. The Polish studio unveiled the game's release date (September 3) and the detailed PC system requirements.

Moreover, in an aftershow Q&A, Creative Director Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz provided new information about the game. For example, he confirmed that full evil playthroughs will be possible, thanks to the ability to kill most NPCs without causing a game over.

Evil run. Generally speaking, you can kill off the majority of NPCs. Maybe not every single one; there are specific cases where, for narrative cohesion, we had to limit that. But we tried to make sure you can kill off most NPCs if you want to, and the main story handles it: you get different outcomes, different endings for different plot lines. It was actually a big point of discussion in the studio: "Is this true to Coen? Would he do these things?" But it's always this tug of war between player agency and narrative cohesion of the character. We believe we managed to satisfy both, but because of our narrative sandbox approach, we leaned more toward player agency most of the time. I really want to see evil Coen playthroughs and see how people react.

We already knew from our own Gamescom 2025 interview with Tomaszkiewicz that giving in to Coen's vampiric side would have an impact on the main character, but the confirmation that full evil playthroughs are available sets The Blood of Dawnwalker apart from The Witcher III: Wild Hunt, the game that many Rebel Wolves developers previously worked on. Geralt is an amazing character, but since he was already established in Sapkowski's books, CD Projekt RED could not give the player full agency to do as they pleased.

In the interview, Tomaszkiewicz also recommended playing The Blood of Dawnwalker multiple times due to its many branching paths. He also advised sticking with what happens rather than reloading just because you didn't like how a specific choice turned out:

There are definitely a lot of ways it can branch for different players. I also think there are patterns in how players behave: even when given freedom, you observe people repeating similar choices. But I believe a lot of people will replay the game multiple times to find the different paths and experiment. I really recommend playing with the consequences you get and not reloading. Speaking from personal experience, playing games like Baldur's Gate 3 and sticking with what happened, even bad rolls, is just way more fun because you get a truly unique playthrough. The game is built in a way that allows for a lot of different experiences. Even the main goal can be completed in multiple, vastly different ways. Some major plot lines you might miss out on completely, and that's on purpose. We didn't want to force them upon you or railroad you into them. It's really up to players which characters they enjoy, which ones they want to interact with, and whether they even find those plot lines at all.

The Creative Director also revealed that the game ended up being bigger than originally planned.

After yesterday's event, The Blood of Dawnwalker definitely skyrocketed to the top of the most anticipated 2026 games among RPG fans. The studio will undoubtedly share more about it ahead of the launch; stay tuned for our ongoing coverage.

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