The Blood of Dawnwalker

With the delay of the Fable reboot to February 2027, The Blood of Dawnwalker is undoubtedly the most anticipated Western-made roleplaying game due in 2026. Despite being a new intellectual property, the debut game from Polish developer Rebel Wolves benefits from a core development team that worked in key roles on CD Projekt RED's masterpiece, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

Indeed, the similarities with the award-winning open world RPG are many, but Rebel Wolves also introduced many features and twists that make it arguably even more interesting, at least on paper.

• Release Date, Platforms, Pricing
• Genre and Setting
• Gameplay Features and Mechanics
• Tech and Specs

Release Date, Platforms, Pricing

The foundation of Rebel Wolves was announced in early 2022. Later that year, the studio received a strategic investment from NetEase for its upcoming dark fantasy triple-A narrative-driven RPG. The unveiling of The Blood of Dawnwalker took place in January 2025, when the studio shared the debut trailer and a gameplay sneak peek. Throughout the year, the developers revealed a lot more about the game, though the release date news had to wait until late April 2026, when Rebel Wolves and publisher Bandai Namco confirmed that the game would be available from September 3 on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series S|X. There's no word about a Nintendo Switch 2 version, but perhaps, if the game does well, it could happen at a later time.

The Standard Digital Edition is priced at $69.99 and comes with the game, while the Eclipse Edition adds a Digital World Compendium, Digital Soundtrack, and Digital Comic Book for $79.99. The retail Day One Edition is also priced at $69.99 and includes the base game disc, Steelbook, and World Map. Finally, the Collector's Edition is priced at $199.99 and includes the base game, the digital Eclipse Edition upgrade, a Steelbook, a 33 x 40 cm world map, a physical world compendium, a collector's box, and a 23 cm PureArts figurine of protagonist Coen. Moreover, it includes the following unique pre-order bonuses: a collectible, double‑sided gold‑laminated bookmark adorned with emblematic designs from The Blood of Dawnwalker, and a complimentary set of three gold‑laminated stickers, each inspired by iconic lore elements.

All versions of the game come with the digital pre-order bonus of the Sangoran Wayfarer's Armor Set, adorned with an emblem of a nameless smith who traveled across the continent in pursuit of inspiration. Those who do not pre-order the game can still unlock the armor set by playing the game.

Genre and Setting

The Blood of Dawnwalker is a third-person open world action RPG set in a dark fantasy version of 14th-century medieval Southeast Europe, specifically in a fictional, secluded area called Vale Sangora, inspired by the Carpathian Mountains and filled with lush forests, vast plains, treacherous swamps, steep mountaintops, and medieval settlements. War and the Black Death plague have ravaged the area for some time, creating an opportunity for a cadre of vampires led by Brencis, who suddenly step out of the shadows (alongside other monsters from Eastern European folklore) to openly overthrow the nobles and seize power.

Brencis offers the human population security and a cure for the Black Death: vampiric blood has healing properties. But the toll is high: the vampires require a blood tax, and the weak and insubordinate are quickly and mercilessly dealt with. This creates a fracture in society, with some humans resisting the vampiric occupation and others benefiting from it.

Protagonist Coen is part of the resistance, though he is only partially human. At the beginning of the game, he is turned into a vampire by Brencis, but the ritual is not entirely completed, leaving him as a rare Dawnwalker. He's free to walk as a human during the day, but his vampiric powers (and hunger) awaken at night. Coen's goal is to rescue his family in 30 days and nights, though Rebel Wolves hasn't yet shared the reason for this timer.

Gameplay Features and Mechanics

The aforementioned timer does not progress linearly. Instead, Rebel Wolves designed time as a resource, allowing players to explore Vale Sangora at their leisure. Whenever they finish quest stages, make certain dialogue choices, commit to events or tasks, and perform other meaningful actions, the game signals it with a small hourglass icon. Recently, the developers confirmed that the game won't actually end after the 30 days and nights have passed, though there will be a significant consequence (possibly, Coen's family may be beyond saving).

Mechanically, the game places a lot of importance on the player's choices and consequences, drawing inspiration from cRPGs like Fallout 1 & 2 and pen-and-paper RPGs. In fact, just like in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, players can theoretically attack Brencis's castle right after the prologue, making all quests redundant. However, this would be extremely difficult and also deprive players of the joy of discovering the many stories crafted by Rebel Wolves. Playing the game normally, on the other hand, lets them grow Coen's power and enlist various allies in the perilous endeavor, while also giving them the option to disrupt Brencis's three vampire lieutenants:

• Xanthe — the oldest of the three, described as an ancient Greek priestess; she is the source of the Blood Whips and Boiling Blood abilities Coen can absorb.
• Ambrus — the youngest of the group, charming and manipulative, who oversees the blood tax warehouse network across Vale Sangora.
• Bakir — one of Brencis's most powerful lieutenants, a Central Asian warlord described as a warmonger, cruel, and bloodthirsty.

Each controls their own territory within Vale Sangora, has their own agenda, and their own centuries-long history. As Coen disrupts their individual operations, each lieutenant's aggression bar rises, eventually triggering a personal questline that also modifies the confrontation with Brencis. This system is separate from the overarching Infamy meter: as Coen helps the people of the Vale, Brencis issues increasingly harsh edicts each morning, escalating soldier patrols, city lockdowns, and enforcing movement restrictions. It's the regime's collective awareness of and response to the player's actions. Each quest can be completed in many ways; the main difference is whether it is day or night in the world: specific NPCs and quest paths are only available at certain times.

Combat uses stamina as a resource: for every successful attack, block, and parry, you'll be able to fill up your activation charges to use one of the active abilities. Optionally, players can use a Kingdom Come: Deliverance-style directional combat, or they can forego that for a more traditional action RPG-style combat. During the day, Coen doesn't have access to vampiric abilities, but he can use Hex-like magic. When darkness falls, magic becomes inaccessible, but Coen is able to draw on his half-vampire nature to perform short-range teleportation (Shadowstep), full vertical traversal on walls and ceilings (Plane Shift), speed up long-range travel (Wolf Form), and other powers that can be acquired by draining specific vampires.

Moreover, as a vampire, players can use claws instead of swords, which enables a faster and more aggressive combat style, and they may also drain an enemy's blood with Voracious Bite. This is important, as managing Coen's vampiric hunger is not meant to be trivial; the developers warned that leaving the hunger meter untended may result in him eventually attacking even friendly NPCs and killing them for good, thus failing related quests. You won't necessarily have to feed on humans, though, as feeding on animals is possible, albeit less effective. As you'd expect, the developers confirmed that it is possible to give in to Coen's vampiric dark side and even go for "evil playthroughs".

The Blood of Dawnwalker features a fairly traditional leveling system with three main Perk trees: Witchcraft, which empowers the magical/daytime side; Swordplay, covering the martial, weapon-based fighting always available; and Vampirism, enhancing Coen's vampiric powers. Perks range from passive bonuses to active abilities that must be selected in combat.

Romance options are available, but they will take time away that could be spent doing other things. When it comes to length, Rebel Wolves, which is not yet as big as CD Projekt RED, targeted a 40-hour RPG, but recent internal playtests have reached up to 70 hours for completionist runs.

Tech and Specs

The Blood of Dawnwalker is powered by Epic's Unreal Engine 5. So far, the developers have not mentioned any cutting-edge tech features like ray tracing or path tracing.

Following the opening of pre-orders, the studio shared detailed PC specifications:

SPECS	MINIMUM	RECOMMENDED	RECOMMENDED	ULTRA	ULTRA
Target Performance	Native 1080p @ 30 FPS	Native 1080p @ 60 FPS	Native 1440p @ 60 FPS	Native 1440p @ 60 FPS	Native 2160p @ 60 FPS
Quality Preset	Low	High	High	Ultra	Ultra
CPU	Intel Core i7-8700K / AMD Ryzen 7 3700X	Intel Core i5-13600 / AMD Ryzen 9 7900X	Intel Core i5-13600 / AMD Ryzen 9 7900X	Intel Core i5-13600K / AMD Ryzen 9 7950X	Intel Core i5-13600K / AMD Ryzen 9 7950X
RAM	16 GB	16 GB	16 GB	16 GB	16 GB
GPU	NVIDIA RTX 3050 / GTX 1070 / AMD RX Vega-56 / Intel Arc A580	NVIDIA RTX 5060 / AMD RX 6800-XT	NVIDIA RTX 4070-Ti / AMD RX 7800-XT	NVIDIA RTX 4080 / AMD RX 7900-XTX	NVIDIA RTX 5090
VRAM	6 GB	12 GB	12 GB	16 GB	16 GB
Storage	60 GB SSD	60 GB SSD	60 GB SSD	60 GB SSD	60 GB SSD
OS	Windows 10, DirectX 12	Windows 10, DirectX 12	Windows 10, DirectX 12	Windows 10, DirectX 12	Windows 10, DirectX 12

These targets are for native rendering, but upscalers like NVIDIA DLSS and AMD FSR will be supported, thus allowing less powerful graphics cards to punch above their weight.

We don't know yet whether the game will leverage PS5 Pro features like PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR).