Rebel Wolves, the Studio founded by the former devs of CD Projekt Red including the director of Witcher 3, has officially released it debut game which is getting the hype it deserves.
Witcher 3's True Heir?
The Blood of Dawnwalker is an open-world vampire action-RPG built on Unreal Engine 5. Launched on September 3, and has settled into a strong "Mostly Positive" reception on Steam along with a solid aggregate score in the low-to-mid 80s on Metacritic, which means, for the normal people and not for the gaming nerds like me, it is being generally well-received and considered very good by critics. Gamers response puts it just behind Witcher 1 and 2, though not quite matching the aura of Witcher 3 itself.
What do the Critics Say?
Critics across X, Steam, other video game news websites and various social media platforms say that the game doesn't feel like a knockoff, many even saying it's a spiritual successor of the Witcher franchise but with it's own identity. People are praising the dark fantasy setting and open world design and the Vampire mechanics and especially the moral-choice systems, which comes out as genuinely fresh, made with heart and not just any recycled Witcher mechanic tropes. Gamers with over 30-40 playtime already are impressed by how the story experience changes on the basis of player driven choices in the open world style gameplay during quests and also when not doing any major quests.
Where The Pushback Comes In...
A recurring criticism is that despite constant narrative stakes, you are, after all, cursed (in game obviously), the actual gameplay sometimes feels too forgiving and frictionless to match the tone. Others flagged combat as a weaker link compared to the writing and world design, and a few reviews landed notably lower than the pack, which several critics found more interesting than alarming which is a sign that the game is divisive enough to be worth arguing about.
System And Technical Requirements :
For a comparatively clean Unreal Engine 5 launch, notably more stable than some other big UE5 releases this year. Though it's not spotless. Once the game reached a wider audience post-launch, PC players pushed back hard on optimization, with some describing performance as falling short of expectations compared to the price of the game, Though the developers have already acknowledged the complaints and have started rolling out fixes and updates.
source : steam
Should you buy it?
For Witcher 3 fans specifically hunting for something with similar DNA, open-world density, morally gray choices, monster-hunting, this is the closest thing to land in years, and multiple outlets frame it as essential for that audience. If PC performance out of the box is a dealbreaker for you, it may be worth waiting for a patch or two. For the fellow Deal-hunters I would advice to wait for seasonal and holiday sales, also note it was discounted shortly after launch on select storefronts.
