The Blood of Dawnwalker Review Summary

Engaging gameplay, a compelling story with meaningful choices, and beautiful graphics and voice acting are marred by poor optimization, clunky controls, controller bugs, and 30 FPS cutscenes.

Game is fun and engaging: The overall gameplay experience is highly praised for being fun, engaging, and having high replayability. Players are thoroughly enjoying their time with the game.

Story is engaging and intriguing: Players consistently praise the story for being captivating, well-written, and immediately hooking. The narrative is a standout feature that draws players in from the start.

Combat is fun and satisfying: Reviewers find the combat enjoyable, challenging, and satisfying, with responsive and fluid mechanics. It is often compared favorably to other action RPGs.

Strong Witcher 3 vibes: The game is frequently compared to The Witcher 3, with players noting similarities in world, atmosphere, and writing. This is seen as a positive, evoking nostalgia and high expectations.

Graphics are beautiful and impressive: The visual presentation is consistently praised for its beauty, art direction, and overall quality. Players find the graphics eye-catching and pleasant.

Optimization is poor: The game is widely criticized for poor optimization, with players experiencing bad performance, FPS drops, and stuttering even on decent hardware. This is a major issue that affects playability.

Movement feels clunky and janky: Players consistently report that movement is clunky, stiff, and janky, with issues like stuttering, abrupt starts and stops, and delayed controls. This affects the overall feel of the game, especially in a large open world.

Character animations are stiff: Animations are frequently criticized as stiff, robotic, and unnatural, with poor lip syncing and voice acting further hurting immersion. This makes characters feel lifeless.

FPS drops and stuttering: Players experience FPS drops in heavy areas and constant stuttering, even at high settings. This performance issue is widespread and detracts from the experience.

Controller bugs and broken support: There are various controller bugs, including broken support, random input switching, and issues with running and walking. These bugs severely hamper gameplay for controller users.

Time is a core resource: The game uses time as a limited resource, forcing players to prioritize activities and quests. This creates pressure and requires strategic planning about what to do first and what to skip.

Directional combat system: Combat is based on directional attacks, blocks, and parries, requiring players to attack and defend from specific angles. This system is compared to games like Kingdom Come: Deliverance and For Honor.

Choices have consequences: The game features a choice-driven narrative with dialogue options and multiple endings. Player decisions significantly impact the story and character outcomes, making choices feel meaningful.

Day and night cycle: The game features a day and night cycle that affects gameplay and available activities. The protagonist is human by day and a vampire by night, with supernatural powers at night.

Time tied to quests: Time progression is linked to quest completion and dialogue choices, with the main quest being timed. Exploration itself does not advance time, allowing free exploration without pressure.

Performance varies widely by system: While some players report flawless performance on ultra settings, others struggle with stuttering and low FPS, suggesting performance is highly dependent on specific hardware configurations.

Stuttering and frame pacing issues: Many players report constant stuttering, micro-stutters, and inconsistent frame rates, especially during cutscenes, even on decent hardware. This points to optimization problems affecting smoothness.

Optimization needs improvement: Many players feel the game needs optimization updates, citing poor performance and demanding requirements as areas that could be improved.

Runs well on ultra settings: A significant number of players report excellent performance on ultra settings, with high FPS and no stuttering, especially on high-end systems.

Cutscenes locked at 30 FPS: Several players note that cutscenes are hard-locked to 30 FPS, which feels jarring compared to gameplay frame rates. This is a common complaint affecting the cinematic experience.

Recommended for Witcher fans: A significant number of reviewers suggest the game for fans of The Witcher series, citing similar themes and gameplay. This comparison is a common selling point.

Game highly recommended overall: Many reviewers strongly recommend the game, praising it as a must-play. This positive sentiment is widespread across multiple clusters.

Cannot recommend until patched: Several reviewers withhold their recommendation until technical issues are fixed, particularly optimization and combat problems. This indicates current instability.

Wait for updates and patches: Many advise waiting for future updates to improve performance and fix bugs before purchasing. This cautious approach reflects concerns about the game's current state.

Price not justified currently: Some reviewers feel the game is overpriced for its current condition, recommending against buying at full price. Others suggest waiting for a sale.

Community fair range: $40.00 - $50.00.

Game completion: 40.0h.

The game starts with a steep combat learning curve that frustrates some players, but once the blocking and parrying mechanics click, combat becomes satisfying and the game becomes fun. Performance issues and a lengthy tutorial add early friction, but the core enjoyment emerges after mastering the combat system.

Friction: combat learning curve; performance stuttering after tutorial; long tutorial; lack of health potions; damage sponge enemies.

Unlock drivers: mastering blocking and parrying; getting used to combat; after initial battle; after tutorial.

Classic RPG Story Seeker: Thorough exploration, exhaustive dialogue, multiple playthroughs. Motivation: Story, world-building, and classic RPG immersion. Stance: buy.

Performance-Conscious Skeptic: Tweaks settings, monitors FPS, tests hardware. Motivation: Smooth performance and fair price. Stance: deep sale.

Combat Mechanics Enthusiast: Focuses on combat, uses controller, increases difficulty. Motivation: Engaging combat mechanics and challenge. Stance: buy.

Performance reports are mixed across all hardware cohorts, with both smooth experiences and significant stuttering, frame drops, and optimization complaints.

Windows 12-15GB VRAM / 16-31GB RAM: mixed. Users report a split: some enjoy high frame rates on high settings, while others experience severe stuttering, frame drops, and poor optimization even on capable hardware.

Windows 8-11GB VRAM: mixed. Mixed feedback: some players get smooth performance at 1080p/1440p, but others report stuttering, low FPS, and DLSS/frame generation issues.

Windows <8GB VRAM: mixed. Reports vary from solid performance on medium/high settings to severe FPS drops, crashes, and unplayable stuttering, with some recommending external scaling tools.

Steam Deck: The game suffers from widespread technical issues including 30fps cutscenes, poor optimization, lack of PS5 controller support, and crashes. On Steam Deck, it is not officially supported and requires proton hacks, leading to a subpar experience with potential instability.

Linux and Proton: The game shows mixed Linux/Proton compatibility. While some users report smooth performance and no crashes, others encounter crashes with Proton 9 and suggest the need for hacks or launch arguments. Overall, the game appears playable with minor tweaks, but not without some friction.

Monetization: The provided reviews contain no evidence of microtransactions, pay-to-win mechanics, gacha, loot boxes, or any real-money in-game shop. The only complaints are about the base purchase price and subjective story/emotional engagement, which are explicitly excluded from the monetization audit. The game appears to be a standard one-time purchase with traditional expansion DLC.

Frequent Witcher 3 comparisons: Many reviews compare the game to The Witcher 3, noting shared DNA, mechanics, and atmosphere. Some say it improves on the formula, while others see it as a worthy successor.

Combat compared to KCD: The combat is frequently compared to Kingdom Come: Deliverance, often mixed with Witcher 3 elements. Reviewers note similarities in swordplay and overall feel.

Former CDPR developers involved: The game is the debut from Rebel Wolves, a studio founded by former CD Projekt Red staff, including The Witcher 3's director. This is a major point of interest and expectation.

High price concerns: The game's price is considered high, especially given its current state. Some reviewers feel it is overpriced for what it offers, comparing it unfavorably to AAA titles.

Lack of Russian localization: Several reviews mention the absence of Russian language support, which is a significant issue for Russian-speaking players. This is a common complaint.