The Blood of Dawnwalker Puts a Dark, Witcher-like Twist on a Typical “Day in the Life of an Unremarkable Peasant” RPG Prologue

Finding a lost animal for a worried owner is Quest Design 101 for fantasy RPGs, and so it’s unsurprising to find that The Blood of Dawnwalker’s prologue features its own wandering farmyard resident. Tasked with finding a prized pig, protagonist Coen searches high and low (and beats up a castaway man) in his attempt to bring the sow back to her owner… who, when reunited with his muddy love, promptly asks if Coen would like to butcher the animal himself. This dark twist is perhaps the earliest indication that The Blood of Dawnwalker is absolutely a game created by the former director of The Witcher 3 and a studio staffed by numerous ex-CD Projekt Red talent. Even the smallest quests have grisly repercussions. During a recent trip to developer Rebel Wolves’ studio in Warsaw, Poland, I was able to watch a developer play through The Blood of Dawnwalker’s prologue – an 80-minute segment that took us from the opening CGI cinematic to the catalyst event that truly kicks off this RPG’s story. As far as preview content goes, this is less interesting than what we’ve been shown previously; at Gamescom last year, we were able to see a mid-game quest tackled during both day and night to demonstr