Coen’s adventure and his bloodthirsty battles against Brencis are now just a month away as The Blood of Dawnwalker nears its global release. If you’ve been following all of its promotional materials with eyes peeled for ways in which the former Witcher 3 developers over at new studio Rebel Wolves have used that knowledge to build this one, you might like what’s coming next.
Yes, the influences are certainly there, but they’re far subtler than you might expect. In fact, The Blood of Dawnwalker seems more interested in establishing its own identity than imitating its inspirations. So, how exactly does it set itself apart? While it notably shares a director with The Witcher 3, there is much more separating the two, and we’re eager to explain why this is one of our most anticipated games. Let’s begin, starting with:
1. Coen’s Inner Duality Vs. Geralt’s Singular Role
Coen and Geralt may share a superhuman label and the fact that they’ve been mutated unnaturally, but the similarities end there. Geralt’s a Witcher, created to deal with a monster threat that’s almost faded by the time we get to join him on his search for Ciri in The Wild Hunt. He stays that way throughout the game, his combat prowess and proficiency with the signs remaining his only tools apart from a keen mind and even sharper senses.
Coen’s a vraakhiri, meaning he’s human by day and a vampire by night. It’s a distinction that lends him a distinct identity expressed over varying playstyles that are meant to blend in with the game’s time mechanics. His duality is woven into the gameplay and story, and is among the pillars of Dawnwalker’s experience overall.
2. Dynamic Day/Night Cycles Vs. Largely Environmental Cycles
Yes, the days pass you by as you ride around on Roach in The Witcher 3, but they don’t really impact your moment-to-moment gameplay other than to influence NPC routing and perhaps a few monster hunts and quests. Geralt’s core toolkit, however, was largely consistent irrespective of whether he was using it in a desperate battle for survival in the day or night.
On the other hand, Coen’s going to rely on his sword if he runs into trouble in the daytime, while his vampiric claws and teeth make him a more potent threat at night. Of course, there are downsides you’re going to have to contend with in either form, but that’s what makes them so distinct, and why choosing when to approach quests matters as much as it does in this one.
3. Directional Swordplay Vs. Traditional Light/Heavy Systems
Geralt was all about weaving in his light and heavy strikes with his use of options, signs, and a Witcher’s superior agility to stay one step ahead of his enemies. That’s a combat system that’s less about responding to specific directions of attacks and more about using your fluidity to stay moving and keep groups of enemies at bay with style.
Coen’s combat techniques are a bit more clinical, and you’re going to have to keep switching the direction of your sword strikes to keep your foes unaware of what you’re planning next, and more prone to mistakes in the process. Repeating attacks is inviting trouble in this one, and taking on too many enemies at once in your human form might not be the best approach to your goals.
4. Directional Parries Vs. Counters
An extension of Geralt’s proficiency with his blades was his ability to weave in a solid defence with an overwhelming offence. Your parries were a way to open up an enemy’s defences with good timing, allowing you to take them out of the fight with a brutal finisher. You did not, however, need to pay attention to the direction of an incoming attack, instead focusing on its swing to deflect it.
Coen relies on blocking his enemies’ attacks from the direction they’re coming to him from, allowing him to use an efficient parry instead of a block that’s going to drain his stamina in exchange for basic defence. You’re going to have to pay attention to what your foes are doing in Dawnwalker and try to gauge where their attacks are going to come from to set yourself up for success.
5. Multiple Toolkits Vs. A Witcher’s Comprehensive Arsenal
If, like us, you liked to take your time and prepare for your monster hunts in The Witcher 3, you know that Geralt has a whole arsenal of systems working to give him distinct advantages in a fight that he prepares for. Potions, oils, your own build, your weapons, and signs all existed to make Geralt the only hero the Continent needed against the Wild Hunt, and rightly so.
Coen, however, has his sword and blood-based witchcraft as a human, while his vampiric claws, teeth, feeding mechanic, and supernatural abilities make him an entirely different fighter at night even as he retains the ability to wield his sword. That’s a great way to encourage adaptability among players while also weaving in those distinctions into the day/night and time-based systems.
6. Varying Approaches To Traversal
Geralt had Roach and a signpost-based fast travel system in place to help him get around, while a single expensive ferry ride unlocked the Skellige Isles where boats were viable ways of crossing vast swathes of water. All of those were great ways to help bridge large gaps across the Continent, a sprawling map that fit the experience on offer in The Witcher 3.
Of course, Coen’s time in Vale Sangora is a more focused story, and as such, getting around is largely on foot, although he does get that nifty Shadowstep ability and the ability to use walls as movable surfaces as a vampire. There’s also the ability to transform into a wolf to get around faster if you so desire, but it’s a far cry from the conventional yet varied options that Geralt had at his disposal.
7. More Choices, More Outcomes
The choice-based approach to quests might seem very familiar to those of you who found yourself speaking in a low, gravelly voice as you made choices for Geralt that came back to haunt you, but we can tell you of one major difference in The Blood of Dawnwalker.
Quests don’t just vary based on your choices, but on when you decide to take them on, with branching paths and outcomes based on the time of day and the approach you decide to take. Entire encounters could change if things line up favorably for either you or your prey, and it’s an expanded approach to what was on offer in The Witcher 3 that makes sense and could just work very well with the ticking clock that the story puts on the entire thing.
8. Different Approaches To Healing
Geralt relied on potions, food, and drink to keep his strength up, while a nifty auto-healing ability could be factored into your build to make him regain a fair amount of his health in between combat encounters without having to rely too much on your inventory. Of course, meditating for a few minutes on easier difficulties was a great way to trigger an auto-save and get back to full health pretty conveniently.
Dawnwalker switches that up, with Coen’s incessant hunger being a mechanic all on its own, and one that can adversely alter entire questlines if it’s not managed well enough by feeding on humans or animals. Of course, it’s a moment of vulnerability, so you’re going to have to be quite careful about healing and taking damage in general when you don’t have an endless amount of healing items to chomp down on.
9. Blood Hunger Vs. Toxicity
We were reminded of the Toxicity system when we got a closer look at Coen’s hunger mechanic in action. But where toxicity limiting Geralt’s use of potions was a way to ensure balance against enemies who he would otherwise tear through without even breaking a sweat, Coen’s Blood Hunger is different.
It influences his actual personality, making him a threat if he’s running low on fuel. It’s what risks putting entire questlines at jeopardy if you try talking to an NPC while he’s too hungry, which could lead to you finding no dialogue options and a cutscene of the NPC in question meeting a grisly end at Coen’s hands (or teeth).
10. Progression Across Forms Vs. Builds
For Geralt, expanding his toolkit involved adding combat skills, improving the utility of signs, alchemy buffs, and then mixing and matching to create a build that suited what you were going for and the gear you had at hand.
While the gear part could turn out to be similar for Coen, his progression comes from improving witchcraft, vampiric abilities, and sword skills that could overlap between both forms. Of course, that means you’re looking to spread your skill points effectively enough to be powerful both during the day and night, or perhaps specialized in either if you’re looking to play the story a certain way.
11. Stealing Abilities Vs. Point-Based Unlocks
In Dawnwalker, certain abilities are tied to vampiric mutations that you’re going to have to obtain by defeating the vampires that display them and draining them. That’s quite different from Geralt’s more methodical approach of gaining ability points to spend by either levelling up or tracking down Places of Power.
Mutagens were another layer to exploit for min-maxing, but Coen’s method of gaining new abilities is definitely more hands-on, eschewing the traditional approach for something more feral that befits a vampire.
12. Narrative Urgency
Geralt’s search for Ciri often took a backseat to games of Gwent, hunting down monsters, tracking down errant goats, or perhaps simply riding around on Roach hoping that the lass would just happen to turn up somewhere along the way. You could fail quests, yes, but there was a general air of relaxed exploration to the Continent that was there to make you wander and get lost in the magic of it all.
Vale Sangora doesn’t have that luxury, although its beauty isn’t disputed. Coen’s got 30 days to save his family, and that’s a deadline which is mechanically enforced by the choices you make along the way. The game’s built to have lasting consequences while also giving you the scope to keep moving forward, making it a journey that could be different every time you try it. The Witcher 3 does feel the same, but this one’s a ticking time bomb packed into a sandbox full of possibilities, and you’re the match that lights its fuse.
13. Time As A Resource
With all this talk of time and narrative urgency, you’re going to be pleased to know that simply exploring Vale Sangora isn’t going to chomp away at those 30 days that Coen has been given. Instead, it’s only quests and objectives that send the clock forward, making it impossible to experience everything the world has to offer you in one go.
Geralt’s time in The Continent was far more traditional in its approach to the passage of time, allowing it to be advanced through meditation but with quests, contracts, and optional activities completed at your leisure. The Wild Hunt were a credible threat, but also one that couldn’t really act until Ciri entered the mix, after all. And that was always in Geralt’s control when we look back at how smartly things were set up in that game.
14. No Quest Categories
The Continent was overwhelmingly full of things to do, and CDPR rightly implemented a tracking system for the many quests Geralt could pick up by simply interacting with the world around him. But that meant conventional divisions between the main story and side content, and a checklist-like approach to knocking things out of the way even as more stuff kept piling on.
Dawnwalker aims to cut through that bit of bloat by making multiple activities compete for the same limited pool of time, forcing you to make choices and live with the consequences. Everything you do is within the framework of a larger narrative that sends you inevitably on a path to Brencis’s stronghold for a confrontation, and anything you can get done to prepare the assault is important.
15. A Different Approach To Progression
Were you surprised about an early previewer stumbling on a way to get Coen to walk away from Vale Sangora, leaving his family behind, in just a few hours on a preview build? We’ve also been told it’s possible to just go for Brencis directly without setting things up for a final showdown, although that approach has its obvious allure.
You couldn’t immediately take on Eredin in The Wild Hunt, with the story being fixed along a path that would lead Geralt to the island where Ciri slumbered, unaware of what befell Avala’ch, and of the desperate search that Geralt and Yen had mounted for her. That’s quite a difference, and a showcase of how Dawnwalker is taking familiar facets of a game its makers are quite close to, and taking them in entirely new directions.
And that’s about it for this one. Coen’s got quite the reputation to live up to as he steps into the complex genre that modern RPGs comprise, but he’s got the narrative clout and a reasonably likeable personality when he isn’t flashing those vampire teeth at his hapless victims. Well, Geralt’s always going to be a legend, and we’re optimistic that Coen’s going to join him in tim
