The Blood of Dawnwalker has already proven to be a major hit among RPG fans with the narrative sandbox selling over one million copies in just three days. Built by Rebel Wolves, a creative team largely made up of devs that also worked on The Witcher 3, the historical vampire game has proven immensely popular among fans and critics alike.
Over on Metacritic, it’s currently sitting at a score of 83. Meanwhile, its Steam reviews are listed as ‘Very Positive’. I wasn’t quite as enamoured with it in my own review for Express Online, but I do mention that I’d love to see what Rebel Wolves could achieve with a second bite at this formula – and if a message in the physical edition of the game is anything to go by, it looks like we might get just that.
Anyone who purchased a physical copy of The Blood of Dawnwalker will find a small pamphlet inside with a message from the developer. An excerpt of it reads: “If you’re reading this, it means our very first game, The Blood of Dawnwalker, has finally seen the light of day, and what you now hold in your hands is the first chapter of Coen’s story – a story that feels deeply ours, and that we are proud to present to you now.”
The wording here is particularly interesting as Rebel Wolves describes The Blood of Dawnwalker as ‘the first chapter’ of this new protagonist’s story. Could this show that the studio has such confidence in its game that it can already smell a franchise on its hands?
I’ll have to go into major spoilers for the end of the game to prove it, but it certainly seems like Rebel Wolves isn’t done with Coen after one game. Proceed with your own caution.
The studio actually spoiled this slightly in a trailer shortly before The Blood of Dawnwalker released, but at the end of the game, we can see that Coen is still alive and living it large as a vampire in the modern day. This is because, although Dawnwalker’s do age, they age very slowly.
As such, this opens the door for Rebel Wolves to write more chapters of Coen’s story, either in the modern day or at any point between today and the 14th century.
Personally, I can see this formula working extremely well. Rebel Wolves already borrows a few mechanics familiar to fans of Ubisoft games with the lookout towers and general busywork side quests.
I can see the series time-hopping quite fluidly between different historical periods, much like the Assassin’s Creed games.
Rebel Wolves hasn’t outright stated that a new Dawnwalker game is in the works, despite the tone of its communication seeming to hint as such. However, given the studio managed to cobble its first game together in less than five years – an impressive feat with modern game development – we might be seeing more of Coen sooner than we think.
