Ultra-Violent Open-World RPG Shoots to No. 1 Best-Selling Steam Game
Rebel Wolves and Bandai Namco Entertainment's newest release has become an instant hit for gamers. For its first week of release, it quickly rose as the best-selling game on Steam, promptly leading to development already…
Rebel Wolves and Bandai Namco Entertainment's newest release has become an instant hit for gamers. For its first week of release, it quickly rose as the best-selling game on Steam, promptly leading to development already starting on a sequel.
The Blood of Dawnwalker, an open-world RPG that pushes the limits of its M rating, was released on PC and consoles on Sept. 3. For the week of Sept. 1-8, the game stands tall as the No. 1 best-selling Steam game. It rose above Counter-Strike 2, with the rest of the top five including Apex Legends, Onimusha: Way of the Sword, and Wardogs. The ranking follows the news that The Blood of Dawnwalker sold over one million units in the first three days after its launch.
The Blood of Dawnwalker Is Dominating the Steam Sales Charts
This is certainly an excellent result for the development team, Rebel Wolves. It's the very first game release by the studio, which was founded by The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz alongside other former CD Projekt developers. The instant success of The Blood of Dawnwalker has the company moving forward with a follow-up title. Narrative director Jakub Szamalek shared on LinkedIn that the hiring process has already begun for "the next chapter in the Dawnwalker saga."
The game is set in 14th-century Europe during the era of the Black Death. In the land of Vale Sangora, vampires have taken control of the region at a time when humanity has been weakened due to plague and war. Players take on the role of Coen, a man transformed into a Dawnwalker — a Blade-like supernatural being that's not quite human and not quite vampire, but something in between. During the day, Coen is essentially human, but at night, he becomes much more vampiric with supernatural abilities.
Player Choices Have a Major Impact on the Narrative
While The Blood of Dawnwalker has an open world, it's not like similar games where the player has endless time to complete every possible quest. Coen only has 30 days to rescue his family from a powerful vampire, and the player will need to choose how to spend the limited time they have. It is not possible to see everything the game has to offer in a single playthrough, especially with quests also having multiple ways of being completed. Player choices have a big effect on the story, and some characters' fate will depend upon Coen's decisions.
The reviews for the "narrative sandbox" game have been strong, launching at 83/100 on Metacritic. Critics largely enjoyed how the title brings something new to the genre, particularly with playing differently during the day and night. The time limit and branching paths also make The Blood of Dawnwalker have high replay value. With a sequel already moving forward, this could be the dawn of a new era with the spawning of the new hit franchise.
The Blood of Dawnwalker is available on PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5.