The Blood of Dawnwalker

Overly Dramatic Review in One Sentence

What if Blade was from the Carpathian Mountains and used magic + vampire skills to kill a tyrannical vampire who saved them from the Black Plague.

The Actual Review

Game time:

PC: 45.7 hours

Gameplay

We have to start with the new mechanic that this game introduced to the RPG world. It is one of the most frustrating and coolest mechanics we’ve seen in a long time. This would be the equivalent of the first sync point I grabbed in the Assassin's Creed Series, but with much more weight.

The way it works is that after the prologue, you have a set amount of in game time to do whatever you want. If you spend too long on one task, you might miss out on another. If you decide to skip a quest that could change how a cutscene takes place later. Where it really starts to weigh is after you gain access to the full map and see all the different things that are available to do. Each of these task from simple ones to killing bosses, imposes a time component to it. More important items can take 7 "Hours." Simple ones can be 1 hour, much like leveling up your skills. Most of the boss infamy task are 3 hours.

What works for this is that pressure. Most people who play these open-world RPGs want to do as much as you can, but you can't with this one. You are stuck with having to make choices about what to do. I really enjoyed this even while being frustrated by it, because it made me think how I wanted to play the game. As it is a new IP I didn't want to google "How do I do X" or "Where is Y" because that was part of the fun, running around and falling into things. However, that takes time, which added a stress to the game. As cool as the mechanic is, there are some really big issues with it. The first issue is that every upgrade of your character takes time. I have around 40 skill points to use left over because I didn't want to spend the time getting new skills when I was running out of time. I can understand the Ultimate skills or even the last one in each section costing time, but every single one (for the most part) is too much. The next big issue is the map.

The map sucks, especially the map markers. What does this have to do with the mechanic? Well there isn't a good way to really determine what is a storyline mission vs. What is just a "task" to get rid of the Boyer. Yes they have a little symbol on them, but stopping a brewery of human blood isn't really as important as learning where the Boyer came from or why Xanthe is taking young women. These cannot be considered to have the same weight from a storytelling perspective, but they are marked the same. Let alone when you go to the top of a Sync point, instead of getting markers that actually tell you what something is, you get a thousand question marks. So you still end up running around the map looking to figure out what things are.

The fighting is outstanding. The directional combat is not anything new, really taking inspiration from For Honor and The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt. However, maybe it is my memory of playing For Honor years ago, but it feels very smooth, and I really enjoyed the effort as compared to just bashing an attack button. The variety of different skills you can use all feel different, and I don't think there was anything to repetitive.

There are way too many wolves and bears. They become pest so quickly.

Graphics and Sound

The only complaint I have for graphics is the hair. When playing this the hair was grainy and static and really just bad. It doesn't move and just stands there even during fighting. I don't think I would have noticed if it wasn't so grainy in the cutscenes. I also noticed that some voice lines don't match the mouth movement, but it wasn't a crazy amount, just something I noticed early on. Didn't bother me too much.

Visually, there wasn't a long distance to see as you play in a valley. So there are trees everywhere and only a couple high places that allow you to see the whole valley, but because of the dense trees you don't really see a lot of the detail. Which works. It is those trees that allow for some great light changes as the Sun moves across the sky. They also got rid of the requirement to have a dynamic lighting system since time doesn't move without a quest line or skill upgrade.

I enjoyed the sounds you got in the game. Wind chimes and combat sounds felt full and enhanced the story. No real problems with the sound and the music was pretty good.

Story and Characters

This was a great story. In Mass Effect Legendary Edition, your choices mattered and oh boy do there here. Small choices have ripple effect. There is a mission in the prologue where a lady is looking for a flag that she was making. The first play through, I found it and returned it to see it later in the game. The next time I skipped it, remember I can only do so many quests, and it wasn't there, and she was in trouble for not finishing the flag.

While that is small potatoes, what makes you want to do alternate decisions is more about seeing how it changes the end game. So there are 3 characters, Anca, Lacra, and Vicho, that can drastically change how you see the end game. One of them helps you find a new way to kill Brencis. She also shows you that the vampire world that you are a part now is far bigger than you see in this game. This supports the end game where the developers have said will follow Coen as he goes through time.

I wish we had more history about the Boyer's, well 2 of them. We can get a ton about Xanthe, and that is the most heartbreaking and well-thought-out story. For the other two, I have no idea how they became or why they became vampires. I should mention that they have another name, but I have no idea what it is at this point.

The fight for the family, the different endings, and the weaving of history into this was very cool. I don't know a ton of Romania (General area where the game takes place) lore, but it felt very full and weighty.

My Rating

I cannot express how frustrating the time requirement for upgrading skills is. I would have rather had the time to do more quest. Like I said, I had a ton of spare upgrade points because I didn't want to waste the time. Granted I did have about 5 days left so I could have spent them, but I was concerned that the final mission might take more time and if I didn't do it right I would lose my family. I had a blast playing this game though. A new full story. Excellent combat and a rich lore that included the fountain of youth. The characters were very interesting, and I wanted to hear more about their past. This is a must-play so go out there and "Get This Game."

Parental Rating

This game would never be allowed in the house. From the anti-Christian conversation that consistently happen (I mean of course, there are vampires that have lived since Roman times), to the extensive amount of blood (Again, duh), and finally the very intense sex scenes. They are wild and weirdly one-sided. They would be pissed if they saw this on the screen when I lived at home.

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