I didn't expect this massive game to underline the PS5 Pro's one weakness compared to PC
It's all about targeted optimisation, people
When it was first unveiled, there was more than a heavy whiff of The Witcher 3 about The Blood of Dawnwalker, a game that basically feels like a top-quality spinoff from that titanically successful dark RPG. Its developer, Rebel Wolves, features a host of developers who worked on Geralt's last big adventure, so the connection is far from a stretch.
I've stuck around 15 hours into the game over the last couple of weeks, since its launch at the start of September, and I'm loving it way more than I expected, largely thanks to one little choice I made when Bandai Namco offered a review code. I decided to play the game on my PC, complete with its Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, rather than on my PS5 Pro, after some pre-release news indicated that console performance might be a little lopsided.
Well, I've been super glad of that; it seems like a higher-framerate performance mode was a really late addition to the plan for Dawnwalker, and most likely will be refined over time to cut back less than it currently does on PS5 Pro in particular. That console is impressively powerful, but if a developer doesn't cater to it specifically, then it's always going to be at a disadvantage compared to a PC.
Dawnwalker sees you step into the shoes of Coen, a young man growing up in a secluded valley in 14th-century Europe, a historical setting that has a major twist. The valley has been taken over by a violent vampire warlord, a Vrakhir, as they're called in this universe.
He's taking taxes from the valley in the form of monthly blood donations from its denizens, but when Coen's village has its turn, things go wrong, and Coen soon wakes up with his family kidnapped and having been turned into a mysterious semi-vampire. He becomes a Vrakhir at night, but spends the days as a human.
This sets up both of Dawnwalker's most unique gameplay systems. First, a ticking clock that sits on your screen at all times, along with a reminder that you have 30 days to rescue your family before they're executed. As you journey around the valley sniffing out allies and ways to grow your power, your actions will often consume the time slots that make up each in-game day.
So, completing quests or side activities drains from a finite pool, encouraging you to prioritise what you're doing and what will make the biggest difference to your story and path.
The other big system is that you have very different powers during the days and nights. In the former, more humans and allies will be accessible for quests, and you'll be able to use hex-based witchcraft powers. At night, meanwhile, you'll gain the ability to teleport short distances, hugely helpful for exploration; however, you'll also have to manage your health more carefully to avoid losing your resistance and draining the blood of whoever you happen to be talking to.
These systems are great fun to work with because they force you to think about your decisions and plans at almost all times. You'll find yourself shuffling around your quests because some can only be progressed at night, for instance, but you'll also need to keep on top of others that will have different outcomes if you wait too long to complete them.
Making me make meaningful choices is something that more games should really be doing, and Dawnwalker is managing to make me feel that peril pretty regularly, which is no mean feat.
It's also looking great while doing it, and I've been playing on maxed-out settings at 1440p with impressive smoothness. Bumping this up to 4K has proved more taxing, and given the strength of my setup, that underlines that this is a bit of a performance hog for more mid-range systems.
It's also an Unreal Engine 5 game, which means you get stutters in the open world basically no matter how good your rig. These are minor inconveniences, though, and I'm just glad not to be playing at 30fps on console.
If you're craving a story-driven RPG with pretty slick combat (albeit combat that doesn't necessarily feel all that dynamic), and a narrative that feels reminiscent of the most memorable material from The Witcher's world, I'd definitely give Dawnwalker a look. If you can do so on a powerful PC, happy days – but don't overlook it on console just because of a few early performance jitters.
