The Witcher 3 director's new vampire RPG gives you the freedom "to kill off a lot of NPCs, and a lot of them can be really important NPCs"

A close-up of Coen during the trailer for The Blood of Dawnwalker.
(Image credit: Rebel Wolves)

The Blood of Dawnwalker creative director Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz says that - unlike his last directorial effort in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - you'll be able to kill off random NPCs, as vampires tend to do, and some of them are even VIPs.

"It's a sandbox, meaning we're trying to maximize your options of your choice in the game," Tomaszkiewicz said of his vampiric game, made alongside a slew of other CD Projekt Red veterans at his new studio Rebel Wolves, in an interview with GamesRadar+. "But it isn't purely focused on gameplay. We were trying to play to our strengths, because our past projects were very focused on narrative, on good storytelling, interesting characters and a lot of lore to find."

Rebel Wolves isn't skimping on giving players plenty of choice while telling the story it wants, though. "It's not exactly endless possibilities, because obviously we have a set character you're playing with Coen, and he has his own personality and so on, but within this personality we're trying to give you the ability to shape your own Coen." Tomaszkiewicz calls the game a "narrative sandbox" since quests can branch and twist into different directions, "for example, we allow you to kill off a lot of NPCs, and a lot of them can be really important NPCS." I wonder if that possibility for VIP bloodshed is possible when you're just out and about in the open-world, or if it's only relegated to key points in the story.

"Sometimes this can lead to alternate outcomes or even cut off certain quest lines," he explained. "And this, of course, ties into our other systems [...] you being a Dawnwalker means that you have this blood hunger during the night time, so this can actually lead to these NPCs dying if you're not careful." It sounds like your rampages will be slightly more impactful than the ones you can go on in a GTA, let's say, though we'll need to wait for the game to come out on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S to learn how exactly.

Ex-CDPR devs explain how new open-world vampire RPG Blood of Dawnwalker handles its time-limited story, and I'm getting big Persona vibes: "It doesn't require you to rush"

Freelance contributor

Kaan freelances for various websites including Rock Paper Shotgun, Eurogamer, and this one, Gamesradar. He particularly enjoys writing about spooky indies, throwback RPGs, and anything that's vaguely silly. Also has an English Literature and Film Studies degree that he'll soon forget.

Read more
The Blood of Dawnwalker: A screenshot of the vampire Brencis holding up a crown during the trailer for the upcoming game.
Blood of Dawnwalker devs explain how the vampire RPG's "narrative sandbox" builds on what they were "known for crafting" in games like The Witcher 3
The Blood of Dawnwalker: A screenshot of the vampire Brencis holding up a crown during the trailer for the upcoming game.
Still plagued by Gwent memes, The Witcher 3 director's new vampire RPG makes you think twice about playing mini-games while the world burns
The Blood of Dawnwalker: A screenshot of the vampire Brencis holding up a crown during the trailer for the upcoming game.
The Witcher 3 devs created a Jekyll & Hyde-style character for their new vampire RPG "because nobody yet has done that"
The Blood of Dawnwalker vampire
The Witcher 3 director says he left CDPR to make his own open-world vampire game because "those rules of RPGs" can be bent and "a smaller team is capable of doing more"
Coen looking over the village at night during the trailer for The Blood of Dawnwalker.
The Blood of Dawnwalker is already showing its Witcher 3 roots, but it also reminds me of my favorite underrated vampire RPG
The Blood of Dawnwalker
The Witcher 3 director's upcoming open-world RPG Blood of Dawnwalker keeps revealing new vampires, and I can't get enough of this deliciously Gothic lore
Latest in RPGs
Witcher comics Geralt
"Something for true collectors": CD Projekt CEO shares his nostalgia for the "super retro" Witcher comics that are coming out in English for the first time
Baldur's Gate 3 pale vampire elf Astarion, a man with curly white hair and red eyes
A new Baldur's Gate 3 Patch 8 stress test update is here, targeting "several crashes and gameplay fixes" while it "brings us closer to release" of the RPG's big update
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty Idris Elba
A Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty cinematic lead endured a "personal nightmare" bringing Idris Elba to life because of his "very specific eyebrows" – "how he moves them is amazing"
Cyberpunk Turf Wars
There's an official new Cyberpunk 2077 game, but the bad news is that it's housed in a 9-foot, 1,500lb arcade machine
Illustrations from Obojima D&D supplement
This gorgeous Ghibli-style Dungeons & Dragons 5e campaign setting just dropped on D&D Beyond
Skyrim
Skyrim and Fallout veteran left Bethesda after 14 years because he'd already made 3 runaway GotY winners: "That's a really hard thing to top"
Latest in News
Assassin's Creed Shadows cinematic screenshot
Assassin's Creed Shadows reaches 1 million players on day one, and it sounds like even Ubisoft's having a tough time believing it: "It's not even 4PM here"
Pal wields a massive turret in a screenshot from Palworld
Palworld devs tried, but the "certain franchise plus guns" brand in the West "has stuck with us to this very day despite our best efforts to shake that off"
The Last of Us
The Last of Us 2 Remastered finally gives the most underrated character from Part 1 the love he deserves by making him one of two new playable heroes in the roguelike mode No Return
Fantastic Four #30
Thanks to Doctor Doom, Ben Grimm is no longer the Thing and his kids don't even recognize him in Fantastic Four #30
The Walking Dead: Dead City season 2
First trailer for The Walking Dead: Dead City season 2 sees Maggie fight a bear, Hershel plot revenge, and Negan give Lucille a terrifying upgrade
Assassin's Creed Shadows screenshot showing Yasuke kneeling and praying while wearing a traditional purple robe
Assassin's Creed Shadows channels the MCU with an intro that celebrates Ezio, Altair, and other heroes from the series' 17-year history