Skyrim: Dawnguard meets The Witcher in stunning new RPG

Brand new studio Rebel Wolves has dropped the first trailer for The Blood of Dawnwalker, and it’s a damn good one.

That’s perhaps exactly what we should’ve expected given that Rebel Wolves was formed using major talent from CD Projekt RED.

You can certainly see a The Witcher influence on The Blood of Dawnwalker, although there’s a dash of Skyrim: Dawnguard in there too.

The Blood of Dawnwalker, previously known as Dawnwalker: Origins, is described as a “dark fantasy narrative sandbox” RPG with the project spearheaded by Konrad Tomaszkiewicz who you may recognise as the game director of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

Created in Unreal Engine 5, The Blood of Dawnwalker is set to take us to medieval Europe, 1347 AD, with a story seemingly centering around vampirism but before I continue, let’s take a look at that new trailer.

The Blood of Dawnwalker is looking very promising indeed.

There’s a lot to unpack here, so let’s begin with the setting. The Blood of Dawnwalker takes us to the Carpathian Mountains, so that means we’re in central Europe.

The mountains travel through the Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia, Poland, Ukraine, Romania, and Serbia.

Somewhere within this area, we find a young man, Coen, and his daughter ambushed by a pursuing group of armour-clad soldiers who seek to take the duo out in a bid to stop the spread of the plague.

That is until an undead being, with the help of a few followers it seems, turns up to take the soldiers out in what is a bloody and squelchy sequence.

The beings feast on the bodies of those soldiers so that’s why I’m leaning towards this being a vampire tale although you won’t find the classic pointy fang cliche here.

In fact, the teeth on the leader look more like those of one of Until Dawn’s wendigos.

The leader of this creepy group is able to infuse our hero’s daughter with life, explaining, “I am life, I am death. I am everything in between. I have been watching your little valley. Pestilence. Famine. Killing.”

“Blood spilt carelessly like water,” he continues. “Things will be different now, for all of you.”

Whatever these supernatural beings are, they clearly think they can better humanity in their own twisted way.

At the end, we’re treated to some brief gameplay snippets, showcasing a couple of glimpses at combat with the trailer promising a full gameplay reveal this summer.

Perhaps at Summer Game Fest? Or Gamescom’s Opening Night Live?

Of course, given that the vast majority of this trailer is made up of a cinematic, I’d urge you to keep your hype in check until we see a tad more gameplay but I can’t blame you if you’re failing to do that.

This has just flown right up my most hyped list.

The game will launch on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox X/S.