The Blood of Dawnwalker’s brutal launch trailer prepares us for a vampire

by Paul McNally Last Updated August 26, 2026

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The Blood of Dawnwalker has received its official launch trailer ahead of its September 3 release on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.

Developed by Rebel Wolves and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment, the open-world action RPG takes players to a plague-ravaged corner of 14th-century Europe ruled by a particularly unpleasant collection of vampires.

The new trailer provides one final look at protagonist Coen’s battle against Brencis, the tyrannical vampire lord who has seized control of Vale Sangora. It also offers plenty of sword fighting, supernatural powers, unsettling monsters, and the kind of grim medieval misery we have come to expect from the former CD Projekt Red developers behind the project.

A human by day and vampire by night

Coen is a Dawnwalker, caught between his human and vampiric identities. His condition changes the way players explore and fight, with different abilities becoming available depending on whether Vale Sangora is being explored during the day or after nightfall.

Player decisions will shape both the story and gameplay, with Rebel Wolves promising a morally complicated world where choices are rarely as straightforward as good or evil. The developer has also built progression around time, making the order in which players pursue quests potentially as important as the decisions made during them.

Vale Sangora itself is located in the Carpathian Mountains and blends historical influences with regional myths and folklore. Players will be free to explore its forests, shrines, settlements, and ruins while discovering quests, treasures, mysteries, and other points of interest.

“All of us here at Rebel Wolves are counting down the days to launch of our first game. We can’t wait for the moment when players step into Vale Sangora and come face-to-face with Brencis and his vampire clique,” said game director and Rebel Wolves co-founder Konrad Tomaszkiewicz.

“We also hope that today’s trailer will encourage even more players to visit our booth at gamescom in Hall 6.1 and try our game.”

The Blood of Dawnwalker is intended to begin a larger saga

The Blood of Dawnwalker is the first game from Warsaw-based Rebel Wolves, a studio founded in 2022 by a team that includes several former CD Projekt Red developers. The studio is using Unreal Engine 5 to build its grim open world.

It may also be only the beginning for the series. Rebel Wolves has already said that future instalments in the Dawnwalker saga could explore different historical eras and cultures, each with its own setting and experience.

Whether Coen will remain central to those stories remains to be seen. For now, players have Brencis and his vampire clique to deal with when The Blood of Dawnwalker launches on September 3.

Pre-orders are available now across PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.

About the Author

Paul McNally has been a prominent games journalist since the 1990s, spending over a decade editing top-selling magazines and websites.

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