The Blood of Dawnwalker Offers So Much Freedom, It Even Accounts for Players Beating the Game Very Early on With Alternate Endings
One of the best things about The Blood of the Dawnwalker is that it leaves gamers to ultimately decide how they want to tackle the game’s story. Want to spend 30-plus hours roaming the open world, questing, and maxing out your character with all kinds of skills and gear? Well, go ahead. What if you just want to skip right to the last boss? Well, you can do that too, though it’ll be extremely difficult because you’ll be low-level.
But did you know you could also beat the game without having to beat a single boss? Oh, it’s true, and there are also other alternative ways to approach the story that aren’t entirely obvious.
Spoiler warning ahead.
Sometimes It’s Easier to Just Walk Away
Obviously we’re walking into spoiler territory here, so if that bolded text in the intro of this story wasn’t a warning enough, well, here’s another. Still with us? Alright, you made your choice, and that’s exactly what The Blood of Dawnwalker is all about: making choices and living with the consequences.
As such, the game doesn’t have a defined path for you to follow once you leave the prologue section. You’re free to go where you want, and tackle the story however you want. But while the game makes it clear that the goal of it is to save your family, Coen, being a new vampire and all, having all that pressure might just be too much for him. So much so that perhaps he might just want to forget about everything, leave Vale Sangora to its fate.
Well, that’s exactly what you can do. While Brencis (the main antagonist of the game) made sure to seal most of Vale Sangora off from allowing people in and out, he apparently missed a few locations around the map where players can simply walk out. No joke, you can beat the game (you’ll unlock the achievement) just by leaving Vale Sangora.
Now the ending won’t give you any real closure, but it’s neat that Rebel Wolves included that as an option.
Oh, You’re Holding My Family Hostage and Threatening to Murder Them? Meh, I Go Ahead, I Didn’t Like Them Anyway
One of the game’s most interesting mechanics is the time limit players have to save their family. You have 30 days to SAVE your family. I bolded the “save” because this doesn’t necessarily mean you have 30 days to beat the game. Nope, it’s only to save your family, and if you decide to ignore the mission on the last day, you’ll be greeted with a cutscene; Brencis will make good on his promise, and Coen will realize he has failed. But that’s not game over, as a now-angry Coen vows to get revenge for his family.
Sure, you won’t have a family to save anymore, but you also won’t have to worry about cramming everything in 30 days. Plus, do we even like them? I mean, have you seen Coen’s little brother’s haircut?
You Can Even Beat the Game During the Prologue
Here’s an interesting fact about the game: You can beat it before stepping into the open world. That’s not a joke, but it’s also extremely hard. During the prologue, you’ll come face to face with Brencis. The fight itself is basically unwinnable, as Brencis is just far too powerful, with Coen’s attacks not even registering on his health bar. BUT the possibility is there, and we await the day when a legit player can actually overcome it. However, those playing on PC can easily cheat this fight, and Rebel Wolves made sure to account for it, as Brencis is entirely beatable, triggering the ending of the game.
This isn’t just some oversight either, as he will make a remark about how he could be defeated by someone he just turned, as well as bringing up other unique lines about Coen’s untapped abilities, some of which you learn from playing the game normally that he won’t mention if you beat him normally.
The ending itself is essentially unchanged, but the dialogue from Brencis, as well as some of the other characters in the ending, does change a bit since Coen knows nothing about being a vampire.
Obviously, beating the game in either way won’t really offer any closure or even provide any real info on Coen, his family, or Brencis and his vampire cohorts, but the fact that the studio even included unique dialogue lines and even having the achievement/trophy pop is a nice touch.
The Blood of Dawnwalker is out now, and if you’re on the fence, check out our review to see why it’s one of our Game of the Year frontrunners.
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