While The Blood of Dawnwalker is, admittedly, a pretty generic title that sounds like it’ll be a free-to-play mobile game, it’s definitely not and if you’re a fan of The Witcher games, it should be something to keep an eye on. The Witcher 3 has cast a very large shadow over the gaming industry, rightfully so, so anything that comes from members of that team is enough to pique our curiosity and attention.

Set in the 14th century in the Carpathian mountains, The Blood of Dawnwalker is an original story that blends history with a dark fantastical setting, where a vampire clan has overthrown the rule of the kingdom and established a new dynasty, which has helped control things like the plague, but has also created a world that functions only to serve the vampires. Developed in Unreal Engine 5, the game takes place roughly two years after the events depicted in the grizzly-reveal trailer. The game follows a “dawnwalker” named Coen, a silver miner who has been infected with a bad case of vampirism. But due to the nature of his previous occupation, he’s also spared from becoming a full-on vampire, allowing him to navigate both the day and night at the same time.

Rebel Wolve is the name of the new studio made up of former CD Projekt Red staff who have worked on Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077. They have teased that the game will approach gameplay and their open-world differently than other games in the genre. Instead of quests and sidequests, they implied their game will be told via non-linear quests, something they call “narrative sandbox” which will influence and shape the world around you. The world will also react to the time of day, with certain NPCs being only available at certain times of day. You have to decide if you’ll fully join the vampiric overlords that govern the valley or join a resistance against them to save your family. In an interesting, and likely controversial, twist, you’ll have only 30 days and 30 nights to complete your task, perhaps implying that each mission will take a specific amount of time from the bank. So maybe it’ll be impossible to do every quest in one playthrough. But thankfully, time between missions will “freeze the clock” so to speak and time will only pass once a quest is complete. According to the game’s social media channels. The game world will also be around as big as The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine’s expansion map, which while smaller than the main map, was incredibly dense and full of things to do.

Despite the focus of the trailer being on vampires, they’re not the only threat in the world, as the rule of the vampires has brought other supernatural creatures into the world, such as spectres. Since Coen is also part vampire, he’s susceptible to blood-thirst and must manage this to not only use his combat abilities, but to not accidentally eat his allies by accident due to being overwhelmed by hunger. And it seems no character is safe from this, as Rebel Wolves have said you can do this even to your closest friends and allies, which can close quest branches permanently. So there’s a lot of interesting ideas at play here.

The Blood of Dawnwalker is being published by Bandai and will have a summer gameplay showcase. It’s expected to be released on PC, PS5 and Xbox.