The Blood of Dawnwalker IGN Review: 9/10 Explained

IGN score at a glance

What the IGN verdict says

IGN's review verdict is emphatic. The reviewer described The Blood of Dawnwalker as a new favourite vampire game and one of the best story-driven RPGs played in a long time, which is stronger language than a 9 out of 10 usually carries.

The praise centres on three things. The first is the day and night cycle that has you juggling human and vampiric forms, which IGN called awesome. The second is the limited time you spend on each objective, which IGN called one of the coolest and most wonderfully stressful parts of the adventure.

The third is the story itself. IGN highlighted memorable characters, gut-wrenching decisions and more endings than the reviewer was ever likely to see, and said the combination kept the game firmly in its thrall.

What IGN said about combat

Combat is the one area where the verdict is more measured. IGN described a bit of a learning curve, then said it gets under your skin in all the right ways once you get the hang of it.

That is a softer positive than the writing and time system received. It matches the broader review pattern, where directional combat and parrying are generally praised while enemy variety and repetition draw criticism.

The important distinction is that IGN did not treat combat as a weakness that undermines the game. It treated it as something that takes time to click, which is a different kind of complaint.

What the IGN First preview covered

Before the review, IGN ran an IGN First demonstration built around four hours of hands-on play, starting from the main menu. The write-up covered the prologue in detail and explicitly noted that this was a preview of an early build, not a scored review.

The preview established the setting. Coen lives a small-town life in the Carpathian valley of Vale Sangora, an area ruled by vampires who freed the people from plague and taxes in exchange for a monthly blood tithe.

It also demonstrated how time works. The daylight hours are shown as a HUD element split into eight segments, and most prologue quests consume one segment. Choosing to spend extra time with a character doubled the cost of one task, which is exactly the trade-off the full game is built around.

The prologue quest IGN used as an example

The demo quest involved a distraught woman whose woven banner, made in honour of the vampire leader, had been stolen before the evening's Blood Mass. Finding it turns into a tour of the village, with interrogations and a focus vision ability used to assess footprints and trails.

The thief turns out to be a labourer rebelling against vampire rule. Returning the banner keeps the peace but guarantees punishment for the woman, and letting him go would put her at risk. IGN used the choice to illustrate the kind of consequence the game is built on.

That structure carried into the review. IGN's praise for choices and consequences is grounded in the same prologue content the preview described, which is why the two pieces read consistently.

How to read the IGN score in context

IGN's 9 out of 10 sits at the top of the roundup alongside Press-Start and Shacknews, and just below the 9.5s and the single 10 out of 10. It is a high score, but it is not an outlier.

The site's own preview coverage is worth reading alongside it, because it shows the reasoning behind the score rather than just the number. The preview explains the time system and the prologue choice, which are exactly the elements the review rewards.

If your priority is story, character and choice, IGN is one of the most useful reviews to read. If your priority is combat feel and technical smoothness, read the mid-range reviews as well, because they describe those areas in more detail.