Opinion seems to be favourable about Witcher-like dark fantasy role-playing game The Blood of Dawnwalker – barring a few technical problems, that is. Quibbles with performance issues, controller issues, and bugs (and perhaps the lack of a New Game+ mode) are holding the game back. To this end, developer Rebel Wolves has whisked out a quick hotfix, addressing some of the issues at hand.
Rebel Wolves has also been spotted advertising for a lead writer (via Resetera) to help create a Blood of Dawnwalker sequel, which is something the studio talked openly about wanting to make even before the game was released. Indeed, I spoke to game director and studio co-founder Konrad Tomaszkiewicz about exactly this – about the studio’s plan to follow vampire hero Coen through historical eras in new adventures, and about our ability as players to carry our saved games over.
The hotfix (1.04), which is rolling out now on all platforms – PC, PS5 and Xbox Series S/X – addresses stability issues, quest-blocking issues, game-saving issues, and specific Steam controller issues.
The controller fix relates to a drop in frame-rate when plugging a controller in, using what the hotfix notes called “outdated GameInput software”, which is I believe the software Windows uses to recognise devices like controllers being plugged in. Rebel Wolves also made more adjustments to controller dead zones to avoid issues when sprinting – an issue I’ve seen players mention a lot.
These changes follow a hotfix from the weekend which added formal DualSense controller support on Steam and GOG. I don’t know if this has fixed the issue with dialogue choice and inventory navigation jumping around when using a controller, which is very annoying.
The stability fixes, meanwhile, are simply listed as “multiple improvements to the game’s stability”. There’s no sign yet of uncapped frame-rates in cutscenes that people are asking for, nor performance optimisation across a range of resolutions and graphics cards. An earlier hotfix did attempt to address Borderless and Windowed game performance, though.
Notably, Rebel Wolves has pledged to keep improving the game until the work is done. “We will continue to make improvements so that you can enjoy The Blood of Dawnwalker more comfortably. Thank you for your support and patience,” the studio wrote in the 1.02 hotfix Steam post.
The Blood of Dawnwalker was released last week, and in my Eurogamer review, I was enthusiastic about it. “CD Projekt Red alumni create a familiar dark fantasy adventure, but one with bold and provocative ideas of its own, that’s mostly, enormously successful,” I wrote. The game has already passed 1m sales, experiencing a strong overlap, perhaps unsurprisingly, with a Witcher 3 audience. How much higher can the sales go, I wonder?
The 1.04 hotfix notes follow.
Full list of changes:
Stability
- Multiple improvements to the game’s stability.
Gameplay
- Fixed an issue that blocked the tutorial progress if Voracious Bite was used a bit too fast.
- Fixed issues that caused Coen to get stuck inside certain houses with no way of getting out.
- Crake can now talk to Coen even during his training sequence.
- Dead NPCs can no longer start dialogues [Edit: I love this one].
- Fixed an issue that disabled blocking under certain circumstances.
- Fixed an issue that blocked players from saving the game.
- Adjustments to controller dead zone and input issues while sprinting.
Quests
- Ocha will no longer attack Coen when attacked by guards.
- Fixed an issue that caused Coen to get stuck in a cave in the “Deep Down” quest.
- Fixed an issue that caused Murohn to not spawn under certain circumstances.
- Fixed an issue that caused one of the possible solutions for the “Hive and Seek” quest to end prematurely.
- Progressing the “On the Run” quest no longer causes infinite loading.
- “A Lone Wolf’s Hunt” now appropriately shows the difficulty level.
- Fixed an issue that caused a soft-lock after following Sara.
- Investigating the rag is now optional in the “Smoke and Ashes” quest.
- Fixed an issue that caused a blocker in “The Heart Wants What It Wants” quest.
Art
- Coen and Iorgu will now drink from their cups even on low graphical settings.
- We are no longer using that one red pipe asset we weren’t supposed to use.
Audio
- Fixed issues that caused music to stop playing in the prologue.
Miscellaneous
- [STEAM ONLY] Connecting controllers with the outdated GameInput software should no longer cause FPS drops.
- Torches can no longer grow uncontrollably.
- Fixed an issue that prevented Quality preset mods from applying properly.
Plugin
- [PC ONLY] Fixed issues with VSync when using FSR Frame Generation.
