The Blood of Dawnwalker's most interesting mechanic took a bite out of my inner RPG completionist, who would've otherwise played hooky with a witch

I had the pleasure of playing four hours of The Blood of Dawnwalker last week—and while I can't say it'll knock my socks off just yet (RPGs that claim to have impactful choices just require more sitdown time to prove their worth) it has absolutely got its teeth into me, because I experienced something rare: I ignored a quest. On purpose. And I liked it.

You play as Coen, a humble yet hero-coded villager who, over the course of the prologue (and the game's first day, more on that later) is turned into a titular dawnwalker, thanks to your incidental siring within a silver mine. A human by day, a bloodthirsty monster by night.

Your moment-to-moment dispatchment of corrupt guards and obligatory wolves (plus the occasional bear) is very action-RPG standard, with the delightful inclusion of a For Honor-style directional block and attack system with timed parries and direction-based counter-hits, with some options to just auto-attack if you don't want to deal with all of that.

This system wobbles a bit in crowds of enemies, but that's likely just a result of not being able to gather enough skill points during my play session to get into the game's ability system, which is a l...