A lot of positives previews these last few days.

83% on Metacritic for now : https://www.metacritic.com/game/the-blood-of-dawnwalker/

Surprisingly well-received. That and the similar-quality Onimusha releasing at the same time, too. Some games are going to have to wait...

Preloaded, waiting for tomorrow...avoided reviews all together.

Well, so far...yeah, Witcher roots are very deep in there. Quite AAA in presentation, with usual busy map showing things you haven't yet discovered, which I really dislike (so I've immediately switched everything to off).

Combat is interesting, with directional attacks and parries - seems to be zeitgeist lately.

I had problem with gamepad on Steam (seems to be problem many have), going into controller setup and setting left joystick deadzone (which is by default set to none) to anything (though I've seen people recommend square) fixes the issue.

I've expected mass market title, so I won't complain much - I've bought it primarily to see how they handle time limited progression and for more open-ended choices, so I hope it doesn't disappoint in that regard.

I'm playing it and I have already 35 hours on it. I'm in love with the game ! It will probably be on my top 10 favorite games ever with Resident Evil Requiem and Clair Obscur : Expedition 33

I finished it couple of days ago.

Like:
- actual narrative sandbox (I think AAA publishers will copy it), which doesn't force one solution
- almost no NPC is "protected", game keeps on going, maybe you will miss some info, but maybe you will find it other way
- shifts in world as you progress in poking the holes in BBEG's power structure
- limited time, which makes you think about what to do next (though there's plenty of it, maybe too much actually)

Dislike:
- too much of Witcher 3 DNA
- in many instances fairly undercooked world
- enemy variety (pretty much everything is reskin of maybe 5 enemies)
- combat, while fun for its directionality, gets repetitive
- diplomacy is in most cases an afterthought
- lootathon approach to items, with nothing actually feeling special

There is underlying greatness in this one, core idea behind timed narrative sandbox is very good, but there's plenty that's not so good, and while being good modern Action RPG (and it is indeed more of a Action RPG than Action Adventure with RPG coat of plaint), it falls flat in quite a few things as an actual RPG.

Was it worth 70 euros? Yes, I got it due to my "support the developer at launch" mantra, cause I liked what they were trying to achieve on (what is currently considered) AA budget, and in the end I did enjoy it, though I would rate it 7/10 as an RPG and 6.5/10 overall (I'm harsh when giving scores, my favourites usually sit around 8-8.5/10). Is it actually worth those AAA 70 euros for random buyer? Not so sure. But I do hope they do well financially and keep on developing and ironing this idea further.