The Blood of Dawnwalker's first major update will add directional animal petting and a new story mode that's easier than the previous story mode

I've nothing against games that feature simulated animal petting, but it's never been something I've considered buying a game specifically for. Sure, it's nice when your character can stroke a virtual dog or fuss with a clump of polygons shaped like a cat, but it rarely amounts to more than a canned animation. That said, I am suddenly more tempted to shell out on The Blood of Dawnwalker, as Rebel Wolves has announced that the next update to its vampire RPG will introduce "directional animal petting".

The Blood of Dawnwalker already features a directional combat system in the vein of Kingdom Come: Deliverance. And this system lies at the heart of the animal petting being added to version 1.1 of the vampire RPG—according to an update the developer posted on X: "What happens when you merge a directional combat system with an ability to pet dogs and cats?" Rebel Wolves asked. "Directional. Animal. Petting."

Sadly, Rebel Wolves didn't provide any further detail about this system. But it did offer plenty of insight into what else is coming with update 1.1. Aside from being able to stroke cats at different angles, perhaps the most significant addition is a new Story mode. This will feature an "additional combat assist" for players who aren't interested in mastering the game's swordplay, letting them focus mainly on enjoying the narrative and making decisions. It's worth noting this will not replace the existing Story mode outright. That difficulty setting will still exist, but under the new name of "Forgiving."

Elsewhere, The Blood of Dawnwalker will now allow players to rework their abilities through the Draught of Mind Rebirth, which gives you back the points you've allocated into the RPG's various skill trees and lets you spend them elsewhere. That's it for major new features, but smaller changes coming in 1.1 include improved combat targeting, better traversal, in-game camera tweaks, and updates to the RPG's FrameGen tech.

In total, Rebel Wolves promise 1100 changes coming to The Blood of Dawnwalker. It's unlikely any of these will relate to the game's controversial time mechanic, even though the studio has said this system might not feature in the sequel. And a sequel to The Blood of Dawnwalker is coming. Rebel Wolves is already working on it after the first game sold 1 million copies in its first three days on sale.