this game provided me with the most immersive vampire experience. Overall, I would rate it 89/100.
This started off janky, like proper eurojank shenanigans, but eventually it won me over. In fact it might be the best vampire game I've ever played actually...
It has tons of atmosphere, brilliant art direction, great voice acting, an intriguing story and decent combat that starts off janky as previously mentioned, but as you start to level up and get accustomed to it, you end up feeling like you're playing a cross between Bloodborne and Dishonored.
Yeah that's right, if you love Bloodborne and Dishonored you should get a kick out of this game. A very underrated gem.
It has tons of atmosphere, brilliant art direction, great voice acting, an intriguing story and decent combat that starts off janky as previously mentioned, but as you start to level up and get accustomed to it, you end up feeling like you're playing a cross between Bloodborne and Dishonored.
Yeah that's right, if you love Bloodborne and Dishonored you should get a kick out of this game. A very underrated gem.
⏰ In a rush? Don't worry, I gotchu'! ⏰
What Works:
✅ Captivating Storyline: Vampyr offers a rich narrative centred around Jonathan Reid, a newly turned vampire, with branching choices that significantly impact the game's outcome.
✅ Deep Character Interaction: Each secondary character has a detailed backstory, motivations, and secrets, enriching the game's world and providing meaningful interactions.
✅ Moral Dilemmas: The game presents engaging moral choices, such as whether to consume a character's life force for power or spare them, affecting the story and game endings.
✅ Immersive Gothic Atmosphere: The game effectively captures a dark, eerie version of post-World War I London, reminiscent of Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Bloodborne.
✅ Unique Gameplay Mechanics: Combines combat, exploration, and character interaction, with a vampiric twist on resource management and abilities.
What Doesn't:
❌ Long Loading Times: Frequent and prolonged loading times disrupt the game's flow, especially at the start and during transitions.
❌ Repetitive Combat: While functional, combat can become monotonous, with noticeable difficulty spikes for players choosing a pacifist path.
❌ Performance Issues: Graphical quality is inconsistent, and performance drops, particularly during combat, detract from the overall experience.
❌ Auto-Save Dependence: The lack of a manual save option can be frustrating, as players must rely solely on the auto-save feature.
❌ Graphical Limitations on Switch: Despite maintaining the atmosphere, the overall graphical quality is lower on the Nintendo Switch, affecting immersion and visual appeal.
🧛♂️ Exploring Vampirism in Video Games
Vampirism has never been deeply explored in the video game industry. Although it has been present in series such as Castlevania, Legacy of Kain, and even Vampire: The Masquerade, rarely has it been fully developed despite the wealth of inspiration available. There’s never been a real desire to romanticise the dilemmas and issues of mystical beings in this medium, opting instead to produce works with more action than narrative. In response to this gap, the team at Dontnod, in collaboration with Saber Interactive (the porting team for The Witcher 3), brings Vampyr to the Nintendo Switch, a year after its debut on other platforms. It’s a title that draws as much from Bram Stoker’s Dracula as it does from Bloodborne in its depiction of a gothic and eerie city of London.
🩸 A Gothic Tale in London
The story follows Jonathan Reid, a decorated doctor and veteran soldier who returns to London after his participation in World War I. After an initial mishap, the titular character quickly confronts a new reality: he’s been transformed into a vampire unknowingly. Confused, and driven by primal instincts, Jonathan commits an atrocity that will haunt him for the rest of his journey. This event triggers the player’s control over the choices, either pacifist or destructive, that the doctor will face throughout the narrative. This strong focus on storyline is no surprise, considering Dontnod is also the studio behind the emotionally gripping Life is Strange. Thus, there are many cleverly written London characters, full of charm thanks to a superb and talented voice cast, along with various snippets of information scattered across the dirty and dark corners of London that reward exploration.
⚔️ Dual Aspects of Gameplay
Just as a vampire deals with the transition from day to night and their incessant thirst for blood, Vampyr forces the player to face the dual aspects of its gameplay: one component of combat similar to Bloodborne or Souls, together with exploration, and another focused on interacting with secondary characters, uncovering their stories, motivations, and secrets. Confrontations are straightforward, though somewhat repetitive. With a health bar, stamina, and blood, each action Reid takes consumes energy, and each special ability used expends blood. This latter mechanic works like a typical magic bar found in other RPGs, but linked to the vampiric context, allowing the main character to bite enemies in combat to replenish it. However, Jonathan Reid is an ingenious individual, not only capable of upgrading his weapons but also crafting his own remedies and potions, offering a temporary advantage when needed.
🌆 The Heart of the Narrative
Yet, the vein that pumps blood the most into the heart of the experience is the narrative. In Vampyr, each secondary character has their own intertwined story, which Dr. Reid can enhance or destroy. Each district of the city has several Londoners, each with their own aspirations, fears, desires, and many other factors that enrich them, along with a specific quality of blood. In other words, the healthier and happier the person, the more experience they will give Jonathan if he decides to consume their life force. However, choosing to give in to Jonathan’s instincts carries various consequences, from ruining the possibility of a desired ending (from a choice of four) to losing side quests unique to each character. For example, the death of a character can incite the subsequent appearance of a boss to fight. Alongside these mechanics are various conversation options, many unlocked by discovering pieces of information scattered throughout the world. It was quite enjoyable, for example, to read a page from a diary and discover a new topic of conversation with a character.
⏳ Bittersweet Challenges
However, amidst all the sweet, there’s some quite bitter blood that even mosquitoes would avoid. At the start of the game and during the character's deaths or access to new areas and buildings, there are long loading times that disrupt the flow of action. While the combat, though functional and simple, has some difficulty spikes for those wanting to follow a more pacifist path. Graphically, the atmosphere is well-preserved, but the quality in other areas leaves much to be desired. Unfortunately, the overall smoothness also suffers: during level exploration, there are minor performance drops, with the egregious ones happening in combat. However, at no point in the analysis did this factor lead to any unjust deaths or complete frustration. Nevertheless, it remains a good portable experience, with the only complaint being the inability to manually save progress, leaving the player at the mercy of the “auto-save” feature.
🎮 A Captivating Gothic Experience
Despite interesting but somewhat repetitive combat, subpar performance, and long loading times, Vampyr boasts a very captivating story filled with ramifications that depend on the player's choices to shine, making this experience a worthwhile venture for fans of European gothic mythology.
🌟 M I S C 🌟
◻️ 🌳 Visit my Linktree for more content.
◻️ ⚠️ Review originally written for FNintendo (defunct website) and published on November 9th, 2019.
◻️ 🙋♂️ Explore more reviews written by me.
◻️ 🎮 Discover Nintendo Switch video games I've played.
◻️ ✍️ Reviewed in European Portuguese.
◻️ 📜 Review Number 006
✨ F I N ✨
What Works:
✅ Captivating Storyline: Vampyr offers a rich narrative centred around Jonathan Reid, a newly turned vampire, with branching choices that significantly impact the game's outcome.
✅ Deep Character Interaction: Each secondary character has a detailed backstory, motivations, and secrets, enriching the game's world and providing meaningful interactions.
✅ Moral Dilemmas: The game presents engaging moral choices, such as whether to consume a character's life force for power or spare them, affecting the story and game endings.
✅ Immersive Gothic Atmosphere: The game effectively captures a dark, eerie version of post-World War I London, reminiscent of Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Bloodborne.
✅ Unique Gameplay Mechanics: Combines combat, exploration, and character interaction, with a vampiric twist on resource management and abilities.
What Doesn't:
❌ Long Loading Times: Frequent and prolonged loading times disrupt the game's flow, especially at the start and during transitions.
❌ Repetitive Combat: While functional, combat can become monotonous, with noticeable difficulty spikes for players choosing a pacifist path.
❌ Performance Issues: Graphical quality is inconsistent, and performance drops, particularly during combat, detract from the overall experience.
❌ Auto-Save Dependence: The lack of a manual save option can be frustrating, as players must rely solely on the auto-save feature.
❌ Graphical Limitations on Switch: Despite maintaining the atmosphere, the overall graphical quality is lower on the Nintendo Switch, affecting immersion and visual appeal.
🧛♂️ Exploring Vampirism in Video Games
Vampirism has never been deeply explored in the video game industry. Although it has been present in series such as Castlevania, Legacy of Kain, and even Vampire: The Masquerade, rarely has it been fully developed despite the wealth of inspiration available. There’s never been a real desire to romanticise the dilemmas and issues of mystical beings in this medium, opting instead to produce works with more action than narrative. In response to this gap, the team at Dontnod, in collaboration with Saber Interactive (the porting team for The Witcher 3), brings Vampyr to the Nintendo Switch, a year after its debut on other platforms. It’s a title that draws as much from Bram Stoker’s Dracula as it does from Bloodborne in its depiction of a gothic and eerie city of London.
🩸 A Gothic Tale in London
The story follows Jonathan Reid, a decorated doctor and veteran soldier who returns to London after his participation in World War I. After an initial mishap, the titular character quickly confronts a new reality: he’s been transformed into a vampire unknowingly. Confused, and driven by primal instincts, Jonathan commits an atrocity that will haunt him for the rest of his journey. This event triggers the player’s control over the choices, either pacifist or destructive, that the doctor will face throughout the narrative. This strong focus on storyline is no surprise, considering Dontnod is also the studio behind the emotionally gripping Life is Strange. Thus, there are many cleverly written London characters, full of charm thanks to a superb and talented voice cast, along with various snippets of information scattered across the dirty and dark corners of London that reward exploration.
⚔️ Dual Aspects of Gameplay
Just as a vampire deals with the transition from day to night and their incessant thirst for blood, Vampyr forces the player to face the dual aspects of its gameplay: one component of combat similar to Bloodborne or Souls, together with exploration, and another focused on interacting with secondary characters, uncovering their stories, motivations, and secrets. Confrontations are straightforward, though somewhat repetitive. With a health bar, stamina, and blood, each action Reid takes consumes energy, and each special ability used expends blood. This latter mechanic works like a typical magic bar found in other RPGs, but linked to the vampiric context, allowing the main character to bite enemies in combat to replenish it. However, Jonathan Reid is an ingenious individual, not only capable of upgrading his weapons but also crafting his own remedies and potions, offering a temporary advantage when needed.
🌆 The Heart of the Narrative
Yet, the vein that pumps blood the most into the heart of the experience is the narrative. In Vampyr, each secondary character has their own intertwined story, which Dr. Reid can enhance or destroy. Each district of the city has several Londoners, each with their own aspirations, fears, desires, and many other factors that enrich them, along with a specific quality of blood. In other words, the healthier and happier the person, the more experience they will give Jonathan if he decides to consume their life force. However, choosing to give in to Jonathan’s instincts carries various consequences, from ruining the possibility of a desired ending (from a choice of four) to losing side quests unique to each character. For example, the death of a character can incite the subsequent appearance of a boss to fight. Alongside these mechanics are various conversation options, many unlocked by discovering pieces of information scattered throughout the world. It was quite enjoyable, for example, to read a page from a diary and discover a new topic of conversation with a character.
⏳ Bittersweet Challenges
However, amidst all the sweet, there’s some quite bitter blood that even mosquitoes would avoid. At the start of the game and during the character's deaths or access to new areas and buildings, there are long loading times that disrupt the flow of action. While the combat, though functional and simple, has some difficulty spikes for those wanting to follow a more pacifist path. Graphically, the atmosphere is well-preserved, but the quality in other areas leaves much to be desired. Unfortunately, the overall smoothness also suffers: during level exploration, there are minor performance drops, with the egregious ones happening in combat. However, at no point in the analysis did this factor lead to any unjust deaths or complete frustration. Nevertheless, it remains a good portable experience, with the only complaint being the inability to manually save progress, leaving the player at the mercy of the “auto-save” feature.
🎮 A Captivating Gothic Experience
Despite interesting but somewhat repetitive combat, subpar performance, and long loading times, Vampyr boasts a very captivating story filled with ramifications that depend on the player's choices to shine, making this experience a worthwhile venture for fans of European gothic mythology.
🌟 M I S C 🌟
◻️ 🌳 Visit my Linktree for more content.
◻️ ⚠️ Review originally written for FNintendo (defunct website) and published on November 9th, 2019.
◻️ 🙋♂️ Explore more reviews written by me.
◻️ 🎮 Discover Nintendo Switch video games I've played.
◻️ ✍️ Reviewed in European Portuguese.
◻️ 📜 Review Number 006
✨ F I N ✨
Despite some jank, Vampyr is def worth playing and a worthy attempt at being one of the best Vampire experiences with a really engaging story.
Game loses some points because combat can be clunky, and the dialogue choices are not clear about their consequences which left me with some people dying that I was not expecting to die, but I was interested enough to continue on. If you're really stumped about what a major dialogue decision may do, you might want to do a quick search so you don't end up upset with its outcome.
I really enjoyed the system of managing districts and citizens, and making you deal with the fact that being a pacifist will make the game immensely harder because killing citizens is the fastest and kind of only way to become truly strong, it really felt like a true vampire's dilemma.
Game loses some points because combat can be clunky, and the dialogue choices are not clear about their consequences which left me with some people dying that I was not expecting to die, but I was interested enough to continue on. If you're really stumped about what a major dialogue decision may do, you might want to do a quick search so you don't end up upset with its outcome.
I really enjoyed the system of managing districts and citizens, and making you deal with the fact that being a pacifist will make the game immensely harder because killing citizens is the fastest and kind of only way to become truly strong, it really felt like a true vampire's dilemma.
Wouldnt say unfinished, it simply didnt have enough budget.
The combat is rubbish but I'm a big fan of wandering around as vampire chatting people so what can I say.
Tried this twice, got bored. The story is semi interesting but the environments are so dull. Maybe I should retry as an evil vampire gaining in power; that might be more fun, but I suspect it may land me with a terrible ending.
It started off great but after a few hours i realized they bottled a cool idea about playing as a vampire in 1900s London with some terrible design choices. The combat was floaty, only 1 save, no fast travel, the "open world" is just corridors and the dialogue put me to sleep.
You'll never catch me stepping foot in London
Relação de amor e ódio, eu amo as vozes dos personagens e a trama, mas odeio a gameplay das lutas, a movimentação confusa pelo mapa e o consumo de estamina, antes da metade do jogo e meti o louco e fui matando geral, a batalha contra a rainha de sangue quase me fez desistir por ela estar nível 50, mas com o apoio emocional de um brother meu eu consegui matar aquela desgraçada
um desastre levemente charmoso
it will come as a shock to no one that i loved this
I really liked this game. And I really tried to make this game better than it was. It has a lot going for it, but at the same time it's lackluster. There's so many interesting characters that are just.. underutilized. You find out everything about a character, and then it's, "Now what?" Your only option is to leave them alone or use them as a meatbag. But I really did like delving into their stories and learning more about them. There's some interesting characters in this game.
This also goes for the difficulty level. You're supposed to choose if you want to save some of the people in this game, but what happens if you don't? The game gets incredibly and unfairly difficult. You can be a pacifist, but you're punished and it's hardly worth doing at all. The enemies can get up to more than 10 levels higher and absolutely destroy you. That's not very fun game play, in my opinion. The game DOES warn you about the difficulty spike if you refuse to feed, though.
I adore the atmosphere of this game. 1900's London, with disease rampaging. I see that some people don't like the dark and gloomy atmosphere or "aesthetic", but that's intentional. It's an outbreak of death. It's supposed to be dark, gloomy, and sad. The story is told beautifully in it's environments and through the characters. The idea of a secret group or society of vampires is absolutely enthralling to me, and it would've been such a better game if things were thought out better.
This also goes for the difficulty level. You're supposed to choose if you want to save some of the people in this game, but what happens if you don't? The game gets incredibly and unfairly difficult. You can be a pacifist, but you're punished and it's hardly worth doing at all. The enemies can get up to more than 10 levels higher and absolutely destroy you. That's not very fun game play, in my opinion. The game DOES warn you about the difficulty spike if you refuse to feed, though.
I adore the atmosphere of this game. 1900's London, with disease rampaging. I see that some people don't like the dark and gloomy atmosphere or "aesthetic", but that's intentional. It's an outbreak of death. It's supposed to be dark, gloomy, and sad. The story is told beautifully in it's environments and through the characters. The idea of a secret group or society of vampires is absolutely enthralling to me, and it would've been such a better game if things were thought out better.
Horror RPG's are a really underutilized genre, and this one was a lot of fun. The idea that citizens of London are resource to use for XP if you harvested them, but also would close off side quests and harm the status of the city (making it more dangerous and more expensive) was interesting and fun to manage. I also liked the Vampiric skill tree, and the blood (mana) mechanics. My only complaint is this game is incredibly chatty, if you couldn't skip dialogue by pressing a key I would have quit that game. Otherwise, highly recommended.
When I think of this game, I think of one thing above all: wasted potential. In the first few hours of the game, Vampyr certainly knows how to delight players with its dense and dark atmosphere. I was quite interested in the fate of the protagonist and wanted to find out more about this world of vampires in early 20th century England. Unfortunately, my initial enthusiasm was dampened after just a few hours.
There are several reasons for this. The most important point of criticism for me is clearly the combat system. Combat in this game is neither well thought out, nor interesting or challenging, but at best unintentionally amusing and at worst simply frustrating due to the absolutely disastrous AI of the enemies. The developers have failed on several fronts here. Firstly, it doesn't make much sense in terms of internal coherence why humanoid enemies simply shrug off attacks with an axe (or a fucking two-handed scythe) as if it were nothing. Sure, for enemies with supernatural abilities this can make sense but with human enemies I find it very questionable when they flinch slightly after I've shot them in the face with a shotgun.
Furthermore, the game fails completely as soon as more than 1 opponent wants to take part in the combat. Here you are constantly attacked from behind, above, from the side or simply from the shadows and struck down without being able to react adequately. What I find "best", however, is how you can dodge enemy attacks and still get hit, as the hitboxes in this game are either too large or are not updated often enough.
It was very common for an opponent to attack me with a flamethrower or something, which I dodged and still got hit while standing far away from any fire that could have hit me. I also really "enjoyed" the various jump attacks from enemies. While the aggressive jumpers simply became invulnerable, I usually got the short end of the stick despite dodging them in time.
Overall, I also felt very underleveled in most of the fights, even though I completed every single side quest. How can that be? Well, some players would say that you can suck the townspeople dry to get experience points. But what happens if the player (as in my case) has decided to take a more pacifist approach, meaning not to make a single NPC the victim of my own bloodlust throughout the game? Well, the game is not prepared for this.
Although the game constantly tells you that you can decide for yourself if you want to sacrifice characters in the town for the sake of your own level advancement, it actively punishes you if you decide against it. So it happened to me that in later sections of the game I had a whole 10 levels less than my opponents and therefore bit the dust quite quickly. A good game would have found an elegant solution to this, so that if players choose not to sacrifice the NPCs, they have an alternative way of gaining experience. Here, however, the player's decision actively hinders the character's development. How such a system made it into the final version of the game is beyond me.
Unfortunately, the game is not convincing outside of the battles either. Things happen all the time in the game's plot that had me shaking my head constantly. I don't want to go into detail here for spoiler reasons, but it should be said that logical connections in the quests and storylines are sometimes difficult to recognize. This is also where the serious decisions that the player can make in the course of the story come into play. It is sometimes impossible to deduce the consequences of a decision from the UI commands alone. I don't mean that the long-term effects of some decisions are unpredictable (that could be considered a strength of the game), but that the direct consequences of the decision are not always clear. This reminded me of the worst dialogues from Fallout 4, where you could only give a rough type of answer and the character would say something completely inappropriate or undesirable, which is roughly how it feels here with the main character's decisions.
So what is left to say? Vampyr remains a disappointment on many levels. What the game does really well is to capture the dark and oppressive atmosphere of the early 20th century. The Spanish Flu and the consequences of the First World War are reflected very well in the design of the world, the characters and the plot. The music can also contribute to this, although it too quickly becomes very monotonous. Some of the dialogue with the inhabitants of the town is also very well written and impressively convey who these people are, what their backgrounds are, what they believe in, etc.
However, the absolutely lousy combat system and the plot full of holes make it really hard to like the game. I had been looking forward to a dark role-playing game with a vampire twist, of which we have unfortunately seen far too little (or none at all) since Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, and unfortunately all I got was a mediocrely written narrative game with a frustrating combat system and non-functional balancing, which is a shame.
There are several reasons for this. The most important point of criticism for me is clearly the combat system. Combat in this game is neither well thought out, nor interesting or challenging, but at best unintentionally amusing and at worst simply frustrating due to the absolutely disastrous AI of the enemies. The developers have failed on several fronts here. Firstly, it doesn't make much sense in terms of internal coherence why humanoid enemies simply shrug off attacks with an axe (or a fucking two-handed scythe) as if it were nothing. Sure, for enemies with supernatural abilities this can make sense but with human enemies I find it very questionable when they flinch slightly after I've shot them in the face with a shotgun.
Furthermore, the game fails completely as soon as more than 1 opponent wants to take part in the combat. Here you are constantly attacked from behind, above, from the side or simply from the shadows and struck down without being able to react adequately. What I find "best", however, is how you can dodge enemy attacks and still get hit, as the hitboxes in this game are either too large or are not updated often enough.
It was very common for an opponent to attack me with a flamethrower or something, which I dodged and still got hit while standing far away from any fire that could have hit me. I also really "enjoyed" the various jump attacks from enemies. While the aggressive jumpers simply became invulnerable, I usually got the short end of the stick despite dodging them in time.
Overall, I also felt very underleveled in most of the fights, even though I completed every single side quest. How can that be? Well, some players would say that you can suck the townspeople dry to get experience points. But what happens if the player (as in my case) has decided to take a more pacifist approach, meaning not to make a single NPC the victim of my own bloodlust throughout the game? Well, the game is not prepared for this.
Although the game constantly tells you that you can decide for yourself if you want to sacrifice characters in the town for the sake of your own level advancement, it actively punishes you if you decide against it. So it happened to me that in later sections of the game I had a whole 10 levels less than my opponents and therefore bit the dust quite quickly. A good game would have found an elegant solution to this, so that if players choose not to sacrifice the NPCs, they have an alternative way of gaining experience. Here, however, the player's decision actively hinders the character's development. How such a system made it into the final version of the game is beyond me.
Unfortunately, the game is not convincing outside of the battles either. Things happen all the time in the game's plot that had me shaking my head constantly. I don't want to go into detail here for spoiler reasons, but it should be said that logical connections in the quests and storylines are sometimes difficult to recognize. This is also where the serious decisions that the player can make in the course of the story come into play. It is sometimes impossible to deduce the consequences of a decision from the UI commands alone. I don't mean that the long-term effects of some decisions are unpredictable (that could be considered a strength of the game), but that the direct consequences of the decision are not always clear. This reminded me of the worst dialogues from Fallout 4, where you could only give a rough type of answer and the character would say something completely inappropriate or undesirable, which is roughly how it feels here with the main character's decisions.
So what is left to say? Vampyr remains a disappointment on many levels. What the game does really well is to capture the dark and oppressive atmosphere of the early 20th century. The Spanish Flu and the consequences of the First World War are reflected very well in the design of the world, the characters and the plot. The music can also contribute to this, although it too quickly becomes very monotonous. Some of the dialogue with the inhabitants of the town is also very well written and impressively convey who these people are, what their backgrounds are, what they believe in, etc.
However, the absolutely lousy combat system and the plot full of holes make it really hard to like the game. I had been looking forward to a dark role-playing game with a vampire twist, of which we have unfortunately seen far too little (or none at all) since Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, and unfortunately all I got was a mediocrely written narrative game with a frustrating combat system and non-functional balancing, which is a shame.
Third time I beat the game and platinumed it on PS4 . I love this game
A pretty fun game. Story was fun. Gameplay was nice. Looking forward to doing a full feed playthrough, so I can take full advantage of the way the game plays.
Janky cool. Really just liked everything about it except for the balance.
It uses a very annoying level scaling system which reduces damage you deal and increases damage you take based on the difference between your level and enemy levels. Its very lame since it makes your choice of abilities to invest in pretty meaningless since level is the only thing that matters, I had capped out health upgrades pretty early on but enemies still just deck you in a few hits if theres around 10 or so levels difference between you. You end up investing in levels to make enemies weaker not to make yourself stronger.
You cant really grind for levels either since experience is mostly gained from bosses or citizens you decide to drain to gain experience. The citizen draining idea is cool and it fits with the theme of the protagonist having to resist his urges for blood and power but theres a few points where youre gatekept into draining a citizen just to not instantly die and deal piss weak damage against a boss.
I did play on hard so Im not sure if that changes the scaling system but I think that was just a bad idea in general. I still recommend the game tho just its probably better to play it on normal.
It uses a very annoying level scaling system which reduces damage you deal and increases damage you take based on the difference between your level and enemy levels. Its very lame since it makes your choice of abilities to invest in pretty meaningless since level is the only thing that matters, I had capped out health upgrades pretty early on but enemies still just deck you in a few hits if theres around 10 or so levels difference between you. You end up investing in levels to make enemies weaker not to make yourself stronger.
You cant really grind for levels either since experience is mostly gained from bosses or citizens you decide to drain to gain experience. The citizen draining idea is cool and it fits with the theme of the protagonist having to resist his urges for blood and power but theres a few points where youre gatekept into draining a citizen just to not instantly die and deal piss weak damage against a boss.
I did play on hard so Im not sure if that changes the scaling system but I think that was just a bad idea in general. I still recommend the game tho just its probably better to play it on normal.
Probably a 3.5/5 for most. I bump it up because 1) I just love dialogue wheels, and 2) the premise is really good, if a bit flawed.
the conundrum of being a doctor and doing no harm, but needing to feed, has potential for great drama. the problem is that, in order to properly tempt the player, the combat has to feel bad, and can only be overcome by gaining xp, which means harvesting citizens. if the combat is actually skill based, players wouldn’t need to consider sacrificing citizens.
but still, I give this a 4/5 on the potential of that premise, the setting, the performances, the cello-heavy soundtrack, etc.
can’t wait to play Banishers next!
the conundrum of being a doctor and doing no harm, but needing to feed, has potential for great drama. the problem is that, in order to properly tempt the player, the combat has to feel bad, and can only be overcome by gaining xp, which means harvesting citizens. if the combat is actually skill based, players wouldn’t need to consider sacrificing citizens.
but still, I give this a 4/5 on the potential of that premise, the setting, the performances, the cello-heavy soundtrack, etc.
can’t wait to play Banishers next!
podre
que podre
fiquei de cara de tacho qnd descobri q a irmã dele virou vampira e fiquei mal por ter escolhido a opção q achei q salvaria a enfermeira, mas aí ela morreu e virou um coisa ruim, de todas as pessoas q eu poderia falhar, falhei logo com a enfermeira ai ai viu, mas pelo menos consegui ficar com a vampira q o "dr dracula" aí tinha crush kkkk
This review contains spoilers
Vampyr is a decent game held back by many game design choices and somewhat weak in its main content. The setting of the game is interesting, set in the Spanish flu -era in London. It has a dark atmosphere and the characters reflect that with their despair, greed and violence.
The game is strongest in its ability to make you invested in the side characters. For example, the lady in the hospital who thinks she's a vampire and her relationship with the patient who lets her bite him is surprisingly endearing. However, the writing of the main character is somehow not even close to the writing of the side characters. Not once during my playthrough did I feel attached to the main character. He just kind of is there to find more about the world and its inhabitants. His personality is nonexistent and his whole romance arc with the main vampire lady seems forced for the sake of the plot. There seems to be only little build up with it and both of the characters involved in it are so reserved that it seems almost awkward.
The game also seems to make a great deal of the relationship of the main character and his sister, but that falls short of anything remarkable too. She has no build up and appears later as a villain, and the game expects the player to feel something for them. I suppose her coming back was slightly interesting but it surely did not make me like the dynamic between the two any more than before.
Then there's the combat. It's slightly infuriating with its limited array of abilities and weapongs. For me at least, the combat boiled down to using the same five abilites for the entire game, as other setups seemed severely underpowered. Oh, and if you try to do a playthrough where you don't eat any civilians, have fun. Every enemy will be way overleveled and will turn you into dust quickly, and the normal street thugs will take so long to whittle down. In addition, the loading times are awful. It is not really tied to hardware, so expect to enjoy minute-long loading screens when retrying bosses, entering and exiting sewers, and such. Not fun. When facing hard bosses, you are also discouraged to use your healing and ammo, as if you die after using them, you have to restart the boss without them being replenished. Why? I have no idea but it is another blight in the combat. The last boss was very theatrical and enjoyable though.
This game also has no fast travel or manual saving, for reasons unknown...
The main story is kind of interesting, and the multiple endings make this somewhat replayable. However, the combat might turn people away from that. I do appreciate how well they packed the small map with many things to do. The milieu, the side cast, the music and some bosses are enjoyable. It's just when you try to enjoy the game for more than its outer shell, there's not much to it.
The game is strongest in its ability to make you invested in the side characters. For example, the lady in the hospital who thinks she's a vampire and her relationship with the patient who lets her bite him is surprisingly endearing. However, the writing of the main character is somehow not even close to the writing of the side characters. Not once during my playthrough did I feel attached to the main character. He just kind of is there to find more about the world and its inhabitants. His personality is nonexistent and his whole romance arc with the main vampire lady seems forced for the sake of the plot. There seems to be only little build up with it and both of the characters involved in it are so reserved that it seems almost awkward.
The game also seems to make a great deal of the relationship of the main character and his sister, but that falls short of anything remarkable too. She has no build up and appears later as a villain, and the game expects the player to feel something for them. I suppose her coming back was slightly interesting but it surely did not make me like the dynamic between the two any more than before.
Then there's the combat. It's slightly infuriating with its limited array of abilities and weapongs. For me at least, the combat boiled down to using the same five abilites for the entire game, as other setups seemed severely underpowered. Oh, and if you try to do a playthrough where you don't eat any civilians, have fun. Every enemy will be way overleveled and will turn you into dust quickly, and the normal street thugs will take so long to whittle down. In addition, the loading times are awful. It is not really tied to hardware, so expect to enjoy minute-long loading screens when retrying bosses, entering and exiting sewers, and such. Not fun. When facing hard bosses, you are also discouraged to use your healing and ammo, as if you die after using them, you have to restart the boss without them being replenished. Why? I have no idea but it is another blight in the combat. The last boss was very theatrical and enjoyable though.
This game also has no fast travel or manual saving, for reasons unknown...
The main story is kind of interesting, and the multiple endings make this somewhat replayable. However, the combat might turn people away from that. I do appreciate how well they packed the small map with many things to do. The milieu, the side cast, the music and some bosses are enjoyable. It's just when you try to enjoy the game for more than its outer shell, there's not much to it.
يا مدلل البيت خطبناله عروسه
Dk why I dropped it
This review contains spoilers
Amazing world, interesting to have experience be linked to how many people's blood you drink. Being a doctor in this world makes for interesting situations while also giving a good reason for you to have healing items and actually making an impact. The combat is not quite my style, but fights still felt epic at times.
En todas las plataformas este juego me ha dado errores
Vampyr is a vampire action game from the same people that are responsible for the popular/infamous Zoomer simulator Life is Strange.
Despite Vampyr having many interesting themes and ideas, it is somehow one of the most boring action games I’ve ever played.
Nearly everyone speaks in monotone. The environments are all dull, dark, drab and gloomy, with many of the areas looking very samey. Most of the characters aren’t interesting, and the few that are don’t really get to do much.
The biggest issue is that despite being a game about being a vampire, the game punishes you for doing the vampire related mechanics. You can feed on civilians for experience, but doing so can make the district they live in worse, potentially losing the ability to feed on other civilians. Story choices that are in favor of vampires are usually presented as a bad choice.
There are better vampire games to play…
Despite Vampyr having many interesting themes and ideas, it is somehow one of the most boring action games I’ve ever played.
Nearly everyone speaks in monotone. The environments are all dull, dark, drab and gloomy, with many of the areas looking very samey. Most of the characters aren’t interesting, and the few that are don’t really get to do much.
The biggest issue is that despite being a game about being a vampire, the game punishes you for doing the vampire related mechanics. You can feed on civilians for experience, but doing so can make the district they live in worse, potentially losing the ability to feed on other civilians. Story choices that are in favor of vampires are usually presented as a bad choice.
There are better vampire games to play…
Good, could've been much better.
paia