Vampyr

A great game! With such a narrative, an intense story telling! It touches our emotions with deep personal story of every character! The mechanicals give us a feeling in being a real vampire, having to choose whether or not to kill someone, you feel the thirst for blood (to upgrade your powers) or to spare and save a life and see the changes in story. Be a good doctor, or a powerful creature of the night! It is up to you! An awesome game! Like no other around nowadays.

Checking out the marketing for Vampyr, the game sells itself on not only showing the "darker" side of being a vampire (as opposed to something like Twilight) but also on the player's ability to choose how much of that dark nature that's going to be revealed. Outside of combat, the player has the choice of drinking the blood of the non-playable characters they meet or leaving them be. This is one of the better aspects of Vampyr, to get more XP from drinking these character's blood, you have to get to know them a little better, to help treat their sickness and consider the consequences of what their absence would mean to those around them. Its a clever twist compared to most sandbox single player adventures where the player can murder anyone they want and face little consequence. I love games where choices matter and to help immerse you into this world, they create some characters that you aren't just willing to lead into a dark alley for nefarious purposes. Its not a ground-breaking achievement, but I did like the effort put into that aspect.

Moving from the supporting characters to the main character, Dr. Jonathan Reid is an interesting character to follow throughout Vampyr. He's my kind of protagonist, he's an anti-hero who is trying to come to grips with not only his new sickness but also the world he's come back to. He doesn't beat around the bush when he's questioning/interrogating those around him, he's helpful to the less fortunate but critical of the selfishness and lack of professionalism of his friends and colleagues. Your choices affect his demeanor, but his personality was about the right mix of ingredients for me. I also thought some good voice work from Anthony Howell helped sell the dilemmas that he faces throughout the game.

While there is a good amount of investigating to do in this game, the player can engage in a fair amount of combat as Reid. This is probably where the game runs into difficulty. Reid's actual combat style isn't new and the character progression down the skill tree is solid if unspectacular. But the two things that really got me were how repetitive the fight sequences were. You move from one end of London to the other and you still come upon the same groups of vampire hunters with the same number of people and even the same type of fighters. By the end of the game, I wasn't concerned with picking up XP from these fights anymore and largely ran, dodged or walked away from these fights. The other thing that bugged me is if you choose to try not to embrace as few citizens as possible, the boss fights are unreasonably difficult. There isn't a big variety in how to defeat these enemies, so you have to keep doing the same combos and attacks, but you also have to be more and more precise depending on how often you have leveled up. Vampyr lets you know, if you're having trouble, embrace more people for more XP but the game also lays on the guilt trip if you choose to do that. So, I felt like the game was pulling me in one direction but almost requiring me to go in the other just, so I could progress.

The Vampyr story is another beauty in the eye of the beholder aspect. Dr. Johnathan Reid is a gifted surgeon and a pioneer in the field of blood transfusion. He returns from war in France to his home of London, England but is immediately knocked out, transformed into a vampire, presumed dead and pitched in a mass grave. London is being terrorized by the Spanish Flu epidemic and few chances are being taken. Reid wakes up and unfortunately bites the first person in the vicinity because of the magnitude of his thirst for blood. Unable to come to grips with the murder he just perpetrated, he flees the area and tries to adapt to not only his new surroundings but to his new lifestyle as a vampire. This premise was interesting enough to get me on board, but the game lacks the non-stop action that many gamers will crave. The creative team does a pretty good job however spinning this narrative and combine that with some solid character development, you've got a story worth keeping up with.

I foresee this game gaining a cult following. It won't be for everyone and it's not like Vampyr's problems are hiding in the shadows like Dr. Jonathan Reid. You pick up on them rather quickly (frustrating and repetitive combat being the biggest) and if you're not invested in the characters or the premise, I would bet you'd be turning off your preferred gaming console (PS4, XBOX One or PC). But I did like the premise, the characters, the atmosphere and parts of the story and that kept me going. I would love to see a sequel to this because if they can improve upon some of the missteps in Vampyr, I think you would get that unanimous approval from the gaming community. Reid is an interesting enough anti-hero (depending on how you choose to play him) and he could anchor another game. The finished product is decidedly mixed, but I fall into the niche this game was aiming for. I give it more credit because it wasn't a AAA release, it was done on a moderate budget for a video game studio and while the lack of polish the game has is evident, they still created a game that's a new take on a vampires in video games and had enough style to standout. I wouldn't recommend buying Vampyr at full price, but I got it at a 50% off sale and I'm happy with the purchase at that amount. I'd give it a 7.5 out of 10 rounding up to an 8/10.

The story takes us back to 1918, when the infamous influenza pandemic of 1918, dubbed the Spanish flu, ravaged Europe and the streets of London were filled with violence and fear. We take on the role of a man named Jonathan Reid, a respected military surgeon who returns from the front lines of the first world war on a personal mission to help those affected by the disease and find a way to stop the deadly epidemic. But during the journey home, our hero is unexpectedly bitten by a vampire. From then on he has to deal not only with the outbreak, but also with his new nature and his growing lust for blood, which leads him to make many difficult moral choices that can significantly affect the course of the story.

In terms of game mechanics, we can say that it's a pretty typical action RPG. During the game we wander through the dark streets of London, complete many main and side quests and talk to the NPCs we encounter. Most of the time, however, we'll encounter mortal enemies, which can prove to be different types of vampires or other mutants, as well as hunters who can use a wider variety of weapons and even traps. The combat takes place in real time and we can use both physical strength and firearms, as well as the typical "vampire" skills that we develop throughout the story. Of course, as expected from a game about bloodsuckers, there's also an important requirement to regain our dwindling strength by drinking the blood of our victims. Anyone can be our prey, whether in a fight or during exploration.

Throughout the game, we often have to make difficult decisions about which NPC will be our next victim, as once killed a character disappears completely and their absence can prevent us from completing certain missions and affect the ending of the game. We also have to be extremely careful not to arouse suspicion about our second nature among the civilian population, meaning it is not enough to simply bite the first person we encounter. Often, we may have to do time-consuming research about our potential victim, their habits and relationships with other characters.

When it comes to graphics, Vampyr is developed by Unreal Engine 4, which offers high-quality visuals. The developers from the Dontnod studio have managed to combine typical action RPG mechanics with the distinctive character of the dark times of a Spanish Flu pandemic and the unique atmosphere of classic vampire movies. The game has an average of 30-40 hours of gameplay. It also has four different endings that change according to the choices made.

The story is entertaining. The combat is a little one dimensional but the powers make it a little bit better. The loading takes somewhat long. Not a fan of so many op enemies. The lack of a fast travel system is the absolute worst and where the game loses point in review.

I had never even heard of this game until it was released as a PS Plus monthly freebie and i am extremely glad that i downloaded and played it.

As far as gameplay goes, it's not as well developed as a lot of the larger more common game developers, i.e. EA and Rocksteady, but it stands it's ground well in the gothic horror story it wants to tell.

I would like to say that Anthony Howells voice is extremely pleasant on the ears, it suits the character of Jonathan Reid well, a good honest but tired man, having now become a blood thirsty monster in the city of London.

Your actions throughout the game determine how the story progresses, resulting in various different endings for Jonathan.