I played Vampyr to find out more about this in-depth vampire game and think that you should too.
Vampyr, a game released in 2018 by DontNod Entertainment, has been released on the PlayStation 4 for the PS Plus games this means as of October 2020 individuals which have a PS Plus membership can download the game for free. I played 2 hours of this exciting gothic game and can say that I am glad that Sony users may also be able to play it this month. However, I also believe this to be promising for others that may wish to play it too especially those who have a passion for vampires.
What is it?
Without spoiling the story, Vampyr is set in London during the year 1918, this is the end of the first world war and during the three intense waves of the Spanish Flu pandemic which leaves the setting of Vampyr to be extremely morbid, the perfect environment for vampires. You play as the renowned doctor Jonathan Reid who has returned from the war to visit your sickly mother after helping in the army hospitals in France. On returning to the city you are attacked by an unknown individual who transforms you into a vampire.
Jonathan is forced to adapt to his new nature as he tries to find out who has done this to him and how he can cure himself. I find Vampyr to be utterly fascinating with how it challenges you to balance Jonathan’s morality and yearning to be human by helping people as a doctor but also sate his vampiric lust for blood.
The setting
Something which I believe DontNod have captured extremely well in Vampyr is the atmosphere and environment. This can be seen as you prowl the midnight streets of East London. Every corner of the medium-sized map consisting of four separate areas reveals the toll the pandemic has taken on the city, the lack of light sources and gloomy blues and greys really made me feel as if I was alone in this damaged place. Nowhere feels safe either as you stumble upon dead bodies stricken by the pandemic or worse…the monsters.
In plenty of cutscenes the game takes advantage of greyscale with splashes of bright red, these elements shout vampirism to me as I watched Jonathan’s hunger grow at the start of the game. One scene, which yet again I won’t spoil, that really struck me was at the very beginning when Jonathon wakes up the game is in black and white and all you see is a bright red trail of blood, following this trail you see a bright red light in the shape of a human heart and the black silhouette of a person after this scene occurs the game reclaims its colour as Jonathan realises what he has done.
This effect is repeated constantly throughout the first chapter to show the vampiric need for blood as I felt I was focusing in on the true desires of a vampire.
People are far and few in East London, this is due to many factors such as it being midnight or because of the deadly flu. The situations when you do find groups of people that thankfully aren’t enemies are always in realistically saddening moments such as one area being a hospital, here you find the doctors and nurses that are trying to tend a combination of patient ranging from soldiers that have returned from the war who are mentally and physically scared or those that are suffering from the pandemic. This is the main area you work from at the start of the game and I found myself getting quickly used to the pained groans of the other patients as I assisted them while also searching for new prey.
How it plays
For any game about vampires, your main belief is that the most important thing you will need is blood. This is no different for Vampyr as you will constantly be on the hunt for more blood, by obtaining blood you get XP which allows you to enhance your vampire abilities and makes defeating enemies a lot easier there are two ways to get XP:
The most effective way to obtain blood is through the NPC’s commonly known as ‘Citizen’s’. As I mentioned Vampyr has split into four areas these four areas have their own citizens, during your playthrough you will learn a lot about these people through talking to them. There is a reason to waste your time talking to each citizen as they all contain their own amount of blood and therefore XP. When you first look into the amount of XP that each person has it can be quite low however you can increase this XP by learning ‘hints’ about them. This is done by talking to other citizens which are from that area or searching for clues about them throughout the map however these are not easy to find.
However, they may still not have their total XP this may be due to them having a sickness as a Doctor Jonathan can cure these ailments. The game rewards you for patiently stalking your prey slowly earning their trust and helping them with their problems which side quests in the game. At points I felt guilty as I was beginning to think like a vampire wondering if I should embrace this person now and suck their blood or wait until I unlock more hints about them, these complex individuals the game puts in front of you which have their own problems were slowly becoming assets to me which I could use later and improve my vampiric skills.
This game is not just about dialogue there’s combat too. Battling enemies has a lot of skill to it than just spamming the square button, with a wide range of weapons and skills to use I couldn’t help trying different combinations of attacks. At the start of the game you are given a machete and a stake, the machete is obviously your common melee weapon in which you can mindlessly hit your enemy meanwhile the stake which you use as an off-hand weapon can stun your attacker when you hit them enough with it, this is shown on a bar below their health. Once your attacker is stunned this gives you the chance to exploit a bite attack where you leap on your prey and take a fraction of their health and also blood, this blood is used differently to the XP blood as it’s what you spend to use the skills you’ve earnt.
Skills are brought through the XP you’ve earnt this then increases your overall level. The skills are split into two sections: passive and active, the passive skills influence Jonathan in and out of combat this means his health and also can involve crafting. Meanwhile, the active skills are used in combat this keeps you access to a wide range of abilities such as a smoke bomb which does smoke damage or a blood spear which does blood damage, there are defensive abilities like a blood shield or more evasive skills as well. All these skills had their own skill tree within them.
Enemies I faced had different resistances this meant I was encouraged to use a wide range of the abilities on them to succeed. Although you receive XP from enemies it isn’t that much and therefore I would suggest focusing your main need for blood on the citizens this is especially crucial in the hardest difficulty which doesn’t reward XP for kills in combat.
A smaller aspect of the game is crafting, as a man of science Jonathan can craft serums to enhance himself, he is also able to create cures to certain sickness the citizens may have so that he can obtain the full potential of their blood. Jonathan is also capable of upgrading his weapons at a hideout crafting table; however, I don’t really understand how he knows how to do this but maybe it’s because of being in the war?
Dialogue issues
Vampyr is a magnificent game that has already been out for two years this has given them optimum time to iron out any bugs or glitches however I did stumble upon two while I was talking to NPC’s, the first one was that every now and then the dialogue would skip and the characters would struggle to talk this wasn’t anything game-breaking but I can imagine it getting quite annoying, this problem did not occur in cutscenes that I am aware of, the second glitch was dependent on what angle you spoke to them at certain characters would not face Jonathan and therefore would be standing at a weird angle trying to look at him. The camera would also start at an odd angle where you couldn’t see either character which could be a little annoying.
My only other issue is the initial repetitiveness of talking to the characters, a lot of the game will be spent with you talking to others as you try and unlock hints about them. I recall spending 20 minutes in one area going back and forth talking to the citizens as one character would tell me a hint about another and then I would be forced to go back and talk to them. I feel that this could be avoided as you may obtain quite a few hints and then go talk to the citizen however there is always the chance that they might tell you something important.
So all in all...
Those were only minor issues which I had while playing other than that I really enjoyed the experience I had with Vampyr. Dontnod Entertainment has made an extremely engaging game which I personally would encourage others to play especially those that have a thirst for a game about vampires, the story is incredibly fascinating and I already want to go back to playing and continue the story more. Without completing the side quests the game is about 18 hours long this is quite short compared to other games however I believe Vampyr could be played more than once especially due to being able to play the game in two different ways, one playthrough you may wish to avoid mindlessly killing individuals you stumble upon and hold on to your morality than your next playthrough you may attempt to obtain as much blood as you can and become the mindless powerful vampire, it is all down to you.
After playing this game for 2 hours I believe that I am going to rate it an eight out of ten, I really enjoyed prowling the streets of 20th century London with the combined gothic, vampiric and death elements that all swirl together as you play, its not just any straightforward experience, Vampyr makes you think about your actions before you do them as each one can have its own repercussions such as blocking you out of certain possibilities meaning you may have to play again and choose a different path.
Vampyr
Rated: 18, Violence and Bad language
Price: ranging £24-£38 (Game)
Platform: PC, PS4, XBOX One & Switch