Vampyr is a game that exceeded my expectations enough that I actually felt myself wanting more. In fact, there were moments of the game that came so close to actual notes of greatness that I found myself wishing they had more finely tuned the overall game itself. The premise of the game is actually pretty brilliant in its simplicity – The titular star of this vampire drama is Dr. Jonathan Reid; a recently turned vampire who incidentally enough is also a blood specialist and one of the most highly respected in his field. Be warned – there may be some story spoilers ahead.
The Narrative
“Some of the gameplay choices the player may make do have an impact on the world and a bit of the story driven narrative, though it could have been a bit more impactful.”
Set in a sprawling semi-open world and flu epidemic ridden post-World War 1 London which spans several “districts”, the game’s story is told almost completely from the perspective of the very fashionable Dr. Jonathan Reid, with his almost anachronistically styled wardrobe and his melancholy inner monologue and motivating sadness over his loss is somewhat reminiscent of the book and movie, “Interview with a Vampire.” There are even some nice gameplay nods to this such as drinking the blood of rats to restore a little bit of your blood meter.
At the start of the game, Jonathan is a young and new blooded Ekon (aristocratic high class vampire) who is out on a quest for revenge and understanding while also still maintaining his profession as a doctor in order to investigate and help cure the flu epidemic in London which is very much a central part of the story. There is a pretty large cast of supporting characters and NPCs and this is one of the better parts of the game and definitely has a strong RPG feel to it; although it seems most of the relationship building with the NPCs is driven by getting a higher relationship level in order to drink their blood and get more experience. Some of the gameplay choices the player may make do have an impact on the world and a bit of the story driven narrative, though it could have been a bit more impactful. Drinking the blood of “innocents” or rather any humans in the game outside of combat, does affect Jonathan’s appearance to a small degree as well as the state of the district he is in. Basically, if he drinks the blood of an NPC it will cause the district to become more violent and dangerous, while also making it more dangerous for the other NPCs in the area, which is a really nice touch. Later in the game the player will also have the choice to either kill or turn several of the supporting cast characters into vampires as well, which also does affect the story to some degree.
There are many NPC side quests as well and while they do affect the story of the game in a meta sense, from my experience they don’t really affect the endgame story very much. My biggest disappointment regarding these side quests is that they should have had better loot rewards and maybe even some further customizations for the player to make use of. Another aspect of the story is that there are four different types, or factions of vampires and while this is an interesting part of the story it doesn’t add a lot to the plot or the gameplay outside of the central narrative of Jonathan being an Ekon which is the highest rank in the vampire hierarchy. There are also werewolves in the game, but they are almost not referenced or mentioned at all and it would have been nice for them to have been a more important part of the world and lore of the game. There are also some influences from the Order: 1866 and some almost, Assassin’s Creed-esque history alterations even going back to Arthurian legend. I won’t go into this too much since it’s a pretty important part of the story. I will say the lore in this game is quite good, but if further fleshed out could have been really amazing and unique despite the obvious references from other source materials.
Gameplay
“The combat is a vehicle for the storytelling”
Traversing the city using the vampire teleport/quick steps abilities is actually pretty fluid, but some other traveling options would have been nice. There is no jumping in this game, though it doesn’t really need it, it could have been pretty fun scrambling over rooftops and jumping around. The combat is a vehicle for the storytelling and will go into this more below. The level design is actually quite good and using safe houses you find in each district you can: level your character, customize your weapons and craft new potions – is actually a really useful feature in the game. Crafted potions are used for healing and filling the blood meter (blood is for abilities and not health). Additionally, the player can choose to craft medicines for helping NPCS with any ailments in order to raise the overall health of a district, as well as roleplaying as a vampire doctor. The district health system is also related to the previously mentioned ability of drinking NPC blood and a lower district health state makes the district more dangerous. Another aspect of the level design relates specifically to the last act of the game which is in a different and almost Castlevania-esque setting and was one of my previously aforementioned moments of near greatness. If they make a sequel I can only hope they will have more areas like what you can briefly explore at the end of the game.
The Combat
“It’s pretty rewarding to snack on an enemy’s neck Kool-Aid mid-combat in order to fill some of your blood meter”
One of the things that surprised me the most about Vampy was that it was a heavily combat driven game. When I had first watched the press videos and early gameplay a year or so ago, I had expected this game to be a story driven walking sim; perhaps with some combat driven gameplay for important story sequences.
The combat itself while stylish, is also fairly simplistic at its core. The game has an almost a souls-esque and Legacy of Kain 2 combat approach, though it is very much a simplified version of the former; unless you are using a two handed weapon, there is no blocking or parrying, though there is a lot of dodging. The weapon types and choices are pretty slim, though there are some nice clubs, firearms, knives and a sword or two, as well as a handy weapon upgrade system. Regarding player upgrades – instead of leveling up individual stats like in Dark Souls or some other rpgs, the player simply levels up and unlocks new vampire powers which do add some spice to the combat; particularly in the boss battles.
The enemies are mostly “human” vampire hunters, other vampire types: skals (lesser zombie vampires), other Ekons like yourself, Vulkods (giant hulking vampires)and apparently Nemrods which are vampires that hunt other vampires, though I don’t recall finding them in the game. The combat in Vampyr basically a means to an end to fill up time while traversing the city districts as well as furthering the story in boss battles. The combat does have sporadically higher difficulty, but it I wish it had more of a souls-like difficulty approach instead of just memorizing boss patterns and spamming vampire powers after waiting for the cooldowns to pop. One area that adds some depth to the combat is some of the vampire powers – it’s pretty rewarding to snack on an enemy’s neck Kool-Aid mid-combat in order to fill some of your blood meter and then pop off a healing ability or claw attack. Timing the use of these abilities does become a fairly important part of the game especially in the aforementioned boss battles.
Music and Sound
The music is actually excellent and one area the game really shines. Some of the music is almost reminiscent of the Order: 1866, or even the Robert Downey Jr. “Sherlock” movies. The voice acting is mostly quite good aside from some awkward dialog and the sound effects are high quality and fit the atmosphere.
Customization
“There is also a fairly robust weapon customization system”
Players get experience points from combat, but they can get a much bigger boost in experience by making the choice to imbibe the blood of NPCs with some consequence. The player can use these points to unlock or upgrade new abilities and there are some decent skill tree paths. There is also a fairly robust weapon customization system with the ability to choose different upgrades after unlocking each weapon’s “level” using scrap parts found around the map and during combat. One frustrating aspect of this is that there are NPC chests containing a wealth of useful items that can only be opened by killing the NPC that owns the chest and pilfering a key from them. Some sort of stealth lockpicking system would have been nice, but it definitely isn’t necessary for the game to be enjoyable.
Production Value
The graphics and gameplay actually give the game an almost pseudo retro feeling that make it seem that it could have been released a few years ago, but in itself this is not a bad thing. There are some funky animations, but the camera, music and setting all work well most of the time and add a lot to this “AA” title.
Retrospective
It’s really nice to see smaller devs like Dontnod stepping outside their comfort zone and doing something that is not only new for them, but also a bit unique to the industry as well. Vampyr is a labor of love and is a wonderfully crafted piece of storytelling with fairly solid gameplay and production values for having a smaller budget. For a game that is labeled as a AA title as opposed to AAA; it was a more than valiant effor.
I feel like with a bigger budget, a bigger and more fleshed out world and more finely tuned gameplay – Dontnod could have the potential for making a truly amazing sequel to this game and I really hope that they do, because the world they’ve crafted is something I could really see myself sinking my teeth into once again.
brandon boswell 