Vampyr is a new action RPG developed by ‘DONTNOD Entertainment’. It is coming out the 5th of June  on the Xbox One, Play Station 4 and PC. There has been a lot of eyes on this game and quite an amount of hype for Vampyr. Let’s take a look.

In Vampyr, players take a control of a doctor named Jonathan E. Reid. He has been described as widely admired by his peers. A very good, in fact talented researcher and surgeon. Vampyr is set in London 1918 after the Great War. Jonathan Reid enlisted as a military doctor, so already we are sure that players can connect all the dots concerning the main character, the date in history and why this character is almost perfect for what he is going to face.

London has been severely damaged by the war and the Spanish flu is spreading rapidly infecting the citizens. The main goal in Vampyr is to find a cure for this flu and save London. This is not straight forward as when the war was dying down, Dr Reid got sent home… but on his way home he gets attacked  and loss consciousness. Losing consciousness in the streets is never a good thing. It never ends well. It’s almost as bad as losing consciousness on a park bench. Now the last thing Dr Jonathan E. Reid remembers is a ‘strange figure’ that’s slowly approaching his neck while murmuring a dark poem. Talk about creepy.

Jonathan Reid awakes with a terrible thirst for human blood. So now two cures are needed. The cure for the flu that’s spreading through London and a cure for his Vampyric condition. Good thing, he’s a doctor right?  

As all should know a Vampyr has powers and abilities which Jonathan can use to defend London from other Vampyr and creatures which roam the streets at night. The problem with this though is that with normal vampires, generally the older they are, the stronger they are. So if we are assuming the same rules to Vampyrs then Dr Reid who is newly-turned will be too weak to beat others who have been around much longer. Which leads to another mechanic in the game which is to make Reid stronger. In the context of this game, that means you will have to feed but like any nice person who becomes a vampire, you don’t want to jump and harm people so hence the struggle and temptation. 

Now London in 1918 is far more hectic than the history books in school tell us. Players are thrown into a major league battle. The enemies of Dr Reid are both humans and supernatural. Vampyrs, undead skals, Vampire hunters and other monsters are all involved. As stated before, getting stronger is key here but players can also develop and evolve their arsenal of supernatural vampire abilities. Now we could just snack on the blood of those things that roam the streets at night but their blood yields less power while the blood of the citizens that you set out to save will increase your strength rapidly. So will you harm them, or not?

The world in Vampyr is very much alive. Every character you engage with has a life. You can get involved with these lives, learn about it, their relationships and more. Each character has their own family, story and job. Take heed that if you effect one of these people then you effect the others. Players will need to feed to live long enough but there are consequences for that… always. Regardless of who you feed on, whether it’s a priest, thieves, parents, killers whoever, will have consequences.

 We checked out some gameplay and it has quite a lot of what we thought. There is compass that grants information in terms of objectives, note worthy things and their direction. Simple display of information. Many parts of the city to explore and dig up lore. You will come across vampire hunters facing creatures in a battle which you could get involved in. In some ways it does remind us of Dying Light, especially in terms of how the AI move in combat. We see some of the powers of the Vampyr like dashing from one location to another in a blink of dark smoke, which is quite cool. 

Overall Vampyr sounds like a good game. It doesn’t sound anything amazing though. We haven’t seen anything that makes us really want to know more. The story and setting is good and the world Vampyr is set in is very good and there is room for opportunity but we don’t see the consequences or pressure that the story gives. The enemies do not seem that impressive yet. It will come in June so there is time for things to get improved. The developers ‘DONTNOD Entertainment’ did a good job with this game. We at X35 Earthwalker are currently not interested in Vampyr. The story is very interesting but gameplay right now doesn’t seem up to par right now. We hope to see more of this game. Now Vampyrs may have a battle but the biggest battle is found in… the ‘Earth Walk!’