PC Gamer

Do you kill an innocent for an XP

boost and a helping of high-quality

blood? Or do you stick to your morals

and resist the urge, grabbing rats off

the streets to briefly slake your thirst?

It’s a choice made difficult by the fact

that the people whose

arteries you can suck

from aren’t just faceless

NPCs: they have

personalities, hopes

and dreams. There are

some unpleasant

characters who deserve

to become vampire

chow, making life a

little easier. But can you bring

yourself to kill a hard-working nurse?

That nurse might not be as honest

as she seems, though. There’s an

investigation element to Vampyr,

with Reid uncovering details about

the lives of the people he encounters

in the cosy pubs, dingy slums and

foggy streets of 1918 London.

The more you learn about

someone, the easier it is to mesmerise

them and lure into an alley for a spot

of blood-sucking. So it pays to get to

know the person you’re about to

murder, which is honestly one of the

sickest things a game has ever made

me do. And once you’ve feasted on

them you can spend XP on upgrades

to make Reid a better vampire, which

is an illusion-shattering reminder

that this is a modern videogame and

so must have some

kind of skill tree in it.

Another twisted

system in Vampyr is

treating ill citizens with

medicine crafted from

scavenged items to

improve their health,

making them a more

nourishing meal should

you choose to devour them. Killing

someone is bad enough, but nursing

them to health first? That’s evil. Reid

never takes pleasure in this, though.

He’s a ‘newborn’ vampire, and the

drama comes from how he finds his

need to drink blood deeply upsetting.

You also have to consider the

health of the district you’re operating

in. Curing illnesses improves the

area’s overall health, while killing

people lowers it, adding weight to

your decisions. A district in poor

health will see disease spread rapidly

and shops charging more for items.

It’s even possible to lose a district

entirely when it drops dangerously

below the ‘critical’ state, but the story

will continue regardless. This is a

nice way of respecting the player’s

decisions – even the bad ones –

which is something I’d like to see

more games do. Fail states are boring.

I love this simulation aspect of

Vampyr, but it’s the bits in between

that disappoint. For every fleshed-out

NPC there’s an endless parade of

vampire hunters and feral vampires

to kill in dull combat sequences. You

carve through so many of these guys

that it cheapens Reid’s struggles with

violence elsewhere. And the combat

feels weightless and unsatisfying,

with the camera frequently getting

stuck and obscuring the action.

BLOOD SIMPLE

In its favour, there’s a variety of ways

to fight, from using melee weapons

and guns, to exotic vampiric powers

such as conjuring spears made of

blood. But these parts of the game are

rarely more than passable, and their

existence is to its overall detriment,

feeling like a tiresome distraction. I

can’t help but think that Vampyr

would have been much better if the

story and simulation elements were

left to stand on their own.

There’s a lot of interesting, high

concept stuff in Vampyr. London

itself makes for an atmospheric

setting, with buildings looming

ominously through the fog and a

dark, oppressive feel to the cobbled

streets. But it feels like a game at odds

with itself, veering from compelling,

dialogue-driven storytelling, to

uninspiring action and back again. I

never fell in love with Reid either, a

grim self-serious chap whose

charisma seems to have been sucked

out of him along with his humanity.

NEED TO KNOW

WHAT IS IT?

Avampiresimulatorset

in ye olde London.

EXPECT TO PAY

£45

DEVELOPER

Dontnod Entertainment

PUBLISHER

Focus Home Interactive

REVIEWED ON

Core i5-6600K,

16GB RAM, GTX 1080

MULTIPLAYER

None

LINK

http://www.vampyr-

game.com

68

There are some

genuinely brilliant ideas

in here, but Vampyr tries

to do too much at once

and suffers for it.

VERDICT

It pays to get to

know the

person you’re

about to

murder

J

onathan Reid is a doctor with an interest and expertise in blood,

giving his transformation into a vampire a splatter of dark irony.

The caring helper of the sick and protector of the weak is still in

him, but so is a ravenous monster with a desire to drain the

crimson life-giving nectar from his patients’ bulging, fleshy

necks. It’s a deliciously evil and original premise for a vampire story, and

frequently forces you to make some genuinely tough decisions.

BLOODY HELL

VAMPYR gives you a taste of life as a recently turned bloodsucker,

but it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. By Andy Kelly

POWER TRIP Reid’s coolest vampire abilities

BLOOD CAULDRON

Reid focuses his energy on

an enemy until their blood

literally boils, dealing

additional damage

throughout the battle.

SHADOW MIST

Reid conjures up ghostly

spears of shadow around

an enemy, which explode

and damage anything in

the blast radius.

BLOODSPEAR

Reid uses his own blood to

form the shape of a sharp,

deadly spear, throwing it at

enemies from a relatively

safe distance.

COAGULATION

With this power Reid can

thicken an enemy’s blood

until they can’t move,

leaving them temporarily

defenceless.

Vampyr

REVIEW