Vampyr
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At certain points in the story,
you’ll get to choose how
to deal with a “pillar” (of the
community, you see), the
most important citizen in a
district whose death or disappearance
is likely to have
disastrous consequences.
We can’t avoid the issue any
longer: the combat is very
bad, and there’s a lot of it.
Awkward and clunky, it’s a low
point of the experience that
sticks out like a sore, bloody,
delicious thumb. You learn to
adapt, but fighting is never
particularly fun. Especially not
when it comes to the bosses,
who are all much stronger
than Reid and often have abilities
he doesn’t have access
to, even when this makes no
sense in story context.
Vampyr is also, quite frankly,
a bit broken. We’ve never
had a full-on crash; yet
we’ve come across rare but
embarrassing broken enemy
AI, audio glitches, and the
inability to interact with NPCs.
Load times are just a little too
long (and experienced every
time you die), and respawning
without items or ammo
you used, and with virtually
no Blood (used to power your
vampire abilities) – yet with
nearby enemies magically
brought back to life – feels a
little unfair.
We loved (most of) our time
with Vampyr, yet reluctantly
admit that we can not give it
the unreserved praise we initially
thought.
written by Critical Gamer’s
Luke Kemp
The very first thing this game
tells you is that the more innocents
you kill, the easier
the game will be. It ain’t kiddin’.
This is a game with XP
and levelling, and the biggest
chunks of XP by far are to be
had from leading an innocent
person to a secluded area,
and sucking their blood. The
amount of XP a kill will reward
you with is directly related to
how well you know the person,
and how healthy they
are. For maximum evilness
(and benefit), you can extensively
talk to and help out a
person, crafting and gifting
cures for any illnesses they
contract, before ruthlessly
killing them.
The more you refuse to take
innocent lives, the quicker
you’ll start to encounter
enemies (including bosses)
7-10 levels above you. Yet
leaving citizens alone has
benefits, too. Keeping people
healthy – not to mention alive
– keeps each district of London
healthy as a whole. This
means, generally, that areas
will be less densely populated
with dangerous enemies.
Killing a citizen also instantly
removes any of their associated
quests from the game;
and if a district becomes
too unhealthy, people will go
missing, which also wipes
their quests. The best thing is
that you’re given the freedom
to indulge your bloodlust as
much or as little as you like.
There’s some disappointingly
cringeworthy dialogue at the
beginning of the Despite a
few twists that we saw coming
miles off, we thoroughly
enjoyed the story, and gleefully
dived into all dialogue
options with every character
we came across. This being a
Dontnod game, you now and
again get a choice in how to
* Format: PS4 (version reviewed), Xbone, PC
* Publisher: Focus Home Interactive
* Developer: Dontnod Entertainment
* Players: 1
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