Vampyr - Dontnod (Life is Strange) - PC, PS4, XB1 - Action RPG - Out now

Vampyr awakens 15min of gameplay from the crypt

The past week’s Gamescom 2016 has been the perfect opportunity for journalists to discover Vampyr, the Action-RPG from DontNod, the creators of Life is Strange. The press had the chance to attend presentations made by the developers, and thus learn more about the game, its story and its gameplay mechanics.
We’re extending that invitation to those of you at home in the form of a 15 minute gameplay video of our pre-alpha version, showcasing some of the ideas that make Vampyr a unique gameplay experience, where the narrative is directly tied to the gameplay. Without any spoilers, our presentation begins a little after the beginning of the game. Now aware of being a vampire, our protagonist Dr Jonathan Reid must come to terms with what he has become, meeting some of the characters you will interact with along your journey – some of whom are aware of what you are, and also share the same affliction.

This video is taken from a pre-alpha version of the game, and while many aspects are still very early in their development process – notably the combat system – you’ll get to see many of the gameplay ideas currently being worked on.

Investigate the people of London, and peer through their bodies to see the quality of blood that flows through them. Perhaps you find a terrible person who you believe deserves to die, and decide to feed on him. But what if he suffers from poor quality blood? Perhaps a father – with no reason to lose his life – has the purest blood, and will therefore gain you greater experience points… your moral choices will directly affect the game world as you struggle to come to terms with your human/vampire duality.

Taking lives in London is not easy. Killing too many in a district may cause its infrastructure to collapse and turn into disarray. Every single life will also have a butterfly effect on the other NPCs surrounding them. Every life you take away will have consequences for the city and the people around them: Cursed be the choice!

Monkey Man wrote:Out today, 73%...

Memento Mori wrote:I regret not buying this when it was £21 on CDKeys.

Tafdolphin wrote:I'm about an hour and a bit in, just settled into the Hospital and...it's an odd one.

Graphically it's ropey and sometimes out and out ugly. The character models are awful and actually look worse than LiS. This is going for a far less cartoony look, and the untextured faces of the NPCs just don't work. The animations themselves are also poor and I don't think there are any facial animations save lipsyncing.

The combat is early 2000's brawler stuff, weightless and facile: choose a weapon, mash a button, dodge and use a superpower occasionally. All of the upgrade options appear to be related to this aspect of the game (as opposed to speechcraft or the like) and I'm already choosing upgrades at random because I don't care.

On the other hand... the rest is great. I've barely scratched the surface of the world they've created but it's nasty and brutish and filthy and I think I love it. The first action Dr Reid takes after awakening was genuinely heartbreaking, and he seems an interesting character to anchor the story on. The way the interactions with NPCs is structured (and the fact that seemingly every NPC has a detailed backstory, even those that in other games would be uninteractive screen filler) is brilliant. A conversation with a burns victim was extremely well written and I can see myself really getting into this world.

It's an odd one then, seemingly split between two versions of itself; one focused on lightweight, meaningless violence and the other on more considered, thoughtful gameplay.

Wait a minute...

Tafdolphin wrote:I never actually played Remember Me, mainly due to the dodgy reviews, but it does indeed sound like it.

Nilin was created ... as a believable character who would not be over-sexualised or ineffectual when compared to both other female characters and male characters in other games.