Vampires, role-playing, and a human epidemic set the stage for Dontnod’s Vampyr.
Dontnod’s, known for the award-winning Life is Strange, next adventure takes players to an alternative 1918 London where an outbreak of the Spanish has engulfed its populace into a dire state. Players control Dr. Jonathan Reid, as he confronts his demons as a vampire while at the same time responding to the needs of the sick. Set from the third person perspective, players interact with NPCs and occasionally run into vampire hunters which will spark up the combat oriented segments. Dontnod hopes to frame Vampyr through its themes of moral dilemma and decision making that serves as the cornerstone of narrative and gameplay. “To kill or save everybody” is the mantra.
The demo walked us through a brief look at its gameplay including conversations and enemy encounters. Speaking with other characters, a dialogue wheel is present offering Jonathan a range of options that compel the narrative further, in both learning more about the character or its moral choices and consequences. In a scene with the mysterious Lady Ashbury, Jonathan is faced with his ever omnipresent struggle to control his demonic urges, which is necessary for him to survive. The tonality of your dialogue options allows the player to play in between, or on either side of the good and evil spectrum.
Moving to the combat scenario, Jonathan will run into vampire hunters who will immediately spot you on sight. Fighting ensues, reminiscent of The Witcher combat, and here you can teleport around the environment and invoke demonic abilities such as a magical impaling finisher. Killing enemies rewards health and experience points, which allows progression through new abilities and unlocks. Vampyr balances hapless killing with level scaling, making the encounters more difficult the further you progress.
Unlike the relaxed take of Life is Strange, you can’t rewind time so the player’s actions are permanent to the story. Figuring out who you want to feast on for blood will undoubtedly come with some investigation into their backstory. By perusing the environment and its various items, gaps are filled in that help guide the final decision. And feasting on everyone isn’t a recommended tactic as we were quickly shown at the end of the demo the changes in environment and the critical state of a district.
Fans of Dontnod’s past work have a lot to look forward to in the dark-grim dystopia of Vampyr. Wholly invested in the pillars of story and action role-playing gameplay, I’m excited to see more of its development as it heads towards a 2017 release.
