Vampyr is an action role-playing video game released way back in 2018 on multiple platforms (PS4, Windows, Xbox One, and later on Nintendo Switch in 2019) developed by Dontnod Entertainment and published by Focus Home Interactive. Right off the bat, let me just say that I love this game. Despite its flaws, I had an amazing experience playing it and I have to thank Playstation Plus for this because I wouldn't have known the game existed if it's not included as one of their free monthly games. It's seriously an underrated gem.
A Doctor Reborn
In Vampyr, you played as Jonathan Reid, a doctor who had been turned into a vampire. You literally started off waking up in a pile of corpses, it's quite an amazing way to start a game. After running away and bumping into some new shenanigans, you found yourself a new ally named Doctor Edgar Swansea, and thus your new life begins as the new doctor at Pembroke Hospital. I really enjoyed the story told in this game. You meet a lot of interesting characters, and there's a few twist and turns in the plot as well, which keeps the story interesting and engaging.
The world and settings of Vampyr is pretty amazing. The semi-open world of 1900-era of London is beautifully realized. We only get to explore at night so the surroundings can feel a bit gloomy and drab but in a game about vampires? It's perfect. Although not so big, the map splits into several districts so there's a few places to explore and characters to meet. Talking about characters, there are a number of citizens spread across the districts that you can track using citizen menu. You can monitor the district health, see citizen's illnesses and track clues. You can decide to cure sick citizens to avoid the district from becoming hostile, or you can decide to devour them instead to gain experience points.
To Kill Or Not To Kill
There is dialogue branch when interacting with some characters that is essential to the plot. These dialogue branch only appear at certain moment in the game that could directly impact the story and your character's actions. Honestly, there are moments when it's pretty hard to make these choices because things could turn out differently than what you expected. There was once in the game where I thought I had made the right decision but my character ended up did something that I didn't expected instead. It was kind of rough and I felt a little bit misled by the choices given in the dialogue branch. Luckily though, other than that one instance, the rest of the choices I made didn't turn out too bad.
Combat in Vampyr is quite fun but can feel a bit generic too. You can wield melee weapons and ranged weapons, as well as having vampiric abilities that you can use to help fighting your enemies. Weapons can be improved by crafting but there's not much to experiment here. Basically if you found the right weapon that you like, just level up that weapon and you're good to go. The weapon crafting system is the one aspect of the game that I feel desperately need improvement because in its current state, there's really no incentive in doing it once you upgrade that one weapon that you like. Aside from that, you also have the Mesmerize ability which you can use to control weaker characters. With it, you can coerce your targets to reveal information or guiding them to hidden area to feed on them.
A Somber Town
The ambience in this game is truly amazing, and part of that is because of the beautiful soundtrack. I truly believe the soundtrack makes a difference here because it truly elevated the experience for me. Its melancholy and sad sound reflects the struggle of the character as he ventures into this new world that is unbeknownst to him before. The music is so haunting that it lingers in my head hours after I close the game and shut down my console. It's beautiful and sad at the same time.
Before I end my review, I have to acknowledge that this game do suffer from glitch, like a major glitch that caused my screen to become blue and I have to restart my console again. That is quite a destructive glitch and it happened to me quite a few times. Luckily though, I stopped having it after...5 or 6 hours of gameplay? I cannot fully recall but it did stop after awhile. While it didn't prevent me from enjoying the game, I have to admit that the glitch is quite bad and it might hinder some people from enjoying or finish the game.
Conclusion
Exceptional story, great characters (Jonathan Reid is quite charming I might add), amazing settings and beautiful soundtrack, Vampyr would have been a perfect game for me if its not for the generic combat, uninspiring weapon crafting and glitch that causing me to lose my game progress. Still, I love this game so much that I hope Dontnod Entertainment would consider making a sequel. I can see quite a lot of love from many people in the web towards this game and furthermore, all the negatives that I've mentioned is not really that bad. If you haven't try this game yet and still kind of hesitate, I would recommend you to read other reviews before you make your decision. If and when you're ready, you will be welcomed by the somber yet fascinating world of Vampyr.
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