Much in the way that DontNod’s stellar narrative adventure Life is Strange differed from their previous effort, the action-focused Remember Me, their upcoming gothic adventure Vampyr seemingly drops the drama-fueled lives of teenage girls in favor of exploring a creepy Victorian town and feeding on the unlucky passerby.
But there’s more in common than you might think.
Vampyr seems to blend exploration — by way of traditional on-foot stuff and a rad teleportation ability — with a healthy dose of narrative and action. Similar to Life is Strange, you’ll be given a few different options when it comes to dialogue choices. I assume these will alter the story in some way, given the developer’s knack for such a thing.
The combat system on display looks a little rough, but given that it’s 15 minutes of alpha footage I’m sure we’ll see it clean up a bit as time goes on. I’m wondering if there’s a way to avoid combat altogether, stealthily feeding on people from the shadows. Hopefully, as that sounds far more interesting than engaging in hand-to-hand combat.
Feeding seems interesting, since the game lets you scan potential victims for a brief look at what kind of person they are (kind of like Watch Dogs). This brings to light an interesting moral dilemma. Do you feel better feeding on a murderer, or does it being “just a game” make it okay to take the life of a single parent walking alone at night?
Life is Strange was one of my favorite games of 2015, and as a fan of things that go bump in the night, Vampyr is one of my most anticipated releases. It seems more ambitious than Life is Strange, and I can’t wait to see what DontNod come up with when Vampyr releases next year.
Side note: Life is Strange had an amazing soundtrack, and hopefully Vampyr continues the tradition. Sure, it’s a role-playing game, but how much better would it be with Type O Negative playing in the background? It worked for the Nosferatu re-release!
Cheap Boss Attack 
Hopefully this game is nothing like Life is Strange. I didn’t like that game at all. As a matter of fact I’m having a hard time thinking of a single game I like from this developer. Vampyr does look good, but the gameplay is what’s turning me away from the game. It’s only alpha footage so I’m not worried about it too much because I’m sure they’ll work on it.
I haven’t played a good vampire game in a long time so I’m pretty excited to see how this turns out. The lip syncing was also off in this demo, but once again that’s most likely because this is alpha footage. Any idea when this releases?
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Right now I think it’s just “2017.” I loved Life is Strange, but didn’t care for Remember Me. The last great vampire game I played had to have been in the Legacy of Kain series. My girlfriend was obsessed with Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodline for PC, which she snagged for cheap during a Steam sale. She said it’s kind of like Skyrim but with a deeper vampire storyline, so maybe check that one out? It’s quite old though.
Hopefully since it’s alpha, it’ll clean up along the way. So far it’s a nice taste of things to come.
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Agreed, Life Is Strange was good, while Remember Me was trash. And Legacy of Kain was awesome!
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Blood Omen was the first PSX game I fell in love with. Vampires + Zelda? Yes please! If one series needs a reboot, it’s that one. So good, especially the Soul Reaver games. I was sad to hear Dead Sun was cancelled, since it looked like Legacy of Kain meets Dragon Age.
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I played Bloodline briefly and didn’t like it. The last great vampire game I played is the Legacy of Kain series.
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Yessssss, those games were great. I still stand by the idea that if any series is in need of a reboot, it’s that one. Blood Omen was SO good as an early PSX game, with its vampires + Zelda theme. And Soul Reaver? Man, you want to talk about a demo I played in to the ground?
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Another thing I would like to add is how awesome the vampire abilities looked. When he impaled that guard with magic my jaw dropped :]. I also really love how the feeding seems to work. If you can stealth this game it’ll be a buy for me for sure.
The graphics were nice, but the character models were only okay in my opinion. I’m expecting the PC version to look better.
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DontNod is a really small team, so I don’t expect anything too fancy. It’s definitely more ambitious than Life is Strange though, so maybe they’ll outsource some of the work to more experienced teams to help out.
The teleport ability looks like a lot of fun, and yeah, if I can stealth the whole game I’m all in. I like how you can scan NPCs to see who would give the most benefit, but at the risk of possibly killing someone maybe more deserving of living.
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I liked the people scanning feature too. Hopefully they get everything figured out. The gameplay looked really sloppy to me. The teleportation was nice, but when the actual fighting started it was really rough. He just swung the weapon around using the same animations. It looked really stiff, but hopefully that’ll change.
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Yeah, that’s why I’m hoping I can avoid hand-to-hand with stealth if at all possible. Guess we’ll find out as it moves along in the development cycle.
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I for sure prefer stealthing my way around and having moral choices in a game; non-lethal takedowns if possible, and kills where only necessary.
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This is essentially what I want in Vampyr.
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