Vampyr - vampire action-RPG from Life Is Strange devs

[conan_edw]

Paradox not interested in licencing the IP to more companies or something or do they have a lot of conditions to deter companies from using the IP? Don't see why doesn't Obsidian or another RPG company not make a game in the IP unless the IP owner doesn't want to share or its expensive or too many rules or shit like that.

I hope this game is good.

They are waiting for cain and boyarsky to finish their indiana

 

[fantadomat]

Why give this game to a bunch of french SJW that can't make good gameplay to save their lives?

Let's roll back to first causes: who "gave" it to them?

Bunch of swedish sjws that can't make good gameplay to save their lives.

 

[Hines]

 

[Cross]

So the developers of this game say they want the player to contemplate and struggle with the morality of being a vampire. Based on what they've mentioned so far, apparently:

• you can't drink blood without killing a human (like say from an animal or a blood bag or by only drinking a little bit from a human);
• you can't drink blood from enemies that you're forced to kill in self-defense;
• there are no anonymous civilian NPC's around like there are in other games, every NPC is involved in the story.

With that setup, I can't imagine how this game will be anything other than a succession of contrived, binary and utterly nonsensical choices. Well, if nothing else, I guess they'll succeed in making a faithful follow-up to Life is Strange.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Well, if nothing else, I guess they'll succeed in making a faithful follow-up to Life is Strange.

Should have called this game Unlife is Strange then.

 

[Zombra]

I can't imagine how this game will be anything other than a succession of contrived choices.

That's kind of the point. You have to decide which fully developed characters to save or sacrifice. You can't do that with faceless procgen autopop targets, because it's nothing more than "go to the farming ground and click on whatever spawns, who cares". If you want to play a popamole survival sim where you don't think about anything deeper than filling your hunger and sleep meters, go do that and have fun, but why did you ever think this would be such a game?

 

[Cross]

I can't imagine how this game will be anything other than a succession of contrived choices.

That's kind of the point. You have to decide which fully developed characters to save or sacrifice. You can't do that with faceless procgen autopop targets, because it's nothing more than "go to the farming ground and click on whatever spawns, who cares". If you want to play a popamole survival sim where you don't think about anything deeper than filling your hunger and sleep meters, go do that and have fun, but why did you ever think this would be such a game?

You seem to have completely missed the point I was making. Vampyr is a story-driven game that uses very abstract mechanics for its gameplay while telling a story that is about struggling against the completely arbitrary limitations those mechanics impose. It's like making a game where the player can't jump and then writing a story with hours of cutscenes where the primary antagonistic force and main source of drama is a waist-high fence the player can't get across. It's absurd. There's no reason why Vampyr's protagonist can't find a source of blood that doesn't involve murdering people he knows, so the story teased so far is going to fall completely flat.

Abstract mechanics are great if they go towards improving gameplay, but making them the centerpiece of your story is utterly moronic. And in this case the abstract mechanics (i.e. not letting you feed on human enemies during gameplay or find another source of blood) aren't there to improve gameplay, but because the developers are graduates from the 'cinematic gaming' school of design where even minor interactions have to be handled through a cutscene and gameplay is highly restrictive. And if you're expecting a hardcore survival sim from the creators of Life is Strange, I suspect you're in for a massive disappointment.

 

[Zombra]

You seem to have completely missed the point I was making. Vampyr is a story-driven game that uses very abstract mechanics for its gameplay

Let me stop you right there. What's so "abstract" about them? You have x number of characters to feed on, all with consequences. There may be other characters but for whatever reason their souls aren't nutritious. This is all scripted and completely intentional. What's so wrong with that? Does it really break fucking magical vampires for you that humans aren't interchangeable blood bags that grow on trees? This isn't vampire science, there is still shit going on like a vampire can't come in unless invited. You're probably one of the people who misses the point of Star Trek because you're too busy complaining "transporter technology wouldn't really work like that!" Any variation of "a wizard did it" is completely acceptable in service to the story they want us to tell with our choices. Think it through.

And if you're expecting a hardcore survival sim from the creators of Life is Strange, I suspect you're in for a massive disappointment.

What the fuck? That's exactly what I'm not expecting. You're the one complaining that a scripted, story-centered game isn't a procedural survival game.

 

[Cross]

You seem to have completely missed the point I was making. Vampyr is a story-driven game that uses very abstract mechanics for its gameplay

Let me stop you right there. What's so "abstract" about them?

So what's the logic behind the player getting stronger by feeding on some defenseless crippled granny, but gaining zero nourishment from feeding on a vampire hunter? It should be the opposite way around, since the vampire hunter is obviously young, healthy and fit and therefore should provide more nourishment.

 

[Zombra]

So what's the logic behind the player getting stronger by feeding on some defenseless crippled granny, but gaining zero nourishment from feeding on a vampire hunter?

The vampire hunter is a corrupted soul and not nutritious but the granny has a pure heart and is an incredible score for Satan. Vampires are magic, get it through your head.

 

[Cross]

So what's the logic behind the player getting stronger by feeding on some defenseless crippled granny, but gaining zero nourishment from feeding on a vampire hunter?

The vampire hunter is a corrupted soul and not nutritious but the granny has a pure heart and is an incredible score for Satan. Vampires are magic, get it through your head.

What if that granny murdered innocent people? Because several of the NPC's they've shown off are criminals and even murderers. And if anyone qualifies as a pure soul, it would arguably be a vampire hunter. Yet feeding on said vampire hunter doesn't make you stronger, whereas feeding on those criminals and murderers does.

Are you done grasping at straws yet?

 

[Zombra]

What if that granny murdered innocent people? Because several of the NPC's they've shown off are criminals and even murderers. And if anyone qualifies as a pure soul, it would arguably be a vampire hunter. Yet feeding on said vampire hunter doesn't make you stronger, whereas feeding on those criminals and murderers does.
Are you done grasping at straws yet?

I'm not grasping at anything. I don't know what the rules are for who's nutritious and who isn't. Maybe only sufficiently corrupt souls are nutritious, or people whose names begin with M. I gave you what is called an "example" of how it might work. Whatever rules they choose to lay out are fine and they don't have to be scientific at all. It's even fine if they don't explain the rules. You want this to be a game about math, and it just isn't.

 

[Deathsquid]

You seem to have completely missed the point I was making. Vampyr is a story-driven game that uses very abstract mechanics for its gameplay

Let me stop you right there. What's so "abstract" about them?

So what's the logic behind the player getting stronger by feeding on some defenseless crippled granny, but gaining zero nourishment from feeding on a vampire hunter? It should be the opposite way around, since the vampire hunter is obviously young, healthy and fit and therefore should provide more nourishment.

The devs are French. Have you never encountered French things before? Take a ride in a Citroen, report back.

 

[ArchAngel]

What if that granny murdered innocent people? Because several of the NPC's they've shown off are criminals and even murderers. And if anyone qualifies as a pure soul, it would arguably be a vampire hunter. Yet feeding on said vampire hunter doesn't make you stronger, whereas feeding on those criminals and murderers does.
Are you done grasping at straws yet?

I'm not grasping at anything. I don't know what the rules are for who's nutritious and who isn't. Maybe only sufficiently corrupt souls are nutritious, or people whose names begin with M. I gave you what is called an "example" of how it might work. Whatever rules they choose to lay out are fine and they don't have to be scientific at all. It's even fine if they don't explain the rules. You want this to be a game about math, and it just isn't.

It is crucial that they do explain the rules and keep by them. The setting and story falls through the floor if they don't. At least for people that care about any quality in the game they are playing.
For example it could be easily explained that vampire hunters have poisoned their blood in some way so at least if they fail to kill the Vampire they can prevent it from feeding from them.
But I can guess they will not care to give a good explanation.

 

[Zombra]

It is crucial that they do explain the rules and keep by them. The setting and story falls through the floor if they don't. At least for people that care about any quality in the game they are playing.

Nope. I get it, some games encourage you to chart out your character build on a spreadsheet before you even start, and that's great, but it's OK for some games to have some mystery in how they work.

For example it could be easily explained that vampire hunters have poisoned their blood in some way so at least if they fail to kill the Vampire they can prevent it from feeding from them.

Nice one, that would make a great scene in the game, the protagonist trying to feed on one and spitting it out, then later finding out about this.

But I can guess they will not care to give a good explanation.

Which is perfectly acceptable for those of us who felt Star Wars was just fine without midichlorians.

 

[Falksi]

Not heard of this before but will hold my hand up, despite a few utterly shite gameplay moments and the predictability of the murder mystery, I absolutely fucking loved Life Is Strange so may check this out.

That dudes right, LIS is a game for teenagers. And if I can't actually turn back the clock, then acting like I can is the next best thing and hella cool.

 

[Cross]

Which is perfectly acceptable for those of us who felt Star Wars was just fine without midichlorians.

The joke's on you then, because they ARE doing the midichlorians thing with regards to how vampirism and feeding works.

http://www.zam.com/article/1471/dontnods-vampire-rpg-vampyr-requires-you-to-research-your-bloodbags

In the demo, we followed a questline where we learned that one person living in town was actually a serial killer. His mother, however, was protecting him, and would have been very sad if he’d died. And then there was the XP issue— the serial killer, Seymour, had a cold, which meant that his blood was less valuable to our internal vampire blood-processing systems. He was worth just over 800 XP, but his mom, Stella, was worth over 1000! The presenter from Dontnod informed us, "Whoever you decide to kill, it will have consequences on the ecosystem. Because I don't want to be weak for the rest of this demo, I decide to sacrifice the poor Ms. Stella. My apologies."

And your post is a drooling fanboy excuse if I've ever seen one. Midichlorians happen when a writer goes out of his way to over-explain something that never needed an in-depth explanation, and only makes the story worse in the process. The problem with Vampyr however is that it lacks internal consistency, which is the bare minimum standard any fictional story should meet. A story can be as outlandish and ridiculous as it wants to be, but it shouldn't contradict itself. Vampyr doesn't meet that standard because, just to name one example of inconsistency, you don't get stronger by feeding on the vampire hunters that you fight, you only get stronger by feeding on named NPC's (presumably so that the game can revolve around making binary moral choices).

You can continue to be in denial and come up with excuses all you like, but there's no possible way to justify this aspect of the story. The workings of feeding are arbitrary and random, yet they make up the foundation of the story.

 

[Zombra]

The joke's on you then, because they ARE doing the midichlorians thing with regards to how vampirism and feeding works.

If they're explaining it, that's fine too. Don't think you "gotchad" me because I'm hard line against all explanations, because I never said that. So they're explaining (some of) it, fine. Just because they haven't explained it all yet (and might not choose to) doesn't make it contradictory. "Having a cold" or "not having a cold" may not be the sole criterion for xp value.

 

[Urthor]

The more gameplay you watch the more your hype decreases for this game. Sad because it's a neat and different idea, but hard to see it measuring up to its potential.

 

[Deathsquid]

The joke's on you then, because they ARE doing the midichlorians thing with regards to how vampirism and feeding works.

If they're explaining it, that's fine too. Don't think you "gotchad" me because I'm hard line against all explanations, because I never said that. So they're explaining (some of) it, fine. Just because they haven't explained it all yet (and might not choose to) doesn't make it contradictory. "Having a cold" or "not having a cold" may not be the sole criterion for xp value.

Maybe the ones you fight have like violent and hateful thoughts and like you learn nothing from them because they are like FUCK YOU BAGUETTE TOOTH MAN.

But when you slowly drink the blood of a mortal they are like man I really liked carpentry that was like such an awesome thing like this time when I carpented so hard I got the best carpenting in years and got that award...

And then you absorb that memory and get XP and also can carpenter really well.

You know.

 

[Zombra]

Maybe the ones you fight have like violent and hateful thoughts and like you learn nothing from them because they are like FUCK YOU BAGUETTE TOOTH MAN.

Yeah, I was thinking "violent action sours the blood", making it worth less xp (and you do get xp for vamp hunters, just not as much). Boom, 5 words and a perfectly good explanation, consistent with everything else, for those who demand it.

 

[abnaxus]

Game by cucks, for cucks.

 

[Deathsquid]

Game by cucks, for cucks.

Hmm, how come?

 

[Zombra]

The alt-right plays manly games for manly men. Like American Truck Simulator! Roll that big rig, dammit!

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I honestly enjoyed Life Is Strange, I guess I'm in the tiny minority.