Vampyr - vampire action-RPG from Life Is Strange devs

[fantadomat]

Nice, they responded within a couple weeks to console control issues annoying PC players, something Arkane hasn't figured out for years.

Haven't played Prey yet but Dishonored 1 and 2 are some of the better PC ports I've played. What exactly bugs you about them?

Don't know what he is talking about,the game controlled pretty well way back when it came out and i played it.

 

[Morgoth]

https://www.actusnews.com/en/DONTNO...rage-de-sa-derniere-creation-originale-vampyr

Game sold over 450k units in a month. Focus Home and Dontnod are very happy with the sales performance.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

A big part in that I figure is that the game is part of an extremely rare subgenre, there's barely any vampire protagonist games ever and even less where the vampirism is not really just a character design element.

Game itself, now that I finished it, hardly justifies it. Being kind, it's a mediocre product without any redeeming qualities besides its subgenre. It's got a case example of how a large map is basically worthless and actually a downright detriment if you fill it with empty space. Huge distances of jogging intersped with trash combat and looting trash from dumpsters because Reid is an ardent tincan recycler is bad enough, but where it really gets terrible is the NPC hub areas after Pembroke Hospital. Huge vast areas of nothing with a handful of NPCs standing or wandering back and forth on their little territory, Landahn Taahn in Vampyr is perhaps the most dead location ever in this sort of game. Not only is it infuriating to slowly plod your way all over the place for every menial thing, it also completely undermines any sort of attempt to establish the world. It's a lifeless, abandoned place that's impossible to care for or even feel disdain for.

What makes the trash combat worse is that Vampyr has the worst kind of subpar combat: The kind that thinks its meh misguided-Souls-clone combat should try to be challenging, without even knowing how to approach that goal. With your very underwhelming assortment of basic stick-slapping, occasional gun, and uninteresting vampire magic, you anemically go through every enemy, dodging the same patterns nonstop and then taking a few stabs at them to gradually lower their huge health bars. Vampyr doesn't even have the good manners like Bloodlines did to just make its combat a shameless powertrip if it can't be good, and it's not like you can't have both good combat and a powetrip at once. The combat is neither visceral enough to be thrilling, nor is it awesome enough to be satisfying. It's a grating, endless mudhole that you just have to deal with, lacking both gameplay and visual flourish. The only emotion to be associated with it is annoyance.

As for the much-touted CnC thing, it's pretty much just a fuck-up there. The game makes the cardinal mistake right off the bat by establishing connection between CnC and game rewards, which with the addition of forced ironman effectively immediately disengages the player from any manner of narrative investment. You'll dig up that walkthrough and stop caring about answering what you think is interesting, because there's the Right answer and the Wrong answer, rather than interesting possible narrative outcomes. This is also added by the fact the dialogue wheel is in full force, giving you next to no information about what you are about to do (just count the number of times the wheel blurb ends in a ! and Reid proceeds to be very calm and polite). Very strange considering these are the developers of Life Is Strange, which had a time-reversal mechanic that actually fluidly integrated savescumming into the narrative and made you interested in what you did because you were always making an informed choice based on what you thought was the interesting thing to do.

Of course, the CnC aspect is largely irrelevant, because the story is shiiiiiiiit. Seriously, the story is worse than VtM: Redemption. And it doesn't even have unintentional hilarity to it. As norm with games of this sort, the dialogue is created in a very wooden, robot-like delivery where one side listens to the other monologue, but there's nothing the Kristof's hilarious line delivery and vocabulary. Aside from the story being usual ancient evil tripe in the end, a particular aspect to its shitness is that it's one of the most poorly paced and rushed stories I've ever seen. You have characters and concepts introduced suddenly and then forgotten about, things bounce here and there without any kind of flow between events, and we have the most bizarre, arbitrary, and sudden romance in gaming history. Johnny Boy and Mah Lady have absolutely no chemistry or even reason to care about each other, the game in fact completely blindsides you by just randomly having it be a thing without any build-up.

I don't even know if it's worth mentioning, but the game naturally does sabotage its own attempts at cartoon moralizing by the fact you kill the vast majority of the local population in trash combat (you can't even call it self-defense since Reid can shoot first too), so getting on your soapbox about sucking the blood of a serial killer is more than slightly silly and disingenuous.



tl;dr review: I wish it'd be Fall already so I could have been playing more Yakuza instead.

 

[HoboForEternity]

Cant wait for yakuza 0 on pc. Thanks forvthe review

 

[DalekFlay]

As for the much-touted CnC thing, it's pretty much just a fuck-up there. The game makes the cardinal mistake right off the bat by establishing connection between CnC and game rewards, which with the addition of forced ironman effectively immediately disengages the player from any manner of narrative investment. You'll dig up that walkthrough and stop caring about answering what you think is interesting, because there's the Right answer and the Wrong answer, rather than interesting possible narrative outcomes.

But only asshole mentally ill people do this on their first playthrough, not anyone with sense.

 

[Urthor]

Is there anyone who can bail me out here? I've suffered a rather interesting hard drive explosion that has seen my save files go up in smoke, and although there's only about 3 that I didn't have backed up in the old monthly backup, Vampyr was one of them RIP.

Honestly I'd be happy with just about anything that'd cut the replay time down, I was just in the start of chapter 4 and

Spoiler

just left the Ascalon club for the first time after the scene with Redgrade

 

[toro]

Is there anyone who can bail me out here? I've suffered a rather interesting hard drive explosion that has seen my save files go up in smoke, and although there's only about 3 that I didn't have backed up in the old monthly backup, Vampyr was one of them RIP.

Honestly I'd be happy with just about anything that'd cut the replay time down, I was just in the start of chapter 4 and

Spoiler

just left the Ascalon club for the first time after the scene with Redgrade

This is the disadvantage of auto-saves: I only have a end-game save and you need the saves from someone which is just starting chapter 4. Sorry.

Better ask on official forum, Steam or reddit.

https://forums.focus-home.com/category/6/vampyr

https://steamcommunity.com/app/427290/discussions/

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[RepHope]

Is there anyone who can bail me out here? I've suffered a rather interesting hard drive explosion that has seen my save files go up in smoke, and although there's only about 3 that I didn't have backed up in the old monthly backup, Vampyr was one of them RIP.

Honestly I'd be happy with just about anything that'd cut the replay time down, I was just in the start of chapter 4 and

Spoiler

just left the Ascalon club for the first time after the scene with Redgrade

Christ mate what the hell happened?

 

[Urthor]

I don't actually know but my drive comedically ended up formatted in something that is not NTFS and I had to reformat, and I couldn't retrieve anything off the image with data retrieval software except a single random Skyrim save from 2012.

In all honesty I'm only screwed for Vampyr, FF15 unless the cloud saves work, and Pokemon Uranium, rest of the stuff was backed up, but those were what I was in progress for.

 

[J1M]

This looked cool, but it isn't.

The power set doesn't contain what I would expect for a vampire. The combat is brawling instead of stalking.

Worst of all, if you grant the game the concession of pretending to care about helping and matchmaking the first zone of NPCs you are rewarded with another area to do the same damn thing. Uninstalled.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

The problem isn't so much the brawling itself (really, is there just one way a vampire could fight? Hands down the best vampire game in terms of gameplay is Symphony of the Night, and that's anything but stalking), it's that the game can't make itself to commit to one singular vision for how its vampires are supposed to fight and how its fighting and story are supposed to work together. Does it feel like a game that's building up to you fighting some ancient Celtic menstrual rage goddess so she doesn't destroy London? Yea, it doesn't.

Then again, the game is full of "now how the hell did we get to this" moments, whether it's how the story pans out or the aforementioned completely arbitrary romantic subplot.

 

[Life of the Party]

It's Gothic fiction. The romantic subplot was anything but unexpected.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Point is really that it's an embarrassingly bad attempt at such.

 

[Morgoth]

https://steamcommunity.com/games/427290/announcements/detail/1727579062920303386

Announcing New Game Modes
27 July - Iyagovos

Vampyr, DONTNOD Entertainment’s narrative-driven action-RPG set in 1918 London, announces a content update coming later this summer. This will include two new game game modes which add further replayability for existing players and more options for those who haven’t yet sunk their teeth into this dark adventure.

As well as bringing a host of optimization tweaks, the upcoming update will introduce a ‘Story’ mode that de-emphasizes combat and a cranked-up, more challenging Hard mode. The Story mode places a greater focus on narrative, allowing players to experience Dr. Reid’s journey with **less challenging combat**. On the other end of the scale, Hard mode makes combat much more difficult. Players will receive less experience from killing enemies too, forcing them to rely even more on embracing citizens to grow in power.

In advance of this update, Vampyr also has a 25% discount this weekend!

There was also a second patch released yesterday:

Second Update
26 July - Iyagovos

Hi everyone,

We're happy to release Vampyr's second update!

This second update concentrates on bug fixes for some issues that we've seen reported over the past couple of weeks, as well as introducing a couple new features.

We continue to read your feedback and suggestions in forums and social networks and you can expect bigger patches in the coming months.

Please find the changelog below:

New Features:

• Scrolling docs with the mouse wheel is now possible when first viewing a doc
  
• Players are now able to move the camera during dialogue using movement keys (default: WASD)

Fixes:

• Performance has been addressed, players should now experience fewer performance issues.
  
• Targeting enemies - The Auto-Lock option has been modified. Set to "On", the mouse can be used to switch targets. If the binding to switch targets is already used (default: mouse wheel up/down), this option will be disabled. Set to "Off": The mouse won't be usable to switch targets. Only the binding to switch targets will be available (default: mouse wheel up/down)
  
• The issue where players would be unable to enter The Morgue is now fixed.
  
• Fixed an issue that prevented players from crafting more serum than they could carry, which would result in serum not being refilled when dying. Excess serum will now be stored in the stash, and if there is serum in the stash when dying, the player's stock will be refilled. This also applies to ammunition.
  
• The stash now properly indicates the quantity of items store in it.

If you encounter any issues with this update, please don't hesitate to let us know!

Many thanks,

The Vampyr Team.

 

[Adon]

The only thing challenging about the combat was staying awake for the slog that it was. I doubt that's what they're referring to.

 

[Ranarama]

It becomes a slog mostly because of the piss poor scaling.

 

[Zombra]

Huh, earlier I said I would only play this game on highest difficulty to make eating people necessary, but from reviews it also sounds like playing on easy to skip the combat as quickly as possible might be a good option. Of course that's assuming I ever play this in the first place. Opinions?

 

[Fedora Master]

The same French faggots who made Life is Tumblr can't make real games. This is somehow a surprise to people.

 

[Big Wrangle]

Well, Vampyr shows they can, but improvements are needed.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

If they mean "less combat" instead of "easier combat" that mode is the only way to play the game since you'll be bored out of your mind with the combat by the end.

 

[Zombra]

By the way, how did the soundtrack turn out for this game?

 

[Twiglard]

Hello everyone, let's eat the slums.

So I'm playing this, not having read this thread or other educated opinions. That for after finishing the game.

I loved LiS, this is shit. Not because of combat. They fucked up dialogue, there are no C&C, idiot protagonist and NPCs, and the need to select people-pleasing responses.

Is any of the following false? I want to believe.

Dialogue:

- You can't change anything through dialogue. Maxing out hints won't make any character realize any mistake whatsoever. Not at any point in the game.
- Similarly, there are no additional events taking place because of what you found through the optional dialogue.

- In some cases, our dear Jonathan has only idiot responses. In others, a sensible response is the only "bad" response.
- Say things that please people, not what makes sense.

Funny:

- The zombie epidemic and an activist for female voting rights right in the middle of it.
- Adding that Mary manic pixie girl vampire really was awkward. But once she was in, wish she didn't die. In the end they made her into a plot device.

Protagonist:

We have several esteemed games with a fixed-personality protagonist. Alas, Jonathan is hardly comparable to the man who shouldn't trust the skull, or the twitching albino. He's not any more than a bunch of cliched traits thrown into a cliched mold. At least have him understand selfishness without the NPC responding "spare me the sarcasm".

The good:

- Good bit with that trader mother that injures her daughter to nurse her back to health. The codependent relationship and the necessity to feel needed. So human.
- That delusional "vampire girl" was fun but it never grew into anything (like any other dialogue interaction).
- The same "vampire girl" and the "fake veteran" with latter badly overacting scenes.
- That slums' bully+son+bully's-friend thing. Inability of bully and his son to talk despite his best intentions. So human.
- Some "I was never the same after the war" random bits. So human.
- The Chinese woman dying: "so you told me to live only to kill me? was it a game? you succeeded, you demon". Overall great idea with seeing people's last thoughts when they die.
- That suicide kid and his mother. I thought she was sketchy at first. Though, once the penalty for a suicide attempt was death. A prison term doesn't make the same sense, it doesn't make any at all.
- Atmosphere was great at first, YMMV. It started like a VtM fanfic atmosphere-wise. Of course that made me thrilled. And there were no warrens.

Mediocrity:

- Why the fuck learn anything about anyone if you can't do nothing at all, ever.
- There were several dialogue cases like 1. "no!" 2. "you're mad!/fuck you!" 3. "never!", then others 1. "of course!" 2. there is no "2"
- an akward console port interface-wise.
- After a while I barely ever listened to voiced dialogue without skipping over the subtitles. Did it get worse or was too predictable from the start?
- The whole "Ascalon club" thing stinks of rotting "show, don't tell". They don't look like much, as expected, once you get to know them.
- You get a ton of chances to ask people "why not skip town?". They always answer with some phrasing of "this is where I was born, this is my home", etc. The writer coulda at least use some creativity there.
- The hints mechanic is only useful for getting max XP amount from eating people.

Other:

- Mesmerize should be an upgradable character skill. Not something you get for following the main quest.
- Combat is a slog, but less than PoE (though the cheating crystal dragon fight was ok, like the old times)
- The best XP gain method (with the good ending!) is to get level 5 mesmerize then eat the slums.
- Even with that "auspex" vision it's goddamn hard to find several people in the slums. Maybe that's why I ate them, of all the areas.
- Having "skals" treated like vermin is basically a carbon copy of the thin-blood thing from VtM. It's not obvious why some "skals" are mindless zombie-like beasts and others of human-level intellect.
- Vampires referring to themselves as "living". The naunce between "life" and "undeath" hasn't been taken into account.

District and pillar mechanics:

This should be adapted into so many games for their benefit. For instance, a proper Stalker: Clear Sky faction warfare game/mod, one we've never had. This simulationist model looks very appealing to me, YMMV.

Questions:

1. If I eat someone, how much will area status decrease? Can it ever increase by that act alone? Reasonably speaking, eating that priest from the slums should help a lot.
2. Is it possible to eat some losers, heal everyone then have the area level climb back to the level before the meal?

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Getting hints in themselves gives XP, which further illustrates how in dialogue you have the right answer and the wrong answer only.

1. Roughly 8% permanently I think for the first dining, don't know if Pillars decrease by more or if they just have a larger temporary hit associated.
2. Basically, district health of 100% is tied to everyone being healthy or recovering. Having someone be eaten or otherwise die will essentially lower maximum possible health (100%) by a single person's worth.

The only thing you can do is that eating someone can have a minor change in the characters, for instance the serial killer's mother will adopt the nice sad street kid if you eat the serial killer.

 

[InD_ImaginE]

- Say things that please people, not what makes sense.

I mean thats probably the most realistic things about the dialogue no