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Vampyr - vampire action-RPG from Life Is Strange devs

a cut of domestic sheep prime

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Is it really worth playing, though?
Nope.
I get that it's worth playing compared to gnawing my arm off, or shaving my ballsack with a rusty razorblade.
Maybe. Not sure.
But is it worth playing as opposed to doing something actually fun, like playing DOOM
I played Doom for years straight. Not even the new ones. The originals. People would tell me about other games. Quake. Quake 2. I told them Doom was the only game I needed.

And I was right.
I tried to play Life Is Strange 1, once. It made me want to throw my computer out of the nearest window.
LIS1 was actuallly more interesting. That should give you an idea of my impression so far.

It's like someone took all the least interesting ideas of vampire games and combined them.

That said, it's playable. If you forget how boring it is and how blatant its gameplay problems are, it's playable.
I almost got it when it was 18€ on Chrono, but something keeps putting me off. Maybe a better deal during Steam summer sale? Or Humble Monthly.
It was/is 16 USD on GOG in my country.

Don't expect a big steam sale. I've never seen them put it on any significant Steam discount.
 

Don Peste

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I specially like the fact that vampires are repulsed by the the cross and other symbols of Christianity(a trope all but abandoned in the last few decades for obvious reasons).
Seems I'm not affected...

wgHmv0i.jpg
 

Bad Sector

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Insert Title Here RPG Wokedex Codex Year of the Donut Codex+ Now Streaming! Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
I bought the game last Friday when it came out on GOG and finally finished it yesterday. Overall i'd say it is your "average good game" in that it isn't anything great nor will ever be a classic but it isn't anything mediocre or bad either - just one of many games that are merely "good".

I do not see games as the sum of their parts, instead some parts can be elevated (or lowered, but that only happens if i dislike something a lot) based on other parts and Vampyr is a good example for that: i really liked the setting and atmosphere, which in turn made me not mind the combat much. The combat is functional, in that it is there and works, but it isn't anything special. My entire "strategy" for the combat was to raise out my claw attack, stamina bar and blood pool (in that order, more or less), upgrade a machete i found and a blood sucking secondary weapon (i don't remember the actual name) and then all the fights were either one shot claw kills or claw-suck-suck-suck-repeat with the occasional dodge. I'd find that boring in other games, but here i liked the setting so i didn't mind it much, though i never really "liked" it.

As i wrote, i liked the setting even though the 'dark foggy 19th-20th century London at night' is sort of cliche in gothic stories. Being a vampire doctor who specializes on blood transfusion research and trying to find the cure of an epidemic that ravages the entire city is original (or at least rare enough for me to not have encountered it before or be able to come up with a previous case). Sadly there isn't much "research" going on gameplay-wise (i sort of expected to see all the bits and crap i pick up from fallen goons to somehow be used for researching, kinda System Shock 2-style though without the delay since there isn't any computer at the background here :-P).

The main gameplay loop seems to be running around the city (which i quickly got bored of, especially near the end where you sometimes have to run across the entire game world), exploring the environment in the areas where people live (which i liked it as i love to search every nook and cranny for items in games and the reason i do not like most open world games since they tend to have a lot of useless filler content - but in this case the world is clearly divided into "people" areas and "enemies" areas and the interesting stuff is almost always on the "people" areas that are relatively small) and finally talking to people.

This "talking" bit is an interesting idea although due to the way it works it kinda makes the game feel like a dating simulator where you are trying to figure out what sort of response the person you are talking with would like to hear based on whatever caricature the character is supposed to be. And this last part is one of the weakest things in the game for me - while there are some interesting characters, most of them feel like caricatures - especially the supposedly bad people who often look and behave like cartoon villains (e.g. the "xenophobic landlord"). In general i found the dialog for most characters to be poor (and it has one of the most laughable depictions of depression i've seen in a game to the point where i thought the character was just a complaining edgelord - i mean his idle line that repeats every so often is "even my dreams are soaked with gloom" - but no, he is really supposed to be depressed instead of whiny). There were some exceptions and i think most of the main characters were generally good.

On the other hand, even if the dialogs were often bad, i liked their almost theatrical style (though the voice acting was hit and miss, especially when in some cases it was clear that different lines on the same dialog were not taken in the same session and had different tone). I don't know if it was intentional or a result of trying too hard to sound early 20th century, but i think it fits the game.

Also even though the dialog and characters weren't great (with exceptions), i liked the overall story and the world they built - i'd certainly like to see a new game on the same world (though the story for this game is self-contained so any new game should have other characters - it isn't like the world doesn't allow for that). The ending was a bit... well, not unexpected as it was clear what will happen, but it felt a bit like a shoehorned result due to me not being a full pacifist. Perhaps if i try to play a non-lethal run it'll make more sense. That will not happen any time soon though, if nothing else i'd like to get a new GPU first because i ran everything and mid-low settings and even then the game was around 40fps (i have a very low end PC and an integrated GPU or "APU" as AMD calls them).

The whole "your actions have consequences" didn't look to be very deep either. I've only finished it once, but from what i understand most dialogs barely change anything and even killing some people (outside the community "pillars") all it seems to do is readjust the available merchant prices and items. And it is buggy (or at least misdesigned) too since i had at least a couple of "sidequests" (as much as you can call these quests anyway, you mainly just find random stuff on the environment) where i didn't talk to the right people at the right order so i failed the "hint" (e.g. picking up an item i randomly found, talking to someone later who apparently lost that item, but the game was written so i'd have to talk to another character to learn about the item first, so now i lost a "hint" with both characters).

Still, despite the issues it has, i found it entertaining - largely for the exploration, world/setting, story and overall atmosphere and less for the characters and combat and i'd like a new one. It isn't a game i'd recommend at full price, but i found it worth it the ~18 euros i paid for it on GOG.
 
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Codex Year of the Donut
im... rage quitting this.

Once I've reached homeless shelter ran by feminists I've decided that I had enough. I'm skimming through half of the dialogue. Everything is waaaay to progressive for me. Every black npc role is to be a secret lover in mixed couple thing. Thinking about it - every couple appears to be either mixed or gay.
Or how people hating immigration are bad and we need to help immigrants.
But probably the worst of all was that you are forced to roleplay character that is behaving like mix of young werther and mary sue.

Shame as I was sort of into setting created in here. In theory you could try playing arrogant murder hobo but afaik you will still get those cut scenes where you doubt yourself constantly?
I think this is the first game I've quit playing because the developers butchered the setting so much. It doesn't feel like early 20th century London. It's pretty close to what I'd imagine british state propaganda videogames would be like.
 
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Codex Year of the Donut
Imagine qutting a game because of political reason like SJW does :lol:
It's not a "political reason", the setting is absolutely ruined. It simply does not feel like early 20th century London. So much of the game is dedicated to making you feel like you're not in early 20th century London.
I'm someone who enjoys mass effect(all four of them,) played both BG EEs plus SoD and liked some of the new characters(hexxat is too much even for me,) etc., I'm pretty good at ignoring SJW shoehorning.
 
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Adon

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The game has bigger problems than any historical inaccuracies which afaik the game is never attempting to do. There's historically accurate 20th century London and then there's the fictitious take Dotnod went with that's more SJW pandering. Either way, to focus on that instead of how the C&C works, the sluggish and boring combat, as well as how irrelevant most NPCs are (or the lack of real quests for some) on top of the wooden VA is probably more egregious than the setting which biggest fault is that it never gets all that interesting because the writing just isn't there for it.
 

Ibn Sina

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Strap Yourselves In
I think that this game, despite all its faults, is a better "Vampire" game than bloodlines. In the sense that it shows you that Vampires truly have a monstrous side, and feeding kills. In bloodlines you feel more of a midnight marvel action figure than a blood sucking vampire, this is greatly emphasised by the fact that you can drain 99% of someones blood pool and they just get stunned for a moment and then go on with their lives, no fucks given. Vampyr really gave me the vibe from that movie clip, which I think is the best Vampire depiction in cinema history:

 
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I tried playing it for a buck off of the Xbox Game Pass thingy and I couldn't get past the first few fights thanks to the stamina bar. I absolutely hate how many games lifted this concept from Dark Souls/Bloodborne. Not to imply that they're the progenitors of the idea, just that they are the clear inspiration for a bunch of games that would be well-served by faster combat. In Vampyr, you play as a freakin' vampire for crying out loud. Why the hell do I need to worry about running out of breath from swinging a little knife a few times?

I really don't mind stamina management in From Software games, and I've played a few other titles that forced a more measured approach to combat with stamina and that was all fine by me. But here it just seems like an insult.
 

Sukhāvatī

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rusty_shackleford said:
It's not a "political reason", the setting is absolutely ruined. It simply does not feel like early 20th century London. So much of the game is dedicated to making you feel like you're not in early 20th century London.
I'm someone who enjoys mass effect(all four of them,) played both BG EEs plus SoD and liked some of the new characters(hexxat is too much even for me,) etc., I'm pretty good at ignoring SJW shoehorning.
Ye, def.

Sherlock Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper is my fav representation of Victorian London in gaming so far.

There's a video from 1967 with James Mason of the place where Jack/Aaron killed Annie Chapman that had barely changed since, and the Sherlock game recreated that feel the best I've seen.



Used to be able to catch echoes of such places some years ago.
 

fantadomat

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Imagine qutting a game because of political reason like SJW does :lol:
It's not a "political reason", the setting is absolutely ruined. It simply does not feel like early 20th century London. So much of the game is dedicated to making you feel like you're not in early 20th century London.
I'm someone who enjoys mass effect(all four of them,) played both BG EEs plus SoD and liked some of the new characters(hexxat is too much even for me,) etc., I'm pretty good at ignoring SJW shoehorning.
Well i do not ignore it,but i do have the willpower to struggle trough it if the game is passable as a time waster. You should try the new lovecraftian game,it will be your second game to quit because of ruined atmosphere. Also why are people now talking about this shitty game?
 

Rahdulan

Omnibus
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Got the game as a gift so I'm finally going at it.

On hard to make that experience matter. Reached Pembroke Hospital and good god, I can kinda see how the talky bits can drag on. I feel like I just interviewed the entire hospital about their life stories, but it is neat to get clues about their secrets. Some characters are seemingly presented as experience snacks and I'm not sure how I feel about it, maybe I'm wrong. Going against level 6+ Skals and Hunters as level 3 character with basic gear and starting powers because I don't want to rest yet has been refreshing, though.
 

Rahdulan

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And done. I have mixed as fuck feelings, but would probably air on the positive side precisely because I did find what it was peddling interesting enough to play through these 30-ish hours and basically do all the story stuff there is, side missions included. You could shave an hour or so if I you don't play on hard because by the looks of it turns fights into a breeze.

Taking into account just how much fighting and talking alike you'll be doing in Vampyr it's actually astonishing how utterly average both of these elements are. I think devs were banking heavily on getting the player invested in the whole “deciding who lives or dies for those sweet experience points” and on hard mode that becomes a real dilemma when enemies keep ramping up in levels, not to mention bosses which regularly started outpacing me by average ten levels, and you see all those characters around that could give you a massive boost as opposed to scraping whatever experience bits I could find. Early 20th century London is also amazingly well realized through visuals and soundtrack itself, although re-spawning enemies didn't help considering you can't grind them for experience, nor did all the trash cans you'll go through. I wish story was tighter and didn't effectively become non-existent between major events because game relies on you to care about citizens who are hit or miss with their troubles. Or they're just walking snacks if you opt out of doing a “no-kill run” in which case I imagine the entire affair becomes a joke.

Like I said above I played on hard and you live or die based on weapons which means regular visits to your workbench for upgrades. Sure, game occasionally hands you an upgraded weapon or two, but if you're relying on those instead of rolling with whatever top-notch upgrades you can afford you're already in world of hurt. High stamina bar for continual attacking and dodge-on-demand is a must, especially later on when Ichors pop up with their AoE poison clouds and officially take the crown as the most annoying fucking enemies in the game. You also really want at least one of every damage type (melee, firearms, blood and shadow) for situations when over-leveled enemies have immunity to one or more.

Also, fuck this game for bamboozling me with district choices and my own foolishness for not necessarily realizing blue "vampire suggestion" choices in dialog don't always just mean "tell me more about X" aka persuasion option you see in games. I think I unintentionally made the worst choices at times while going for a good ending which lead to a hilarious scenario - weakened Jonathan due to decision to not feed on characters in London that's continually spiraling down as districts deteriorate with more and more tougher enemies popping up.

Verdict:

imbecil.gif
 

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