Vampyr

 PlayStation 4
User Score
7.1

Mixed or average reviews- based on 853 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 482 out of 853
  2. Mixed: 216 out of 853
  3. Negative: 155 out of 853
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  1. ammilner
    Feb 5, 2019
    8
    Dontnod (the studio that in the past released Life is Strange and Remember Me) went their darkest, moodiest and most ambitious route with 2018's Vampyr and it pays of at (almost) every corner.

    Vampyr is truly impressive in using its smaller studios limited resources to make a game that really comes across like the immersive period piece that it set out to portray. Taking place in a    Dontnod (the studio that in the past released Life is Strange and Remember Me) went their darkest, moodiest and most ambitious route with 2018's Vampyr and it pays of at (almost) every corner.

    Vampyr is truly impressive in using its smaller studios limited resources to make a game that really comes across like the immersive period piece that it set out to portray. Taking place in a living city style open-world (a la Dragon Age 2's albeit unpopular model) Vampyr takes a risk by having you spend upwards of 20-30 hours running back and forth across the same four districts but damn does it do a good job at making those hours enjoyable and adrenaline pumping!

    As Dr. Jonathan Reid you are almost immediately tasked with the ethical dilemma of whether or not to consume the residents of London amidst also trying to save them from a devastating flu-like epidemic, and if you're not ready to take some innocent sick people lives then you're going to have a tough time! The developers often discussed their difficulty being adaptive to how many lives you took as a Vampire (it being easier with the more citizens you "embrace" and harder vice-versa). I found that every group of even as small as 2 or 3 enemies was a test of my skills in combat. Thankfully, the game is leveled well enough that the challenge never seems overbearing but when it did ultimately get dangerously close to that point, the game does a marvelous way of "reminding" you that combat would be "oh so easy" if you just took one bite out of good 'ol Rufus the Orphan.

    While I heavily enjoyed the combat (something I was honestly surprised about from the responses I'd seen prior to playing the game myself) Vampyr is very clearly a dialogue and choice driven narrative experience. I clocked in around 26 hours on my first play-through and I would guess that a good 15 of those are just spent between listening to characters moan about their slowly decaying health and me sitting on my couch at home deciding which probably bad but irreversible decision I was about to make.

    The decisions in Vampyr are truly where I feel that it stands out amongst other choice based games in regards to both innovation and originality, though there are times where the game ends up on the downward spiral of being just a little too ambitious with its sprawling amount of player choice. The auto-save only approach, the "no going back" style that permeates Vampyr's decisions makes them have so much WEIGHT that I stopped myself on multiple occasions from googling the "right" decision for each of the games varied conundrums.

    The journey of discovering the cause of the epidemic is one of continuous intrigue and pretty consistently subverted cliche but the only spot where I truly felt a little dissapointed with my time playing was in the last few hours of the campaign. Maybe it's the conditioned part of the player in me but I expected to see more consequences play out on screen and to see more characters from earlier maintain their relevance. You do get to the end of most of the side-stories earlier in the game and a lot of consequences are displayed before the final act or at least are explained via conversation but I felt as though my time with the side stories of London and my choices became simply uninvolved with where the story had gone in its last act. It made sense but that didn't stop me from wanting to know where things went after I did my damage. Was it a big deal? Not really, but I do think it would've been nice to have more time to contemplate your actions in the end. Also, they shoe-horn in some pretty heavy romantic vibes that I felt should've really been more player choice dependent if it was to keep in theme with the games focus on narrative malleability and it's the only note in the campaign where I really feel that it doesn't hit.

    Vampyr is not about the Paragon, Renegade and Flippant Grey choice that so many RPG's have adopted in recent years. Not to say that those were bad in their time but more to point out that I feel like Vampyr is really innovative with the way that it tackles choice. I set out to do a pacifist run, as is common with me for RPG's, but even though I was dead set at the start with getting the ever so sought after "perfect" ending, I found myself "Embracing" three citizens of London (in my defense they were all terrible people!) but I genuinely left feeling like my choices were still morally understandable. Vampyr narratively lives in the grey. Not all Vampires you meet are bad, quite the contrary actually, and not all people you meet are that great either.

    My experience with Vampyr was really unique and for anyone who loves role playing and is in it for the dialogue, the choices, and the consequences, this is definitely a game worth playing.    … Expand
  2. rdonoso
    Jul 23, 2019
    5
    Bugs. A lot of bugs. It’s very rare to see a game crashing the ps4 but this game does it A LOT. This comes alongside outdated graphics and shadows, a shame that such a good story looks like a ps3 game.
  3. Kai82
    Jan 17, 2020
    10
    A masterpiece with unique mechanics and some minor flaws. The focus of the game is telling a compelling story with authentic characters in a grim setting, dealing with consequences and impact of your choices. The story takes place in London during the Spanish flu shortly after World War I. The Spanish flu was the most deadly influenza pandemic in the history of mankind. The death toll wasA masterpiece with unique mechanics and some minor flaws. The focus of the game is telling a compelling story with authentic characters in a grim setting, dealing with consequences and impact of your choices. The story takes place in London during the Spanish flu shortly after World War I. The Spanish flu was the most deadly influenza pandemic in the history of mankind. The death toll was bigger than World War I and is estimated to be between 25 and 50 million. You play as Jonathan Reid a doctor who returned home from his service in World War I. Before you get home you were attacked and turned into a Vampire. Your creator left you without help, information, advice or even a clue who he was. Here the game begins after a blow of fate caused by your turning. The story and decisions are the main appeal. Like in a detective story you try to find your creator, what purpose your new life had and the secrets behind the Spanish flu. You are always trapped between your oath as doctor and your vampiric nature. You are the medical caretaker of one and later a few districts of London. Here the unique system starts to work. You get nearly no experience from battles. Regardless of levels enemies give only 5 xp. However sucking blood from civilians give from 500 xp to multiple thousand xp and always results in killing the civilian. The clue is that the more you know about a person the more xp you get by sucking / killing. Also it makes it harder because they took effort to make genuine characters with their own life's, philosophies, burdens, problems and reasons. Even the ones who committed crimes have reasons like caring for relatives or poor people. Each district has a health meter. All civilian can become ill and if you don't heal them the illness will get worse or spread. As the health meter decreases people will vanish and stronger enemies will appear up to losing the district with all civilians and merchants. Blood sucking / killing civilians also decreases the health meter. Lastly each district has a patron (leader / guardian) with high xp value and huge impacts of the health meter. Good look with dealing with their fates (I lost 1 district by making a merciful decision but must admit that it was stupid because I overestimated the characters will power and motives). Here you will say you can just reload an earlier save. No, you cant! This game gives you the consequences of your decisions. You have 1 save slot for each new game (3 in total). All decisions will stack. I need also to mention that you can only level up by sleeping at a safe-house which ends a day and all actions will be processed (People not saved die, Ill people you healed get well, not treated peoples health got worse, some will catch a new illness and the results of mayor decisions will happen). Depending on your preferences this is the make or break point of the game. If you don't enjoy this mechanic it is probably a 3/10 game for you or even less. I like this mechanic as it gave all my actions / decisions impact. And yes I restarted my game because I did not like an outcome. This is actual a positive because it showed me that I care for the people and game world. Then there is the xp system I already mentioned above. You can get small amounts of extra xp by curing people, small to medium amounts at side quests and big amounts by continuing the main story. But you will never be overpowered without blood sucking. This gave also impact on your decision. I tried to save everyone and often had to fight enemies above my weight class. It made this game more intense and gave temptations (Also a positive for immersion). The battle system worked well for me. Some of the other reviewers had problems. I had none but I will say it depends on your preferences. Some like the systems of the Witcher 3, Kingdom Hearts, Dark Souls or Zelda and others say the battle system in these games is beyond broken. I want also praise the non civilian NPCs. They took care to develop authentic characters that worked really well because they gave me immersion and I cared for them. There are some negatives I want to mention: There is no quick travel system in this game. It is a semi open world and I wanted more. Overall this is a game you should at least try because it does something that no other game tried (As far as I know). I will give 10 /10 because of that and the immersive world, characters, story and because the budget and resources were limited. Bonus: You should definitely look up the Wikipedia article for William Marshall 1st Earl of Pembroke.… Expand
  4. jimmylittle007
    Jun 20, 2020
    6
    Great storyline and the world design is convincing. The combat isn't great, and seems unresponsive at times, but once you get the hang of it it does the job well enough. Desperately needs a fast travel system and a better map design, getting around is both long and difficult. At times the game is a chore to play, which is a shame as it has some great characters and stories. Worth gettingGreat storyline and the world design is convincing. The combat isn't great, and seems unresponsive at times, but once you get the hang of it it does the job well enough. Desperately needs a fast travel system and a better map design, getting around is both long and difficult. At times the game is a chore to play, which is a shame as it has some great characters and stories. Worth getting at a discount for sure, but lacks the polish of a AAA title.… Expand
  5. leighbutler1980
    Mar 31, 2021
    9
    Tough game to rate to be honest. Immediately I’m thinking it’s a 7 or possibly an 8 out of 10. It’s got a lot of quality but can be rough around the edges. But the fact is I played it every evening straight until I completed it. Never got bored and was sad when it ended. So I’m giving it a 9.
  6. kwstas
    Jun 26, 2018
    6
    i was really enjoying this game at the beginning , i thought what a fresh idea , what a cool gameplay , what a nice story . well those are quite true though the game gets old and boring real quick . lack of freedom , repetitive combat , too much blabbing got all over me after a few hours on the game . i really think that the idea has some potential though it still needs a lot ofi was really enjoying this game at the beginning , i thought what a fresh idea , what a cool gameplay , what a nice story . well those are quite true though the game gets old and boring real quick . lack of freedom , repetitive combat , too much blabbing got all over me after a few hours on the game . i really think that the idea has some potential though it still needs a lot of improvement , i really hope that if ever a sequel is out it will bring it until then we are talking about a quite mediocre indie game… Expand
  7. RodSal
    Nov 16, 2020
    7
    Its a good game in general, but nothing great or special.
    The dialogues seems ok but not as deep like the witcher 3.
    Worth checking if you like RPG AND vampires.
    For the rest, just pass this.
  8. maddiplomat
    Jun 1, 2021
    0
    Unplayable, as you cannot even change controller sensitivity. How are such games even allowed to be released?
  9. mwil236
    Jan 9, 2020
    8
    Vampyr is one of those sleeper B-games that is going to be talked about a great deal in a couple years, despite the fact that it'll be like $17 at GameStop.

    It's basically a SoulsBorne-inspired, vampire-themed game, but rarely will you find a game wherein your basic decision making has such great effect on what's going on around you. Now, it isn't executed perfectly, particularly at    Vampyr is one of those sleeper B-games that is going to be talked about a great deal in a couple years, despite the fact that it'll be like $17 at GameStop.

    It's basically a SoulsBorne-inspired, vampire-themed game, but rarely will you find a game wherein your basic decision making has such great effect on what's going on around you. Now, it isn't executed perfectly, particularly at endgame, but it's still better than anything I've seen.

    The strongest and most interesting aspect of the game is your interaction with the NPCs. Throughout the game, by doing side quests, finding notes, journals, etc, you unlock special dialogue options for each person in the game which improve their "blood quality," or the amount of XP you get from "embracing" them, or drinking their blood. Interestingly, every single NPC in the game is of value - there are no bumbling characters who just say "good day!" and ignore you. All of them have a place, relationships with one another and interesting stories to tell, like mob leader and a pair of PTSD-suffering soldiers who are secret lovers. Those that you choose to embrace are erased from the game permanently, and the relationships they have will suffer as a result. The trade-off is that drinking blood is the biggest source of XP in the game, so learning the most you can about someone before embracing them is critical. However, each time you kill, the general health of the district falls - people get colds, headaches and fever which reduce their "blood quality." Luckily, as a doctor, you can cure them by crafting medicine, but these won't last forever.

    This mechanic starts to fall apart when it becomes hard to find citizens (who aren't marked on the map and move around town), hints required to raise blood quality aren't easy to find (and the game gives no hints to their location) and some even require you to kill other people to unlock them. In other words, it's impossible (or at least very hard and time consuming) to maximize blood quality without at least killing some people or just wandering the streets looking for a note hidden somewhere. If you don't keep on top of curing citizens' sicknesses, as well, it gets completely out of control and unreasonable to manage - you'd have to spend hours finding each one to heal them. Additionally, if you let them all get too sick or kill too many people, the district will "fail," and it will be repopulated by enemies. The writing and voice acting are good, and you do a LOT of talking for quests and blood quality alike. It never feels painful, but if you're impatient you may be bothered.

    The plot is reasonably well-explained throughout. Side quests are unrelated to and do not distract from the primary goal. The intrigue of the main quest builds nicely and comes to a satisfying conclusion, depending on how many citizens you kill and how many districts "fail."

    Combat is fine. Taking from SoulsBorne and Nioh it incorporates a stamina bar for you and a posture-like bar for them. The primary attack does damage, and the secondary attack damages posture. By depleting posture you can drink their blood, which replenishes your blood (basically magic energy) and health, if you upgrade it. Weapon upgrading is satisfying and helpful. Character progression is a bit confusing, giving you more options than you can actually use, and basically coming down to raising you special attack damage, health, stamina and blood pool. Boss encounters are sometimes unpredictably much harder than the local enemy population, and you may have to go back and kill a few citizens or upgrade weapons to level up to manage a boss. "Grinding" isn't really an option, because every single enemy is worth only 5 XP (drinking blood averages about 3000, for instance), whether that enemy is 10 levels below you and takes 2 hits or 3 above you and is a full-blown 3 minute encounter.

    My primary complaint was the map and the travel situation. There is absolutely no fast travel, the map is very serpentine and confusing and contains lots of doors that will conveniently lock or unlock based on quest progress. There's a whole sewer network (which is very important at end game) which is all twisting tunnels that does not even appear on the map, leaving you to circle endlessly until you get lucky and find the path you wanted. The game will also unpredictably freeze for a loading period as you run through the map. The guidance doesn't help much; you basically have to open the map every 5-10 seconds before you make a turn so you don't run halfway across the map in the wrong direction.

    All together, the combat is serviceable, the NPC interactions are very strong, the acting and story are good and the quirks are minor. For a B-game, it's excellent. For a blockbuster, it's still pretty good.    … Expand
  10. Samyar91
    Oct 17, 2020
    9
    The atmosphere and story is so great that it cover it’s weak point in gameplay..the music and artistary in this game is awesome
  11. bigbluesoul
    Jul 14, 2018
    9
    I wish more games like this were made. Mature with a great ambience, story and characters, and a pretty simple and fun soulslike combat system. It deserves a try, really.
  12. Syche77
    Aug 18, 2018
    5
    This game has amongst the clumsiest fighting mechanics I've seen in a recent game. Combined with the developer's decision to exclude manual saves, this can make for an excutiatingly frustrating and repetitive experience. I don't mind admitting that I'm never that interested, and therefore skilled, at fighting mechanics, but I'm pretty sure these are just bad. The setting, characters andThis game has amongst the clumsiest fighting mechanics I've seen in a recent game. Combined with the developer's decision to exclude manual saves, this can make for an excutiatingly frustrating and repetitive experience. I don't mind admitting that I'm never that interested, and therefore skilled, at fighting mechanics, but I'm pretty sure these are just bad. The setting, characters and story are great but I went from pre-order to returning to the store within days. With so many well produced games out there, there just aren't enough hours in my life to bang my head against frustrating design.… Expand
  13. CoreGamer1408
    May 3, 2019
    7
    The Vampire TMB had a very cheesy pop culture feel to it. Vampyr is a very broody and sombre serious kind of affair. Art style kind of cool, but graphics look last gen 360/PS3. VA and music no real complaints. As for the combat oh dear. I never had any real fun with it. I wish I had played it on easy to skip it as quick as possible. I was more interested in exploring the game world, andThe Vampire TMB had a very cheesy pop culture feel to it. Vampyr is a very broody and sombre serious kind of affair. Art style kind of cool, but graphics look last gen 360/PS3. VA and music no real complaints. As for the combat oh dear. I never had any real fun with it. I wish I had played it on easy to skip it as quick as possible. I was more interested in exploring the game world, and seeing how the characters and story evolved. I generally found talking and trying to find out the secrets of the many characters a genuinely interesting activity to engage in.

    The option to play as light or dark vampire helps the replay factor I suppose? I was disappointed with the general combat, but the rest of the game I was mostly pleasantly surprised. I did have a odd disconnect while playing this game. The music score was all creepy and spooky as though to put the player at unease. However being a bad ass Vampire it is kind of hard to get spooked and creeped out.    … Expand
  14. angelknives
    Dec 11, 2020
    8
    I'm probably the exact target audience for this game, so of course I enjoyed it. I love the setting, the way it handles vampires, the mystic elements and the story. I also love how you can influence the world and people around you. And they managed to make draining people genuinely creepy and tempting.

    But the game does fail when it comes to how the few choices you can make regarding    I'm probably the exact target audience for this game, so of course I enjoyed it. I love the setting, the way it handles vampires, the mystic elements and the story. I also love how you can influence the world and people around you. And they managed to make draining people genuinely creepy and tempting.

    But the game does fail when it comes to how the few choices you can make regarding the main character's path are implemented. Too often it felt like the game was railroading me into doing things that made no sense for how I was playing the MC outside of the main storyline. And I also think the morality system needed some more tweaking.
    I just don't think it's very logical that the game just goes 'biting people wrong, not biting people good.' Especially because there are a few characters in the game that are actively hurting their environment. it'd make more sense to make it morally wrong for MC to not intervene when they come across one of those people, rather than pretending it's moral to let (let's say) a murderer roam free.

    If they flesh out the morality system a bit more, and give the player more true choice when it comes to the path of the main story, a sequel or spiritual sequel would be brilliant.    … Expand
  15. Hawks2018
    Nov 3, 2021
    2
    This game is just abysmal. It is wretched. Mind-numbingly boring, stunningly awful in a technical, story and gameplay aspect. So utterly, utterly atrocious on so many levels it makes you angry.

    Picked it up for less than $10 on ps store and even if it had've been a dollar it would still be a ripoff. I understand that many critics are just lazy shills who provide good reviews in    This game is just abysmal. It is wretched. Mind-numbingly boring, stunningly awful in a technical, story and gameplay aspect. So utterly, utterly atrocious on so many levels it makes you angry.

    Picked it up for less than $10 on ps store and even if it had've been a dollar it would still be a ripoff.

    I understand that many critics are just lazy shills who provide good reviews in exchange for financial and other rewards, I expect it.

    But the disparity between the critic's consensus of 70 and the reality of slogging through a god-awful, abhorrent mess has never been starker.

    I'm holding out for at least a handful of great PS5 games til I upgrade, and picked this up only because there was basically nothing left.

    I finished it, I am ashamed to say. I finished it on the hardest setting purely because I had nothing left to play, and am both stupidly stubborn in finishing what I start, along with being simply unable to drag myself away from this stunningly atrocious train-wreck.

    I can barely even begin to describe the myriad abject failures of this self-indulgent tripe, and am too angry at whoever birthed this travesty to dwell on it much longer.

    I never thought it would be possible to hate someone responsible for any particular product, but that was before I encountered the cancerous, slovenly, misguided, ineptitude and imbecility of "Vampyr".

    Wow. Just.....wow.    … Expand
  16. Paulo969
    Oct 28, 2019
    10
    Nao passem ao lado desta masterpiece. A historia é interessante , o gameplay é divertido e funciona e a ambientaçao do jogo é incrivel. Absolutamente obrigatorio
  17. TresVoltesRebel
    Nov 9, 2020
    5
    The game is good, the story, the narrative, the ambientation... But when it comes to combat... By far the worst and most frustrant combat control that I've played since years, when facing normal enemies arround the streets you can just keep going but when you have to face some bosses it feels so unfair, you constantly have the feeling that you just die because of the bad combat control toThe game is good, the story, the narrative, the ambientation... But when it comes to combat... By far the worst and most frustrant combat control that I've played since years, when facing normal enemies arround the streets you can just keep going but when you have to face some bosses it feels so unfair, you constantly have the feeling that you just die because of the bad combat control to the point that some times you just think about uninstall and never come back, but the good story and narrative will make you want to continue until the end.… Expand
  18. Split_Decay
    May 15, 2021
    7
    Victorian London, the worlds ablaze with a plague and you’re a vampire. Seems like quite the selling points, and to me it was. The world was as dreary as you would expect a plagued London to be. Dark cervices and alleyways, period dressage and socioeconomic separation. The scene was set up well, the characters were much akin to the high regard I give this game.

    Mechanics were    Victorian London, the worlds ablaze with a plague and you’re a vampire. Seems like quite the selling points, and to me it was. The world was as dreary as you would expect a plagued London to be. Dark cervices and alleyways, period dressage and socioeconomic separation. The scene was set up well, the characters were much akin to the high regard I give this game.

    Mechanics were functional, I enjoyed the combat, the ability progression. The natural blend of narrative and action, a combination that worked. Characters were life like, not bland or generic. London was a breathing setting, even if it was to the sound of slowly dying citizens.

    Unfortunately, as much as I praise the game it its splendour, there is that impending but. For me it was the hard crashes after twenty minutes. It’s a shame that a well-crafted world, full of charm and character falls to the clutches of backend ongoings. It’s a shame as I really wanted to explore the roots of the well-crafted levels, but alas it was not meant to be.

    In conclusion then, the world and its characters seemed well revised. The idea of being a creature of myth among the reality of a plague was insightful. Though my time was halted and swift, if ever you have better luck, I am sure that the world of which was created can play home to a chapter in a very enticing an thrilling tale, one of bloodlust and all.    … Expand
  19. Enkindled
    Mar 29, 2020
    8
    Note that I got the Platinum trophy before I wrote this review! For me, Vampys is the soul-successor of Vampire the Masquerade. Vampyr is a 3rd person action RPG, narrative-focused were ALL of your actions matter. The idea o Vampyr is to make you walk one of two paths: you either play as a vampire, kill NPCs and get stronger, or contain yourself and become weaker. Thus, you are confrontedNote that I got the Platinum trophy before I wrote this review! For me, Vampys is the soul-successor of Vampire the Masquerade. Vampyr is a 3rd person action RPG, narrative-focused were ALL of your actions matter. The idea o Vampyr is to make you walk one of two paths: you either play as a vampire, kill NPCs and get stronger, or contain yourself and become weaker. Thus, you are confronted with moral questions all the time. I`ll leave my thoughts to you because although this game is great (and I recommend it), it has some issues that need to be addressed.

    Pros:
    - The meat of this game is the narrative. The background is London during the Spanish flu. The story is awesome in all aspects and you will feel you are there. There are no gaps in this story, thus, you see the writer really cared about this game. The ambiance is perfect and the characters are believable. Talk to everyone and explore the whole game, it is worth it.
    - Your decisions matter. This is not like so many other games that claim they have decisions and, in the end, they mostly don`t matter at all. In here, whoever you kill, the decisions you make an impact in the world.
    - The characters are believable and with real personalities. It is a lot of fun investigating them, trying to understand their motivations and real goals. This is important to the plot also because you will be struggling to see "is this person deserving of my bloodlust or not"? This game leaves you hanging as the role of judge, jury, and executioner, which is pretty well done.
    - The artwork is PERFECT. Man, if there is some good artwork that should be contemplated is the one from Vampyr. Holy damn, this game is beautiful.
    - Ambiance sound: play this game with headphones, because hearing the background sounds makes the game 10x more terrifying. You hear all sorts of horrific sounds in the night.
    - Dialogs: they are not long or short. Right on point, with objective and useful information. They do not make you waste your time, which is perfect.

    Cons:
    - Combat. The combat is clunky and needs a lot of polishing. It does not affect the game negatively, no, it does not come to that, but it sure annoys you sometimes, especially due to camera issues. Also, the game does not make good use of all the skills they provide. You will mostly make a melee build of a ranged one.
    - Sound problems. There are some sound problems in this game. I had the following: in one fight, the sound bugged so much I had to restart the PS4 [other gamers had the same problem]. In multiple time during both gameplay, the sound bugged and was absent. Most of these times, it came back naturally, but I had to wait around 15 min at a point.
    - Too many useless weapons. The game gives you tons of weapons, but 80% are just useless. You will always play with the same ones over and over.

    Overall, don`t miss this game. It is a masterpiece of artwork, amazing story, decisions that really matter, super enjoyable. Just know that it has some issues, but they will not really affect your experience, don`t worry!    … Expand
  20. TheProGamer-
    Jul 16, 2018
    8
    Not many vampire games are out there but deserve to be. A modern day game in an RPG setting with vampires is what everyone has been crying out for since the PS2 era of vampire games. Now we have it in Vampyr. The graphics are great and the way it sets the atmosphere of a smokey, industrial revolution type doom and gloom around you feels great and definitely helps set the tone of a gameNot many vampire games are out there but deserve to be. A modern day game in an RPG setting with vampires is what everyone has been crying out for since the PS2 era of vampire games. Now we have it in Vampyr. The graphics are great and the way it sets the atmosphere of a smokey, industrial revolution type doom and gloom around you feels great and definitely helps set the tone of a game like this. The skill tree is great and adds for a variety of which direction to go when upgrading yourself as a vampire. The combat and fighting style is perfect for this and the story is great also. What more could you ask for?… Expand
  21. alexslork
    Oct 26, 2020
    4
    eally liked the story and the choice of being good and evil.
    But thats about it.
    Way to many loading screens and they were too long(e
  22. Shadow1234
    Oct 16, 2018
    3
    When I play a game I do so as an achievement hunter. I am always looking for that Platinum Trophy and because of that I rate games not only on the game but on the enjoyment I get out of getting 100% completion in terms of achievements.

    I had high hopes for this game and knew I would purchase it the moment I heard about it. That being said I try to avoid spoilers and as much game play    When I play a game I do so as an achievement hunter. I am always looking for that Platinum Trophy and because of that I rate games not only on the game but on the enjoyment I get out of getting 100% completion in terms of achievements.

    I had high hopes for this game and knew I would purchase it the moment I heard about it. That being said I try to avoid spoilers and as much game play previews as I can to not ruin the story.

    When I purchased the game the first thing I did was look at the achievements and realized some save scumming would be required to avoid having to do multiple playthrough's. Which I don't mind but I feel a proper game should not require multiple playthrough's to get all the achievements. Or multiple saves, you should be able to get all achievements on a single play. At this point the game score for me was 9/10.

    Soon into the game I realized after every choice was made the game instantly saved. No ability to save except when the game chose is not acceptable to me. Current score now 8/10.

    The graphics of the game I felt appeared to be in Alpha. The colors were dull and boring, and the game seems to be from the PS3 era, not the PS4/PS4 pro. The various districts in the game were also dull and had nothing to them. Current score now 7/10.

    The decisions you make in this game do not get me started. One of the achievements is to not kill/drink blood from any of the characters you meet. The game is called VAMPYR! Trying to do this achievement was worse then watching grass grow and paint dry. Plus if you do not drink blood you do not level up, which eventually means you will see enemies several times your level. Current score now 4/10, yes that is a big jump but c'mon seriously.

    This game just did nothing for me, the sound and speech was fine, however you have to sit through an entire conversation. For people such as myself who can read a bit faster and want to speed through the text, you can skip, but it will skip an entire dialog and not just the text windowed. Current score now 3/10.

    The combat in the game is ridiculous, just copy and paste each battle. Seriously their is little variety as you mow down the games enemies, certainly not as much variety as the game leads you to believe with the various abilities. Current score now 2/10.

    The story is this games greatest feature and why it is getting all the great reviews. However once you get past the amazing story to the bedrock underneath. There is not much going for this game,, however I am a sucker for a great story and so the score gets a point back . Current score 3/10.

    My hopes quickly dwindled for this game as I chose to drive a stake through Vampyr!
    Final score: 3/10

    Pros:
    Story
    Speech
    Sound

    Cons:
    Everything else    … Expand
  23. cosmistuff
    Jun 24, 2018
    2
    The story of this game is really interesting and that makes me sad because I'll never finish it. Why? Because there is no manual save. That may not be a big deal, but when choices are not explained, or when you just click the wrong button you have to start the game over to go back. The idea is to make the choices matter because the player can't go back. But guess what? If I wanted to playThe story of this game is really interesting and that makes me sad because I'll never finish it. Why? Because there is no manual save. That may not be a big deal, but when choices are not explained, or when you just click the wrong button you have to start the game over to go back. The idea is to make the choices matter because the player can't go back. But guess what? If I wanted to play like that, i could do that in literally every game ever just by not going back. I don't need a game company to force me to play this way. Especially when their dialog trees make it incredibly difficult to know what's actually going to happen from any choice...or when quests bug out so that you can't finish them and can't load your game before the bug.… Expand
  24. SplitMind
    Dec 19, 2020
    4
    Vampyr is a game that is almost great for me, making it even more frustrating that it comes so close to greatness, yet some very odd design choices hold it back and even more vexing is that these have not been patched over.
    The graphics of Vampyr match the ambience. The vampire genre has been done to death and the early 20th Century Britain was a great choice of setting. The game suffers    Vampyr is a game that is almost great for me, making it even more frustrating that it comes so close to greatness, yet some very odd design choices hold it back and even more vexing is that these have not been patched over.
    The graphics of Vampyr match the ambience. The vampire genre has been done to death and the early 20th Century Britain was a great choice of setting. The game suffers a bit from everything being a bit dark and lacking in colour, as well as the repetition of enemy sprites. Given that it’s not a AAA title it can be forgiven for not having the best graphics, however combined with the issues below makes the game suffer more for it.

    The story of Vampyr is a compelling one and being set amid the Spanish Flu pandemic made playing this game in 2020 resonate in a way nobody would ever have expected when it was released. It took me some getting used to, as at first so many names and information was thrown at me that I found it overwhelming and couldn’t keep track of quests and characters very well. The dialogue choices are a key component of Vampyr, and there is definitely plenty to sink your teeth into, however I also found it got rather mundane by the midpoint of the game, as I sent a good 50% of my time in conversation, another 30% wandering around lost, and the rest in combat.
    In order to develop your dialogue choices with characters you have to acquire clues from taking to other people or by finding evidence, both of which are essentially fetch quests. This is further confounded by the gameplay of Vampyr, which is where I had such a tumultuous love-hate relationship with the game.

    The fundamentals of the game is your choice between feeding your hunger or by resisting and therefore stabilizing the local community. The problem I found with this is that by being the good guy and not feeding off people you actually make the game harder for yourself as you are weaker unless prepared for the inevitable fights. Furthermore, it was often quicker and easier to just bite someone rather than pursue their banal quests to complete their dialogue and story. You unlock powers very quickly doing this and therefore have a much greater motive to be a ‘bad’ guy than the good guy. On one hand this may seem unbalanced, however it could also be argued that it provides more of a difference in the choice you make, as you see a visible impact around you when you continually take lives.

    However all of the above is greatly undermined and almost deemed irrelevant as the developers made some rather silly choices and omissions in their game design. Firstly, this game suffers badly from there being no fast travel. I don’t understand how this wasn’t implemented even after launch as many reviews have noted its absence. Secondly, this is further exasperated by some bad layouts on the map itself. The game is made almost entirely out of corridors and streets, with random gates locking off sections of the game, meaning you have a tedious journey to get around these and open them from the other side. This is also very odd given that you have a kind of teleport ability that lets you reach certain ledges, but a simple gate seems to be your kryptonite. These two aspects of the game mean that no matter how good the rest of the game is, it will be difficult to enjoy when there is ample tedious travel.

    What really brought this game down in my ranking for it was when I reached the final boss and discovered the most unbalanced portion of the game (SPOILERS). The last boss was extraordinarily highly-levelled and upon reading online (yet again!) I discovered specific skills and weapons were needed to defeat it; that or grind for more arduous hours. This is a fundamentally broken mechanic and the cherry on top of my poisoned experience with Vampyr.

    Finally, a special mention also goes to the combat. They seem to have imitated SoulsBorne games here but haven’t quite succeeded. Many enemies and bosses to require an engaging amount of strategy, however also suffer from being overly cheap with their attacks (some even summon ghosts to attack all at once) and having inconsistent health bars, in that the damage you do to them is high one minute then minimal the next. The most frustrating aspect is probably how few exp you get from defeating enemies, which made me want to avoid fights altogether, when the game should be encouraging you to explore all mechanics to stimulate you with diversity.

    Overall, Vampyr is more frustrating than enjoyable at times. Frustrating because game design isn’t always great, but also frustrating because I can see how great this game could be with a few minor tweaks and a couple of bigger tweaks. The concept and premise are excellent, while I have big grievances with the level designs and minor frustrations with things such as tiny fonts. There is plenty of lore and socializing to get lost in, but this ‘Doctor Simulator’ is hard to recommend    … Expand
  25. Skollie
    Nov 6, 2020
    6
    Pros:

    - Decent story with great lore - Combat system is a bit tedious, but satisfying - Tons of upgrade options - Great citizen and XP system Cons: - Game is littered with freeze screens - Very long loading screens - Mediocre graphics This game was quite good and I enjoyed it, but the technical problems really holds it back. I ran around the districts to get collectibles    Pros:

    - Decent story with great lore
    - Combat system is a bit tedious, but satisfying
    - Tons of upgrade options
    - Great citizen and XP system

    Cons:

    - Game is littered with freeze screens
    - Very long loading screens
    - Mediocre graphics

    This game was quite good and I enjoyed it, but the technical problems really holds it back. I ran around the districts to get collectibles and the game would freeze about 10 times in an hour’s time which forced me to quit the game and relaunch it, with the super long loading screens. I noticed that when there are too many enemies (about 6-7) on the screen, the game can’t handle it anymore. What a way to force you to fight every enemy before moving on. I can’t believe that after 2 years this still hasn’t been fixed.    … Expand
  26. Naedeslus
    Mar 24, 2019
    7
    Sometimes an average game can do one thing exceptional that makes you forget the other flaws that exist with it. That is the game's plot. It has an excellent story set in a very interesting time period, post World War I dealing with the Spanish Flu epidemic. It truly nails the tone done beyond a doubt and by far, has a very intriguing story that will make you want to finish it.

    The    Sometimes an average game can do one thing exceptional that makes you forget the other flaws that exist with it. That is the game's plot. It has an excellent story set in a very interesting time period, post World War I dealing with the Spanish Flu epidemic. It truly nails the tone done beyond a doubt and by far, has a very intriguing story that will make you want to finish it.

    The problem is, the combat just doesn’t live up to the plot, not at all and that’s a shame. Had this been an adventure game, it would’ve probably went down as Dontnod’s greatest game because of the plot but since they tacked on an action RPG system with it, it does bring it down.

    At first, it’s not bad. It’s simple but simplistic is fine sometimes. The issue is that it gets pretty hard. The game gives you a moral dilemma, to get stronger you have to consume NPC’s. While this might not seem like a bad idea, since some NPC’s give you the feeling that it’s for the greater good, the problem is, to get to that point you have to feed onto other NPC’s if you want to have a fighting chance. The enemies also scale with you so there never really feels like that moment where you’re becoming very powerful. The bosses are hard and also are mostly damage sponges on normal difficulty.

    While it is possible to also grind enemies for XP, they give out so little that it barely makes it worth the effort. I found myself just running from encounters because of how damage spongy the enemies would become.

    They did tack on a Story mode which while, the normal mode does provide a challenge, it made it feel more like a Dark Souls game than something I’d enjoy. I’m not a fan of these ‘so hard it’s good’ type of games so about halfway through, I ended up restarting [since you can’t just switch difficulty on the fly] and found it to actually be enjoyable, because I could focus on what made this game stand out, the story and setting. Sure combat is super easy on this mode but it eliminates the need to feed on random NPC’s. It makes playing a pacifist run that much more enjoyable.

    Of course, some will love the challenge. If you’re a fan of Dark Souls then the challenge will be up your alley. For me, I’m not a fan of those types of games.

    The visuals are also kinda bland. They’re not bad and everything does look good but I noticed some texture pop in as if the engine couldn’t keep up despite it not being one of the better looking PS4 games.

    All and all if the combat had more balancing, maybe other ways to get stronger such as defeating enemies it would’ve been seen as better but it is worth playing. The story is great and it gripped me from start to finish. It’s pretty short, about 15 hours but I felt it never dragged on. For the price? I’d say it’s worth it.    … Expand
  27. Incore
    Jul 15, 2018
    10
    The story is fantastic and much you can explore about the people in the game that make you want to know more.
  28. Vizantiyec
    Sep 23, 2021
    3
    Low-quality game, a lot of bugs, lags, and freezes!
    Combat system as in-game in 2001
    The only plus is the characters and the storyline!

    DO NOT recommend!
  29. lolmol528
    Oct 15, 2020
    0
    I tried to play this game on ps4 on multiple occasions,but I never get past second chapter because of bad optimization. I think this game had great potential,but thanks to lazy developers,this game is practically unplayable. Game freezes almost every 10 minutes and need complete restart. Items are also glitched and thanks to that I often didnt get items that should drop from certain bosses.
  30. Gilibhz
    Dec 12, 2020
    7
    Good game with vampire theme, great music, good story. The characters' voices are excellent with a flawless British accent. Game mechanics are average. Game loading screens are sometimes uncomfortable as they happen constantly in the middle of the gameplay. The game crashed at least five times or so. It is a pity that there is no new game plus, as this would save us so much time to achieveGood game with vampire theme, great music, good story. The characters' voices are excellent with a flawless British accent. Game mechanics are average. Game loading screens are sometimes uncomfortable as they happen constantly in the middle of the gameplay. The game crashed at least five times or so. It is a pity that there is no new game plus, as this would save us so much time to achieve certain achievements/thropies. There are werewolves in the game, but these creatures were not exploited at all, too bad. I hope that they will make a sequel worthy of the theme in the future. Even so I recommend it.… Expand
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Awards & Rankings

17
#17 Most Discussed PS4 Game of 2018
19
#19 Most Shared PS4 Game of 2018

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
70

Mixed or average reviews - based on 67 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 34 out of 67
  2. Mixed: 29 out of 67
  3. Negative: 4 out of 67
  1. Gamers Heroes
    Aug 26, 2018
    60
    Vampyr is a collection of wonderful ideas held back by a limited budget and a dated engine.
    Read full review
  2. RPGamer
    Aug 17, 2018
    70
    For those looking for a unique, dread-filled experience in the RPG realm, Vampyr offers a type of game seldom seen. But much like the streets of 1918 London, expect a few bumps along the way.
    Read full review
  3. CD-Action
    Aug 2, 2018
    85
    Vampyr is unique. It’s not beautiful, its combat leaves much to be desired and its limited budget shows, but if you choose to turn a blind eye to these flaws, it will captivate you with its mature, morally ambiguous story and a series of dilemmas that usually lack a “right” answer. [07/2018, p.60]
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