Vampyr

About Vampyr

Vampyr dropped in June 2018 from Dontnod Eleven and Focus Entertainment. You step into the shoes of Dr. Jonathan Reid, a surgeon turned vampire in 1918 London. The city chokes on the Spanish Flu while supernatural predators roam the foggy streets. This single-player title blends narrative depth with action RPG elements across PlayStation 4, PC, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. You play as a man torn between healing his patients and feeding on them to survive. Every choice ripples through the neighborhood you walk. The story asks if you can keep your humanity while embracing the monster inside. It is a dark take on Victorian horror where medical ethics clash with primal hunger.

Gameplay

You move through London as Dr. Reid, listening to patients and solving their problems before making the decision to kill them. Combat happens in real time using melee strikes, guns, and vampire powers that drain your own health to deal damage. You must feed during fights to stay alive or risk fainting. The game tracks your energy as blood, forcing a constant loop of hunting and healing. Crafting systems let you build better tools from materials found on corpses. You can seduce targets, alter their routines, or ambush them alone to avoid detection. Killing NPCs permanently removes them from the city and unlocks new abilities but degrades the district's health. Your actions dictate which areas fall into chaos or recover.

What Players Think

Players on IGDB rated this title 70.4 out of 100 based on 285 reviews. The community finds the story compelling but notes the combat can feel clunky at times. Average playtime hovers around 15 hours for a standard run. Achievement hunters find the difficulty spike real since only 29.2% of players unlocked all 28 trophies. "The tools of the profession" remains the hardest challenge with just a 2.00% completion rate. Most users feel the moral choices carry weight even if some side quests fade away quickly. Review snippets often praise the atmosphere and the voice acting while criticizing the combat balance. The mood leans toward somber reflection rather than high-octane action. Critics appreciate the narrative ambition but acknowledge the gameplay loops can get repetitive after a few districts.

PlayPile's Take

This title suits players who want a story-driven experience over fast-paced action. You pay as little as 3.99 dollars on Steam right now, which makes it a steal for the content you get. The achievement list is challenging enough to keep completionists engaged past the main campaign. Dontnod created a world where your morality actually changes the environment, yet the combat mechanics might frustrate some action fans. Skip this if you need tight controls or endless replayability. Buy it if you enjoy moral dilemmas and want to see how far a narrative game can go. The ending varies based on your feeding habits, so expect multiple playthroughs if you want to see every outcome.

Storyline

Vampyr is set in early 20th century Britain as the country is gripped by the lethal Spanish flu and the streets of London are crippled by disease, violence and fear. In a disorganized and ghostly city, those foolish, desperate, or unlucky enough to walk the streets lay prey to Britain’s most elusive predators: the vampires. Emerging from the chaos, a tormented figure awakens. You are Jonathan E. Reid, a high-ranking military surgeon transformed into a vampire upon his return home from the frontline. Explore the darkly atmospheric streets of early 20th century London, and interact with a multitude of characters with their own identities and importance. Accept and fulfill the missions they give you, but don’t forget: sooner or later, you will have to feed, and make a difficult choice... who will be your prey? Absolutely all characters in the game are potential victims of your vampiric lust. Carefully study the habits of your next victim, his or her relationships with other characters, and set up your strategy to feed, unnoticed: seduce them, change their daily habits, or make sure they end up alone in a dark street... Be careful who you choose to hunt, as they will be gone forever, and their death will impact in a meaningful way the world that surrounds you. Feeding on human blood will not just keep you "alive"; it will also unlock new vampiric powers to use. There will be times when exploration and seduction will only get you so far, and you'll need to resort to engaging in Vampyr's dynamic real-time combat. It blends hard-hitting melee combat with ranged shooting mechanics and the supernatural vampire powers. You'll face many types of enemies: different species of vampires and creatures, as well as vampire hunters who want to hunt you down with their weapons, tools and traps. In Vampyr, your health and the "energy" that drives your supernatural powers are one and same! Using powers will drain your own blood, giving you an edge in battle but also leaving you weaker. You will have to find a way to feed during combat to replenish your strength. Vampyr also offers a deep crafting system. Find and loot materials and components from the fresh corpses of your victims or during exploration, in order to craft and improve tools, melee and ranged weapons, as well as special ammunitions and coating to exploit the weaknesses of your enemies. As you cling to what remains of your humanity, your decisions will ultimately shape the fate of your hero while searching for answers in the coughing, foggy aftermath of the Spanish Flu.