Vampyr Reviews
Vampyr is rich with great characters and story moments, however combat and frustration will be a deterrent to many.
Vampyr is another fantastic concept from DONTNOD that falters ever so slightly in its execution. The story, the world and its characters are all oddly compelling, despite some visual and technical shortcomings. Despite its issues, Vampyr is a rare instance in a game where I felt like my choices meant something and had consequences. It's a huge shame that repetitive combat and exploration means it doesn't keep up that momentum from beginning to end.
Vampyr is one of the year's most interesting games, cementing Dontnod as one of the most interesting developers around. Go get your teeth into it.
Vampyr drives the desire of the player against the will of its protagonist. It creates sharp edge, and the ensuing conflict has the power to bore, excite, and infuriate an audience. Depending on your admiration (and patience) for its rampant ambition, Vampyr is either an unassuming action game or a garrulous gothic network of austere vampire folklore.
Vampyr is a dark thriller with an interesting story. Sadly, other elements are not on the same level of quality.
Review in Polish | Read full review
Vampyr is a hard game to review, because there is enough to warrant a low score, yet the experience is satisfying enough to make up for this. For better or worse, giving answers and explaining things make it easier to invest in the story, with the conclusion certainly being worth the time. The ability to interact with NPCs, heal them, figure out more about the world and extract new information also adds a lot. It's just, when it comes to gameplay, Vampyr falls short. With loading screens being common when players move too fast, combat often being more about managing stamina, difficulty stemming from how willing are you to kill innocent people and a needlessly frustrating waypoint system, it's easy to get frustrated. With this in mind, anyone looking for a vampire romance story or just want to experience a world filled with answers should consider picking Vampyr up, where as action-RPG or open world fans can probably skip it.
It can feel faintly embarrassing one moment, and then do something unexpected and with surprising confidence just a few seconds later. There's probably an equal chance that you'll hate it or love it. In an industry that constantly obsesses on trends and often disrespects the taste and intelligence of its audience, Vampyr is as refreshing and anomalous as Dontnod's other cult games.
Although Vampyr's combat system is thoroughly satisfying, it's the dark atmosphere and narrative that genuinely makes the game a must-have. Your choices define the experience, altering a world full of discovery and intrigue all around you. Do you give in to your blight and feast upon the weak and unworthy inhabitants of London or do you become their salvation? It should take you anywhere from 20-30 hours to complete the narrative, but if you want to see all of the possible endings, you'll have to play through multiple times, altering your choices and decisions regarding the lives of the citizens.
The immersive vampire RPG you never knew you needed.
Vampyr is ambitious for sure, but with ambition comes risk, and unfortunately, here it provides very little in the way of rewards.
Although it's hampered with some little framerate issues, Vampyr on Switch delivers on mostly every other aspect. Well played.
Review in Italian | Read full review
I struggle with Vampyr as a title. One the one hand, I love so many of the concepts and ideas that are packed into this game. Moral dilemmas, mystery, Vampires; these are a few of my favourite things. The fact that it takes place in such an intense and interesting historical time with such engaging narrative concepts excites me to my core. Yet frustrating porting issues, a lifeless world, endless dialogue and washed out visuals made it a slog to get through. As much as I would love to recommend Vampyr, I fear that the darkest parts of Vampyr have overcome the light.
Despite the strikingly different premise from Life is Strange studio Dontnod, the team’s expertise in characterisation and world-building dovetail neatly into this vampire romp.
The story of Vampyr is as good as a fantastic British drama which contains vivid characters and twisted plots. However, the clumsy gameplay is too bothersome to keep me enjoying the story.
Review in Chinese | Read full review
To take the evil path and embrace the vampire side of Jonathan, is to kill what life there is in Vampyr. Although it is important that there are consequences to your actions, some of which do have an immediate impact to the world, there isn't enough to balance it out and make being evil fun or interesting.
I definitely look forward to more Dontnod games, while this one was enjoyable in some parts, if you're looking for a game that has a good combat mechanics you might want to steer clear of this one.
Fans of Dontnod Entertainment will find plenty to like with how the team has developed this action RPG. If you want a game that delivers an engaging plot, great character building and memorable personalities, while offering choice above the often black and white "choice matter" options, which give a sense that the NPCs have meaning to its world, its characters and the player, then this is for you.
Vampyr is worth digging up out of its crypt and giving it a go. It will satisfy the fans of all things Vampire.
It may not be a perfect game but it knows how to execute on its unique premise and gameplay concepts well enough that it's one I can't help but recommend.
A compelling story and premise bogged down by some bad design decisions