Vampyr Reviews
Vampyr is a functional 30-hour diversion with occasional dashes of brilliance, but not much else.
Vampyr is a collection of wonderful ideas held back by a limited budget and a dated engine. The lack of expression and emotion on the faces of London's many characters, and often disjointed lines of dialogue, plague any hope of being fully immersed in this dark re-imagining of London. A fluid and well designed combat system, alongside the infinitely appealing aspect of battling with morality as a creature of the night, offer plenty for those looking for a new angle on the vampire story, but for those wanting a more complete experience, it may not make the mark.
Although flawed and at times painfully inconsistent, Vampyr manages to offer relatively engaging gameplay in spite of a lack of overall polish. Combat is stiff and quite mindless, but Jonathan's progression deeper into Vampiredom is handled well and the abilities at his disposal go a long way towards masking some of the more mundane aspects of the battle system. It's more whether or not Jonathan decides to prey on the people of London, and its consequences, that keep the experience fresh. There's a trade off between making Jonathan and keeping districts stable, each one offering their own benefits. There are technical issues, and the performance is lacking on every front, but Vampyr has enough going for it conceptually that it's worth sinking some time into, if only to be a vampire in 20th century London.
Vampyr is worth digging up out of its crypt and giving it a go. It will satisfy the fans of all things Vampire.
Vampyr has a lot of good ideas, but its execution is sorely lacking in most areas. It is a game that is competent in terms of its systems, but ultimately fairly boring to play.
A tasty, dialogue-heavy RPG with an innovative levelling up system, but performance limitations prevent the port from reaching mouth-watering appeal on the Switch.
Vampyre's issues lie deep within the core gameplay design. DONTNOD shouldn't have attempted making an RPG. Vampyr would have been much better off as a shorter, adventure or action-adventure production such as Remember Me. It's a great shame that this exquisite artistic vision and superb atmosphere were in the end squandered.
Review in Polish | Read full review
Vampyr is rich with great characters and story moments, however combat and frustration will be a deterrent to many.
Vampyr is ambitious for sure, but with ambition comes risk, and unfortunately, here it provides very little in the way of rewards.
Vampyr did not live up to our expectations and did not reach the level of Life is Strange. So, if If you were expecting another Dontnod masterpiece, you'll be disappointed. If you're interested in setting, then it's probably worth a try, but only at a discount price.
Review in Russian | Read full review
Vampyr has a ton of interesting ideas, an intriguing world, and a great cast of characters, but is ultimately let down by its narrow-minded focus on unnecessary combat.
Much like its early 20th century setting, Vampyr feels like a bit of a throwback to a past age of action RPGs. In a time where the genre is evolving Vampyr holds on to past ideas for much of its tenure, and it doesn't have a story strong enough to overcome that fact. The world itself is ripe for lots of stories to be told within, with Dontnod having done a good job with world building, but while Vampyr isn't a bad game, nor is it as great as it could be.
The story may be a tad lackluster, and the combat may be clunky as hell, but Vampyr does offer a compelling adventure for those looking for some blood-sucking fun. It also manages to effectively make you feel like a creature of the night at times. Unfortunately, the frequent technical issues sapped just about every ounce of joy from the experience, leaving this digital world a dry, lifeless husk.
Vampyr unfortunately flounders after building some solid foundations in the opening hours. London feels like a city on a knife edge, and the citizens prove to be an inviting cast of creative characters. But Vampyr then lures you into sacrificing these characters, cutting out a key part of the game, all to have a hope of standing up to the horrors that await you in the shadows of London.
Vampyr attempts to deliver a gothic fantasy, and while it has bright spots, too much goes wrong to let them shine through
Vampyr’s biggest issue is in its price. It’s a full RRP game at £40+ and I think it would’ve performed better had it been around £25-30. I was excited for the game as release neared but so much walking around looking for clues and what not to progress the story. This wasn’t entertaining gameplay and it slowed the plot down, and it almost felt as if Dontnod were still in the mindset of creating an episodic game. Vampyr is worth giving a go, but there’s a lot of potential untapped here.
The most troublesome thing is that the game has big and great chances of success, but it is killed because of some laziness or attention to the side and neglect of another side, maybe if the Combat System was good and fun to describe this game as one of hidden gems of 2018, Although the Social Link is one of the best systems I have ever seen and which competes with a system like the Nemsis System, but like in Shadow of war it has been corrupted and placed in a weaker form that does not rise to its level
Review in Arabic | Read full review
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.
I can say I’d recommend Vampyr for its unique way of storytelling, but just be sure to get this at a sale or rent. Maybe enough feedback will motivate the developers to come out with a harder difficulty mode that forces players to fully take advantage of it’s Citizen System.
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.