Vampyr

I do hate weird environmental blocking, and I especially hate only being able to use traversal abilities at certain points. Enslaved Odyssey To The West only allowed you to jump if it was possible to actually make the jump, and it drove me fucking mad, and most recently there was this spot in Final Fantasy XV, in which young, agile, and teleport-capable Noctis cannot cross a broken fence.

I feel put off by what I've heard in the last few posts ^note even if I do want to disregard some of it because of my pet peeve of people using question marks at the end of statements ¬_¬

edit - fuck, pagetopper

edited 6th Jun '18 2:08:09 AM by artfulscruff

It especially makes no sense as a wall climbing, teleporting, super strong Vampire. It's a puzzle video game design hasn't managed to work around yet.

Still, better a metroid-style than a completely open confusion. Now, if only they could get the Assassins creed engine to do the rest of this stuff, you'd solve a lot of those issues....

Does killing vampire hunters affect my standing or just named NP Cs?

Also, I lost a hint on Clay Cox.

Apparently, telling a criminal that the cops will find them eventually isn't the way to get on their good side. Who knew?

IIRC one of the main selling points was the lack of any sort of karma meter; just how a given character being dead affects the story.

So if they aren't in the menu, you're probably fine.

Seems like this is a game that really encourages you to be a Friendly Neighborhood Vampire, lack of Karma Meter or no.

x3: Named NPCs only. Mooks: bite away, my friend.

There's a weird Gameplay and Story Segregation where Citizens give massive XP boons if you drain, but mooks do not?

Like, Vampires feed on a person's plot relevance?

Also, kinda disapointed all the upgrades are basically combat based. There's no real upgrades that involve puzzle solving or social skill. Like, you can't tune your mind control ability.

The combat is not good. It's functional, but it's not really engaging all that much. Which makes the fact that the upgrades ONLY go towards combat further disappointing.

Also I can mesmerize people into following me to a dark alley, but not mesmerize merchants in giving me free shit.

Agreed. Unless the dialogue changes when you go kill crazy, I don't really see Jonathan just starting to eat people. And the gameplay really doesn't make that necessary, despite how much effort there was in a system to "cultivate" your prey.

The first thing the game tells you is "The more people die, the harder the game's going to get". So even if citizen give an xp boost, the game's made it clear from before I even saw the intro that feeding is a bad idea.

edited 6th Jun '18 9:54:23 AM by Ghilz

I guess I should have expected that Dorothy Crane would die if I brainwashed her instead of forcing her to quit. =/

I was a bit annoyed about that choice. I'm fine with options having unintended consequences, but I didn't really understand the option was 'Forcibly try to wipe memories from this lady'.

It tells you the opposite. The opening is: 'In this game difficulty is tied to your actions. The more lives you take, the easier the game will be'

edited 6th Jun '18 1:20:34 PM by Lavaeolus

I lost a hint on Dr Tippets.

I know they're pointless since I'm being a Friendly Neighborhood Vampire, but it's the principle of the thing.

edited 6th Jun '18 1:22:15 PM by Eagal

Is there a way to increase the text size on the PS 4 version? Because as is, it is way too small to read. The only way to read it is to go right to the foot of my bed and be as close to the screen as I can, but I shouldn't have to do that just to read the darn text. But so far, I can't find anything to make it bigger.

It's weird because there is a size adjustment for text, with the default (and largest) being listed as medium but there's no large.

So, what's the general consensus on this game, is it worth a buy?

I have been itching for a decent new rpg that doesn't involve complex isometric tactics for awhile now.

IMHO I'd say "Wait for sale".

It's not BAD, but for me, it doesn't click. Like, on a fundamental design level, a lot of the elements don't mesh together in a cohesive whole. Not helped by some rough around the edges execution.

I don't hate it, I like it more than Remember Me for sure and it's entertaining. But I'm not sure it's worth the full price of entry.

edited 6th Jun '18 7:18:16 PM by Ghilz

So, easily enough I've managed to get both the Penbroke and the Docks to 'Sanitized'. I don't know if that's just a tick for 'yep, you've got everyone healthy and alive', or if it means they'll stop developing sickness completely. Got the Docks to Sanitized a while ago, actually, pretty much immediately after dealing with their pillar. Only spent one day in the final district, but it's already up to 98%, Healthy. Just call me Jonathan Reid, miracle worker.

Alas, I accidentally got Whitechapel's pillar killed, so it looks like they're forever capped at the low end of Stable, even once I heal everyone.

I'm enjoying it still. I find the combat fun enough, although it does get a bit dull when they throw a bit too much at you when you just want to get on with things / explore / do investigations. You can turn invisible to skip some of it when going through the streets, and a lot of the times you can just say screw it and run past them, but it is somewhat jarring to kill at least three people on your way to give someone cough medicine. Especially if the guy you're giving cough medicine to is, like, a serial killer or something. On my no-kill playthrough: sometimes bosses can be a bit of a chore, but there is some satisfaction to be had from beating some of them. Attacks are punishing and they can take you out very quickly, but they're not too hard to predict or dodge, so as long as you can sustain yourself with the blood-healing power and keep track of your stamina. Now that I'm in the final district I'm noticing a bigger level gap between me and enemy mooks, but the core of the combat remains the same nonetheless; I don't find them that hard to beat up.

I find the world it creates relatively interesting. It directly tackles some of the issues of the setting, e.g. the impact of the war going on the background, the media around it^note Trivia: even the name 'Spanish flu' is a result of newspapers minimising its effects elsewhere, for the sake of wartime morale, women's suffrage, racial issues at the time, etc.

I'd recommend it, I think, at least for people interested in the central concept and willing to muck around in what is otherwise a fairly average, standard game. It's about £40, right? Bit much for my blood, I think. Put me on Team Sale.

edited 9th Jun '18 7:00:58 PM by Lavaeolus

Knew it. But the press it's getting is positive.

Sanitized doesn't prevent citizens from getting sick in every other area but after I saved the Pillar in the West Docks no one has gotten sick in the area since then for some reason.

Jim Sterling likes it, despite the Jenk. and it's not a bad game.

...and that seals it.

And aha, done, fini! And with the 'Not even once' achievement to boot.

You played a vampire game and didn't feed on anybody?

Laaaaaame.

I mean, I fed on a lot of people, constantly and incessantly. I just, you know, only on bosses and nameless people, who as any religion will tell you do not have souls and thus do not count.

Amen to that.

Wait, so this game came out like 2-3 days ago? Did you bumrush it, or is this game just not take very long to complete? Because I have to imagine not feeding on named people and non-bosses means you skipped some of the "upgrade tree" meaning the game might have been harder for you.

edited 8th Jun '18 4:00:16 PM by Soble

Bumrushed it, mostly. I'm off from uni. Steam says I have ~31 hours on it, but I suspect the true time was less; I'm pretty bad about leaving things open, alt+tabbing out, etc. Let's say 20 hours. I saved every citizen, did a lot of investigations but pointedly did not do them all. I put most of my focus into upgrading my two-handed barbed cudgel, which doesn't require XP.

You are weaker, but it doesn't slow you down too much. It just means combat is less forgiving, but there's little punishment for death; dying to a boss battle just puts you back immediately before the boss, albeit with very little blood. I had to be on my toes more, but it wasn't impossible or anything, and by the end you still have enough XP to put in what I consider the important things: a self-heal spell, strong blood absorption from biting people/bosses, and enough of a health/stamina buffer to ensure you can never be one-shot and have free space to dodge attacks.

edited 8th Jun '18 4:05:46 PM by Lavaeolus

Ahhh I do that alot. Just alt-tab out and gather hours that way on games.