Vampyr

One thing I find odd is how the game emphasizes getting to know your victims, but doesn't really react to who you kill (other than pillars of the community) in meaningful unique ways. Killed a guy who was a complete asshole axcrazy criminal and murderer? Meh, neighborhood reacts like you killed a nurse or grandma.

Okay, I don't especially enjoy Jim Sterling's content, but he does seem to know what he's talking about, so if he says this game is alright, then it probably is :P Still not sure I want to pay the full £50 for it, mind ¬_¬

Also, since I don't know where else to put this and I don't feel it deserves its own thread yet (but feel free to correct me if I'm wrong), Vampyr's not even been out for a week yet and DONTNOD are teasing their next thing:

I feel like part of the reason the game avoids that kind of thing is that it doesn't really want to put an actual mechanical value on a life. The closest it comes to is the pillars, but even then some of the pillars are questionable and convincing Aloysius to die has a lot of positive framing, despite that it technically lowers the district's health score. This leaves it in a bit awkward place when some of its characters aren't just murderers, but surely will kill again. It'd probably help if you could do anything when you find deadly secrets other than, you know, quiz people.

Outside of the mechanics, though, I was relatively impressed at seeing how death impacts everyone else if you go talk to them. I was going for a no-kill playthrough, of course, but I have seen some clips like this one

Twin Mirror. A conspicuously similar title to one of Dontnod's other influences.

Oh, here's something interesting. Apparently Pippa can actually join the Priwen depending on your choices.

I don't want to seem unreasonable, but the people who made this game should be fired and be permanently unemployable in any and all industries or jobs in these United States for making the no-kill run so obnoxious. I'm level 25, so of course enemies are mid-thirties, each of them capable of killing me in seconds.

So what does the game do? Throw five Priwen at me in a tiny room, three of whom have those fire crossbow things and one of whom is a chaplain. :'(

I always find it interesting to see how different people get different experiences out of games, find different thing difficult. For me the chaplains were a pain, at least until you could get the rest of the people out of the picture, but my only thought about those fire crossbow people was, 'Aha, free kill!' Even in the more tiny bits I could disable them pretty quickly and mostly dodge whatever they had.

Of the other bigger, beefier Priwen members, I of course thought, 'Aha, free blood!'

I fear might sound braggy here. But then, I am the best Vampyr player there is.

edited 9th Jun '18 6:58:25 PM by Lavaeolus

Just stun guys with the stake, feed, then immediately put a shadow explosion (Forgot the name of the power) under you when you end the feeding (don't be locked on a target), immediately dodge, watch everyone rush where you were and explode. Rinse repeat. Every enemy falls to this bit of cheese.

It's kinda mindless really.

Crossbow guys have so little health it's funny. If you're really stuck, keep the pistol upgraded (it does decent damage, and also stuns).

Oh, here's something a bit interesting. So, of course, I first did my run with minimal killing and Mary sent mother off in peace. But if you play more violently, apparently not only does Mary kill mother, the conversation is generally a lot more hostile and Reid makes much fewer attempts to reach out to her.

http://unitedfederationofcharles.blogspot.com/2018/07/vampyr-2018-review.html

I really enjoyed the game.

But I think it was So Okay, It's Average.

Apparently, a Vampyr TV show may get made.

"Focus Home Interactive’s hit RPG video game" ?

I mean, I have no idea who well it did, but Vampyr doesn't seem to have lit the world on fire.

Before or after the Life is Strange show.

Well, it is an RPG wherein you hit things

I suppose it might have done well enough? It doesn't seem like bad game at least

I suspect rights such as this get sold all the time, it's just rarely reported on (not that I see, at least), and usually nothing comes of it. I don't know why they've chosen to announce this particular one.

Personally, I'd rather see a Vampyr TV show than a Life Is Strange TV show.

I dunno, shows with Time Master main characters are pretty rare. I'd like to see what they could do with it, as long as it's a different story than the game.

But Vampyr is an interesting take on the vampire genre, so it would also be a good choice. Better than more angsty teen vampires or generic monster vampires, at least.

At least a series probably won't have the Moral Dissonance that plagues the game.

While average and much more flawed than LIS, Vampyr did sell pretty well. Especially for an indie studio.

Of course, that probably cost them a lot of good will...

I fail to see how a developer's first attempt at RPG being eurojank is gonna cause some fans to rage quit the company's games, but this is the internet age.

Edited by UltraWanker on Aug 18th 2018 at 8:27:20 AM

Plus the Jank is nothing combared to Remember Me's Jank

So it's hardly their jankiest.

Well both of Dontnod's attempt at more action heavy games have been mediocre.

Vampyr sits at a 72% on Metacritic (PC), and Remember Me at 65% (PC).

Compare to LIS who is far much better received (85%). So it's does send the message that Dontnod is a studio with decent narrative chops but who struggle with gameplay and can't make game with "complex" gameplay.

Edited by Ghilz on Aug 18th 2018 at 4:33:08 AM

I'm honestly not a fan of Vampyr for the way it does its discussions. If you're going to make a twenty-minute-long cutscene about a discussion, make sure there's at least something going on to make me not lose interest.

x3 Because a lot of the sales were likely thanks to the boost that LIS gave them in publicity (which did what it did very well).

Fans of LIS who preordered Vampyr and ended up disappointed probably aren't going to trust them in the same way again.

Yeah, I think talking with people could've been handled better. I like the characters themselves, most of them, but most of Vampyr's convos are pretty much Reid walking in, and suddenly pressing people for more details about <insert topic here>. It's pretty much the stereotypical bad RPG conversation, but worse because of voiced dialogue and pretence at actual interaction.

The other problem is that, firstly, you're obligated to press on literally everything because you can unlock hints, but also half the time there's just no pay-off for telling someone something. There'll be no hint, no change in how they interact with you. 'I have discovered your secrets!' 'Yeah I guess.' <back to personal questions root>

Then the story missions have conversations structured to encourage you to either get on with the plot or interrupt the flow with yet more constant questions.

Incidentally, the game will be getting a hard mode and a 'story' mode. Along with other optimisation patches, etc.

Edited by Lavaeolus on Aug 19th 2018 at 2:48:09 PM