Vampyr was a huge success, actually.
Just...not in America.
It was a number one best seller in France, Germany, and the UK.
Something like 1,000,000 sales and the vast majority (like 75%) being in Europe.
Edited by CharlesPhipps on Oct 12th 2018 at 11:33:24 AM
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.Well, vampires are probably not quite as played out in Europe as they are in America right now. It also is set in Great Britain and is a spooky historical Gothic storyline that plays to the Classical Movie Vampire.
I'm not surprised Germans Love David Hasselhoff.
It gets better that there was a lot of misreporting that it sold 450,000 copies in its first month. Which is certainly respectable but nothing to shatter minds over. Except, it didn't sell 450,000 copies period. It sold 450K to COSTUMERS (i.e downloads direct) which meant that all those copies purchased by retailers weren't counted.
So, yeah, big huge success.
Reid is the second least edgy vampire of all time.
:)
Edit:
Here's a bit more info on it.
https://www.playstationlifestyle.net/2018/07/28/vampyr-sales-push-up-focus-home-revenue/#/slide/1
“After an outstanding performance in the comparable quarter of 2017, when the successful launch of The Surge lifted sales 24% to €23.2m, the success of Vampyr marks a new milestone for Focus Home Interactive,” reads the report.
We’re told that after just one week on the market, the game became a best-seller in France, Germany, UK, and “many other countries.” “This success provides again evidence of the company’s drive to deliver original game concepts set in high-potential universes, both in its capacity as games publisher and as a partner to creative studios,” wrote Focus Home.
The publisher’s back catalog, which includes Mud Runner and Farming Simulator 17, accounted for 29 percent of total sales. 90 percent of Focus Home’s total sales now come from international markets.
Looking forward, Focus Home hopes to continue improving its financial position with the release of Fear the Wolves and Insurgency: Sandstorm in 2019. Both titles are headed to consoles and PC.
Read more at https://www.playstationlifestyle.net/2018/07/28/vampyr-sales-push-up-focus-home-revenue/#GWGjbCO0Pb4TJZ6O.99![]()
Edited by CharlesPhipps on Oct 12th 2018 at 4:42:11 AM
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.I hadn't really thought about it, but it was good to see a return to the 'classic' style of vampire.
The 'best-selling' status just surprises me because I didn't think this was that big a release. It's not a AAA game, and there didn't seem to be much hype about it (a lot of low-level buzz, yes, not but not full-blown hype).
Edited by artfulscruff on Oct 13th 2018 at 10:51:16 AM
Vampyr was a very clunky game and honestly it was a definite example of Enjoy the Story, Skip the Game. Basically, the combat was nothing more than the same group of enemies over and over again with lots of backtracking across the same spots over and over again. I think the game would have been much better if they'd gone a Bloodlines route and had social interaction based adventures be the primary part of the game.
However, the game is full of atmosphere, intriguing characters, world building, and fun. I wonder if the "Story mode" is any better to be honest and if it is, whether I should try it out again.
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.This is a really good video on Vampyr.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7v3CcWPegkc&index=2&list=FLfWmu27KD5LKzzySKDJidoA
Beat the game on Story Mode.
Overall I liked it. The combat was garbage (even with story mode) and there was a lot of tedious backtracking, but I think the writing was pretty good. Walking around London, learning everyone's dirty secrets, and trying your best not to kill all these assholes so you won't be screwed out of the best ending was really good.
Going to replay this.
I really wish they'd make a sequel to this. I just love the whole Classical Movie Vampire elements of Jonathan's character. Would I have done things differently? Yes, I would have incorporated more sidequests over writing up a bunch of characters explicitly for the purpose of murdering them or not. Also, maybe make some of them better to kill off than leave alive to mix things up. A Pacifist Run shouldn't be purely good here.
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.I love this game but it has the same issues as Dishonoured - loads of awesome powers buuuut the game says "if you use them then BAD ENDING" - as you need so much blood and you can't do a VTM only PARTLY drinking someone.
Loved the plot but I hit the annoying bug with a side quest where you can't resolve a couple's distant love. That dereailed me a bit.
But I actually really enjoyed the combat. Their attempts to steer away from save scumming were interesting (So you can't just backtrack a poor choice) but on the other hand I don't want to replay the whole thing from start just because I accidentally clicked the wrong choice.
Also it's rather topical in its theme now.... predatory beings taking advantage of a pandemic situation...
The gameplay is a bad Souls-clone, which evens out to it being serviceable but not good. While I like the characters, some of the dialogue gets real boring even during a first playthrough. The politics are well-intentioned, but when you seriously put Vampire Trump in this game I can't do anything but sigh. Why is Johnathon in love with Ashbury when he couldn't have known her for more than a week at most? I do like Johnathon's ham without criticism though.
I'd argue said character is actually much deeper and draws from multiple sources including the occult history of Great Britain at the time as well as, of all people, Ebenezer Scrooge. Besides, the irony is that nothing touted by Donald J. Trump would be remotely weird in Edwardian England as a political position.
Which is a shame.
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.Yeah, look at the scientists of the time trying to discredit one another via populist theory and publications; the attitude to the Spanish Flu itself; the entrenched classism and racism of the time period (Which we in Britain are still struggling to get over, so deep is the rot)
It's still a beautiful game but janky. I do hope we get a sequel. A Vampire game set in WW 2 Berlin could be interesting, maybe towards the end of the war as things get desperate. So you have Wermacht, Nazis and the innocent Germans who you have to navigate through.
I liked the social impact of your actions as well - hence my frustration at not having the "right" skills or the glitch that blocks you unlocking that last social update for the couple near the church.
In my replay, I'm going to adopt the view of being the Punisher. I went No Kill the first time and feel like this will be more interesting. Deciding which people in the game really will make the world a better place to be gone with.
Rather than WW 2 Germany, I'd set it in Occupied Paris.
You still have the Nazis but you have potential for more moral ambiguity with people being forced to collaborate and judging at what point they crossed the Moral Event Horizon.
Edited by CharlesPhipps on May 27th 2020 at 6:03:20 AM
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
Plus DONTNOD is based in Paris, and I read in the Remember Me artbook that they liked making the game set in Paris :D Maybe it easy for them to do location research kinda thing.
I don't think I want a sequel though. DONTNOD are one of the few devs out there trying to make interesting new I Ps, and I don't want them to just keep churning out sequels.
I think problem with gameplay is that its both overly punishing(any time you fight against higher leveled foes they somehow kill you in single combo :p Same if you are higher leveled than they are) and doesn't fit story. I mean sure Jonathan you didn't kill ANYONE after Mary?
I actually do like ending system of the game since it seems pretty well suited to reflect slippery slope of "I have the power, so ergo I should kill all evil people" vigilante route :p Like second best ending is still pretty good ending let's face it, I'd think problem mostly is that we never see any sort of conclusion to npc story arcs and what happens to them post game so there isn't any sort of nuance to "okay how did this character's live change with Jonathan interacting with them vs no interacting vs killing them)" sort of deal. Plus that game doesn't really present any sort of alternative to interacting with npcs besides killing them, even quests aren't written to give character development to npcs, they come across as flat characters unless someone dies.
But yeah, I'm curious if they were planning sequel or just giving plot hooks in case they want to later return to game(such as Jacob Blackwood, Elizabeth's progeny from her blood of hate days who is apparently somewhere around london torturing Billows by long distance mesmer
)
Edited by SpookyMask on Aug 18th 2020 at 1:24:34 PM
Game.
Why would you force a lock-on system on me if you're just going to then randomly change the lock-on target while I'm in the middle of a melee combo, screwing that up, wasting all my stamina, and getting me killed.
Forced lock-on SUCKS.
Say to the others who did not follow through You're still our brothers, and we will fight for youI'm in Ch 2 but I wandered over to do Thelma Howlcroft's Wrong Target mission. What a mistake that was.
In the middle of that frenzy I stumbled into a building with 2 Lv 13 Skals and a tougher one attacking a dude. Fed uo after 4 deaths, I went back and rested. Cue that guy being dead.
I am tempted to drink someone for that delicious scarlet XP. Though the more and more I think about it the more and more I like the sound of it.

I've always said that DONTNOD have more ambition than ability, so Vampyr held no surprises for me in being a flawed game. I get the impression it was their B-team who worked on it, while everyone else has been working on Life Is Strange 2.
I really hope the lack of success of their other games doesn't mean they end up only doing Life Is Strange, I love that they're often trying new things.
And if Life Is Strange fans who bought Vampyr because it's a DONTNOD game stop playing Life Is Strange because they found Vampyr to be a bit mediocre... well, frankly, they're idiots.