KETCHUP ON YOUR COLLAR
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Here's one for the history books - in a choice between good and evil, what if
playing an evil character made you stronger? Traditionally the evil choice has
been one of pure spite, dark humor, or perhaps to see an alternate story
outcome. In some instances you get punished for it. In
Dontnod Entertainment's first role-playing adventure Vampyr,
however, committing evil acts rewards you with a quick and substantial
increase in character levels. Anyone familiar with role-playing mechanics
realizes how tempting that can be.
Vampyr is thick on
plot, talking head-dialogue and atmosphere. The cramped city streets might be
jam-packed with combat encounters, but the bland fighting mechanic is hardly a
selling point. You come for the story, and you remain for the story, because
it doesn't offer much else. Whether you like the rest is down to personal preference.
You control a physician named Jonathan Reid (voiced with great conviction by
Anthony Howell), returning home to London in the aftermath of World War
I. The city is stricken with the Spanish flu and, to make matters worse, a
vampiric infestation. Your goal, at least initially, is to rid the city of
both. But since this fantasy follows our own timeline, people generally scoff
at the concept of vampires. This means you're pretty much left to your own
devices in setting things straight.
To complicate things further, Jonathan's a vampire himself, with no memory of
how or why that happened. The game starts off intriguing: After waking up on
the London docks, he stumbles along the piers, his entire being craving blood.
After embracing the nearest stranger and sucking the life out of her, he
realizes too late she was his own sister, who was out looking for him. Before
he can fully comprehend the situation, he's detected by the Priwen guard (a
sort of religious militia of vampire hunters) clutching her body, and gets
chased around town.
Jonathan eventually makes his way to the Pembroke Hospital on the East end,
where he finds a few allies. Being a renowned doctor himself, specialized in
blood transfusions (how fitting, eh?), he opts to help out. With the hospital
as a base, he starts plying his trade, healing sick patients and the mentally
ill. He also starts his own investigations into the city's current crisis. How
will he put an end to the epidemic? Who turned him into a vampire - an
incredibly powerful one to boot - and why?
You talk, fight and explore your way through six chapters all the way to a
most dramatic conclusion. The plot is excellent; mature, dark and romantic,
with a few great surprises in store. It also has one of the best love stories
I've seen in a video game, one that Dontnod even dares to make integral to the
main plot. This gives the game a ray of hope when everything else conveys the
hopelessness of that era. The Great War is over but somehow lingers in the
minds of people. Most characters express different states of despair, a sense
of not belonging, of wanting to leave. But they have nowhere to go.
Here's where the dilemma kicks in. As already stated, by sucking the blood of
these poor NPC:s you gain a good chunk of experience points to invest in your
combat skills. It could be worth it, as quite a few players have confessed
they find the combat difficult. As a doctor, the more care you invest in
people, the better they feel and the better you get to know them. You comfort
them and treat them, and they open up to you in return. This further improves
their blood quality, and makes killing them even more worthwhile.
These are not your shallow, randomly generated shells of extras, but uniquely
written, fully voiced characters with their own compelling backstories. Some
of them have side quests to complete, hidden in their dialogue tree. Some of
them express a desire to die, they just lack the courage to end it. Some of
them are morally corrupt and leech on others. Most of them are decent on some
level, but hide their doubts and fears behind a tough facade to keep people
away.
This means you might hesitate to kill them after all, because you relate and
sympathize with their plights on a human level. In the end you have to
determine what kind of vampire you want to be: one with a moral compass to
determine who gets to live, or a beast who craves strength in combat and
devours them all, or weak but humane by refusing to murder. No matter what,
there'll be consequences in both story and gameplay.
Unfortunately, this intriguing mechanic, and its surrounding story, is all the
game's got going for it. To me it goes a long way, but if you don't like
dialogue-heavy games this might not be for you. In most other areas, the game
falls a bit short. Combat is a half-decent, Bloodborne-inspired affair.
It is based on managing your stamina by mixing attacks with parrying and
dodging. It's functional, not too glitchy, but unfortunately tedious and all
too frequent. Anytime you enter a new area and the loading screen pops up, the
enemy respawns in the exact same setups across the map.
The enemy variation isn't great, and you can deal with them using whatever set
of skills you picked during the first few hours. You may cast blood magic of a
few different, interchangeable sorts. Once you fill up your quick command
slots, you might as well focus on improving those skills and ignore the rest.
Different enemy types have various resistances, but that only means they take
a different amount of hits to kill, or you might switch to a more effective
weapon. A few fun boss battles spice things up a little, and will require full
use of your resources.
I never thought I'd write this, but London is dull to explore. In spite of its
limited size, you get lost easily. Its maze-like streets, filled with enemy
patrols, often make the shortest route take the longest time. Some streets end
in locked doors you are not yet meant to open. Also, the lack of unique
rewards might make you regret the effort. Some houses serve as hideouts, and
others hold a few crafting materials for weapon improvements. You might find
documents regarding vampire lore, but they're inconsequential and
uninteresting. Above all, they mostly feel unrelated to your own
investigations.
Overall, I thought the game was great for the first 7-8 hours, especially when
I figured out the inspiring idea behind the conversation mechanic. But soon
thereafter, my attention started drifting. Running back and forth wore me
down, mostly due to the game lacking a way to fast travel. It could even have
been intrinsically motivated, since Jonathan can turn to smoke and instantly
warp to reach high ledges. Only the strong main story kept my interest, as the
game had few interesting side activities to master. The optional sidequests
make you run and fight even more, to little reward.
But thanks to its splendid writing Vampyr still feels like a genuinely
powerful and thought-provoking beast. Since you play a sun-fearing creature,
you can only explore in the night. This gives the game a dark vibe of
impending doom that suits the underlying themes. Vampyr inspires the intellect
and dares to take on some complex subject matters, like politics and science,
through the perspective of an immortal being.
The crumbling brick walls of the working-class East End district do nothing to
contain the disease, and the West End aristocracy try to isolate themselves.
The tension is escalating, with many factors to consider. A class war is
brewing. While this doesn't directly influence your personal investigations,
they might inform you on a few important decisions you have to make towards
the end of some chapters. These might reflect on you as a player.
But not everything is hopeless. With Jonathan's immortality, the obstacle of
aging and inevitable death is removed. This aids his scientific progress
tremendously. Since he can conduct his experiments indefinitely, there's no
limits to the advancements he could make. But then again, a vampire's
ubermensch mentality and possible insensitivity towards human death and
suffering cast doubts upon his practices. Does he help out of altruistic
reasons? Or does he heal people only to keep the fresh blood supply intact?
I'm glad to see a developer widen the scope on vampirism without spelling it
out and answering their own implied questions. As ages pass, societies rise
and fall, and much of what they learn is forgotten. One could only dream of
the insights an immortal being, who was there to witness it all, could impart
on the mortal world. How long will Jonathan live? How will he cope with yet
another World War? What will he think about the world's current affairs in
2020? He is such a compelling character I can't wait to witness modern history
through his eyes. I hope Dontnod have plans to continue this franchise.
I'm aware it's a risk and a great undertaking to expand this core idea into
the scope it deserves. But if they nail it, in time Dontnod might have a
success to rival The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt on their hands. This mythos
holds so much promise, so much to explore, and I'd bet a proud vampire would
be glad to impart it all. And when we've had our fill of experience, maybe our
blood quality will be good enough for an appetizer.
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