The GWJ cRPG Club - Game 20: Vampyr (over)

For more information on the GWJ CRPG Club, go here.

Vampyr is the GWJ cRPG Club's 20th winner, running out just ahead of Pillars of Eternity: Deadfire in a close fought contest.

Vampyr was developed by Dontnod Entertainment and published by Focus Home Interactive. It was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on 5 June 2018, and for Nintendo Switch on 29 October 2019.

Vampyr is an action role-playing game played from a third-person view. While some boss battles are mandatory, most combat can be avoided, and the player is under no obligation to kill innocents to finish the game. Dialogue options are used for conversation and hunting prey to feed on, which replenishes strength and levels up the lead character. Weapons and supernatural abilities are employed while combatting enemies. Set during the era of the Spanish flu, London serves as a fictionalised semi-open world composed of four districts, amenable to destruction based on the player's actions.

We'll be playing this game until March 31st, 2023. This thread is for friendly discussion as we play through the game. Share your reflections, successes, defeats, tactics, wishes, impressions, and whatever here! The more conversation the better, so post away.

For BIG spoilers, please use the spoiler tag. (No! I am your father!) Tactics, strategies, general story progression likely won't need them.

Anyone and everyone is welcome to participate, and can start at any time, so join the fun! One quick favor: If you decide to play, make a post here along the lines of "I'm in!" to let us know. If you start and finish the game before the end, you'll level up your GWJ CRPG Membership.

Links to the Game:

Steam - $39.99 / £34.99
Epic Games Store - $8 / £6.99 SALE
GoG - $39.99 / £34.99
Playstation - $39.99 / £34.99 (Available via Playstation+)
XBOX - $9.99 SALE / £32.99. (Hard cheese UK players. Not sure if it's on Game Pass. It used to be but not sure it is now.)
Nintendo Switch - $39.99 / £35.99

Metacritic
HowlongtoBeat - 28.5 hours / 41.5 hours completionist
IGN Walkthrough

Members Completed
Alien Love Gardener
Gewy
Math
SpaceDog

Members Playing
Shawnosaurus
Legion
Stele
LastSurprise (?)
Neutrino
Zilla Blitz
Forlorn Hope
Merphle
Ubrakto
Arkon
BlackAnchor
SillyRabbit
Isoceles

I'm in. Seems that this was free on Epic last year so I've got it in my library. How handy.

Definitely not spending $40 on this. Hopefully the Steam Halloween sale brings it back down in price again.

I've been looking for a British Doctor Simulator. I'm in!

Math wrote:

I'm in. Seems that this was free on Epic last year so I've got it in my library. How handy.

Same same. Installed it the other night when voting started.

In, but like *Legion*, probably not in until a sale hits.

I'm in for this one and will start playing it sometime over the next week.

I’m in.

I have this on Epic, but October looks super busy. I'm going to need to hold for a few weeks.

I'm in, natch.

Hey, I own that game. Going to try to join but I'll have to free some hard drive space first.

No idea if I'll stick with it, but I'll at least give it a start. Epic freebie FTW.

Shawnosaurus wrote:

I've been looking for a British Doctor Simulator. I'm in!

I recently started re-watching Dr. Who, so I think this is basically the videogame version of that, right?

I'm in. Since I'm gone for a week in October anyway, like some others, I'm going to wait to if it gets that sweet sweet discount treatment around Halloween.

Thanks, Sorbicol!

I'm in!

I started playing this morning. For an action game the controls are just a tiny bit awkward, but the RPG aspects are intriguing me. I’m still pretty early in the game, just an hour or so in, so I’ll just assume that the later powers and weapons will make combat a lot more dynamic.

I'm in! Just in time for Halloween.

merphle wrote:

I started playing this morning. For an action game the controls are just a tiny bit awkward, but the RPG aspects are intriguing me. I’m still pretty early in the game, just an hour or so in, so I’ll just assume that the later powers and weapons will make combat a lot more dynamic.

It's never going to win any awards for its combat, but you for get a lot more options in fights as it goes along. I picked Shadow Mist for my starting offensive skill, and it's fairly satisfying setting enemies up for it, and it does a hell of a lot of damage. But oh man, I forgot how ludicrous the tracking on enemy leap attacks is. And they always reach further than you think.

I've been distracted by Rebel Galaxy: Outlaw, but I've made some decent progress, to the point that I've settled in at my new base, and am about to head to Whitechapel to discreetly settle some sordid business.

Vampyr was ahead of its time. Reminder: Released June 5, 2018.

Spoiler:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/NdMFfCt.png)

I started playing last night. Not far enough to make any judgments but it definitely has a bit of a double-A feel to it, with clunky animations and camera/movement.

Amusingly, I saw all this brown industrial London scenery and it instantly triggered my instinct to hold spacebar and run up some walls. I played Assassin's Creed: Syndicate for much too long earlier this year.

My initial impressions weren't overly positive. But now I've got a home base of sorts, met a bunch of NPC's who are fairly interesting, and started working on nearby side quests. Things seem more promising and I'm eager to play more.

If you're the type of player who, like me, typically goes for a "good guy," optimal outcome playthrough (boring, I know), you might want to read this focused spoiler.

Spoiler:

When you're given the option to "charm" Nurse Dorothy Crane into forgetting something, what your character is actually going to do is quite forcefully dominate her mind into forgetting multiple things.

Really wish I could have reloaded after that unexpectedly happened. But the devs apparently wanted Vampyr to have auto-save only so you have to live with the consequences of your actions. If it were earlier in the game, I'd probably restart the entire thing.

gewy wrote:

If you're the type of player who, like me, typically goes for a "good guy," optimal outcome playthrough (boring, I know), you might want to read this focused spoiler.

Spoiler:

When you're given the option to "charm" Nurse Dorothy Crane into forgetting something, what your character is actually going to do is quite forcefully dominate her mind into forgetting multiple things.

Really wish I could have reloaded after that unexpectedly happened. But the devs apparently wanted Vampyr to have auto-save only so you have to live with the consequences of your actions. If it were earlier in the game, I'd probably restart the entire thing.

I appreciate you posting this, as I'm also a "good guy" player. I'm typically upset if I get an unexpected result like that.

Same here. I’ll be on the lookout. Thanks!

I usually play the "good guy" in games, but for Vampyr I embraced my inner asshole. Jonathan Reid can be a real jerk.

Aristophan wrote:

I usually play the "good guy" in games, but for Vampyr I embraced my inner asshole. Jonathan Reid can be a real jerk.

When I started the game, I had planned to do exactly that and become the mega uber-Vampyr, but then the first "embrace" moment came up, just outside the hospital, and I found that I couldn't do it. I keep telling myself that I'm just letting the cows fatten up (XP-wise) for the eventual slaughter, but it might still be difficult.

I played through the first area and got to the hospital. I'm a little confused as to why Doctor Whatsisface is so chill about a vampire working with him, but I assume that'll be explained later.

Rather interesting to compare this game's handling of the vampire myth to, say, Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines. Technopunk vs steampunk setting and all.

I've made some progress after being distracted by finishing Rebel Galaxy Outlaw (which dragged on far longer than I thought it would). I'm in chapter 4 now, and I was feeling pretty good about myself after downing what I'd remembered as being one of the hardest bosses in one go, but now I'm having real trouble with the new standard encounters that have joined the fray. I might have to retire my trusty cudgel I've been using for most of the game for being too slow.

gewy wrote:

If you're the type of player who, like me, typically goes for a "good guy," optimal outcome playthrough (boring, I know), you might want to read this focused spoiler.

Spoiler:

When you're given the option to "charm" Nurse Dorothy Crane into forgetting something, what your character is actually going to do is quite forcefully dominate her mind into forgetting multiple things.

Really wish I could have reloaded after that unexpectedly happened. But the devs apparently wanted Vampyr to have auto-save only so you have to live with the consequences of your actions. If it were earlier in the game, I'd probably restart the entire thing.

Yeah, they do a bad job of highlighting what you're doing with that choice. I've forgotten more than I thought about the game, and I'm especially fuzzy on the late game but, I think it holds true for the big choices that

Spoiler:

you have three choices (unless you miss out on important information) and straight up eating the pillar of a community is never the worst thing you can do outcome-wise.

And I'm done. I couldn't help myself and got the very good boy ending and not killing anyone outside of combat. (Which isn't to say I didn't leave some people to die - I just didn't eat anyone.)

I kinda wish I hadn't though. First of all there's some people that really could do with eating, and secondly, I don't buy some developments in the story that the "good" ending leans into.

Spoiler:

The romance with Lady Ashbury - when the f*ck does that actually happen? As a character, Ashbury's fine, if a bit flat, but I don't buy her and Jonathan falling in love.

Overall, I still like it though. It gets a bit visually monotonous, some of the writing's slightly iffy (I know your sire's supposed to be a frustrating weirdo, but I found his dialogue really obnoxious this time around) and it can feel stagey, but I love the setting and mood, and that it doesn't shy away from the various class struggles of the time.

I really want a sequel that leans into London as a place, with Mankind Divided level of details in the locations though.

Alien Love Gardener wrote:

And I'm done.

You're just a machine................

Count me in. I started playing about a week ago but forgot to check in here. I wasn't happy with the Nurse Crane situation either, wish I had read the above spoiler first.

Spoiler:

I was hoping in vain to find a way to get her back in business, then it got worse. When I found my way back to her dispensary, she had turned, so I had to take her down. But I have to say, her loot crate was loaded!

Guess it's never easy to be a "good guy" vampire.

Well, one thing is definitely for sure in my game. Dr. Jonathan Reid may not be a killer, but he has zero sense of shame. He will come into your home, and before he even talks to you, he’ll systematically ransack each of your cabinets for drug components. And read your personal correspondence. Doesn’t matter how impoverished you are. Doesn’t matter if you’re standing right there. No shame at all.

I also think it’s a bit dodgy that he’s using his vampiric compulsion to get everyone to take their headache medication or whatever. You’d think at least some of these desperate, sick people would be thrilled to get free treatment from a renowned surgeon making house calls. So why does he have to go all bene gesserit on them? He must really want them to take his meds for some reason. I guess he can’t take any chances.