Vampyr (computer game)

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Vampire
Studio Dontnod entertainment
Publisher Focus Home Interactive
Senior Developer Guillaume Liechtele
Erstveröffent-
lichung		 5th June 2018
platform Windows , XOne , PS4 , Switch
Game engine Unreal Engine 4
genre Action RPG
Subject Vampires
Game mode Single player
control Mouse & keyboard , gamepad
system advantages
preconditions
medium Download , CD-ROM
language multilingual, German subtitles
Age rating
USK approved from 16
PEGI from 18

Vampyr is an action role-playing game from the French development studio Dontnod Entertainment from 2018. The plot revolves around the doctor Jonathan Reid, who has transformed into a vampire and must now learn to cope with his new body. It was published by the French publisher Focus Home Interactive for Windows , Xbox One , PlayStation 4 and Switch .

action

The action takes place in a fictional London after the First World War , in which the Spanish flu broke out. Doctor Jonathan Reid, who returned to London from World War I in 1918, wakes up as a vampire in a mass grave . Overwhelmed by a thirst for blood, he causes the death of his sister Mary, who was looking for his body nearby.

Reid protects himself from vampire hunters in an abandoned house and begins to hear the disembodied voice of his creator and bloodsucker, a characteristic characteristic of the victims who have been transformed into vampires by the bite. When he realizes that London is full of corpses, he follows a trail of blood to a bar. The bartender leads Reid to William Bishop, a suspicious patron. Bishop is caught eating a man named Sean Hampton and is later killed by the vampire Lady Ashbury. Doctor Edgar Swansea rescues Hampton and assigns Reid to practice medicine at Pembroke Hospital.

After patient Harriet Jones's room is found covered in blood and Hampton disappears, Reid tracks him down to question him. Hampton insists he didn't murder Jones and directs him to an underground refuge for corrupt vampires called Skals, where it is found that Jones was faking his death.

Reid later discovers a corpse with his mother's brooch on it on the street. He tracks the killer to the Whitechapel cemetery and finds his sister Mary with her mother Emelyne when he realizes that Mary was turned into a vampire the night he fed her. Mary wants to kill him to get rid of his voice, but dies trying.

Reid vows to uncover what's behind the Skal epidemic, which he mistook for the Spanish flu. Lady Ashbury invites Reid to the West End on behalf of the Ascalon Club, a secret society of highborn vampires . On the orders of his leader Lord Redgrave, Reid taps the source of the skals in the district. Swansea is later kidnapped and admits that he tried to cure Jones with Lady Ashbury's blood, which started the Skal epidemic. When Ashbury finds out, she flees ashamed.

It is also known that the entity Myrddin, claiming the role of Jonathan's creator, led him to defeat his mother Morrigan, also known as the "Red Queen," after she possessed Jones to devastate London. Reid defeats Morrigan in battle and then decides to follow Lady Ashbury to her family castle, where she hides with her creator, William Marshal, the first Earl of Pembroke.

Gameplay

Vampyr is an action role-playing game that is played from a third-person perspective . For the most part, the player plays in an open game world . In order to advance further in the game, the player must uncover secrets and have dialogues with other characters and complete tasks for them. The game decisions determine the later end of the game and the relationships with the characters.

In addition to weapons, the player can also use his supernatural abilities in combat against opponents such as hostile people or other vampires. Weapons can be upgraded and collected through crafting and looting.

New skills can be unlocked via an experience tree, which are paid for with experience points, which are obtained, among other things, by sucking blood. The improved skills affect tactics, attack strength and techniques, jump distance, health, stamina, blood pressure , camouflage, mind reading, absorption, bite damage and regeneration as well as the carrying capacity of the character.

Some fights can be avoided and the player is not required to kill innocents. However, he can only get experience points by killing innocent people, without which he has a harder time against the increasingly stronger opponents. Every time a character is sucked out, it has a big impact on other non-player characters. Too many deaths can also throw a district into chaos. On the other hand, as a doctor, the player has to make medicine and heal people. Boss fights are also present.

Development and publication

The game was developed by the French developer Dontnod Entertainment in Unreal Engine 4 and is marketed by the French publisher Focus Home Interactive . The development started with 60 employees and later expanded to 80. The studio had previously developed Life Is Strange . Vampyr was originally intended to be set in 1950s America, but it turned out that Victorian London lends itself better to a Gothic vibe. Research, documentation, old books, maps and photos about Victorian London were collected for the developments. Motion capture was used to make the characters' movements appear more realistic.

On June 5, 2018, the game was released for Microsoft Windows , PlayStation 4 and Xbox One . In September the difficulty levels hard and story mode (easy) were added. In April 2019, Focus also announced the release of the game for the Nintendo Switch in the same year.

reception

Reviews

reviews
publication Rating
4players 72/100
Computer picture games 2.4 (school grade)
Destructoid 6/10
Electronic Gaming Monthly 8.0 / 10
GamePro 82/100
Game revolution 7/10
GamesRadar 3.5 / 5
GameSpot 7/10
GameStar 83/100
IGN 7/10
PC Gamer US 68/100
PC Games 7/10
VideoGamer.com 7/10

The reviews for Vampyr were mixed. On Metacritic , the PC version received a Metascore of 72% and the PlayStation and Xbox version a score of 70%.

Above all, the many authentic characters with their own personal background stories and character development, the elaborately produced and atmospheric soundtrack , the dialogues with decisions that influence the course of the game, the combat system and the gloomy atmosphere of the districts in the game are praised . The dualism of the main character between vampire and doctor and the resulting moral questions are also praised.

On the other hand, long loading times, game errors, the lack of German synchronization , bad animations, e.g. B. in lip-sync , imprecise and not very varied game mechanics, the possibility of only one autosave , which makes changes in game behavior and morals difficult, and a worn-out story that looks like a copy of The Witcher and weakens towards the end.

Sales figures

Once released, the game became the best-selling computer game of the month in Germany, France and the United Kingdom.

Vampyr sold 450,000 copies in the first month after publication. In October, the game achieved a turnover of 44.3 million US dollars .

The game was sold over a million times within ten months (April 2019).

Nominations & Awards

The game was nominated for the following prizes, among others:

The game has won the following prizes, among others:

  • National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers Awards: Original Role Playing Game

TV series adaptation

In August 2018 it was announced that the television production company Fox 21 Television Studios plans to implement Vampyr as a television series with Wonderland Sound and Vision and DJ2 Entertainment . The founder of Wonderland Sound and Vision is directed by lead and act together with Mary Viola, Corey Marsh, Dmitri Johnson and Stephan Bugaj as executive producer.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dontnod's new game Vampyr is nothing like Life Is Strange. In: VG247. February 29, 2016, accessed July 4, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Vampyr Interview - Lead Designer Florent Guillaume Tells Us Everything About In-Game Weapons, Loot, Factions And More. Retrieved July 4, 2019 (American English).
  3. ^ Edwin Evans-Thirlwell: Vampyr's parasitic promise is plagued by conflict. In: Eurogamer. February 22, 2018, accessed July 4, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Julia Alexander: Vampyr gets creepy new gameplay trailer, introduces difficult decisions players will make. June 13, 2017, accessed July 4, 2019 .
  5. ↑ 'Vampyr' is more about who you kill than how you do it. Retrieved July 4, 2019 .
  6. ↑ Vampyr Gameplay Walkthrough- IGN Live: E3 2017 - IGN. Retrieved July 4, 2019 .
  7. ↑ All Abilities in Vampyr. Retrieved July 4, 2019 .
  8. ↑ a b c d e Vampire in the test: Good vampire, bad vampire! In: Computer Picture Games. Retrieved on July 4, 2019 (German).
  9. ↑ a b c d Vampyr Test: Scoring. In: Gamepro. Retrieved July 4, 2019 .
  10. ↑ a b c d Vampire put to the test - protector or beast? In: Gamestar. June 5, 2018, accessed July 4, 2019 .
  11. ↑ a b c d Vampyr - test, role play. In: 4Players. Retrieved July 4, 2019 .
  12. ↑ a b c d Vampire in the test: The adventures of Dr. Acula (with test video). In: PC Games. June 6, 2018, accessed July 4, 2019 .
  13. ^ "There are not as many questions. We have more freedom now". Retrieved July 4, 2019 .
  14. ↑ Mike Diver: Exploring 'Vampyr', the New Game from 'Life Is Strange' Developers Dontnod. In: Vice. February 29, 2016. Retrieved July 4, 2019 (American English).
  15. ↑ Marie Dealessandri: 'There are too many zombie games' says Dontnod as it prepares Vampyr for launch. In: MCVUK. Archived from the original on November 12, 2017 ; accessed on July 4, 2019 .
  16. ↑ This New World War 1 Vampire Game Explores a "Dark and Brutal" World. In: GameSpot. Retrieved July 4, 2019 (American English).
  17. ↑ Mike Diver: Exploring 'Vampyr', the New Game from 'Life Is Strange' Developers Dontnod. In: Vice. February 29, 2016. Retrieved July 4, 2019 (American English).
  18. ↑ Alice O'Connor: Dontnod's Vampyr rises on June 5th In: Rock, Paper, Shotgun. February 8, 2018, Retrieved July 4, 2019 (American English).
  19. ↑ Vampyr's Difficulty Mode Gets Ramped Up Next Week. September 21, 2018. Retrieved July 4, 2019 (American English).
  20. ^ Vampyr, Call of Cthulhu coming to Switch in 2019. In: Gematsu. April 10, 2019, Retrieved July 4, 2019 (American English).
  21. ↑ a b c Review: Vampyr. In: Destructoid. Retrieved July 4, 2019 .
  22. ↑ a b c Vampyr Review - A Bloody Mess. In: Game Revolution. Retrieved July 4, 2019 .
  23. ↑ a b Vampyr Review. In: IGN. Retrieved July 4, 2019 .
  24. ↑ a b c Vampyr review. In: Electronic Gaming Monthly. Retrieved July 4, 2019 (American English).
  25. ↑ Vampyr (WIN). In: Metacritic. Retrieved July 4, 2019 .
  26. ↑ Vampyr (PS4). In: Metacritic. Retrieved July 4, 2019 .
  27. ↑ Vampire (XONE). In: Metacritic. Retrieved July 4, 2019 .
  28. ↑ Dontnod's Vampyr is the UK's number one game. Retrieved July 3, 2019 .
  29. ↑ Focus Home Interactive's Q1 Revenue Up 23 Percent, Thanks to Vampyr's Strong Sales. Retrieved July 3, 2019 .
  30. ↑ Vampyr sells almost half a million in a month. Retrieved July 3, 2019 (UK English).
  31. ↑ Vampyr continues to enjoy 'tremendous success,' says publisher. Retrieved July 3, 2019 .
  32. ↑ Actusnews Wire: DONTNOD ENTERTAINMENT. Retrieved July 3, 2019 .
  33. ↑ GamesRadar Staff 2017-06-19T16: 42: 22 169Z Feature: GamesRadar + E3 awards - our best, most exciting games of E3 2017. Retrieved July 3, 2019 (British English).
  34. ↑ The best Unreal Engine games of E3 2017, selected by GamesBeat. In: VentureBeat. June 16, 2017. Retrieved July 3, 2019 (American English).
  35. ↑ Ubisoft Rakes In 14 Nominations for E3 2017 Game Critics' Awards. Retrieved July 3, 2019 .
  36. ↑ Les jeux vidéo nommés aux Ping Awards 2018. Accessed July 3, 2019 .
  37. ↑ Winner List for 2018: God of War Breaks Record | National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers Corporation. Retrieved July 3, 2019 .
  38. ↑ Nellie Andreeva, Denise Petski, Nellie Andreeva, Denise Petski: 'Vampyr' Video Game Optioned For Series Development By Fox 21 TV Studios & McG's Wonderland. In: Deadline. August 16, 2018, accessed July 3, 2019 .
  39. ↑ Vampyr becomes a TV series - Fox filmed the new vampire role-playing game. August 17, 2018, accessed July 4, 2019 .