Jonathan E. Reid may not sound like a very draculian name for a gothic former-doctor-turned-blood-hunter. 

But in the new video game Vampyr, that is the very man gamers get to control, as he indulges in the necessary role of a nocturnal detective trying to figure out just who cursed him into an immortal being of particularly deep fangs and suavely-somber disposition. 

An entertaining RPG, Vampyr was developed by the Paris-based team Dontnod, who was behind the games Remember Me and Life is Strange. It doesn’t particularly offer anything new, nor does it stand out among other titles of similar investigative nature — but it is never dull, serving up a commendable sense of mystery and nuances that are worth trying to at least finish a few of its four alternative endings. 

While it has its fair share of flaws — essentially feeling like a short-story game that got pushed into being a full-game — the fun aspects outweigh the questionable sections of the record. 

Waking up in a London that is suffering from Spanish Flu and something else equally terrible, Reid engages in an inhuman act of sudden violence that eventually drives him to try to figure out what made him so, interacting with the game’s rich number of characters (about 60 to 70), with choice-based interactions that will lead him onto different paths. 

This, of course, means that the game is an endless journey of dialogue wheels and virtual interaction. Those not accustomed to (or who simply don’t enjoy) this kind of gaming will not find much to their interest here; but those who do will find a lot of good, natural dialogue that pushes the story and characters into fun and even unexpected directions. 

The investigative element opens up a lot of interesting venues, depending on the player’s depth of investigation. Hints are awarded to players who pry deeply enough or speak to enough NPCs (Non-Playable Characters).

The dialogue and voice-acting aren’t always great, which is unsurprising with this number of characters. The English accent is sometimes good and sometimes, well, bad. 

At the very least, Reid’s semi-stiffness at least has the excuse of coming from a tortured immortal soul. There are also some combat moments to provide variation from the investigative work. 

While he may be a vampire, Reid is still a doctor, and along the way this means he will have opportunities to help characters in curing them of various kinds of diseases and illness — doing so by mixing up ingredients to craft medicines. This deed of selflessness will result in upping the overall health of specific sections of the city, gaining the player a good number of points in the process. 

Those with a more morbid sense of video gaming can also choose to drain and essentially eat the NPCs to gain points. There’s a little bit of morality-balancing here, as players can pick to play Reid as an evil or nice vampire; though this part of the game certainly doesn’t get expanded on enough. 

At the very least, that morality play comes in the form of Reid essentially having to get to know characters closely enough before draining and killing them. This sets up some good emotional rollercoasters, as kinder-hearted players will of course find it more difficult to chew and gnaw on characters they have spent time getting to know. 

In terms of graphics, the game does suffer from looking more like an early-generation console title. It gets the job done, but there are plenty of jarring visual moments — off lip movements, robotic movements and bodies — but that’s understandable coming from a mid-budget game from a smallish studio. Some of the cinematic closeups and facial designs are good though. 

Then again, there are a lot of cool details that sprinkle the game with a very strong darkly ambience. Cracked, somber pavements and gloomy alleyways permeate throughout, giving the game an edge and setting and consistent mood. 

In these cases, gamers are best to check out the trailers or online footage of the game first, as to see whether this quality of graphics will (or will not) affect the overall gameplay.

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Vampyr 

Developer: Dontnod Entertainment 

Publisher: Focus Home Interactive

Available on PS4, Windows PC and Xbox One

Reviewed on PS4

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