Vampyr, you may recall, is Dontnod’s upcoming action-RPG that follows the plight of Jonathan Reid—an esteemed general practitioner-turned-vampire, forced to pit his conscience against his desire to consume the blood of others. It’s a far cry from Life Is Strange, then, and its latest pre-alpha footage is suitably dark and alarming.
Set in the Spanish flu-ridden streets of Victorian London, the following 15 minute video sees Reid sleuthing around a slum, with occasional bursts of short teleportation that mirror Dishonored's Blink ability. When free roaming, the UI is decidedly uncluttered, however springs to life with health bars and weapon slots and the likes once engaged in combat. Skip to around 8.20 for some of that.
Around nine minutes onward is what interests me most, though, when the protagonist enters Whitechapel. Here, he’s forced to wander among the normal folk, listen in on chatter, and profile who is and who isn’t sick via a Witcher sense-like ability. In his overview in March, Dan Griliopoulos suggested “...the place of combat in the game whatsoever seems unnecessary—it feels like the game would be more interesting without it,” and, from what I’ve seen so far, I absolutely agree with that.
At ten minutes, we get a glimpse of the game’s dialogue options in practice, as well as Reid’s moral dichotomy—which is cool and shocking and quite sad all at once.
Vampyr is due at some point in 2017.
