'Vampyr' Focus Home Interactive
Developer Dontnod has taken a sharp turn from its previous games Life is Strange and Remember Me with Vampyr, but there's more to think about than just another angle on gender politics. We stopped by the booth and got a guided tour throughout a few sections of the game that showed us more about how combat works and what kind of choices your character will have to make. Going beyond mere moody lurking in the shadows, we watched the player's character Dr. Jonathan Reed struggle between his role as a doctor in Spanish Flu-stricken 1918 London and the reality of being a recently turned vampire who kills humans to survive.
While the hospital where he works has been declared neutral ground, adversaries in the game will include vampire hunters, as well as "skals," dangerous creatures that vampires can turn into. The action and combat sections will be fairly familiar to gamers, with special powers that are charged up by Reed's blood bar, plus the standard health and stamina meters. The combat we saw leaned heavily on the ability to stun enemies, who can bring items like guns or flamethrowers to the battle. Naturally, there are deep skill trees available that will allow a player to customize their character and attack in the way that they want to as the game goes on.
Vampyr Focus Home Interactive
The real twist, other than the game's post-World War I atmosphere, is how relationships between each character in the game exist and are affected by Reed's actions. A section we saw that's not in the trailer below showed Reed interrogating a man who, as it turned out, was a serial killer with numerous victims. His crimes gave Reed more reason to consider sacrificing him for his blood, however, another option was to kill his adopted mother, who, while innocent of murder, had better quality blood that would give Reed more XP. Another thing to think about is that when you drink someone's blood, you gain access to their memories, and with many situations to investigate that may come in handy.
The section ended with the same choice shown in the video, with Reed choosing what to do about a fellow vampire who he suspects of attacking a man at the hospital, putting everyone at risk. Of course, choosing who to kill and who to spare will change things for everyone in the world of Vampyr, and may help this tile break out of the action-game pack when it arrives this fall on PC, PS4 and Xbox One.
Follow all the latest news from E3 2017 here!