Vampyr (Game pre-review)

Vampyr gives you the experience of being a vampire. Which is not necessarily so pleasant as you might assume.

This isn't a full review, though I may get around to one later. Especially since I’ve been putting a lot more thought to game design the past couple years, specifically RPGs, and I really like some of the choices they made to re-enforce a specific experience. (Which is to one philosophy at least, the purpose of having a System or “game” at all. I would argue this is actually more true with video games, at least until they can adapt in real-time to the expectations of the players, as a tabletop RPG can when the group is really sympatico. But I digress).

Either way, I need to finish it first.

I stupidly didn’t pick Easy for my first go, so I am about 50% through... but shit is fraught.

Getting across town is a constant game of cat and mouse between hunters and cultists out to burn you, skrals (lesser vampire ghouls) and sewer mutants, all the while trying to resist the allure of huge XP bonuses for buttering up and then consuming civilians. You’ll get a full guilt trip if you go for it afterwards, though the game constantly reminds you the rest of the time that it would really be a whole lot easier if you just had one. Come on, you know you want…