For the last 2 weeks, when I have had a chance to game, it has been Vampyr, to the exclusion of any other. I completed tonight in 70 hours. I more than got my money. It has many things going for it, from location settings, to dialogue and choices, empathy for the characters, and story immersion. It is a "lite" RPG of sorts, but what there is there is done pretty well, with skill and power development and weapon/ serum improvements.
You can only level up abilities while resting 24 hours until the next night. I noticed however, that every time you rest, more bad stuff happens in various districts of London. Therefore, it behooves you to put off evolving until you have more than one level's worth of points. This means you may be playing disadvantaged for awhile. But if you don't rest, merchants won't reset, so no new stuff to buy is available. The game frequently tells you that you're disadvantaged no matter what you do.
Throughout the game you will make decisions and choices, some in conversation, and some in action. What you say can close off whole conversation arcs with someone. Other times, it will add something to converse with another person about. Other times you may decide to spare someone, or "embrace" them, otherwise known as biting their neck and killing them. It's a hard line to tread, as each person, good and bad and neutral occupies a place in the world. The void of their passing will have consequences in the game as well, things you will see. It can hinder your actions later. On the other hand, learning all you can about a known character and ensuring they are healthy is the surest way to gain massive experience points. Do you or don't you?
Combat is a little twitchy, and does take some getting used to. It could use some real work. You can easily be outmatched by more than one opponent, so getting it right is a must. That, for me on mouse and keyboard, took about 20 hours, and still never felt great. I had learned to get through it and exploit it's few bright spots, such as special moves and powers. Boss battles will nearly always result in your death, and then respawn to fight them again, with less of everything that you used in the fight, like bullets, shotgun cartridges, regeneration serum, and your own vampire blood. You need that blood in combat to heal, so you'll start out respawned with full health, but little blood. Some of these bosses are OP IMHO, so it got frustrating.
Choices also matter in the end game as well. There are, as I found out after I finished, 4 different endings, all based on a multitude of things you do or don't do in the game. I was lucky. I got good ending number 2, based on my actions. There is a lot of dialogue. Cutscenes are present, but not overwhelmingly so. Some of the extended ones, like the ending, are actually interactive conversations as well. Oh, did I mention, there is only ever one save? Yeah, it's like real life. If you know you screwed something up, you don't get a do over. You move forward.
I maintained a nearly constant 60fps on max details. It uses a lot of system RAM, but only about 2GB of VRAM. I encountered about 5 or 6 stutters in the whole game. Ideally you have none, but in 70 hours, it's not excessive.
Overall, I recommend it. I give it a 7.5 out of 10. I felt like I was part of a slightly flawed journey, but the writing and game environment at least made me feel like I was part of it. It was overall enjoyable, and worth the money I paid. It is not one of the few games that I would immediately play again, even to get a better ending.
I ended up writing a mini-review, and thanks you for the read!.
).
