Vampyr Story Mode Review
New difficulty modes add new approaches to an already interesting RPG.
I was sucked (obligatory vampire pun #1) into the blood-soaked, gothic RPG Vampyr when I reviewed it earlier this year, despite the repetitive, awkward combat and its disconnection with the greater scope of the game. But the visuals, sound design and story are engaging enough to bring me back to check out DONTNOD’s freshest update.
For those of you that don’t know, Vampyr sits somewhere in between triple-A and indie territory. It’s not as vast as something in the vein of The Witcher 3 (obligatory vampire pun #2), but there’s longevity beyond most indie action RPGs and most importantly, an endearing ambition.
The story is very cheesy but stays true to its gothic roots, a relatively unexplored genre in recent games. The narrative has some problems, but its presentation is high-quality and stands out despite the repetitive combat sequences. If the combat for you was a pain in the neck before (I promise that’s the last one), now there are a couple of new ways to enjoy it.
The latest update adds two new difficulty modes that can be selected when beginning your playthrough. Story Mode significantly drops the difficulty in combat and increases exp gained from quests, and Hard Mode limits the amount of exp received from taking lives and gives enemies a meaty buff, making combat more brutal.
The original premise of Vampyr is that the difficulty is heavily dependent on your choices. Every NPC had unique stories, clues and investigations you could undertake to increase the exp gained if you chose to drain their blood. Want a challenge? Don’t drink. Want to be a super-powered vampire? Kill high exp-giving citizens.
This presented a moral dilemma that influenced the way people played based on how tough it was for them. For this reason, I’d recommend most players stick with Normal for the first playthrough. But if you’re playing through a second or third time to see the different civilian stories or endings, go for it.
During my original Normal mode playthrough, I picked off only a few citizens in each district. I got the power I needed to overcome bosses and didn’t raise an alarm by murdering a whole district. I didn’t get the pacifist ending, the previous ‘hard version’ of the game, and I honestly wouldn’t have played through the whole game again to see it if Story Mode wasn’t added.
Story Mode is perfect for players that struggle with the combat, as the pacifist route in Normal can be quite punishing in boss encounters. With Story Mode on I was able to obliterate bosses five levels above me with minimal upgrades and less than ten swings of a sword. Respawning packs of enemies that caused trouble and tedium before are now swept aside easily, allowing more time for exploration and discovery.
Hard mode, on the other hand, convinces you to take even more lives. Combat is brutal, and you will need to carefully balance your blood intake from citizens to survive. I still don’t find the combat enjoyable enough to spend more time with it, but I’m sure someone will.
The new modes are a great addition; more options are never a bad thing. I’m all for allowing players to play how they want to, and for players that fell out of the game originally because of the difficulty, or lack thereof, Story Mode might be enough to draw them back in.
Apart from the difficulty updates, some annoyances have been tweaked. Firstly, keyboard and mouse controls (for filthy plebs like myself) have been fixed in combat; you can now properly switch targets. And secondly, performance tweaks have cut out the framerate drops I experienced before. I could just have a foggy memory, but it seems like glaring subtitle inconsistencies have also been fixed.
I personally don’t have an issue with auto-saving, but some players dislike it for convenience reasons. It would have been a gesture of goodwill on DONTNOD’s part if they had also allowed the option for manual saves but this is still absent.
It’s nice to know the game hasn’t been forgotten considering DONTNOD’s flagship Life is Strange 2 just released. Last year they made it clear that if Vampyr was successful they would only make a sequel, not DLC. Hopefully, their continued updates are a sign of enough interest in the title that a sequel is a possibility.
Regardless of DONTNOD’s original intention, it should be commended when a developer adds more options for their game to be enjoyed by as many people as possible. They could have simply moved on and forgotten about it. Vampyr still has its problems, but it’s regularly available on sale now so there’s no better time to pick it up.
Vampyr is a decent RPG with most of its kinks now ironed out. The additional Story Mode and Hard Mode are much appreciated new ways for you to experience the gloomy, lore-rich world of DONTNOD’s post-World War London fangtasy (I’ll let myself out).