I am French and I can deny that it sounds better in our tongue... "Qu'est-ce que le verre sinon du sable torturé ?" Maybe it sounds better if you don't understand it.
Am I the only who thought this line was super cool? Is metaphor for how humanity can’t really progress or sustain itself without some form of destruction. Like how the Vampire cannot survive without gearing upon the innocent. It’s subtly linking Vampires to the more athiestic threat of modern life, transforming something that is pure and simple whether that be human life, religion or Sand into something abnormal.
I really liked this game. I prefer ambitious, interesting and flawed AA games over bland AAA games for the general target group audience. The game is a decent 7/10 that Id prefer over a lot of other games nowadays
I've replayed Vampyr several times over the years. One of very few games that I pick up once in a while even after beating it already. I like that it isn't set in your typical fantasy world with swords and magic and shit. Great game.
@@cactusmalone It is Afterall a first try on a new IP and very few IPs get it right first try, but the sequel can add so much more and I think that is worth forgiving a first attempt its flaws if its good fun for a better sequel in the future personally
Definitely one were you play as a Werewolf or both a vampire and a werewolf and you can switch between the the characters with different skills,moves and powers
The only thing missing in this game, in my opinion, is a day/night system. Like a little clock and visually appearing sunrise, with your death looming at the first glance of a sunbeam. Otherwise, there's no incentive to rest other than level up.
In game lore states that daylight doesn't kill vampires it just hurts them. Cool idea though, just do a massive debuff during the day or make it so you can't use your powers instead of death.
A job as a doctor, a job as a detective, even a job as sort of crime fighting super hero are a perfect fit for a vampire. All their abilities, their hypnosis, enhanced senses, healing, strength, etc are great for that sort of work. Oh, and a vampire doctor also can drink during work. I would honestly like more of those games, where you play a vampire that does more than having "vampire" be their entire life description but that do other, mundane work, twisted by their vampiric features.
Man this guy's way of talking and voice are so smooth I feel like falling asleep, and I woke up 4 hours ago. It's like that voice right before you doze off. It's not a complaint, just an observation.
I did fall asleep while watching this. It wasn't a bad critique as I went back to watch what I missed. Still I found a new channel to turn to for when I'm having difficulty falling asleep at night.
6:30 just want to mention that him killing his sister is not necessarily an "oops", but in European/Balkan vampire and strigoi mythos the vampire or undead will without a doubt intentionally and directly target those closest to him first. Without a choice and with great compulsion, until they are all destroyed. This is in part why there are a variety of rituals for preventing a recently deceased loved one from becoming undead, including exhuming them, burning the heart and drinking the ash, in some places. Very late, but I thought it would be interesting. I enjoy your videos and am grateful for your content! :)
As a Swiss from the French speaking part of the country, I had to study French litterature in school and oh boy let me tell you that it's nowhere near the edgiest or "profound" thing I've seen. French authors really were something back in the day.
@28:14 The game actually explains LONG before your confront Crane that if your mesmerize level is lower than the person you’re attempting to mesmerize you can end up destroying their consciousness. So yes, there is an explanation as to way that happens.
I would have thought this game would have implemented stealth, especially seeing that smokey effect when your character dashes. I could imagine using something like that to go from cover to cover. No death from above either? That is kind of disappointing. I probably would have tried it too.
I played this game on my XBOX ONE (through Game Pass) and I unlocked all the achievements for it. This game is rough but at its core, there is something truly precious. If it had a better budget, more development time, more refined and polished gameplay mechanics this game would have kicked ass. This game had so much going for it but so much of the game felt tedious. I played through it multiple times and the problems that were mentioned in this video really expose themselves. One big thing that was missed in this video was the absence of a New Game Plus. A NG+ mode that was properly implemented would have made this game much more fun for numerous playthroughs and easier to manage. They didn’t even include it through an update.
The thing I felt this game truly lacked is rooftop travel, forget about fast travel, what if by completing areas you could unlock the rooftops of houses, imagine how satisfying it would feel plus it would mean you could traverse the map far more conveniently. This could also be tied into districts being hostile, with either the rooftops being inaccessible or sections lost, forcing you to take a detour into enemies once again rewarding you for balancing district health.
For such a new channel, you're great. I know how hard these long form critiques and video essays can be. I actually love and respect this kind of content so much. And it's obvious that you will continue to grow and improve as you do this more. It's a crowded space, difficult to gain popularity, but I hope you do. You deserve it!
13:00 exactly! I'm glad someone else noticed this. When he mentions his aversion to crosses and churches to Elizabeth, he asks her "am I repellant unto Heaven?" And her response was basically "eh don't worry about it", and he drops the subject. If I were in his place I'd be in DEFCON 1 panic mode
I played this game on my XBOX ONE (through Game Pass) and I unlocked all the achievements for it. This game is rough but at its core, there is something truly precious. If it had a better budget, more development time, more refined and polished gameplay mechanics this game would have kicked ass. This game had so much going for it but so much of the game felt tedious. I played through it multiple times and the problems that were mentioned in this video really expose themselves. One big thing that was missed in this video was the absence of a New Game Plus. A NG+ mode that was properly implemented would have made this game much more fun for numerous playthroughs and easier to manage. They didn’t even include it through an update.
I loved this game . It has its flaws and it was rough around the edges but the main character , the setting, the story even ... great . It deserves a sequel to really flesh out all the ideas of the game .
Vampyr gave me a bit of "witcher series" vibes. The music composition, the lived in environments, the ongoing narration of the protagonist, and the combination of melee, ranged, and magical abilities really struck me as similar... Not saying that it's what the devs were going for, but that's the feeling I often felt during my first playthrough. A great little AA game in my opinion, ABSOLUTELY deserving of a bigger, more fleshed out sequel eventually... (also, you can find used physical copies of vampyr for like 10 bucks, so it's an absolute steal)
@@DRNGDGMR because the abridged is further to its end of the spectrum and even wilder than the original. It's definitely a hell of a lot more profane and funny than the original.
You might say you want him to read you a bed time story, but I'd prefer you to read it. There's something amazingly calming about your voice in this video.
Those "What is ..." lines are probablby ment as an homage to Castelvania: What is a man?! A miserable little pile of secrets! But enough talk! Have at you!
Personally I found that the enemy level scaling ruined the incentive to kill an NPC. I don't care about being stronger objectively if I'm not relatively stronger than my enemies; if make the moral sacrifice to drain someone I should be stunting on baddies harder than I was before- which you don't because the enemies scale regardless.
I killed pretty much everyone in one playthrough, and sleepwalked through the final third of the game. It felt good in a way to be so powerful compared to the other characters I met, but it got a bit boring, and it was infuriating to watch Johnathan bend the knee "out of necessity" to characters that I knew I could behead without great difficulty. If you can be extremely powerful in a game, then you should at least have the option to try to throw your weight around and take what you want.
I played this game on my XBOX ONE (through Game Pass) and I unlocked all the achievements for it. This game is rough but at its core, there is something truly precious. If it had a better budget, more development time, more refined and polished gameplay mechanics this game would have kicked ass. This game had so much going for it but so much of the game felt tedious. I played through it multiple times and the problems that were mentioned in this video really expose themselves. One big thing that was missed in this video was the absence of a New Game Plus. A NG+ mode that was properly implemented would have made this game much more fun for numerous playthroughs and easier to manage. They didn’t even include it through an update.
"what is glass but tortured sand" didnt sound odd to me, since the narration is done seemingly by a vampire who's been alive for hundreds, maybe thousands of years and clearly has disdain for human creations and civilisation in general.
but no one talks like that except poets. And he has no background of being a poet during his long life span. I think it's more of trying to sound like an ancient guy so they made him talk like in a Shakespeare play, but even during Shakespeare's time, people didn't talk like that. It was just highly stylized. So it's really weird for him to talk that way, makes it seems like an edgelord if you think about it.
The main character is also a bit pretentious himself, so I thought that lines like that definitely fitted him and made sense from a writing standpoint.
I played this game on my XBOX ONE (through Game Pass) and I unlocked all the achievements for it. This game is rough but at its core, there is something truly precious. If it had a better budget, more development time, more refined and polished gameplay mechanics this game would have kicked ass. This game had so much going for it but so much of the game felt tedious. I played through it multiple times and the problems that were mentioned in this video really expose themselves. One big thing that was missed in this video was the absence of a New Game Plus. A NG+ mode that was properly implemented would have made this game much more fun for numerous playthroughs and easier to manage. They didn’t even include it through an update.
Just to clarify on the pronounciation. "the term vampire was popularized in Western Europe after reports of an 18th-century mass hysteria of a pre-existing folk belief in the Balkans and Eastern Europe " In the balkans we say Vampir, Vampyr is the polish version i assume, the pronounciation you are using is correct, there is no E at the end. Vampir.
Imo pacifism in vampire media is like the Wooden Shield in Bloodborne. It's there and you could use it, but you absolutely shouldn't. I think one of the main allures of vampires is the theme of unavoidable harm and loss of innocence. You have become a monster that must feed on other humans in order to live, and no matter how hard you strive to uphold morality, your very being is in conflict with it. I think Vampyr gets refreshingly close to nailing this, with it's difficulty being so intertwined with your moral choices, and character progression being essentially locked behind the breach of Jonathan's moral codex. I just wish it would have marketed itself less with pacifism being a valid option, because it should not be one. At least not without knowing that your experience will likely suffer from it.
this is a great video. Video games that are either really bad or really good are easy to analyze but a game that is decent but flawed is often the most interesting. I'm looking forward to your channel exploding in the near future
I fell in love with this game a few months ago when it was free on PlayStation. I loved jonathans character and the game is oozing with charm and style(not only because of the mentioned amazing soundtrack) but yes. It has problems. And I’m so glad that you portrayed the games two sides. The bad and the good. This vid is really really good!
I absolutely loved the game. Mostly because of the xp mechanic. In order to grow stronger, you are able to kill people and drink their blood. I found myself being invested in everyone own little story. Haven’t played a game like this one before.
I like how it forces you to actually engage with people and pay attention. Learning about them and making hard decisions that can drastically affect the city.
Well hey, aren't you glad to know there is a bloodline sequel now. Although the release date was set back... and then corona happened so it's likely to have been set back even further...
@@Dankmemeslover69Yeah, I've been checking info for bloodlines 2 every now and then and saw that a while ago. It's a little concerning, just a _little_ ...
@@HoloFizz They replaced him with some guy from ubisoft, it's over. I mean maybe there's a 5% chance it'll be good but I'd take a wait for the review approache, this is not a day 1 game. And I'm not a hater, I want bloodline 2 to be good more than I want any other games, but everything we hear from behind the scene scream disaster.
Near the end you mentioned how level scaling works in the game and why sometimes you had different levels on your playthroughs, the level of the enemies is tied to the state of distric of the map you are, this means the more NPC's are dead or sick or with low morale, the harder the game gets, this ties in with the fact that the more you use a bed to level up more time passes making the situation on the districts worse basically rewarding players who hoard XP as much as they can and level up few times instead of leveling up every so often.
IM in the same boat with this one, I was so on the edge with this one, to this day I dont know if I liked it or not, enjoyed it or was bored because it was both at different times and in such an amount that it kind of blurs together. I think the game is underrated and I do hope it sells well if for nothing else but to see a sequel and new rpgs that arnt microtransactions, cocky protagonist filled casual triple a ones, I love these types of games, but since I have such a specific taste I rarely find myself really clicking with a game, despite how much I want to. I loved talking to all the people at first, its what I enjoy in games, however realising that for the rest of the game I will have to run around the city and find everyone, repeatedly to see if they have updated dialogue and such was a sombering realization that immidiately put me off of it, seeing as you cant teleport or anything. And while I had fun with the story, it felt very unnapealing by the end, I cant say I cared that much for Lady Asbourne (if that was her name, cant remembe right) and I would have prefered either more grand adventure (it was pretty awesome with the scars in the sewers tho) or something more personal, about Reed's redemption and such, the story coming to a head with lady Ashbourne's father being whatever night was just strangely out of nowhere and felt disconected... I may be just remebering it poortly since its been a while. The combat was fun to me tho, even if you were a pussy killable in two shots I still felt powerful cuz I looked powerful, it looked and felt great imo. Im starting to run out of your videos to listen to, cmon make more, hurry up :D
I agree that this game would’ve been a lot better with a proper stealth system, but did you somehow miss the invisibility move? I used it all the time to avoid combat in the 2nd half of the game. It has an annoyingly long cooldown though, so sometimes I would have to just stand there waiting for it to become available again if I wanted to skip a fight.
I think i remember trying it out and not liking it that much. To avoid combat i just spammed dodge, but i think a real stealth system could have expanded the gameplay a lot while fitting perfectly with the setting/concept.
The no kill playthrough seems like it should've been an insanely hard version of the game that should only be attempted by speedrunners and/or people playing the game with a Guitar Hero controller.
Realistic vampirism could be interesting. During the first stage, your dentures have yet to grow, so you'll have to devise tools and means to extract blood, like knives or needles. Or In desperate situations: tearing the skin with your normal human teeth.
I just found your channel while searching for some crpg game reviews. I have to say i love the way you do these videos. Even though they are long, they do not get boring. Very informative, and i love the tone of your voice and how soft it is, very nice to watch late night, too many of those loud reviewers, or those that try too hard to be funny etc. This is how i prefer it. It is a shame you do not release them more often.
There have been 2 games in the History of games that have given me a satisfactory Vampire experience. Vampire the Masquerade- Bloodlines, And Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen 1.
Very very good video. You have a new sub. I will say that you do indeed get XP gaining info/hints talking to NPCs, and this is useful if you're on a no kill run as an extra source of xp. so even if you wont kill them it still serves a purpose to talk to people.
Heard about this game earlier this year and got it to play around Halloween. This video really aligns with how I feel about the play experience so far: flawed but fun… like so many horror movies. But I love the absolutely grim atmosphere and overall creepiness!
you say you want jonathan to read you bedtime stories but dude you ARE my bedtime story. i literally listen to your videos to help me fall asleep sometimes.
There was a ton this game did well, esp. with the "interview" system that had real consequences. What set it back: 1) huge difficulty spikes in boss fights, 2) as mentioned, strange set-up re: drinking / not drinking blood of characters. Could really use a new game plus mode too, to try different endings.
I played this game on my XBOX ONE (through Game Pass) and I unlocked all the achievements for it. This game is rough but at its core, there is something truly precious. If it had a better budget, more development time, more refined and polished gameplay mechanics this game would have kicked ass. This game had so much going for it but so much of the game felt tedious. I played through it multiple times and the problems that were mentioned in this video really expose themselves. One big thing that was missed in this video was the absence of a New Game Plus. A NG+ mode that was properly implemented would have made this game much more fun for numerous playthroughs and easier to manage. They didn’t even include it through an update.
You don't need new game plus to do different endings. Just don't kill people or kill more people. A buddy of mine actually didn't kill anyone his first playthrough. Cause he knew a mutual friend had went the psycho kill everything that talks to you route and I was more calculated in who I killed in our respective first playthroughs.
I think Vampry hit so hard for me because I played on the hardest difficulty. What do I mean by that? Well when I chose that difficulty I was just doing it for a challenge as I love making games harder for my self. Along with that I decided to preserve Reeds humanity by never embracing anyone and doing my best to cure and help the mortals. What this led to in the mid/late game was one of the most cock and ball torture experiences of my life. I was getting one shot by nearly every enemy. Burn damage was a guaranteed death. I was dying over and over stuck at the point where you have to return to the morgue in the later part of the game. The vampire hunters had so much HP and we’re always cornering me my best bet was to spam blood spear and dash in and out with my scalpel for blood. I died likely over 50 times I hit the point where I truly felt like the thirst was going to take over my need for power was going to lead me to embracing a mortal. The first person I got a hold of was one of the doctors trying to still help people at the hospital I believe he was the surgeon forgive me it’s been some time. As I had him in my mind control and the soundtrack “The Thirst.” Ramped up I thought to my self. What of all the people this man has saved or is going to save what if our positions were switched all the people my Reed had healed would be sick or dead. And I let go of him and returned to the morgue. I eventually persevered through the rest of the game despite the challenge because i refused to let of my humanity and once I reached the end and Reed choses to stay at the Castle and find the cure for Vampirism it felt like I truly had retained Reeds and my own humanity by not giving up on our morals. Sorry for the rant Vampry just stuck with me because of this ended up being one of my favorite games of all time.
Really loved the combat - on hardest difficulty - that's the most Dark Soul - ish I find acceptable and fun. The atmosphere, the choices and most of the main story. If side characters and side quests were more fleshed out and interesting it would have been almost perfect - to me.
Agreed, I really don't know why people are ripping on the combat. It quite reminds me of Bloodborne actually. Attack, Dodge, Attack, Dodge, Use Ability, Heal, Dodge, Repeat any as necessary.
sorry if someone already pointed this out, but i can't resist nitpicking at an otherwise great critique - you DO get xp for learning peoples' secrets, and then more xp if you eat them while knowing their secrets! when you're doing a no-kill playthrough, especially on hard mode, conversations are the biggest source of character advancement available to you, so it's just as crucial to be nosy if you're being abstemious!
Right? I have said for years now that for Vampire enthusiasts, Skyrim with vampire mods is the best "live the unlife of a vampire" experience available. VtM:B is great, of course, but good Skyrim vampire mods are so much fun, too.
You seem to missunderstand the difficulty thing. Devouring npcs for exp makes the game far easier as even tthough you get slightly harder enemys you will also have access to way more skills. If you don't eat people certain fights are extremely hard as you will lagbehind both in level and skill power as well as having a small pool of available skills since you will have to pick between power and adaptability (A few strong skills or many weak ones)
I never understood why people compared this with Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines. This game always seems like a higher budget, more polished Dracula: Origin.
@@newironside did they though? I literally can't remember anything but overzealous RU-vidrs and wannabe games journalists making the comparisons wheras the trailers looked noting like vtmb. It might have been just me but I literally never understood where people were coming from on the vtmb comparison. How shallow do you have to be to say that this will be the new vtmb just because it has a vampire as the protagonist and is set in a city? Vampires and vampire literature predate vtmb. All that the trailers showed was a modem game with rpg mechanics set in a city and were you play as a vampire. There was nothing to indicate any vtmb comparisons, not unless you think all rpg games where you play as a vampire have to be vtm - which is as stupid as saying you were disappointed pillars of eternity wasn't set in a dnd setting, or that dnd itself isn't set in the same universe as the Lord of the rings. As I said in my original post, this game seemed more like a larger budget, more polished Dracula origin with the by them obligatory roll playing elements forced in like every "good" little AAA game as well as wannabe AAA game.
I was headed toward the "bad" ending (killed most major characters, let several districts spiral into chaos) but I couldn't beat the final boss due to her level, and this is taking into account my fairly high level at the time. I gave up after dying too many times. The only real way to beat her is to feed off an exorbitant amount of people and become incredibly high level + have alot of perks, and ain't nobody got time for that!
I was able to beat the final boss when I was trying to go for the "Not even once" achievement. You have to properly plan and prepare for that boss fight long before it takes place in order to do that.
@@Trenex1000 ok so it has been over a year and i decided to replay the game. I finally beat the boss and got the bad ending again because i fed on too many citizens (but this time I didn't let any district go to chaos). I was a level 32 this time and the red queen was a 39, so I stocked up on a bunch of serums and used very good weapons + some of Jonathan's battle perks and she died relatively easily this time around.
@@alyailithyia I did a recent play-through and the last boss in my opinion is a total push over compared to most of other bosses. I only killed 1 npc so I wasn't over leveled in fact since I decided to turn both McCullum and Dr Swansea I was on negative experience points by the end of the game (I ended up lvl 26). Harriet Jones was way more difficult to me at least, she did a lot of damage however she doesn't have much health even for a level 39 using the shadow ultimate on her dealt massive damage + the max upgraded shotgun with the fire mod doing 800 damage per shot did the trick pretty quickly. Oddly enough the red queen was only 32 for some reason, she is also weak to melee attacks using my max upgraded scythe + blood shield allowed me to deal a lot of damage without fearing counter attacks, she went down in no time
That last exchange😂 I lost it when first I encountered this line of dialogue. Could Jonathan have reacted any more awkward??🤣🤣 The voice acting is spot on, as if Jonathan hadn't even have the time to even wonder himself whether he could in fact still fuck in his current and new vampire state. Priceless! I love the game but you are right in all your observations. One of the things that annoy me the most is the lack of a new game plus. Why isn't there one? As soon as I finished it, I was looking forward to starting a new game plus so I could take different decisions on the fate of all key NPCs but alas! there is none, so you're forced to start from the beginning. A good addition to a new game plus would be to have all gates and doors unlocked and the possibility to fast travel to hideouts. That alone would make the experience to revisit the game a second time a lot more fluid and fun (because at the beginning to constantly navigate a labyrinth with all those locked gates is just so frustrating😤) I have the impression that I haven't really fleshed out all the potential of the game with only one playthrough. I missed most opportunities to eavesdrop on those dialogues that reveal key hints and info, for example. I'm not sure whether it's at all possible to really help and solve all patients' medical diagnoses at Pembroke (if anyone has done this, please tell me about it). I really liked the story and the myth of the vampires as it's presented in this game. It did feel like the romance between Jonathan and Elizabeth was kind of forced and came out of nowhere, though. I mean, one moment they are chatting, exchanging intel, getting to know each other and aiding each other, and then next, it's all "my love", "the woman I love", etc. Where did that come from? I saw no chemistry between them other than collaborating for the sake of the city and mankind (unless I missed something??🤔) I for one wanted a vampire game and I came across Vampyr. I bought it second-handed for PS4 so I thought the low price was worth it to give it a shot, even though I didn't know a thing about the game then. It was a good purchase but I wouldn't have paid full price for it. Ideally, there would be a sequel to improve on Vampyr and expand its world mechanics, combat system, etc. If I have to rescue the best of this game, that'd be the superb voice acting and the exquisite original soundtrack.
Yeah, there is no chance I'm ever playing a vamp game where I'm the Sean Hampton of vampires. :) I enjoyed this game immensely up to the final bit where the game really pulled the rug from under me. The boss was way too powerful for me to be able to predict or handle at that point and my choice of weapons and skills proved incredibly ineffective in this instance. In short, my hand was forced to go out and raze what little there was left in the game (which I really didn't want to do from a roleplaying aspect) only to be able to boost my character and completely reinvent my playstyle by which point the fight wasn't even moderately challenging but trivial. I can't see reason in any of this. I lost interest by this point but thankfully it's only the very end of the game and managed not to mar the whole experience too much for me. Other than that, highest marks from me and would definitely like to see more of its kind.
I thought I was going to really love this game in the first hub felt super fresh and the idea of a doctor vampire in the era seemed really novel but by the time I got to the sewers I realized it was just going to repeat itself till the end and I didn't even end up finishing it
Mini Review: I had an eye on this game around time of release and I was definitely interested in it. I got this "free" through Playstation + subscription and am now (December 2020) getting around to playing it. It's a very flawed game, but I still want to see it through. I will still complete it. It would be really nice if they worked in some patches to fix a few bugs and maybe allowed for more than 3-6 words to make it into these dialog choices. I like some of the dev's decisions to incentivize playing a 2nd time/prevent the player from reloading or abusing saves to get the "right" dialog option, but I think you have to do a better job on the dialog tree to keep a system like that in place. Prevent the seasoned RPG players from perma missing on hints due to a wrong choice and do a better job on explaining what the hell you're actually choosing in some of these pivotal moments with the pillar characters of each area. The combat was a means to an end. I enjoyed becoming more powerful in fights from using the embrace mechanic. But it doesn't feel skill based like Souls RPGs do. It's more of knowing which skills to go for and not being braindead when doing your build. Overall this is a western RPG style that we need to see more of.
This game makes me think Bloodborne, and wins for that reason alone. There aren't enough games out there with a dark victorian style horror tone, considering how successful Bloodborne was its surprising that lots of other companies didn't jump on the bandwagon.
Looks to me like the translation was done partly with an app. They’ve made literal translations of words that make no sense or mistranslations where words have a number of different options in English dependant on context
Sorry for another post...But some may find it interesting that Fox21 is making a tv series based off of this game. Like with Dr. Reid etc.... For someone who loved the game I am crossing my fingers it does well because that practically makes a second game a certainty if so....Here is hoping!
Thanks for the really good review. I really enjoyed the game but my main gripe was looting. I was immersed in the RPG aspect of the doctor / vampire dichotomy but the loot system made me feel like a thief and really didn't sit well with Reid as a character. Breaking into houses and stealing money from the poor left an extremely bad taste.
Breaking in and stealing all their blood would also have tasted bad, but if that's where the "loot" came from it would have at least fit the universe better.
11:02 You yourself have a very soothing voice if that isn't a weird thing to say, very pleasant to listen to, but maybe because your voice reminds me of someone I know.
