When I popped the
disc for Vampyr into my PS4, I wasn't entirely sure what I should be
expecting. I knew the broad strokes: That I was taking the role of a
surgeon, newly turned into a vampire during the Spanish Flu epidemic
in 1918 London. But beyond that, I knew nothing about the what the
game could be. Starting a New Game, before I became a creature of the
night, a message popped up on screen:
“In this game, difficulty is tied to your actions. The more lives you take, the
easier the game will be.”
Without knowing it,
I was already introduced to one of the most fascinating concepts in
Vampyr. Other vampire games before this have tried to capture the
constant push and pull between a bloodsucker's need to maintain their
humanity and their need to feed. Vampires: The Masquerade –
Bloodlines, for one, did this through the “humanity” mechanic
inherent to the tabletop RPG series it draws from. The way Dontnod's
Vampyr chose to systematize this inherent push and pull has stuck
with me long after I finished my adventure because of how clever and
unique it is.
Being an action RPG,
players gain experience in the process of playing Vampyr for
completing quests, advancing the story, and helping out the people of
London. However, these sources are finite and the amount of
experience gained from fighting enemies in the streets is minuscule.
While players can use them to gain power, they will eventually find
themselves several levels behind their foes. Defeating these enemies
is still possible, but the damage bonus afforded to the hunters,
rogue vampires, and assorted beasts of the night for being higher
level reduces the player's margin for error. Mechanical skill can
make up for the difference in power, and weapon upgrades can help
close the gap. Yet even the best player will die many times due to
the difference in damage output. Death may be temporary, merely
costing a percentage of blood points to revive at the latest
checkpoint (which are mercifully plentiful), but it is still a
setback. To truly even the odds, it is necessary to imbibe the blood
of the innocent.
While the story has
newly undead protagonist Dr. Jonathan Reid work to uncover the source
of and stop the Spanish Flu epidemic, the true conflict is between
the player's competing desires to grow stronger to more effectively
combat the above threats, and to protect the citizens of London.
There are 4 districts that the player will travel to throughout the
course of the game, and each of those districts has a health meter
for how healthy the population is. By healing the sick and saving
people from the predators that stalk the night, players can improve
the health of each district and the lives of the people within. If an
area's population gets too feeble, then they'll no longer be able to
defend themselves and vampires will quickly overrun the area: It’s
population either dead or turned into undead abominations.
Each citizen also
has an amount of experience that they can impart to the players if
they are drained of all their blood, an act the game refers to as
“The Embrace”. While this heinous act can empower Dr. Reid, it
comes at a dramatic cost to the well-being of the community, reducing
its overall health. The more influential the person is to the
community, the more experience they are worth, and the worse off
their neighbors will be for their absence. In this way, we as players
feel Dr. Reid's struggle between his profession and his vampiric
nature through the mechanics of the game itself. By abstaining from
human blood, he is deliberately hindering the development of his
powers. However, embracing his true nature is a fundamentally
destabilizing act, especially while the city is in the throws of one
of the worst biological disasters of all time.
Yet that is only one
way that Vampyr emphasizes this conflict of character. Players do not
simply level up once they meet experience threshold like in many
other RPGs. To cash in on all the upgrades they can afford, players
need to seek asylum in one of the many hideouts scattered across the
city and spend the day resting. Unfortunately, time does not stand
still for the world outside while they are sound asleep. The people
of London act out their daily routines during this time, and that's
when the effects of Dr. Reid's nightly activities start to make
themselves known. If the player has been treating people's illnesses
and reigning in the impulse to feed, they'll see the health of each
borough improve. If they've been neglecting their duties or feasting
upon the populace, then the regions will suffer and may fall if left
unchecked.
Time doesn't advance
until the player rests in this manner, so by spending experience to
grow stronger, players expose the city to the risks that their
actions have opened up. Even if they've been a perfectly good steward
to the civilians, the people may still grow sick as a result of their
daytime activities. This means that even the player who chooses not
to feed needs to be careful of when and how often they rest, lest
they need to “make the rounds” and spend too much time and
resources so that London remains healthy. In this way, Vampyr even
makes the passive accrual of power a risk to the population, and
exacerbates the consequences of unchecked hunger.
One of the first
things that Vampyr teaches players about it's version of its titular
monsters is that they do not necessarily need blood to survive. They
are immortals, and aside from their own weaknesses, they will endure.
That said, blood allows them to stay strong and use the powers that
their undying form affords them. Every part of the game is a constant
reminder of this fact. Whenever Johnathan Reid talks to an innocent
person, there is a HUD displaying the amount of experience their
blood would confer to him. Each death, each difficult fight, and each
overly long load time serve to underscore how the adventure would be
so such easier if the player would give into their instinct and
consume. But despite this, the only way to get the game's best ending
is to endure. Only by affirming their strength of will, and resisting
this nearly constant temptation, the player can prove that they held
onto their humanity even through the worst of it. That is the
strength of Vampyr, and why it shines as one of the best examples on
how to mechanically capture the horror of the titular (yet
archaically spelled) bloodsucker.
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