Vampyr Reviews
Check out Vampyr Review Scores from trusted Critics below. With 48 reviews on CriticDB, Vampyr has a score of:
Vampyr is the vampire story that I’ve waited for many, many years for. As a fan of Anne Rice and the deeper tales around vampires – and as a fan of stories that are focused on moral conflict and consequence, Dontnod have crafted something that feels custom-designed for me. Yes, the combat itself isn’t anywhere near up to the standards of the genre’s best, but to do anything but dismiss it as a mild inconvenience in the grander themes of the game is to fixate on the least important facet of the game, and to do it a great disservice. Vampyr, based on what I’ve seen other people say abo…
Vampyr is a brilliant single-player RPG with deep social mechanics that make playing as a vampire a truly unique and satisfying experience.
It's finally time to unleash the inner beast (or not) in Vampyr. Is this dark vampire tale worth the wait? Find out in our Vampyr review.
Admittedly, I’ve never had a desire to obtain eternal youth and drink the innocent from their necks at the expense of eternal damnation. But upon delving into Vampyr, I swiftly abandoned my fleeting sense of morality in exchange for unparalleled might. It’s fun to be a vampire, and despite a few minor nitpicks, DONTNOD Entertainment’s ARPG prevails in fulfilling its bold ideas.
Embrace the monster within in the story-driven RPG that is Vampyr! A game that breaks a long vampire game drought and serves a gothic and dark section of London as your playground. So was it worth the wait or are vampires better left sleeping in the coffin for another few years? Find out in the review below.
It’s been a while since a solid game based on vampires has graced our screens. Developers Dontnod does just that and quite well. Vampyr is dirty, gloomy, an ...
Vampyr manages to deliver on its promise to make choices matter. Every decision has implications that spider out in unseen directions, often far into the future. While there are some wobbles in terms of combat and load times, the engaging storyline and premise carry this title far.
I want to like this game, I really do. But it's holding me back from doing so. Reading into it, I find a lot of near-depth, but nothing that the game actually employs has much depth to it. There are a ton of amazing aspects that boost the game, but its larger ambitions lies just outside the reach of its execution. But it is worth a try, and an admirable achievement. In truth, I think this game is more a 7.8, but I feel the current rating it has adequately describes its qualities, while acknowledging its flaws.
Vampyr delivers an excellent story experience, but is held back by its dull and repetitive combat.
A solid entry in the all-too-small Vampire RPG genre
Vampyr is a marked departure from Dontnod Entertainment’s most recent enterprise, the acclaimed Life is Strange series. Tonally a complete polar opposite, and featuring gameplay mechanics within an RPG design, putting aside the story-driven adventure genre that’s brought them such universal praise was an unexpected and somewhat risky move. Particularly so, given that their only previous venture, a third-person action game titled Remember Me, wasn’t all that well received.
The old foggy streets of London are infamously appealing for serial killers since the days of Jack The Ripper. The roads wind and end unexpectedly, the gaslights cast long impossible shadows and there’s the unmistakable sense of danger around every corner. But as you walk down these streets in Vampyr, you are not the victim of the story.
Vampyr is one of the year's most interesting games, cementing Dontnod as one of the most interesting developers around. Go get your teeth into it.
If you can fight your way through some technical issues, a good story and interesting action RPG mechanics can make for a bloody good time.
Vampyr is an Unreal Engine 4-powered RPG set in early 20th century Britain as the country is gripped by the lethal Spanish flu and the streets of London are crippled by disease, violence and fear.
Vampyr is another fantastic concept from DONTNOD that falters ever so slightly in its execution. The story, the world and its characters are all oddly compelling, despite some visual and technical shortcomings. Despite its issues, Vampyr is a rare instance in a game where I felt like my choices meant something and had consequences. It’s a huge shame that repetitive combat and exploration means it doesn’t keep up that momentum from beginning to end.
Vampyr serves delicious ladles of angst and drama with a hearty slice of excellent, morally grey choice system that will genuinely surprise you, all wrapped up in a wonderfully gloomy London. It's just a shame the combat turns a bit sour.
Ultimately, this leads us to the question of whether Vampyr is worth your time with its Switch version. The port appears to be faithful to the original 2018 game, so if you enjoyed your time with that, London is yours to explore on the go. But I would be hesitant to recommend this game to most people, especially to those who expect a Life Is Strange-like experience from Dontnod. That being said, if a stale combat experience wouldn’t distract you from a strong narrative or if you are especially fascinated by the vampire aesthetic and its attached dilemmas, Vampyr might just be worth sinking y…
Like many games ported to Switch, Vampyr is perfectly adequate on the format, but nothing more. If you don’t own a PS4, Xbox One or a PC up to the task and have been itching to play the game, by all means pick it up; you’ll get a lot of enjoyment out of it. The Switch version is the weakest available though, and since Vampyr has such a wonderfully haunting atmosphere, the downgrades and performance issues do detract from it somewhat. Vampyr is still a good game on Switch, but it’s not the best way to play it.
It's 1918 and vampires are in. In London, that is. Is their return a triumphant one? Or will Vampyr be relegated to the history books?
We tell you, it’s a good game! It’s not average! It might have some problems here and there, but you have to admit it is a “Good” game.
There are some bugs that can just be glanced over during a playthrough, but there are a few that certainly need the development team’s attention post-launch. It’s far from spotless out of the gate, but DontNod has created an interesting concept in a world that I want to learn a lot more about. It’s a world that is a lot of fun to explore and manipulate at its best.
Vampyr is an action RPG which probably would’ve done better if the ‘action’ part was left out. The story is fun, the characters all feel like real people, and the decisions on which innocent to devour are perfectly weighty. Unfortunately the player doesn’t have enough say in where that story goes to make it truly satisfying. The world itself is gorgeous and dripping with atmosphere, but its design is maze-like and is both boring and frustrating to explore. There’s far too much focus...
An inspired use of the usual vampire clichés with some fascinating moral decisions to make, that always impact the game world and its combat in unexpected ways.
Vampyr is a slow burn of an RPG, taking its time to ramp up its intriguing blend of science and the supernatural in an elaborately gloomy version of London. When it gets going you can see the potential of the way it offers you more power if you consume its interesting citizens. But Vampyr never commits to this idea to the point where I felt I needed to make that sacrifice to succeed in its relatively simple combat, which leaves it feeling toothless and vulnerable to having a lot of its fun sucked away by technical issues, despite its genuinely engaging story.
Vampyr is very ambitious and presents a lot of cool and interesting ideas, but just doesn’t quite hit its mark.
A tasty, dialogue-heavy RPG with an innovative levelling up system, but performance limitations prevent the port from reaching mouth-watering appeal on the Switch.
Vampyr will satisfy fans of the genre.In Vampyr, you play as Dr. Jonathan Reid as he comes to terms with his otherworldly powers. Freshly [...]
When I was a kid, I tried assembling a model car. This was back before “Nailed it!” was a meme (and before the internet in general), but I remember being disappointed by the disparity between the picture on the box and my final result. Compared to the idealized image, my car was lopsided, painted poorly, and glued together in the wrong places. This memory came back to me several times while playing Vampyr. Dontnod’s gothic action/RPG has conceptual components that could have been assembled into a great open-world vampire experience, but they weren’t. The gulf separating that perfect vision from the flawed reality is ever-apparent, and admirable ambitions can’t atone for clumsy execution.
Vampyr is the latest game from developer Dontnot Entertainment and published by Focus Home Interactive. This action adventure is available for PC, PS4 and
I yearn to give this game an 8. It fulfills many of its promises and I enjoyed my time with it. However—speaking for my Playstation 4 review copy (v1.02)—when you take the above alongside grammatical errors, UI errors, crashes, continually pausing to load, combat clunk, and perhaps its narrow interpretation of replay value, what could have been minor and forgivable grievances deal some objective damage.
This was supposed to be the RPG of the year. In fact, it was supposed to be a strong candidate for game of the year. Vampyr delighted with its vision, hypnotized its atmosphere and promised groundbreaking solutions. What came out of all this? A title whose memory will make us sad for a long time...
Not only do you get supernatural strength, but you don’t have to worry about getting grey hair or wrinkled skin. But then you remember you’d never be able to enjoy the sunshine or chow down on some garlic bread ever again. The horror.
Much like its early 20th century setting, Vampyr feels like a bit of a throwback to a past age of action RPGs. In a time where the genre is evolving Vampyr holds on to past ideas for much of its tenure, and it doesn’t have a story strong enough to overcome that fact. The world itself is ripe for lots of stories to be told within, with Dontnod having done a good job with world building, but while Vampyr isn’t a bad game, nor is it as great as it could be.
Vampyr has a lot of good ideas, but its execution is sorely lacking in most areas. It is a game that is competent in terms of its systems, but ultimately fairly boring to play.
The story may be a tad lackluster, and the combat may be clunky as hell, but Vampyr does offer a compelling adventure for those looking for some blood-sucking fun. It also manages to effectively make you feel like a creature of the night at times. Unfortunately, the frequent technical issues sapped just about every ounce of joy from the experience, leaving this digital world a dry, lifeless husk.
Vampyr is ambitious for sure, but with ambition comes risk, and unfortunately, here it provides very little in the way of rewards.
There were few moments in my time spent with Vampyr when I didn’t feel indifferent to what was going on. Its setting tries to create a dark, ominous atmosphere but only manages to be drab. Secondary characters more often than not feel like checklists instead of people, giving little natural reason to take the time and walk around London healing them. Respawning enemies lead to repetitive encounters littered in the same spots on a map that will have you walking the same dull streets a good number of times. The seemingly small impact of the choices made only enhance the artificial feeling of the game’s world. While the combat itself has both weight and speed to it, and the vampiric powers add just enough spice to make Dr. Reid a capable fighter, fights quickly become a familiar a dance of slashing and dodging. With a main quest that, while having its moments, insists against spending time with potentially interesting characters, alongside stiff facial animations that annul any potential emotion in the voice acting, Jonathan Reid’s journey failed to grasp me. Ultimately, Vampyr is a functional 30-hour diversion with occasional dashes of brilliance, but not much else.
Vampyr is a game that's mainly focused on telling a good story and developing its characters, which it does respectably. That being said, things such as combat, mission variety, and even hardware, end up getting put to the wayside. All in all, it's a rather bleak experience.
Vampyr is at its best when players are digging into the lives of London's citizens and choosing who to kill or who to spare, so it's unfortunate that the developers felt the need to shoehorn in uninspired combat and frustrating exploration elements. Beneath these problems is a classic vampire story that leverages its grim visuals and moody soundtrack to create an engrossing atmosphere, but the many technical issues still make Vampyr hard to recommend, even for diehard fans of the genre.
Our review for the Nintendo Switch version of Vampyr !
When viewed in that light, the story is an enjoyable mystery that brings together medicine and science, vampire politics and zealous hunters, and a city suffering from ancient evils. Aside from a rushed romance and a sudden shift near the end, the story is good and has intriguing twists and turns. Its atmosphere also deserves credit, especially the musical score, which creates the perfect gothic mood for a vampire story.
Vampyr is a vampire action-RPG that is as dark and morbid as it is fantastic and expansive. Now, while that praise is certainly earned, during my 25 or so hours with the title, the game is not without its many problems.
The new RPG Vampyr on PS4 and Xbox One forces you to choose who you want to kill, leading to lots of moral dilemmas.
Vampyr is a collection of wonderful ideas held back by a limited budget and a dated engine. The lack of expression and emotion on the faces of London's many characters, and often disjointed lines of dialogue, plague any hope of being fully immersed in this dark re-imagining of London. A fluid and well designed combat system, alongside the infinitely appealing aspect of battling with morality as a creature of the night, offer plenty for those looking for a new angle on the vampire story, but for those wanting a more complete experience, it may not make the mark.
Set in 1918 London during the Spanish Influenza epidemic, Vampyr tells a dark fantasy story ripe with intriguing lore, moral dilemmas, and monumental amounts of death. In the aftermath of the Great War and at the height of death and disease thanks to the Spanish Flu, Vampyr’s setting is one that is both unique and unbelievably underutilised in gaming. This becomes especially true when a vampiric presence enters into the mix.