DONTNOD recently hosted a fifty-five minute long stream full Vampyr gameplay. If you missed it, fear not, because YouTube has come to the rescue.
This gameplay, taken from around six hours into the story, shows off several of the deep systems that make up Vampyr’s citizen and district ecosystems. Players are free to kill (or spare) any and all of London’s citizens, using their blood to evolve deadly new powers. Protagonist Jonathan Reid is also a doctor, and can therefore choose to heal these same inhabitants by conducting examinations and crafting specific medicines. Curing illnesses improves the quality of life for each citizen and the district as a whole – but for players that only care about growing stronger, it also means their blood offers a larger, tastier boost in power!
Balancing the overall health of citizens with who you choose to kill is vital for players who want to keep districts from being lost. Each of the four main districts have their own health status gauge, which is affected by the number of dead, sick and healthy citizens in that area. As the gauge drops lower, shop prices will increase, citizens are more likely to get sick, and life in the area generally deteriorates. If the status drops below critical condition, then the entire district will be lost forever! This means all shops, citizen side quests, and regular inhabitants in that district are permanently gone, taken over by deadly enemies. If this happens, it doesn’t mean game over! A player who loses all four districts can still complete Vampyr’s main story – though their recklessness will reward them with the ending they deserve.
Embedded below is the game’s latest story and gameplay trailer, titled ‘Becoming the Monster.’
Vampyr is due to release on June 5th, for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC.