Everything's great - the pixel graphics, the story (it was enough for me!), the curse system, the enemies, especially the setting, sounds and soundtrack. This game just suffers from a horrible design choice: having the player more or less completely rely on stealth & melee while being in a huge world with almost only vast open space. And it's way too hard. Especially at the beginning, one hit and you're dead. And yes, I'm still at the very beginning and only discovered two resurrection points. Of course you get resurrected (with all your stuff, at least), but now you have a curse on you. Every time I start the game I only play until I die and then I quit the game because I have more important things in life then grinding on a game. So far, I accumulated about mere two hours and no, I did not have much fun with it yet. Like I said, the premisse, the curses, soundtrack, the voice acting of the protagonist, really hooked me. But if I can't have fun playing it, all that does not matter.
As a gamer without skills, I played it on EASY and had no problems, even fun fighting monsters. Thanks to a fully upgraded shotgun, I managed to even smoke the later bosses, including the final boss. (Thank you for that, developers! :)) Dodging is like a mini-shadow-teleport and you have a vampire sense which makes everything black/white, while blood is RED. This looks so simple, yet so amazing! Some say the story is a bit bland, but actually it's convincing and interesting. Dr. Jonathan Reid really takes you with you and I liked the story of every citizen, and loved the ones from your antagonists. Everything unfolds more and more, and I like the fact it's not on a grand scale (like being the savior of the world or hero to safe the universe) but only you and about 50 or so citizens. Less is sometimes more! It's also worthy to note that every death has its consequences. I aimed for the best ending and was very satisfied with it, as it gets REALLY good. I bought the "The Hunter Heirlooms" DLC, and I used the Dragonbane dagger and Barker pistol (both leveled up) the whole playthrough, because all other weapons were not interesting. The crafting system for remedies (for healing citizens) is easy to understand, not too bloated and fits well in the story. The UI is clean and understandable. This was also probably the first game I read EVERY conversation without skipping any part of the conversation like in Skyrim. The game setting is beautiful and I sometimes just stood still to admire the levels. I hope there will be a second Vampyr, because I had so much fun with this one.
Did you like Blakestone or Wolfenstein 3D? Then definitely get this one! Beautiful artstyle, smooth controls, perfect ambient music and great level design. And oh, you can save the game whenever you like. It's as simple and beautiful as it can get!
Was it THAT hard in the early 2000s to make normal controls that make a game playable? Times where there is a "mouse look toggle" mode are long overdue since the 90s. Maybe the developer's didn't get the memo.
A game where an (of course) unskippable tutorial is so hard it's almost unbeatable and the internet forums are flooded with topics of how to beat the tutorial (!) / do the combo. Did the developers just think "Hey, let's make it as complicated and hard as possible!" or was there never an intention of making the game fun? Well, don't know, don't longer care tbh. Tried 20 minutes to finish the tutorial, did not succeed. Maybe a good game, maybe not, but will definitely be a candidate for a refund.
Are you one of those guys who have little time, little skill and have the desire to be a monster hunter who just slays, without having to be a pro gamer? This game on easiest difficult is the answer. And it's a LONG time since I had such a blast in game. While other games like DMC need you to remember dozens of combos, this game is pretty straight forward and even boss fights make fun. Combined with the autoaim setting even firing with a rifle via controller is SO. MUCH. FUN. The blood, the sound, the finishers, the gore, the fights, level design, the badassery of the game itself and the fact I don't have to ragequit all the time ... it's a dream come true. THANK YOU! 🥰 Of course it's not perfect, maybe some glitching stuff here, NPC don't move their mouth when they speak, but this game has one thing others don't have: FUN!
Well, great idea, great pun/title and story. But that's it. I thought the faster / better I type, the better my character will do. But no. Everytime you get hit, you lose your ability to type, because you lose your spellbook or what it's called and you have to move your character via Shift+ASDF to pick it up. This breaks EVERYTHING this game should stand for, don't you think? And if I play a "Typing of the Dead" - ish game, I don't want to be bothered with running around. Clearly the developer had a great idea, but no clue how to implement it. I will go for a refund after just two minutes in-game, because the aforementioned thing is just a dealbreaker. That's really a shame, because I really wanted to like this game.
Ever tried to hit a fly with the end of a three meter stick? This might be your game. Well, I liked everything in the game. Graphics, protagonist/antagonist, story, sound. Until I got the ship with the AI and was forced to prove I'm an absolute pro gramer who can hit all buttons at the same moment. Boosting, drifting, aiming and hitting two things in short time to make a door open. Everything in a extremely narrow level. Dealbreaker. I started the game with controller. It was ok, but at the dungeon level with the new ship the game mechanic is forced upon the player. It's something for pro gamers who only score S in Devil May Cry, not for peasants like us. I switched over to mouse/keyboard - even more horrible. If you thought Aquanox was horrendous, this is a new challenger. In conclusion: Great game, great potential, everything wasted thanks to horrible controls. That's almost on the same level as Witcher 3 via mouse/keyboard. Descent is from 1995 and was perfect. There is absolutely NO excuse in 2023 for horrible controls like this game has. Dang, the developers even thought it was a good idea to remove the ability to proper slide left/right. Are those guys for real? I mean, we get unlimited ammo, unlimited boost, but we can't slide? Get outta here...
I tried the first STALKER, the second and now this one. Well, it was too much to expect they'd improve anything. So this game lacks everything the other installments do. Maybe the developers should've tried to play their own game, but surely they didn't. The engine / walking feels extremely clunky, the gun fight is horrible and overall it's just a bland game with no value. Graphics are extremely dated and just add to the dull atmosphere of the game. There are beta versions of games out there that feel better than this one. I don't understand the hype and good reviews this game gets.
