I'm tempted to give this game five stars to counterbalance all the one-star reviews. This is simply not a one-star game. It's actually a pretty good game. I ended up very much enjoying it and not regretting the time I spent on it. The highlights are the story, atmosphere, characters, and voice-acting. The story is extremely solid, and I liked the lore (I'm not familiar with the source material). It unfolds well, though towards the end of the game you'll end up spending a little too much time running around the map (especially if you forgot to unlock some door when you had the chance, in which case you'll have to go around or backtrack to unlock it). The dialog system works surprisingly well. It could be more sophisticated, but it's on par with what I've seen in other games. And yes, the vast majority of this game is dialog, with good to very good writing and superb voice acting. They do channel you down certain paths, and it's not like a completely free/open-ended roleplaying experience. You're playing a character, and not everything about him is up to your choice; however, I rarely found this frustrating. The combat is fine. It's more like Witcher 3 than Dark Souls, and yes, the auto-lock-on can be pretty annoying pretty frequently. But, the focus isn't the combat, and it's not that hard, so even with lock-on issues, I rarely died. To some saying your character seems very underpowered: I pumped endurance (like a Souls game) and health, and other "basics" like blood%, and only picked one offensive ability and one 'ultimate'. I think spreading yourself thin on spells/abilities may make it harder. I played this because I wanted the atmosphere of a vampire in WWI-era London during the flu pandemic. Gorgeous graphics, great voice acting, nailed the atmosphere. Give it a chance. Also, it's cool that you get to play as a doctor, and moreover, England's greatest expert on blood transfusions.
I'm just writing this because I saw this game was $5 at -85% off in the store. This game should be $5 NORMALLY--$30 6 years after the release of this crap game is a laugh. If you haven't played a Souls game, play that instead. If you have, you will not find this a decent soulslike. I know I'm not going into *why* I believe this--that's because I'm lazy and don't care that much. But, I'll add my voice to the chorus telling you to avoid this in favor of much better titles in the genre.
