Imagine this: you're walking the dirty and disease-ridden streets of post-World War I London where the Spanish flu runs rampant and dead bodies litter the gutters. But there is something more deadly waiting in the shadows for those who survive the virus, and that something is you, a vampire, a creature of the night.
In Vampyr, the new title from game developer Dontnod (Life is Strange), you take on the role of a doctor who awakens one night as a vampire, leaving you to make choices about how you use your new powers and how you struggle with becoming what the predator that you now are.
"Emerging from the chaos, a tormented figure awakes; as the player, it is you who determines how to harness your new powers, by specializing in deadly, versatile RPG skill-trees that change the way you play," writes Dontnod in an email press release. "Your quest of intuition, discoveries and struggles, will be filled with death and drama, while your attempt to stem the irrepressible thirst that constantly drives you to take human lives."
Dontnod recently released new artwork from the upcoming game, showing the dark foggy streets of London, a city plagued by sickness and death.
Gameplay involves exploring a "darkly atmospheric early 20th century London" as a powerful vampire. Combat style depends on crafted weapons and abilities chosen by the player. Moral choices affect how the story turns out: do you choose to continue embracing humanity or do you give in to the darkness?
There's also one key detail about Vampyr that's especially important: the vampires here don't sparkle. Vampyr is closer to something like the legendary Vampire: The Masquerade, telling a mythology surrounding vampires that Dontnod feels requires further exploring.
"We want to go back to the Gothic roots of Vampire mythology and emphasize their struggling duality: killing innocent people to survive is the price of immortality..." said Vampyr director Philippe Moreau to Gamespot. "So if you, as a player, were a vampire, how would you handle that choice? Less glitter, more grit."
Dontnod's previous title, the episodic Life is Strange, was well-received, getting listed as one of the top games of 2015. That title focused primarily on moral choices, with some puzzle-solving, and featured emotionally charged storytelling that offered a lot of surprises.
Vampyr releases in 2017 on PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4.
