It's 1918 London, just after the city has lost hundreds of lives to the Spanish flu, and World War I veteran and doctor Jonathan Reid roams a city full of bloodthirsty vampires: but what happens when he becomes one of those monsters?
This is Vampyr, the new game from DontNod, the developer behind Life is Strange. However, Vampyr already looks and feels like a completely different kind of game.
In a new trailer released at E3, DontNod offers a better look at the story of Vampyr, as well as the struggle Jonathan now faces: how will he deal with the nightmare that he has suddenly become?
"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," DontNod writes in a press release. "As a doctor recently turned into a Vampire, you try to understand your new affliction. 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."
Here's the new trailer for Vampyr:
Vampyr will ask players to decide from whom they will feed as they roam the diseased-ridden streets of London. The game will also offer choices that could determine Jonathan's survival and descent into the monstrous. However, although much of Jonathan's struggle is internal, there is also combat: fending off those who would hunt him. That means players will also have to decide on their combat style by crafting and choosing weapons, as well as learning to use new vampire abilities.
Every choice, though, has a consequence.
"Taking lives in London is not easy," DontNod writes. "Killing too many in a district may cause its infrastructure to collapse and turn into disarray. Every single life will also have a butterfly effect on the other NPCs surrounding them; a merchant's wife could be killed and he could decide to close shop and leave town. Every life you take away will have consequences for the city and the people around them: Cursed be the choice!"
Vampyr also features a unique leveling system: choices made by the player affect how many experience points get earned through gameplay. Feeding from innocent victims gives more XP, making Jonathan's choice between hanging onto his humanity or leaving it behind even more difficult: how many lives will he sacrifice before he reaches his ultimate goal, a cure for vampirism?
Vampyr comes out on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC in 2017.
