In preparation for the launch this upcoming Tuesday, Focus Home Interactive and Dontnod Entertainment released the official launch trailer for Vampyr, the new IP from the makers of Life Is Strange that takes players to a post-World War I London, where a veteran attempts to reintegrate into society. But as depicted by the creepy and awesome new trailer, things don't go over so well for the Doc.
The launch trailer was posted up on Focus Home Interactive's YouTube channel. It starts with the protagonist, Dr. Jonathan Reid, explaining that his life changed overnight and that there's now a new hunger inside of him. We get clips of a Gothic-looking London while Reid explains that he's become a vampire.
The trailer is put together quite well, as Reid explains that he knows he will be hunted down, we see glimpses of priests using crosses on Dr. Reid, while also getting brief moments of the vampire hunters featured in Dontnod's Vampyr.
The music begins to ratchet up and take over, as we get a series of images of Reid biting his victims in order to fulfill his insatiable lust for blood.
We also see the juxtaposition between Dr. Reid as a vampire and Dr. Reid as a practitioner of saving lives. We see him examining patients, talking with the townsfolk and attempting to uphold the Hippocratic oath.
The end of the trailer features more voiceover work, as Dr. Reid explains that his life has become a waking nightmare and that he didn't choose to become a vampire, much like how Adam Jensen never asked to become a cool looking cyborg in Deus Ex: Human Revolution.
And much like Jensen, Reid is also put into a position where he can also choose whose life (or lives) he takes. This plays into one of the core gameplay aspects of Vampyr, where players will need to keep Jonathan Reid alive (or rather, undead) by consuming blood from the living. This means players will need to pick and choose who they kill throughout the game in order to keep the good Doc functioning.
However, there's a consequence to just killing mercilessly, as there are a finite number of people living in the town. So the more you kill to feed on their blood, the fewer people will be left.
The blood consumed by the townsfolk can also be used to upgrade Jonathan Reid and his abilities. Much like The Legacy of Kain, there will be different sorts of proficiencies that players can branch into when it comes to Reid's powers as a vampire. These are essential for combating the vampire hunters, some of the other lesser vampire mutants, or the other larger boss types.
The game is more character driven than combat driven, so if you're looking for something closer to the likes of a Gothic Mass Effect then Vampyr might be up your alley. Just don't go in expecting lots of non-stop combat like The Witcher or Dark Souls, because it's not that sort of game. You can look for Vampyr to launch for PC, PS4 and Xbox One on June 5th.
