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Metacritic OpenCritic
IGN – 7/10
Vampyr is a slow burn of an RPG, taking its time to ramp up its intriguing blend of science and the supernatural in an elaborately gloomy version of London. When it gets going you can see the potential of the way it offers you more power if you consume its interesting citizens. But Vampyr never commits to this idea to the point where I felt I needed to make that sacrifice to succeed in its relatively simple combat, which leaves it feeling toothless and vulnerable to having a lot of its fun sucked away by technical issues, despite its genuinely engaging story.
Game Critics: 9/10
With great combat, compelling characters, and a mission structure that ensures the players sees the direct effects of their actions, Vampyr is one of the best action-RPGs I’ve ever played. While it may not offer the sheer size of a Witcher or Fallout, it tells a resonant and consequential story that’s married it to some of the best open-world quest design around. This is one that’s absolutely not to be missed.
Game Revolution – 5/10
Vampyr feels like a game from a different time. No, I don't mean because it's set in 1918 London. Vampyr feels like a dug-up PlayStation 2 game. It wears its ambition on its sleeve, even if it looks at times to be wearing a tank top. The underlying game mechanics require a certain amount of suspension of disbelief, but those that can will find an entertaining penny dreadful.
Dual Shockers – 8.5/10
The bottom line: Vampyr is a great experience. Its fun story will keep you intrigued for hours upon hours, and refined and simple gameplay will keep you hooked for even more. While the game does suffer from a few bugs and texture problems here and there, it doesn’t stop it from being a terrific game, one might even call it a sleeper hit. If you’re looking for a long game to sink your teeth into during the game’s industry’s normal summer lulls, then this might be perfect for you.
Eurogamer (unscored)
But had Vampyr taken time to fully flesh out all those moral grey areas for the rich narrative vein they presented, rather than treat them as a resource to prop up an unremarkable combat system, it could have been a pretty special game. As it is, even with lashings of the red stuff, Vampyr ends up decidedly beige.
Rock, Paper, Shotgun (Wot I Think)
I’m frustrated that Vampyr falls just short of truly combining a smart choose-your-own-adventure game with a meaty action one. It’ll never happen, but a director’s cut that thins the sombre exposition and eases the medical busywork, injects more pep, and makes decisions decisions, rather than often either a roulette wheel or a railroaded path, would create a dream combination of darkness and light. Nonetheless, as a sprawling midnight world of tight fights and atmospheric exploration, this is a fat vein I keep returning to.
Polygon (unscored, not finished playing yet)
The easy way out for Dontnod would have been to take the most time-worn tropes from dime store horror novels, season to taste with period melodrama and serve it all up for players to enjoy. Vampyrreaches for more, and I’m very interested to see if the finale does it all justice — and to discover who I’ll be forced to kill off in order to be powerful enough to see the game through.
GameSpot – 7/10
And yet, the credits roll on Vampyr with the realization of how seldom we see an open-world RPG experience like this, where being a citizen with a responsibility to a place and its people feels personal, even if that investment lies in who looks delicious tonight. Vampyr is certainly shaggy and rough in the technical department, but its narrative successes still make for an impactful and worthwhile experience.
Destructoid – 6/10
The story may be a tad lackluster, and the combat may be clunky as hell, but Vampyr does offer a compelling adventure for those looking for some blood-sucking fun. It also manages to effectively make you feel like a creature of the night at times. Unfortunately, the frequent technical issues sapped just about every ounce of joy from the experience, leaving this digital world a dry, lifeless husk.
IGN Spain – 8/10
An amazing game full of darkness, vampires and blood in the London of the first quarter of the 20th Century. A great mix of exploration, conversations and hard ecounters with dangerous creatures of the night.
Hardcore Gamer – 4/5
It takes some doing to find a middle-ground between two such conflicting genres, but Dontnod have done a terrific job marrying Adventure and Action RPG elements into a pleasant and modestly cohesive whole. Though some technical blemishes and unconvincing choices in the artistic/aesthetic department do stop the game from achieving excellence, Vampyr‘s vast assortment of stand-alone moments and finer details alike end up making this harrowing journey through an epidemic-plagued London more than a satisfying experience. Vampyr is, in the end, a cleverly orchestrated series of tense uncertainties and genuinely difficult choices, sprinkled all the while by some pleasantly dynamic spots of world-building and opportunities to progress, regardless of play-style. But it’s the moral ambiguity of its choice-based actions that are most resonant — the joy, ironically, lying once again in seeing one’s decisions unfold. With a wide assortment of characters to consider and a brilliantly-integrated soundtrack to match, though some tasks can feel like unwanted busywork, for those patient and willing enough to invest the time and effort, Vampyr is undoubtedly another rewarding and impressive feat of gameplay and narrative fusion that Dontnod have treated us to.
PC Gamer – 68%
Twinfinite – 4/5
Ultimately, the sum of Vampyr’s emphasis on story, combat, and progression combine to produce a video gaming experience that will appeal to those outside the RPG and adventure genres that it seeks to combine. My hope is that it finds its audience so that we might yet again see Dr. Reid on an even grander scale in the future.
PC Master Race – 88%
(Google Translated)
Games Radar – 6/10
As a whole, though, there’s a good, if occasionally clunky, game here, with some really interesting ideas. That central pull of vampiric power at the expense of people’s lives and the evident consequences of all your actions is well realised. While the sense of investment in the world is strong as you run around with pockets full of drugs trying to avert disease based failure. The people you’re trying to save, or deciding to eat, are fleshed out well enough, and with enough complexity, to leave you making decisions based on what you believe, not through totting up some in-game metric. It’s a very narrative focused game with some rough edges, and a slow conversation heavy pace, but the shape overall is an enjoyable take on a gothic vampire fantasy.
Push Square – 6/10
It's a real shame, because Vampyr has some really interesting ideas that never really come to fruition due to its narrow-minded focus on a combat system that's dull, unappealing, and quite frankly unnecessary. If the RPG system was tied into improved dialogue options, we might have had another Life Is Strange on our hands. Instead, it's likely to be another Remember Me.
VideoGamer – 7/10
Vampyr serves delicious ladles of angst and drama with a hearty slice of excellent, morally grey choice system that will genuinely surprise you, all wrapped up in a wonderfully gloomy London. It's just a shame the combat turns a bit sour.
GamingBolt – 8/10
Vampyr is an imperfect game, that much is pretty clear even at first glance, but it is also a deeply ambitious and thoroughly engaging one. It constantly presents players with a string of truly tough decisions, both through its narrative and its gameplay, and then actually makes you live with the consequences of every decision you make, sometimes in truly surprising ways. Its atmospheric setting and its complexly layered gameplay loop are let down by some issues in the writing department and some underwhelming combat, but such issues aren’t nearly enough to prevent it from being an incredible and unique experience.
Hobby Consolas – 88/100
(Google Translated) Despite its more than obvious flaws, Vampyr has the potential to become a cult game among lovers of the vampiric genre. If you are able to see beyond its technical limitations, its history and characters will catch you in your arms and will not let go until you have consumed every last drop of … your time.
RPG Fan – 89%
In a market saturated by AAA titles, Vampyr is an excellent example of why we need more AA games. It's not the prettiest or the smoothest experience, but then again, it's really not trying to be. What Vampyr wants to do is tell the story of a newborn vampire who holds the fate of post WWI-London in his hands; the focus is on story, atmosphere, and making hard decisions that have hard consequences. Vampyr succeeds quite handily at all of this, and if that sounds like the kind of game you'd like to play, I recommend checking it out. Make sure to pace yourself, though, because every night will be long and bloody.
Venture Beat – 75/100
At no point in Vampyr did I have fun following trails of blood, mixing antiquated remedies out of opium, or bludgeoning some Crucifix wielding goon in a mask for the 50th time. But I was constantly compelled forward to find out what next grim choice it would give me, anxious to spend yet another night in one of its safehouses to see if my efforts to keep London’s souls alive another day had worked. Whenever a district turned back over to healthy, I could feel myself actually breathing easier.
WCCFTech – 8/10
Dontnod worked hard to create an immersive, dark world to explore and it succeeds in doing so. Despite some boring conversations, most of the world of Vampyr is an exciting, dangerous place and if nothing else, being a vampire in here is also very fun.
