Dontnod’s next game really, really isn’t Life Is Strange. Vampyr is set just after the first world war, in a time of disease and death, and you play a doctor-turned-vampire trying to survive. Revealed today, you can be as brutal as you like in doing so – either wiping out the entire NPC population of the game, or keeping them all safe at cost to yourself.
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“This is the golden rule – you can take the lives of everybody in the game,” explains narrative director Stéphane Beauverger. “There is no exception, even if it’s your own family. You have a mesmerise ability that allows you to lead someone into the shadows to do so. [To do that] the mesmerise level of your character has to be equal or more the mind resistance level of your target. So you can’t kill everyone at the beginning of the game.”
But as you progress and level up, your lethality increases along with your other stats. “At the end of the game, you have the possibility to kill everyone” explains Beauverger, also saying that your character is not a very nice guy. “You are a predator that has to take lives. You are not the real hero, the real heroes are the vampire hunters that try to take you down. You have to deal with the fact they consider you a beast, a monster, you have to face that, you have to prove to them by your actions that you can be trusted, that you are not someone who is completely heartless.”
Art director Grégory Szucs adds that “You are very much in charge, you are not watching a TV show and being disgusted at the heroes actions – if you do something disgusting it’s because you chose to do it.” That’s where the options come in. If you want, you can complete the whole game without killing anyone – but it won’t be easy.
“You have the right to feed on the rats if you want,” says Beauverger. “You will get no experience points, you will just get blood, so you will stay very weak, but you can try to do that.”
Which do you think you’ll go for?