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When I bought this game, I wasn't really sure what to expect. I was in the market for a new horror game and I was intrigued by the trailer's promise that the game would deliver moral dilemmas in regard to whether the player should "consume" the game's citizens in exchange for extra power, but I knew little else about its gameplay or its story. Upon finally playing through the game, I was mostly pleased.
The Story
I've been a horror fan for decades. I read and write horror novels and stories. I watch horror movies. I play horror games. In that time, I've found that vampires offer a lot of opportunity for the clever storyteller but that most projects end up feeling exactly like all the others. It's difficult to get vampires right. This game mostly does a pretty good job. It's story, while not entirely original, contains enough unique elements to keep the player interested throughout the game. The main plot does occasionally seem to lose its place and shifts direction a few times, leaving the player feeling a bit disoriented, though the various twists are reasonably interesting in their own right. The game's various side plots and side quests feel much more like standard RPG fare (rescuing citizens, finding lost items), but are well-placed within the context of the game's atmospheric world.
Making the main character, Dr. Jonathan Reid, a physician-turned-vampire provides an excellent playground for the game's writers and the game's player to explore the intersection of science and superstition; of animal hungers and civilized humanity. Though many of the dialogue options seem forced, it's entirely possible to play the character either as an entirely "good" doctor or as an almost completely "evil" vampire. We'll discuss this more in the Gameplay section below, but the fact that these choices exist makes the game more interesting than the standard horror game.
In terms of horror, the game has little to offer. The atmosphere is certainly horrific, but the game is light on scares. Horror fans may be more comfortable classifying this game's story as a dark fantasy rather than a true horror story.
Graphics, Atmosphere, and Performance
The game's atmosphere is one of its strong points. The voice acting is excellent and the game creates a world that feels like a realistic miniature of an alternate-reality of London during the Spanish Flu epidemic (if blood-thirsty beasts and vampire hunters happened to be roaming the streets at the time). The atmospheric setting feels genuine enough and the player will enjoy wandering the city's often-crumbling streets and interacting with the variety of characters who inhabit them. The graphics, while not the photo-realistic graphics offered by some games, leave little to be desired.
Gameplay
The gameplay is where the moral choices offered really come into focus. While interacting with the game's citizens, the player has numerous options. As a physician, you are able to heal characters' ailments. This improves not only the life of that character but the health of the entire district. If districts' health becomes too low, they become openly hostile and you'll meet more enemies while wandering the streets. As a vampire, you can also consume the characters' blood. This gives you the experience necessary to power-up your character and make combat significantly easier, but costs you both the NPC's potential side quests and lowers the district's health. Interestingly and morbidly, you can combine these traits, powering characters up by healing their ailments, completing their quests, and unlocking their dialogue options and then, when their "blood quality" is maximized, killing them for an even bigger power-up.
While these moral decisions are interesting to the player who becomes immersed in the game's world, they ultimately don't have that much impact on the game's outcome as the main quest doesn't seem to have too many branches depending on the players' choices. Side quests may come and go, but the main story seems to railroad the player toward a predetermined conclusion. The game's story may not be as linear as most action games, but this does not provide the open world of a game like Skyrim.
Though the roleplaying is interesting, this came contains plenty of combat. The various supernatural powers you can use in combat are mostly well-designed and require you to balance your health, your stamina (which quickly recovers) and your blood supply (which can only be recovered through certain combat actions or by drinking either people or rats). Unfortunately, the combat mechanic itself leaves something to be desired. Most of the fights involve merely locking on to an enemy, dodging their attacks, and whittling down their health bit by bit.
Against a single enemy, even if you've been the "good" character and never killed anyone for the extra power-ups, most of the fights will be easy. However, easy doesn't mean fast. At least one of the boss fights took me a full seven minutes to complete. By the end of that fight, my wrists had cramped up and I had to turn off the game for the rest of the day to recover. When you're fighting multiple enemies, the combat can be significantly more difficult and might make you wish you'd killed some innocent people to power yourself up. Unfortunately, if you get stuck in an unwinnable fight, you'll likely have to wander a long distance through the town to power-up, then wander all the way back to try again. Not exactly a fun use of your time, though it plays into the moral dilemma: do you kill people to power yourself up and be well-prepared or do you risk some gruntwork later on?
While that's an interesting idea, the game does a poor job of educating the player on the repercussions of these decisions. Combat difficulty is irregular and doesn't linearly increase throughout the game. It's entirely possible that you could feel like the most powerful entity in the city and never have a problem with combat right up until you stumble into a fight that you can't seem to win. One such instance placed me between two unbeatable enemies so I couldn't even escape to power up; I had to just try several times until I was finally able to get through one of the enemies. It's hard to make moral choices when one doesn't know when the stakes are about to be raised. Similarly, the game doesn't really tell you what will happen if you heal or kill citizens throughout the game, so a lot of the decisions you make feel more like guesswork than actual moral dilemmas.
On the plus side, however, the game's enemies are diverse enough in their appearances and attacks to keep combat somewhat interesting even if the player occasionally feels trapped in the same sequence of "lock on/dodge/attack/repeat" throughout the game.
Summary
Despite some flaws, particularly in the combat mechanics, this game makes for an enjoyable playing experience and tells a decent story. If you're the kind of player who likes to finish all the available side quests, it will probably start to feel like it's a bit too long and drags in places. If you just want to play the main quest, it will certainly keep you entertained throughout (though be warned that, without the experience points from side quests, you may find yourself under-powered for some encounters). There's not a whole lot of re-play value. Once you've finished the game, you probably won't feel a lot of desire to revisit it (unless you're collecting trophies, in which case you might try replaying and making all different moral choices). I do recommend it, but I probably wouldn't pay full price.
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From the manufacturer
Cursed for Eternity
London, 1918, you are Dr. Jonathan Reid, you are a vampire. As a doctor, you seek a cure for the scourge that decimates the population, but the vampire claims the sacrifice of those you swore to protect.
Do not resist your predator instincts. Compete against vampire hunters, skals and other supernatural creatures. Use your powers to immerse yourself in the privacy of your fellow citizens, manipulate them, and choose your next prey. Eternal struggle between your conscience and your survival, will your actions lead to the salvation or ruin of London?
Become the savior
As a doctor, you have taken an oath to care for those who need it, and your medical expertise has given you the means to find a cure that will save the city.
Or the predator
Now become a vampire, you will need to survive and improve your skills to reach your goal - and that means you will need to feed yourself.
Influence the lives of London citizens
Every citizen you interact with has a role to play in this world, a job, a family and a story. Impeach the life of one of them, and you will affect the lives of others.
Master your vampiric powers
Expand your arsenal of supernatural abilities to battle vampire hunters, undead Skals and other monstrosities.
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