Vampyr (2018)
Vampyr is a 2018 role-playing (rpg) video game made by Dontnod Eleven and DON'T NOD.
London, 1918, the Spanish flu thick in the streets. Dr. Jonathan Reid comes back from death a vampire, a physician now cursed to drain the very citizens he swore to save. Dontnod turns each of the game's districts into a web of named residents with routines, secrets and health you can study, treat, or exploit. Feeding makes you stronger and quietly kills the neighbourhood, while restraint keeps London alive but leaves Reid weak against the hunters and horrors waiting in the fog. The mood is hushed, morbid and heavy with 1918 grief.
Quick answers
What is Vampyr about?
London, 1918, the Spanish flu thick in the streets. Dr. Jonathan Reid comes back from death a vampire, a physician now cursed to drain the very citizens he swore to save. Dontnod turns each of the game's districts into a web of named residents with routines, secrets and health you can study, treat, or exploit. Feeding makes you stronger and quietly kills the neighbourhood, while restraint keeps London alive but leaves Reid weak against the hunters and horrors waiting in the fog. The mood is hushed, morbid and heavy with 1918 grief.
When was Vampyr released?
Vampyr was released on 4 June 2018.
Who made Vampyr?
Vampyr was made by Dontnod Eleven, DON'T NOD and Focus Entertainment.
Similar games
Explore Vampyr guides
Vampyr in our writing
- Companion guide: Gothic Romance
- Companion guide: Vampires: The Complete Bloodline
A few thoughts on Vampyr
The clearest print companion is American Psycho, another first-person predator narrating who to spare and who to consume, and the fog-bound London of Sherlock Holmes matches the period exactly. On screen, Penny Dreadful shares the gaslit plague-and-monsters register almost note for note. Want the combat harder and the gothic bleaker? Load Bloodborne next.
Gothic horror where monsters hide among ordinary people
Vampyr's London looks normal until you learn every resident has a name, a routine, and a reason Dr. Reid might drain them dry. Penny Dreadful stages the same trick across Victorian London's underside, and Sherlock Holmes worked those same gaslit streets hunting whatever hid in plain sight. Interview with the Vampire keeps its monster charming company, while Tomie and FROM trap ordinary people next to something that only looks human.
Ordinary people whose survival requires becoming a monster
Dr. Reid took an oath to heal and now survives by feeding on his patients, a doctor turned predator by circumstance rather than choice. American Psycho and Mr. Mercedes both hide violence behind an unremarkable face. The Institute traps children under caretakers who betray their trust, Attack on Titan asks what survival costs the people around you, and Old Man's War turns ordinary recruits into the weapon their war needs.
Quiet, devastating stories about grief in the shadow of mass death
Vampyr sets its horror against the 1918 flu, a city already mourning before Reid adds his own quiet toll. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and Lord of the Flies both watch innocence collapse under circumstances nobody chose. Wizard and Glass and Song of Susannah carry the Dark Tower's ache, and the Song of Achilles wrings the same grief from a love cut short by forces bigger than either lover.