Should You Eat People in Vampyr? A Deep Dive into Morality and Gameplay
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The central moral quandary of Vampyr, Dontnod Entertainment’s action RPG, revolves around a simple yet agonizing question: should you eat people? The short answer is: it depends on what kind of experience you’re looking for. Vampyr actively encourages you to indulge your vampiric hunger through its mechanics, making it a difficult path to tread if you wish to remain morally upright. Feeding on citizens provides massive experience (XP) boosts, accelerating your progression, but comes at the cost of the well-being of London’s citizens and potentially alters the game’s narrative. This article explores this intricate dilemma, offering a comprehensive guide to help you decide whether to embrace your dark nature or resist it.
The Temptation of the Blood: Gameplay Mechanics
The game’s systems are undeniably designed to push you towards feeding. Normal combat, exploration, and quests yield a trickle of XP, making the process of leveling up excruciatingly slow without embracing the dark side. A single citizen offers upwards of 1500-3000 XP, an amount that can take an hour or more to earn through other means. This is a deliberate design choice. The developers want you to feel the temptation, to wrestle with the consequences of your actions.
The Benefits of Embracing
- Rapid Level Progression: Devouring citizens leads to significantly faster leveling, allowing you to unlock powerful new abilities and significantly improve your survivability in combat.
- Ease of Combat: With increased levels and potent skills, even the toughest enemies become manageable. You can explore areas with more freedom and complete quests more easily.
- Reduced Grind: By feeding, you can spend less time grinding for XP and more time focusing on the game’s narrative and unique world.
The Consequences of the Feast
- District Instability: Each citizen you feed upon weakens the stability of their district. The more the people in a district are killed or their health status deteriorates, the more likely it is to fall into hostility, making the area far more dangerous to traverse.
- Narrative Changes: The ripple effects of your actions impact the game’s story and the fates of numerous characters. Choices surrounding specific citizens can have lasting consequences, some of which are irreversible.
- Emotional Toll: Playing as a predator can weigh on the player, particularly given the character you’re controlling is, by profession, a doctor sworn to heal and do no harm. The narrative often reminds you of the impact of your actions through the dialogue of other characters and visual cues.
- Lost Opportunities: Eating some of the unique characters in the game can prevent the completion of certain side quests and character developments, potentially denying you unique items or narrative insights.
A Path of Abstinence: The “Good” Doctor
Playing as a “good” doctor by avoiding feeding on citizens is a significantly greater challenge. You will be severely limited in terms of experience, meaning you’ll need to be more tactical, precise, and patient in combat. However, there are ways to mitigate this hardship.
How to Level Without Killing
- Healing Sick Citizens: Sleeping at your safe house will cause more citizens to fall ill. Healing these citizens grants a smaller, but steady source of XP. This requires constant foraging for medical ingredients, but allows for a steady, albeit slow, progression.
- Exploiting Glitches: There’s an exploit using a vendor where you can gain infinite money to buy the medicine you need for healing, though this detracts from the core challenge.
- Complete Investigations: The most important way to gain XP without feeding is through careful exploration and completing the various Investigation quests. These provide more experience than healing alone and unlock deeper aspects of the game’s narrative.
The Challenge of Playing “Good”
- Difficulty Spike: The game will be significantly harder when you are under-leveled, making regular combat very dangerous. You’ll have to rely more on skill and strategy.
- Resource Management: Balancing medicine consumption, exploration for resources, and fighting requires careful planning.
- Time Investment: Leveling will take far more time and dedication, which may not appeal to every player.
The Verdict: Embrace or Resist?
Ultimately, the decision to feed or not to feed in Vampyr rests on your personal preferences. There is no one “right” way to play.
- For those seeking a streamlined experience: Embracing the vampiric nature by feeding on citizens offers a faster and less frustrating way to enjoy the game’s combat, exploration, and main narrative.
- For those desiring a narrative challenge and more rewarding experience: Resisting the urge to feed provides a unique and challenging experience that rewards patience and planning, as well as offering the ability to roleplay a morally righteous character.
Regardless of your choice, Vampyr offers a meaningful and engaging experience that forces you to grapple with difficult choices and their consequences.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. How much XP do you get for killing a citizen in Vampyr?
The average mortal will give you between 1500-3000 XP per feeding.
2. Is it possible to beat Vampyr without killing anyone?
Yes, it is possible to complete the game without killing any citizens, although it makes the game much more difficult due to lower experience levels.
3. What happens if you eat everyone in Vampyr?
If you consume all the low-level citizens early, you lose the opportunity to feed on the high-level ones as they fall when a district turns hostile. This is because your Mesmerize level increases through main quests.
4. What is the best skill to upgrade first in Vampyr?
The most important skill to upgrade early on is your Stamina. It governs all your movement and physical attacks.
5. Can I save my sister in Vampyr?
Unfortunately, no. The game forces you to kill your sister in a cutscene, with no choice provided.
6. How many endings does Vampyr have?
Vampyr has four different endings, two “good” and two “bad”, based on your choices and actions throughout the game.
7. What is the best ultimate move in Vampyr?
Blood Cauldron deals the highest raw damage and has an area-of-effect, making it the best ultimate move.
8. What is the best weapon type in Vampyr?
After hacksaws, stakes are the most effective One-Hand weapons, allowing you to deal significant blunt damage.
9. Can you romance anyone in Vampyr?
Yes, you can pursue a romance with Lady Elisabeth Ashbury. She’s the only constant that the protagonist, Jonathan Reid, can rely upon.
10. What does turning someone into a vampire do in Vampyr?
Turning someone into a vampire often gives you a large amount of XP and changes the narrative, impacting the stability of districts and impacting various characters.
11. How does Mesmerize work in Vampyr?
Mesmerize allows you to charm characters and lead them to secluded spots to feed upon. Your Mesmerize level increases throughout the game’s main quests.
12. What should I do with items I don’t need in Vampyr?
You should recycle most items for crafting materials. However, items with a resell value, like rings and necklaces, should be sold.
13. How do I prevent districts from turning hostile in Vampyr?
To keep districts stable, complete personal quests (Investigations), uncover character relationships and discover all available Hints.
14. Can you save a hostile district in Vampyr?
No, a hostile district cannot be saved once it falls.
15. Is there a planned sequel to Vampyr?
Yes, a sequel is heavily implied and considered likely, given the positive financial performance of the first installment, and the fact that Focus Entertainment has already confirmed a new collaboration with Dontnod.