Vampyr improves performance in latest patch, next will add 'Story' difficulty level
Fangs for that!
If you enjoy Vampyr's bark but not its neckbite, then your story-drinking needs may be met by an upcoming 'Story mode' which tones down the combat. Or if you've mastered the murder murder murder kill kill kill of Dontnod's vampiric RPG and want more of a challenge, a 'Hard mode' will have your back. And probably put a knife in it. These two will arrive in an update later this summer, publishers Focus Home announced today. Before all that, a patch hit yesterday with performance optimisations and target lock-on changes, and the game has a wee discount for the next few days.
As well as performance and lock-on improvements, yesterday's patch notes mention letting us scroll through documents with the mouse wheel and fixing a bug which stopped vamps from crafting spare serum. Read on through there for more on other fixes.
As for the future difficulty-changing update, Focus Home say:
"As well as bringing a host of optimisation tweaks, the upcoming update will introduce a 'Story' mode that de-emphasises combat and a cranked-up, more challenging Hard mode. The Story mode places a greater focus on narrative, allowing players to experience Dr. Reid's journey with less challenging combat. On the other end of the scale, Hard mode makes combat much more difficult. Players will receive less experience from killing enemies too, forcing them to rely even more on embracing citizens to grow in power."
If they're looking for a snappy marketing term, I'd suggest "difficulty level". A bit out there, bit it might catch on.
Our Alec complained in his Vampyr review that not playing in full murdermode could already leave creatures of the night underlevelled for boss fights, so this doesn't sound all great, though I suppose if you're playing Hard mode you probably want megamurder anyway? It is interesting that they see this as also reshaping who our vampman is, requiring him to drink from more randos, pushing him to drink for power rather than just survival. RPS video person Noa has some thoughts on this very subject.
More patches are in the works, Focus say.
If all this tempts you to bite, you can buy Vampyr for £33.74/€37.49/$37.49 on Steam thanks to a 25% discount running until Monday the 30th. Alec quite liked it, but concluded in his review that it "falls just short of truly combining a smart choose-your-own-adventure game with a meaty action one." And he has some real problems with the final act.