This one is probably worth keeping an eye on, if you like short, focused RPGs with well-written characters, a strong sense of place, and a good story. It's the next game from Dontnod, who are just coming off the success of
Life is Strange, which followed the not-so-success of
Remember Me.
It's a mostly-linear RPG with interconnected areas sprouting off a main area. They don't have the resources to do an open world, and they prefer games with strong narratives, which a more linear format lends itself to. They are talking about a game that yields "at least 15 hours" of playtime, so this is on the short end for RPGs (which is fine with me, personally -- I don't have the time for 200-hour epics anymore).
The game takes place in 1918, in London. You are a doctor who contracts vampirism. You need blood to survive, but as a doctor, you are still trying to save lives. You can kill everyone you come into contact with and grow stronger, but that will of course affect the outcome of the game. You can try not to kill anyone, but that will be difficult. The game is designed so that there is a need to kill but a moral struggle over doing it, so the decisions you make about who to kill and who not to kill are difficult, and they affect the way the story unfolds.
The weakest area appears to be the combat, which is described by one the previews as lackluster (the other says they didn't see enough to really gauge it), but they've got some time to work on it, so hopefully, it will improve. However, I'm guessing just based on what I know of Dontnod that they will focus more on story, character, and setting than on combat.
The game is due out in 2017.
Here are some excerpts from previews. More at the links.
"The stage is London, 1918, a disease is ripping through a city struggling to cover its own maintenance costs following the end of World War I. The lead is Jonathan Reid, a war veteran recently and forcibly converted to vampirism. As far as the overarching narrative is concerned, it’s Reid’s mind that takes centre stage as he struggles to remain the honourable man he saw himself as prior to his transformation while having to somehow satisfy his new need to consume blood."
https://www.vg247.com/2016/02/29/vampyr-dontnod-follow-up-to-life-is-strange/
"In line with the narrative and setting, dark colours and especially brown tones dominate the visual finish. In one mission early in the game we are looking for a mysterious nurse in Whitechapel who is apparently blackmailing a fellow vampire. It's fairly quiet and the atmosphere is tense and oppressive. Throughout the game a filter with visible grain is used to contribute to this gloomy mood. The world of
Vampyr appears founded in realism, in spite of some fantasy ingredients.
http://www.gamereactor.eu/previews/394093/Vampyr/
