What has the video game vampire done for us recently? Not a lot, is the answer. Whilst many a bloodsucker has taken pride of place in many a great game over the decades, few examples have managed to define a starring role for themselves within modern gaming culture. Take away Castlevania's Gabriel Belmont, as well as peripheral examples such as Metal Gear Solid's Vamp, Disgaea's Valvatorez or Skyrim's vampire 'disease', and there's not a lot left to sink your teeth into.

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This lack of pale skins means one of two things. Either the stage is set for the glorious return of vampirism, or the whole concept has lost its appeal... hence the lack of options. Parisian studio Dontnod, creators of Remember Me and Life is Strange, is, of course, hoping the absence of vampires has made the hearts of the audience grow fonder.

Pronounced 'vampire', Vampyr puts you in command of military veteran Jonathan Reid and takes you back to London circa 1918; the First World War has ended, the Second has yet to begin and Spanish Flu is gripping the metropolis. Labyrinthine streets are gloomily lit, a lack of quality healthcare and sanitation means disease spreads easily and the entire city is struggling to find the cash and homes required to accommodate its burgeoning population. The chaos and uncertainty leads to violence, the violence causes further pain and hardship. It's a place that provides plenty of potential prey for vampires.

Victorian London.

Pinning labels on Vampyr is easy, but limiting their number is not. With action-focused combat, skill-tree-based levelling up, narrative decisions and consequences, dialogue options, a setting that promises historical accuracy and a protagonist fighting with how to balance rights and wrongs when drinking blood is essential rather than optional there's much to absorb and understand. From a simple feature list standpoint, then, this is unquestionably the most ambitious project Dontnod has ever undertaken.

Tying all of these elements together is the internal struggle going on within Reid's mind. This is man who didn't choose to become a vampire – it was forced upon him through an event that for now remains a closely guarded narrative secret. As such, and given his background as a protector of a nation, the act of killing for food doesn't come naturally to him. How you go about overcoming this internal moral conundrum is left up to you, with your own heart determining which members of society would be missed the least and in what numbers they should be taken.

Filthy environments.

Things are made that bit more complicated given that the levelling up system (which grants you new powers of persuasion and attack) is centred around harvesting blood to earn points. Supposedly, it's entirely possible to navigate the entire journey without taking a single life - although warnings come thick and fast regarding just how difficult this will make things for you.

“ Maybe you want to bring the city out of despair, maybe you don't.

One brief example of this cause and effect design approach came during our gameplay demo, with Reid seeking to understand the residents of the poverty-stricken Whitechapel district. Seeking out information as to who you might be able to eat without causing too much of a disturbance reveals a disgruntled individual that was recently attacked by a former soldier who served in France, the information provided helping you to identify the location of this aggressor and his probable lack of popularity amongst the locals.

Dark and dangerous streets.

Target found, an ability dubbed Mesmerise allows you to control the movements of what are described as London's 'weaker' minds, meaning you can guide victims without a fight to dark corners and back alleys with a view to feeding on them in peace. Still, despite killing in private, the death eventually becomes public, which then affects the state of local district.

This occurs in the form of reports published in local newspapers detailing the fact that a body has been found and that the cause of death is suspicious, a revelation that puts the community even more on edge and makes it more likely to become gripped by fear. In particular, the relatives and friends of the dead are hit especially hard; their stories and subsequent actions altering course forever. Just how meaningful these character arcs are will be key to successfully embedding within Vampyr the kind of narrative value and complexity we've come to expect from Dontnod and, without question, it's the potential for this kind of deeper narrative engagement that is the most enticing of the game's many elements.

“ ...the potential for deeper narrative engagement is the most enticing of the game's many elements

Less impressive is what we've seen of the combat. While it's unfair to dismiss it with so much development time remaining (planned release date is vaguely promised as 2017), it's difficult to understand at this point just what benefits a regularly occurring, skill-point based melee system brings to the table. Third-person combat games are so common that any new entry needs to either be masterful in its execution, or do something unique and progressive. Vampyr, right now, doesn't seem to be doing anything along these lines.

As you explore what Dontnod is calling a 'semi-open world' (with hub environments unified by connecting zones) you come across human vampire hunters and various species of inferior vampires that must be either avoided or vanquished. From what we've seen combat is a case of stringing together combos with set skills that you've unlocked, such as 'Spring' which essentially grants you the ability to teleport across gaps to cover ground quickly and catch foes off guard. You can also use Spring to scale high ledges and walls that you wouldn't otherwise be able to tackle.

London street.

Right now there's no weight to the fighting, and no context given for what these 'inferior' vampires are and why they're here for anything other than to be killed by you. Given that the residents of London can be so greatly influenced by your actions, it seems strange that no one mentions these vampires that are roaming the streets. How can a newspaper reporting a death take people by surprise when these things are walking around at night?

Having a combat system simply to appeal to a wider audience or to flesh out the running time is not a justifiable reason to assign development time and budget to building one, but it's difficult to see any other reason for its inclusion here.

“ ... it's entirely possible to navigate the entire journey without taking a single life

There seems to be plenty of intrigue to be gleaned from the narrative elements of Vampyr, certainly enough to based an entire game around. Therefore, based on what we've currently seen and know, it feels as though the game would be better off without combat altogether. While it's true to say that there's a lot of time left to fix this element, Dontnod's past history raises alarm bells. Remember Me provided a wonderful setting, well-drawn characters and an interesting narrative, but its combat left an enormous amount to be desired and hindered its final value. Fingers crossed the studio isn't going to make the same mistakes here.

No matter what, though, credit must go to Dontnod for not simply basking in the glow it's still enjoying from the positive reception of Life is Strange. Vampyr is an ambitious enterprise and, if its many elements can be made to feel cohesive and valuable, could well further the studio's growing reputation. There's a great foundation here, but there's still work to do to build a cohesive structure around it. Luckily, there's still plenty of time to get that done.

John Robertson is a freelance writer who doesn't wear a hat to cover up his bald head. Honest. You can follow him on Twitter