The plot relates how Jonathan Reid, a doctor who has turned into a vampire, is torn between the Hippocratic Oath and his newfound bloodthirsty nature.

Set during the era of the Spanish flu, London serves as a fictionalised semi-open world composed of four districts, amenable to destruction based on the player's actions.

[2] The player controls Jonathan E. Reid,[3] a doctor who was made into a vampire, and whose thirst for blood compels him to kill innocent people.

To do this successfully, he must study and change his targets' habits, collect clues, and maintain relationships with the sixty citizens under his care in London,[4][5][6] which serves as a fictionalised semi-open world built around hubs of neighbourhoods tethered to other areas.

[18] The "Mesmerise" ability controls the behaviour of weaker targets, like coercing them into revealing information,[19] or guiding them to less conspicuous areas so as to feed without combat.

[9] With crafted medicine, Reid can heal the injured and sick, who if eaten,[7][16] will yield more experience points as a result;[5] the rate of their affliction can be viewed using vampire senses,[20] which also detect blood.

Lady Ashbury invites Jonathan to the West End on behalf of the Ascalon Club, a secret society of highborn vampires.

It is made known that the entity Myrddin, claimant to the role of Jonathan's maker, sired him to defeat his mother Morrigan, also known as the "Red Queen", after she possessed Jones to wreak havoc upon London.

Jonathan defeats Morrigan in battle, resolving then to travel after Lady Ashbury to her family castle, where she hid with her maker William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke.

Development began with a team of sixty people, later expanded to around eighty, many of whom worked on Dontnod Entertainment's previous project Life Is Strange.

[29] The literary sources Liquid History: The Thames Through Time and The Book of Facial Expressions: Babies to Teens provided geographical and anthropological insight, respectively,[36] while the television series Casualty 1900s and The Knick were turned to for medical information.

[38] The period was studied using both factual and fictional reference points[b] to create the visuals, realised with photorealistic lighting,[39] and post-processes running on the Unreal Engine 4.

[1][43] Olivier Deriviere served as the composer throughout development,[44] infusing the score with industrial music to portray the solitude and inner struggle of the main character.

Deriviere saw the choir as representing an oppressive influence on the main character, and thought its combination with industrial music was effective given the amount of post-processing.

[40][51] Those who pre-ordered the game gained access to bonus downloadable content called "The Hunters Heirlooms", which contained exclusive in-game cosmetics.

[64] Emma Schaefer of EGM declared Reid's dualism between doctor and vampire the title's greatest strength, while also praising the character development for imbuing "even the lowest beggar" with some importance.

[67] GamesRadar+'s Leon Hurley, like Schaefer, found the mechanic of testing Reid's morality compelling, calling the characters well-realised and integral.

He was generally satisfied with how choices turned out and said the recreation of London as a "gloomy, somber city" was bolstered by authentic characters, whose writing and performances he also enjoyed.

Tyrrel welcomed the story and enjoyed the citizen mechanics,[69] something Andy Kelly at PC Gamer also appreciated, hoping that more video games would follow suit.

[70] Alice Bell of VideoGamer.com wrote, "Vampyr serves delicious ladles of angst and drama with a hearty slice of excellent, morally grey choice system that will genuinely surprise you, all wrapped up in a wonderfully gloomy London".

[67] Hurley viewed the combat as "functional at best"; "solid if uninventive", and chastised how small decisions led to big mistakes, which he felt forfeited responsibility for one's actions.

[68] Tyrrel cited lip syncing as a primary concern of the animation, criticised the lack of variety in combat, and experienced the same technical difficulties as Mersereau, Utley, and Clark, albeit noting that they amounted to minor annoyances.

[69] Kelly disliked the "dull, repetitive" combat sequences and, despite noting a variety of fighting styles, saw this ultimately as a "tiresome" distraction.

[71] Focus Home Interactive stated that Vampyr would be considered successful if it sold one million copies, although half would turn a profit.

[72] It debuted in the United Kingdom, Germany, and France as the best-selling video game across all formats,[73][74] reaching second place on the Italian chart (behind FIFA 18).

McG, founder of Wonderland Sound and Vision, directed and served as executive producer with Mary Viola, Corey Marsh, Dmitri Johnson, and Stephan Bugaj.