Playing the vampire – Washington Examiner

The coronavirus pandemic feels tangibly different from other tragedies in our lifetime. The nature of viral transmission makes safe harbor elusive. There is no neutral territory to retreat to. It is no surprise, then, that people have taken to entertainment to try to get some sense of whats going on. Streaming services have seen spikes in the popularity of TV series such as Containment, about the fictional outbreak of a deadly virus in Atlanta, and Pandemic, a documentary about the threat of a worldwide disease.

The closest historical analogue to the present outbreak, however, is the Spanish flu of 191820. Records of that pandemic, which infected one-third of the worlds population, have proved extremely useful for determining best practices this time around. (When New York Mayor Bill de Blasio was refusing to close city public schools, many critics cited statistics from the Spanish flu outbreak showing higher death rates in localities that left their schools open). But what was it like to be on the front lines of that pandemic? The 2018 story-based video game Vampyr by French developer Dontnod Entertainment seeks to explore just this question.

As its title suggests, the games narrative involves the supernatural, but from a vantage point strongly grounded in reality. The main character is Jonathan Reid, a medical officer in the British Army who is turned into a vampire upon returning to London from the front lines of World War I. He is taken in by a sympathetic doctor who offers him a night-shift position at his charity hospital, which is seeking to contain the Spanish flu. Reid is a specialist in blood transfusion, a technique that developed rapidly during the Great War. In real life, as in the game, it was hoped that transfusion could prove key in tackling the pandemic.

The player is free to roam by night across parts of London, yet the city feels shockingly empty. I had briefly played the game upon its release, and this seemed a curious choice. I wondered if it was due to a technical limitation that prevented the developers from rendering a fuller city. But revisiting the game now with the experience of social distancing, this choice strikes me very differently. The streets of Vampyrs virtual London are plastered with posters urging people to stay at home, announcing a night-time curfew (with the caveat that those who must go outside need to wear a mask), warning against careless spitting, sneezing, [and] coughing, and providing instructions for the construction of masks out of handkerchiefs. The transformation of a bustling city into a grid of empty streets is no longer so hard to imagine.

The games London, though not exactly geographically accurate, runs from the citys poorer areas to its comfortable West End. Reid, a successful doctor from a well-to-do family, is a native of the latter. But fresh from the war and thrust, by means of his vampirism, straight into a new conflict, he is no longer quite at home there. The citys class divisions extend to the world of the supernatural: A secret society, comprising prominent figures of state and industry as well as pedigreed vampires, meets in a West End clubhouse. Elsewhere, less charismatic figures hide from the public eye.

Against this backdrop, the player is free to take Reid in a good or evil direction. The player can keep Reid from feeding on blood altogether, though the game makes this difficult by tying his strength to feeding. Alternatively, one might make Reid into an antihero who feeds only on murderers or even turn him into an outright villain. Alas, this attempt to tie difficulty to morality is a little too effective. Without feeding, combat is nearly impossible. Thankfully, the developers patched a story mode into the game, which allows players to take the time to explore London, treat patients, and experience Vampyrs smaller and more personal subplots without getting bogged down with fighting. There are some hiccups, including the fact that sometimes the language feels like a very direct translation from French. Still, considering that the game was produced by an independent studio without the limitless funds of larger developers, these frustrations are minor.

Vampyr is the best sort of relevant pop culture: That is, it is only relevant by accident. The developers independently chose the Spanish flu pandemic as a setting to explore how evil can hide behind natural tragedies. No doubt, the next year will see quarantine and pandemic featured heavily in film and television, but in a reactive fashion. (Incidentally, Fox optioned Vampyr for a TV series soon after its release, so it may well end up being one of those shows.)

Social distancing saves lives. But Vampyr affords players the opportunity to explore a pandemic-stricken city more actively than they can in real life and even lets them play at being the hero. Perhaps quarantine, a time when many of us will have time to kill and nowhere to be, will allow us to appreciate the type of storytelling that can be uniquely delivered by video games as opposed to film, television, and literature.

Vampyr is available for Windows, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch.

Jibran Khan is a freelance writer and researcher. From 2017 to 2019, he was the Thomas L. Rhodes fellow at the National Review Institute.

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Playing the vampire - Washington Examiner

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero