Hey everybody,
I just finished playing A Vampyre Story.
This game really takes me back a couple of years, and remembers me that I still love point click adventure games just as much as in it's glory days.
The game does well in most features. The humour is at a constant high level, the art is, well, beautiful. The voice acting is marvelous.
It really reminds me of Lucas Arts in it's prime time.
One of the really bad parts is the ending though.
When in an old adventure game we would be like halfway through the game, say just off Plunder Island for comparison, this game just ends when it's getting interesting.
And it isn't that it's just a short game, it ends in the middle of the story!
Sure I've read reviews that the game is short, but it just ends right in the middle of things!
I really love Bill Tiller and Autumn Moon to make an Adventure game that makes me feel like this again. But this is just telling half a story.
Maybe they should call this one A Vampyre Story 1/2 and the next A Vampyre Story 2/2.
I know I seem whiney about this, but I just can't stand it that a new game, after so long, can make me feel like this again, and then just cut off...
Yes, the ending is pretty abrupt. You're not the only one to complain about it though, as is apparent from this review:
http://diehardgamefan.com/2008/12/11/review-a-vampyre-story-pc/)
The thing that makes it worse is (as you can read in the comments), that the game was pretty much advertised all around as having 3 chapters, which makes it look like the 3rd chapter was just cut out of the game. I hadn't actually realized that, until the writer of that review enlightened me.
Sure I've read reviews that the game is short, but it just ends right in the middle of things!
You should have read the review written by me. Then you would have been prepared for this kind of ending. :p
The thing that makes it worse is (as you can read in the comments), that the game was pretty much advertised all around as having 3 chapters, which makes it look like the 3rd chapter was just cut out of the game. I hadn't actually realized that, until the writer of that review enlightened me.First time I've heard of this! Maybe the reviewer was smoking something. :P
Tiller's been pretty open about there being at least one sequel which would continue the story. I hope it's released soon.
Well, the problem is that it does say that on Wikipedia, and they in turn got it from the AME blog (from an old post from 2006). And of course many people tend to copy Wikipedia, and nobody bothers to update the AVS article...
Incidentally... I've seen a lot of people referring to AVS as constituting the first two "Chapters" of the story...but I never saw any indication of that. A Vampyre Story = Chapter 1, as far as I can tell. Was there some Monkey Island style title screen that popped up after the Castle Warg escape for everybody but me? When the game finishes, the book clearly closes on the cover page of Chapter 2, does it not? Whatever may or may not have been true of the story structure in 2006, I think it's pretty clear that a game equals a chapter, at least so far.
You should have read the review written me. Then you would have been prepared for this kind of ending. :p
I'm actually glad I didn't. I don't know if I would've played it quite as enthousiastically as I did now.
I loved the whole gameplay experience though.
I was just dissapointed by the ending...
Incidentally... I've seen a lot of people referring to AVS as constituting the first two "Chapters" of the story...but I never saw any indication of that. A Vampyre Story = Chapter 1, as far as I can tell. Was there some Monkey Island style title screen that popped up after the Castle Warg escape for everybody but me? When the game finishes, the book clearly closes on the cover page of Chapter 2, does it not? Whatever may or may not have been true of the story structure in 2006, I think it's pretty clear that a game equals a chapter, at least so far.
That's what I thought as well - three games in total, this is chapter one. Castle Warg was chapter 1, part one, and the village is ch2 part 2. Unless I'm wrong of course...
Anyway, everything from the trailers got in, so there's no evidence there were any last minute cuts. My feeling is that AVS1 is exactly what it was intended to be for at least the last year or so.
Kind of feels like the end of Back to the Future 2.
The ending to Back to the Future 2 was actually more of an ending.
The problem they had with the book was solved and they didn't need to go to 1955 anymore.
The ending of A Vampyre Story just happened as they where travelling between locations.
They could've at least made an animatic showing Mona at rest in her coffin, or saying, "Well, that's that problem solved, but I have a feeling this is just the beginning..."
Although that would've sucked balls too come to think of it...
In my opinion the extremely abrupt finale reflects the fact that AVS is lacking in engaging quests for Mona except the one to get back to Paris and getting back her life there which won't be resolved until AVS3. Something like having to search for Shrowdy's mother or look for more info on what Shrowdy really is could help make things a bit more interesting, including more satisfying conclusions to specific chapters. At least the foreshadowed quest for an insane servant sounds potentially promising.