Developer: Early Morning Studio
Publisher: Early Morning Studio
Platform: PC, Mac
Tested on: PC
Vampire’s Fall: Origins – Review
Mobile games being ported to PC haven’t always been a very successful endeavor in the past. There’s a significant difference between playing on your phone compared to a computer after all. Vampire’s Fall: Origins originally started out as a mobile RPG released in September 2018 for both Android and Apple devices, but after seeing considerable success on phones, Early Morning Studios decided to risk the jump and bring their game to Steam this year. And it couldn’t have been a better choice.
Story
As all good RPGs do, Vampire’s Fall: Origins starts with your character creation. After this, we are treated to a short cutscene consisting of a series of still images and narration. In an unnamed medieval fantasy land, the king has just died heirless, leaving the throne empty. Rumor spreads that evil forces will rise to take it upon themselves to rule now, and many small towns prepare their meager defenses in case of such an attack. Your character joins the militia in one such village, which means, of course, it will be this exact village that ends up getting attacked by the Witchmaster and his army of undead. Completely overpowered, the village ends up wiped off the map with you as the sole survivor, now granted with vampiric powers and an insatiable thirst for revenge.
The game leaves you to explore at your leisure, with many side quests and dialogue options that allow you to gather more lore about the world and its people, while the main quest mainly revolves around the Witchmaster’s nefarious plans and how to stop them.
Graphics
As was to be expected, the game got a graphical upgrade when being ported from mobile to PC. The game has a 2D animated topdown view when you’re running around the open-world, with the color scheme being more drab and dark as is to be expected from the setting. When in combat, you get the traditional side view associated with turn-based games. The art is certainly something to be admired, especially the intro cutscene still looked quite good. The only downside is that some of the animations are very basic and the battle interface also looks unchanged from the mobile version, meaning it doesn’t look as professional as most PC games would.
Sound
In comparison with the graphics, the music for Vampire’s Fall: Origins remains mostly unchanged from the mobile version, besides a decent quality improvement. The soundtrack is pretty good and the fights, in particular, have some very satisfying sound effects as you slice and dice your opponents into bits or use your powers. The opening cutscene had some excellent voice acting too, though there isn’t any spoken text in the game moving forward.
Gameplay
Vampire’s Fall: Origins is an open-world RPG with turn-based combat and a lot of influences of classic RPGs. At the beginning of the game, you can customize your character, both by picking an appearance as well as a lineage, which ties into the character’s background and gives a game-long bonus to a certain stat. After the tutorial, explaining the basics of the game and setting up the plot, you are allowed free reign of the world, taking on side quests left and right and collecting loot while on your quest to defeat evil.
Side quests will be given to you by NPCs you can find all around the world. Dialogue options are available when talking to these characters, giving you the chance to ask some useful questions too. Some quests have multiple outcomes, such as helping an illegal operation by delivering packages or choosing to report everybody involved to the authorities. Whichever you pick, a reward will be waiting for you at the end in the form of gold. Gold can be spent at various shops to buy better weapons, armor, and items that boost your stats. You can also sell any unused loot to these merchants.
Your new equipment can immediately be put to use in the next battle. The attacks you are able to use will depend on your type of weapon (swords can slash and stab, while bludgeons deal blunt damage) and your special abilities. These can be unlocked the traditional way: by spending skill points you receive whenever you level up. Every ability can also be upgraded several more times to increase their effectiveness. Leveling will also grant you skill points for your bloodline, entailing things such as your max HP, your chances for critical hits or evading enemy attacks. Using your special abilities in battle does use Focus, which regenerates over time. Should you successfully slay your opponents, expect more gold as a reward as well as EXP, and the occasional drop of armor or weapons.
On a side-note, it might be nice to point out that while the mobile version of Vampire’s Fall: Origin had online features such as PvP and in-game chat with other players, these are currently not available for the Steam version, which is a strictly single-player game. The developers have expressed their interest in possibly reintroducing these elements at a later time, though it’s not a certainty yet.
Conclusion
Vampire’s Fall: Origins is definitive proof that bringing a mobile game to the greater public of PC gamers is definitely worth the trouble when done right. For lovers of the RPG genre, this little gem will certainly bring back some fond memories, while newcomers will feel the difficulty isn’t too steep to get into. With a lot of classic elements, such as skill points and upgrading gear, being present and a considerable playtime, this game can certainly please our inner vampire nerd.
Vampire's Fall: Origins - Review,
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