In theory, vampires and immersive sims go together as naturally as bats and caves. Immersive sims tend to involve a balance of stealth, acrobatics, raw strength and crafty manipulation, and vampires are celebrated for all of these things. Despite this, actual vampire-themed immersive sims are rare. My list starts with Vampire: the Masquerade: Bloodlines… and sort of ends there. In a devastating betrayal, Arkane Austin’s Redfall wasn’t an immersive sim but an open world co-op shooter (a not very good one). The much-delayed Bloodlines 2 was recently downgraded from immersive sim to RPG by new developers The Chinese Room. Arkane Lyon’s Blade adaptation seems promising, but it’s a ways off.
Here to paper over the immersive vamping gap in the market is Byte Barrel’s Trust, “a new first-person shooter with immersive sim elements”. It takes place in a world where the vampires are hunted for their blood, which has become an everyday human energy source, used for everything from car batteries to streetlights. The irony! I feel like, in the circumstances, the ideal solution would be for humans to let vampires suck their blood in return for vampires letting humans use their blood for electricity, but that wouldn’t make for a very thrilling shooter. Anyway, here’s the trailer.
You play a recently awoken elder vampire, who is trying to survive in a quarantined Central European city. “On your path to regaining power, you can choose to openly engage in combat with humans using their technology and weapons, or remain true to vampire abilities, allowing you to achieve goals unnoticed,” the press release explains. “But remember, either way, you need the most precious substance in the world to function. Hunt to obtain blood and satisfy your unending hunger.”
The press release doesn’t give much sense of abilities and terrain setups, but vulnerability to sunlight is a factor. “Depending on the time of day, you will have to achieve a different goal on each given level,” the developers note. You’ll also apparently be able to make use of objects in the world. Levels teem with gun and bat-wielding mooks, and the architecture seems faintly steampunk, with huge glowing silos of what I’m guessing isn’t very hot strawberry jam. “Every run offers a different experience, allowing everyone to find their own playstyle,” the developers promise.
Barrel Byte are the creators of well-received Lovecraftian boomer shooters Forgive Me Father and its sequel, which I shall henceforth refer to as Cthulhoomer shooters, or possibly even Cthulhooters oh wait no no no no no no. You can see that shared DNA in Trust’s comicbook art direction.
I’m disappointed that Trust’s announcement teaser doesn’t show us more of the game in action, but as a wannabe Vlad The Infiltrator, I’m keen on Trust as concept. Here’s hoping we get a proper overview trailer soon, to say nothing of a release date. In the meantime, please let me know if there’s a blood-sucking immersive sim I’ve missed. Could we gingerly reclass Vampyr as an immersive sim?
