Vincent the Vampire is a gritty point & click adventure with dark, sarcastic humour. It appears to have been stuck in a loop of development hell since at least 2014 after multiple failed Kickstarter attempts. Unfortunately, it is not a fully complete project and has been plagued by financial constraints. However, I greatly admire the Indie development teams commitment and resilience in their passion project and believe the game has great potential. While some elements may be missing and there is no shortage of bugs, it is priced fairly with updates and bug patches being implemented when financial constraints and time pressures allow. My overall impression of the game is a rather mixed one, but I do truly hope to see these fellow Australian developer(s) find success in their future endeavours.

Pros

• Grungy & dark setting, but with humour mixed in
  
• Australian developers & voice acting (definitely biased ... xD)
  
• Classic, inspired art-style

Cons

• Abundance of bugs
  
• Missing voice lines & other features
  
• No hint system

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Meet Vincent. Your average bloke with an office job, no ambition, no life goals and nothing really going for him. Bit harsh? I think so, but that’s precisely Vincent. His dead end job requires him to photocopy pointless documents to hand to his boss, who stands a few steps from the photocopier. He hates it, but what can you do? One day, he snaps and decides to get fired which results in everyone losing their jobs. Depressed and miserable, he heads over to the local pub for a bevvy and finds himself in a bizarre situation. He is dead…. and is now as the title succinctly states, a vampire!

This game is weird. Vincent is weird. The game universe is weird. Do not go into this game expecting logical happenings… that is nowhere to be found here. The humour here is certainly not for everyone and although it is light-hearted, it is filled with sarcasm, irony and satire. Most scenes feel as if they are taken from some sort of bizarre skit, but I mean this in the best way possible.


Vincent the Vampire is a point & click adventure with many puzzles. It uses the classic inventory-based and exploration puzzles to progress. There is no hotspot locator, hint system, objective list or other common features in P&Cs. I did not find gameplay to be very intuitive and without a hotspot indicator, I would miss interactions and be stuck for too long. Often having to pixel hunt or slowly push my cursor around the screen to find anything I missed. I believe there was a control for hotspots in the tutorial, but this no longer worked later in the game. No hint system is a bit tricky as well as there are no instructions or ways of remembering what to do.

Whilst my description is quite constructive criticism, I greatly enjoyed the story and aesthetic of the game, moreso than the gameplay but I do believe that gameplay could be improved with a few additions.


Bugs
Developers are actively updating and fixing bugs as they are reported, as well as adding in additional content such as voice lines. However, I still experienced ample issues in 2 hours.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3262269037

The pathing for Vincent seems to be all over the place. If trying to move upwards, he looks like he is in the skybox. Click too far to the left or right and he is going off screen through a wall. Sometimes necessary interactions just fail to trigger unless you restart or just repeatedly try. Voice lines repeat themselves unnecessarily. Returning to old areas seem to trigger old cutscenes that you had already experienced.


The grungy artstyle combined with the wacky, overly dramatic characters is always a nice touch. Combining the stereotypically serious & dark with comedy, especially that of breaking the 4th wall often made me laugh. Developers also make fun of their financial constraints and add a character that comes onto the screen when “an animation is too expensive to do.” This creative expression is something that I have not seen before, but after reading about the games fight to debut, I appreciate the dev(s) being able to have a joke about this topic at all! Props to them.

Now for the audio… it is the most obvious lacking component in the entire game. Some dialogue is voiced, some is not and this can be quite disconcerting when a character may say one line, but not the next. Or the character you are conversing with speaks and you, do not. Lines are clearly recorded on differing equipment, likely due to the extended development time and sometimes it sounds studio quality, but the next its like someones scuffed airpods while they’re sitting with them in their pocket. There is no consistency in any of the voice actors as each of their recording equipment varies and some were quite unbearable to listen to. Voice acting is purposefully overly dramatic and satirical. With the classic aggressive, bimbo-esque Aussie reception woman. A dumb sounding boss and the narrator generally sounding dead inside. The Australian accents and phrases top it all off and are easy stereotypes for me to recognise, being Australian too, but I am not so sure for an international audience. I have already seen comments about the voice acting being “amateur” and “unpleasant” and they are, and can be… but that seems to be part of the point.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3262269079

Since the Developers have had such struggles to push this across the line, I do not see why voice acting was kept, as in its current state, being unfinished, it really detracts from the game as a whole. I liked the lines that were there, but unless it’s all there, I personally think it would have been better to be completely scrapped and then added all together as an update at a later stage, when feasible.

This game was played using mouse only, and with the following PC specs.:
AMD Ryzen R5 7600x 5.4 GHz
32GB DDR5 5200 CL36 RAM
Radeon RX 6800 XT
2560x1440 resolution
NVMe 3.0 SSD
Windows 10

Controller Recommended? No

Replayability value: No

Vincent the Vampire is an Indie point & click that has truly struggled to be released. To be stuck in development hell since at least 2014, and to have the developer(s) continue to work on the project, despite not having the funds to truly bring their passion to life, is admirable. The satire and setting in the game is not for everyone, but they were one of my favourite elements. However, with many bugs, unfinished voiced dialogue and some core P&C elements missing, it is difficult to completely recommend. In contrary, it is fairly priced at only $AU7.50 with more updates and patches to come. It is a difficult landscape for Indie developers and I definitely acknowledge and applaud their unwavering resilience.

Follow our curator page, IndieGems if you enjoyed this review and wish to see more like it

Vincent the Vampire is a gritty point & click adventure with dark, sarcastic humour. It appears to have been stuck in a loop of development hell since at least 2014 after multiple failed Kickstarter attempts. Unfortunately, it is not a fully complete project and has been plagued by financial constraints. However, I greatly admire the Indie development teams commitment and resilience in their passion project and believe the game has great potential. While some elements may be missing and there is no shortage of bugs, it is priced fairly with updates and bug patches being implemented when financial constraints and time pressures allow. My overall impression of the game is a rather mixed one, but I do truly hope to see these fellow Australian developer(s) find success in their future endeavours. [b] [u]Pros[/u] [/b] [list] [*] Grungy & dark setting, but with humour mixed in [*] Australian developers & voice acting (definitely biased ... xD) [*] Classic, inspired art-style [/list] [b] [u]Cons[/u] [/b] [list] [*] Abundance of bugs [*] Missing voice lines & other features [*] No hint system [/list] [quote] If you would like to see more reviews written by me, please follow my curator page and help support my work [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/34936724/] Cookie Reviews[/url]. [/quote] [h1]Story[/h1] Meet Vincent. Your average bloke with an office job, no ambition, no life goals and nothing really going for him. Bit harsh? I think so, but that’s precisely Vincent. His dead end job requires him to photocopy pointless documents to hand to his boss, who stands a few steps from the photocopier. He hates it, but what can you do? One day, he snaps and decides to get fired which results in everyone losing their jobs. Depressed and miserable, he heads over to the local pub for a bevvy and finds himself in a bizarre situation. He is dead…. and is now as the title succinctly states, a vampire! This game is weird. Vincent is weird. The game universe is weird. Do not go into this game expecting logical happenings… that is nowhere to be found here. The humour here is certainly not for everyone and although it is light-hearted, it is filled with sarcasm, irony and satire. Most scenes feel as if they are taken from some sort of bizarre skit, but I mean this in the best way possible. [h1]Gameplay[/h1] Vincent the Vampire is a point & click adventure with many puzzles. It uses the classic inventory-based and exploration puzzles to progress. There is no hotspot locator, hint system, objective list or other common features in P&Cs. I did not find gameplay to be very intuitive and without a hotspot indicator, I would miss interactions and be stuck for too long. Often having to pixel hunt or slowly push my cursor around the screen to find anything I missed. I believe there was a control for hotspots in the tutorial, but this no longer worked later in the game. No hint system is a bit tricky as well as there are no instructions or ways of remembering what to do. Whilst my description is quite constructive criticism, I greatly enjoyed the story and aesthetic of the game, moreso than the gameplay but I do believe that gameplay could be improved with a few additions. [b][u]Bugs [/u][/b] Developers are actively updating and fixing bugs as they are reported, as well as adding in additional content such as voice lines. However, I still experienced ample issues in 2 hours. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3262269037 The pathing for Vincent seems to be all over the place. If trying to move upwards, he looks like he is in the skybox. Click too far to the left or right and he is going off screen through a wall. Sometimes necessary interactions just fail to trigger unless you restart or just repeatedly try. Voice lines repeat themselves unnecessarily. Returning to old areas seem to trigger old cutscenes that you had already experienced. [h1]Visuals & Sound[/h1] The grungy artstyle combined with the wacky, overly dramatic characters is always a nice touch. Combining the stereotypically serious & dark with comedy, especially that of breaking the 4th wall often made me laugh. Developers also make fun of their financial constraints and add a character that comes onto the screen when “an animation is too expensive to do.” This creative expression is something that I have not seen before, but after reading about the games fight to debut, I appreciate the dev(s) being able to have a joke about this topic at all! Props to them. Now for the audio… it is the most obvious lacking component in the entire game. Some dialogue is voiced, some is not and this can be quite disconcerting when a character may say one line, but not the next. Or the character you are conversing with speaks and you, do not. Lines are clearly recorded on differing equipment, likely due to the extended development time and sometimes it sounds studio quality, but the next its like someones scuffed airpods while they’re sitting with them in their pocket. There is no consistency in any of the voice actors as each of their recording equipment varies and some were quite unbearable to listen to. Voice acting is purposefully overly dramatic and satirical. With the classic aggressive, bimbo-esque Aussie reception woman. A dumb sounding boss and the narrator generally sounding dead inside. The Australian accents and phrases top it all off and are easy stereotypes for me to recognise, being Australian too, but I am not so sure for an international audience. I have already seen comments about the voice acting being “amateur” and “unpleasant” and they are, and can be… but that seems to be part of the point. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3262269079 Since the Developers have had such struggles to push this across the line, I do not see why voice acting was kept, as in its current state, being unfinished, it really detracts from the game as a whole. I liked the lines that were there, but unless it’s all there, I personally think it would have been better to be completely scrapped and then added all together as an update at a later stage, when feasible. [h1]Technical & Stats [/h1] [quote][b]This game was played using mouse only, and with the following PC specs.:[/b] AMD Ryzen R5 7600x 5.4 GHz 32GB DDR5 5200 CL36 RAM Radeon RX 6800 XT 2560x1440 resolution NVMe 3.0 SSD Windows 10[/quote] [b] Controller Recommended? [/b] No [b]Replayability value:[/b] No [h1]Conclusion[/h1] Vincent the Vampire is an Indie point & click that has truly struggled to be released. To be stuck in development hell since at least 2014, and to have the developer(s) continue to work on the project, despite not having the funds to truly bring their passion to life, is admirable. The satire and setting in the game is not for everyone, but they were one of my favourite elements. However, with many bugs, unfinished voiced dialogue and some core P&C elements missing, it is difficult to completely recommend. In contrary, it is fairly priced at only $AU7.50 with more updates and patches to come. It is a difficult landscape for Indie developers and I definitely acknowledge and applaud their unwavering resilience. [quote] Follow our curator page, [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32732116-IndieGems/] [b]IndieGems[/b][/url] if you enjoyed this review and wish to see more like it[/quote]