For countless years the villagers of Vamp’Ire have enjoyed a life of peace and happiness. But now, rumours are spreading about a wielder of dark magic - a Witchmaster. Fearing the rumours to be true, the village musters a militia to prepare for the worst. You are a recruit enrolling to defend the village. Little do you know, fate has something special in store for you…

Vampire's Fall: Origins is a loving tribute to classic RPGs. Made with passion, by old-school gamers. Set in a 2D open-world RPG with tactical combat, the game allows you to create your character (from a limited palette), choose your bloodline and venture out into the world. It's down to you how you play. Will you wreck havoc in the land, or be the hero people have been waiting for?

Being a fan of classic, no frills, RPGs, I can sometimes get bamboozled by the sheer depth of customisation, skill trees and tactics of a lot of modern RPGs, to the point where I've not found a game I've really enjoyed in years. Vampire's Fall: Origins is a step back to simpler times when you could actually invest in the characters and have "fun" without getting bogged down in the minutia of struggling against a steep learning curve.

When the game opens you are a lowly recruit in your villages army, learning the ropes. It doesn't really matter what you do here as it's just an excuse to hide a tutorial in plain site. Once you've accomplished a few tasks your village is attacked by an army. When you awaken you discover you're the only survivor and you have a lust for blood. You've been transformed into a vampire.

This is where the main game starts... in fact your very first choice will set you on a path of righteousness or down a darker route: to quench your thirst, will you consume the blood of a dead rat or that of one of your fallen comrades?

From here you travel to a new village to offer up your services as a soldier. As you meet the locals you will be given the option of going on quests for them to earn money and other items. You'll soon discover a few more villages dotted around your new world, and your quests usually involve travelling back and forth between them. As you do this you'll happen across all sorts of beasts in the areas off the beaten path. Depending on your strength and skills you can easily take them down, or try and run away. Each time you kill an enemy you gain XP, money and occasionally they'll drop items.

XP allows you to rise up through the ranks, which in turn gives you more stamina to help you battle harder enemies. Money allows you to buy potions (to regain your strength, or travel faster etc), Items can be worn to give you more armour or unlock added benefits when attacking/defending. As you collect more money you can buy increasingly stronger weapons/armour from sellers cited at various locations.

Combat is fairly straightforward. It's turn based, with only a handful of options on how to attack. You have focus points which limit your attack choices. These focus points build, depending on how you use them each turn. Every third turn allows you to complete a chain attack. If you have enough focus points you can unleash some damaging blows on your opponent. As well as the usual standard attack/double attack moves you can use special powers/moves which are slowly unlocked depending on your character's level. Once a power is unlocked you have the ability to upgrade it as you progress through the game. Each time you level up you gain 4 x Blood Line points (these allow your character to have a slightly better percentage change of blocking/attacking/collecting more money if they win a fight/and a host of other skills) and 1 x Ability point (this allows you to upgrade your special powers/moves).

The developers sense of humour shines through, with the villagers being mostly simple folk who utter some ridiculous comments when you talk to them.

Not only will this appeal to old school gamers, but it's the perfect training ground for young gamers who have yet to experience the wonders of RPGs.

9

Nick Smithson