Vampires games!!!

So I saw a review for a vampire game Cabernet on the front page and it scored a 9. I don't think it's really my cup of tea, but it looks OK. Might check it out when it's <$10

So that got me thinking...what other vampire games are there out there now? Nothing really new, is there?

Help me list 'em :D Please note only games where you can be the vampire.

• Vampyr: story-driven, good or bad alignment kind of game. Never finished it, was a bit slow for my taste, but thought it was good.
• Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines: imperfectly perfect game. And iirc the first Source engine game ever released. Great fun.
• Bloodrayne 1 and 2. Sexy vampire (technically half-vampire, half-human I think?) action game.
• V Rising. Super fun isometric action-rpg with castle-building and survival elements. Really good time.
• Elder Scrolls. They do have a pretty good vampire system in Oblivion, Skyrim, and TESO. Hell, Skyrim and TESO both have dedicated expansion content for vampires.

Ever since the film Nosferatu came out back in late December 2024, Vampires in general are starting to make a come back to say the whole Vampire genre is back and better than ever. Even Abigail 2024 surprise me to say the least. And the next Vampire movie to look forward this year is Sinners.

But anyway, Vampire films do help get the gaming industry to take notes and as far as Vampire game goes, I'll just list the ones you didn't mention to check out if you haven't already:

• Redfall - Surprsing enough, that game has been forgotten by everyone here. It's alright but nothing to write home about.
• Dark Watch - A classic Vampire game takes the role of Jericho Cross who is a Vampire hunter but slowly becomes a Vampire as the game goes on.
• Infamous 2: Festival of Blood - Sadly, this is still a PS3 exclusive but nonetheless, it was one of the best Expansion the game had to offer at that time.
• Legacy of Kane: Soul Reaver games - They are all Vampire classic games, but the remasters of Soul Reaver is the way to go and while Raziel is deformed Vampire, he does suck souls out of his enemies instead of blood so yeah, try it out if you haven't already. If you want the actual Vampire game from that series, Blood Omen has you play as Kane as he's an actual Vampire. And don't forget about Defiance.

Castlevania SotN is an easy recommend

@davillain: Festival of Blood was great and it's offered stand-alone so it's easy to get into

Yeah I still need to see Nosferatu, it has to be streaming now, right?

And yeah, Abigail was great. It wasn't anything particularly deep, but it was also a lot better than most of the vampire horror stuff we get. Seems like vampire movies are either all horror or all action and sexiness. Nice to see one that horror but also kind of fun and has a lot going on.

Thank for reminding me about Soul Reaver, I need to check out that remaster that just came out.

I sort of enjoyed Redfall but you're 100% right, we all sort of forgot about it haha.

If there's one PS game I wish got a port to PC, it's the Infamous series. I only played Second Son but I loved it.

@mrbojangles25:

Not sure if it’s related to the movie or not, but, there’s a game called Nosferatu: Wrath of Malachi on GoG. It’s gotten relatively good reviews, I have the game but it’s not my cup of tea.

Best Vampire game i've ever played was the OG Buffy the Vampire Slayer game back on the OG Xbox, but you don't play as a Vampire.

There is the Bloodrayne games which were pretty good back in the day too. And don't you play as a Vampire in Code Vein?

May I present to you Redfall, the game everyone loves to hate

I cooped this game with a friend last year. And well, we sure had fun.

It's kinda weird for me because at the same time I want to recommend it and I want you to avoid it.

If you can coop it with a friend? Sure, go ahead. If you're going in solo? Eh, not so much.

Even the coop elements don't always flow so well, but the solo experience is definitely worse in my book.

It's a game in two minds and constantly at odds with itself.

But I did find fun with it. It is a flawed looter shooter. But then I don't really care about looter shooters so that wasn't a big deal for me.

Finding a great weapon at the start and then nothing for several hours wasn't a huge issue. We could talk about these guns on the mic. Like my friend would find a Tavor or a Famas and then I wanted that. And then I would find a Striker shotgun and then he would want that. So we'd always have something to look forward to. Some of the guns have stakes on them which is really cool. I think this game has about 2 dozen types of bayonets. That's certainly unique to have.

I also wanted to see at least some Arkane magic in here and I even found that: there are these vampire nests that you enter and they are all eery and weird, they are a special place that draws you in. I mean look at the screenshots: clearly the style of the game is there. And it's a vampire game.

Don't you play as Dracula in Castlevania Lords of Shadow?

Actually there may be a couple Castlevania games where you are a vampire.

The Castlevania game few know about.

As cool and popular as vampires are, we have extremely few good games about them.

Best ones I've played is Castlevania games. And the only vampire those have is Dracula, basically.

Other one that stands out is Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines, and that game is both good and terrible.

I've never played Soul Reaver or Blood Omen, but I hear mixed things about them. Bloodrayne is bad, if I'm not mistaken.

🤷‍♂️

@uninspiredcup: What's the story behind that? Was it supposed to be Castlevania? Is it CV with a different name? Or is it just a clone?

@Litchie: Back then Nintendo has a stranglehold on all third parties.

So Sega just made their own.

Eventually they would get Bloodlines later.

Yes and no, Raziel gets a certain mainstay power once you beat the second boss and the sequel explains the power of that cool weapon (cue title drop); is very much a vampire ability. At least in terms of the LoK series.

Blood Omen and Defiance are.. bad games. Not good in the slightest, that's why they took the critically beloved Soul Reaver and gave that one the packaged overhaul to test the waters if anyone wanted more Legacy of Kain.

Legacy of Kain as a franchise has been heavily outsourced and jumped genre a lot of times, the original is a mediocre Zelda clone. And the quality of games only really recieved praise during the two Soul Reaver games. Which in turn inspired a certain game, Devil May Cry.

The team has expressed interest in completely remaking Blood Omen and Defiance to be closer to Soul Reaver in terms of overall gameplay. Assuming the collection sells.

& with the success of the Soul Reaver collection I think that Blood Omen remake is looking very likely. Yet, for suggestions I wouldn't recommend any title that's not Soul Reaver right now. Soul Reaver are indeed games based around vampires and you kill them very often, the whole purpose of the first game is to basically wipe out the entire vampire empire, kill your brothers, while searching for Kain.

Games - VTMB

Movies - Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula 1992

@uninspiredcup: I see. Cool, thanks.

I've played and enjoyed Bloodlines. Master of Darkness, it good?

@Litchie: For an 8 bit game it's quite impressive.

It's somewhat easier than Castlevania though, one of those few 8 bit games you could actually complete.

You already mentioned them for me (BloodRayne, ES - especially Dawnguard, Vampire: Bloodlines). But I should give mention to another Vampire: The Masquerade game, Redemption.

Funny enough, BloodRayne and Dawnguard have Laura Bailey as each lead vamp girl with psychotic fathers. And they (albeit, certain conditions in ES) also fight fascists.

@Litchie: "I've never played Soul Reaver or Blood Omen, but I hear mixed things about them."

Blood Omen doesn't hold up that great, but Soul Reaver does. If you think OoT is still playable, you'll probably enjoy it.

@RSM-HQ: "Blood Omen and Defiance are.. bad games."

Are you mixing up Defiance with Blood Omen 2? Defiance has it's problems, but the combat is the best in the series. It's the one where you play as both Kain and Raziel. Blood Omen 2 is the game that was outsourced and... yeah, it's pretty bad.

Indeed, Soul Reaver for better or worse plays like a 3D game made in the late 90's. It's before the PlayStation 2, Gamecube, or Xbox came in with the 128-bit generation.

Combat for its time was remarkable. Even if the most dated of all its features in 2025. I've played a ton of 32-bit offerings which includes the first few 3D CastleVania games, and they simply pale in comparison to Soul Reaver. The Wraith Blade functions very similar to rank stacking in Devil May Cry; it rewards you never being hit. And in doing so you have.. basically a light saber that blows up enemies in hilarious fashion. Usually in Soul Reaver, namely the early game combat is claws, picking up spears, and throwing enemies into sunlight or beds of water. All to gobble-up those tasty souls.

The exploration is very good however the game has this one puzzle complex and was likely due to limited memory of old hardware. Hope you enjoy cube puzzles, because you'll be doing a lot of them, lol. They are clever with the cube puzzles but I can understand someone new finding it redundant.

The actual pacing of the game is near perfect. Shifting between the Material Realm & Spectral Realm is used extremely well in the first game. Time doesn't move in the Spectral Realm. Which again leaves to some clever head scratchers, not just for puzzles, but boss encounters as well. As you get new skills the game opens up more and more.

On that note in Soul Reaver you technically can't die, if you die in the Material Realm you simply shift to the Spectral. Die in the Spectral and you are just sent back to your master, no progression is lost, you may just have to backtrack some.

It's core design is simply brilliant. Of all the Legacy of Kain games, Soul Reaver is the only game worth playing for its gameplay. The others? well you can just watch the cutscenes on YT, spare yourself the games themselves..

If it seems I'm only praising Soul Reaver 1 and not Soul Reaver 2 that's intentional. SR2 is a pacing mess, is way more linear, the Wraith Blade functions differently. All humans are now aggressive (in the original if you spare the humans they worship you) and the bosses in SR2 are very, very disappointing. SR2 was many the leftovers that didn't make it in SR1, so it heavily focuses on resolving the story of Raziel; his role in the bigger picture that should have been Legacy of Kain series sequel Defiance.

The combat arguably get's better and better as the games go on. Soul Reaver 2 technically has better combat that SR1. Just doesn't go anywhere for it to shine.

Sadly most the games themselves are a big fat mess that's difficult to recommend. Camera, and level design. Not to mention enemy variety in Defiance is absolute crap. Even on its best day Defiance is a worse game than Devil May Cry 2. And that's not something I enjoy stating.

Blood Omen 2 is a weird game that isn't technically canon, and seems the creators like to ignore that one entirely too.

Defiance was also partly outsourced as well, I'm not a fan of the game though I would love to see what they do remaking the game because switching between Kain and Raziel could and should be much cooler than what the game offered. They've expressed wanting to remake both Blood Omen and Defiance, and I think that's a good call. The story is fine for both games, they're just really bad as games even during the times they released. If they can just capture some of that Soul Reaver magic.. well time will tell. My guess is they'll start with fully remaking Blood Omen, as Kain story is really the backbone of the franchise.

We also had the Nosgoth game, which again was outsourced and switched genre. Wasn't terrible but a sign they didn't know what to do with the series.

Going back to the games that made the series popular is a good new beginning for the series. I just hope the next one isn't a Dark Souls clone.. we have enough franchises jumping on that bandwagon..

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines is still the best vampire game for me

I don't think that I ever played any game where I play as a vampire as the main character. The closest I can think of is Castlevania 3 where you can play as Alucard though he isn't the main character in the game and he is a half-vampire and half-human. Other then that I only played games as a human being killing vampires.

@RSM-HQ: That's all fair. Soul Reaver 1 is inarguably the peak, with each sequel feeling like one step forward, two steps back.

Still, SR2 for all it's problem has some of the best dungeon puzzles in the series. Defiance... I played that before DMC 3 or Bayonetta. You're probably right not to recommend it.

I had not heard they were interested in remaking Blood Omen. Reeeealy hope that pans out.

Thinking of vampires reminds me off the quest line in Skyrim.

@judaspete: Blood Omen remake was first pitched in 2016 and was rejected by its publisher Square Enix. This was apparently because Blood Omen rights was split among two parties, SE didn't want to pay for ownership. Since being released from SE they've allegedly resolved the split rights and own Blood Omen now which explains the PlayStation ports of both Blood Omen games. Which also came out near the end of 2024.

You can view much of its concept art for the 2016 BO remake in the new collection. It's exciting to consider what could be in a few years with this franchise if handled right.

I like some aspects of SR2 but playing the collection, back to back, made me realize how much worse a game it is compared to the original. Great cutscenes and some interesting puzzles when they actually make sense. I just don't like it as a video game. Unlike SR1 it's made for its story first with the gameplay being a complete after-thought.

I'm late to this but Defiance is often consider Soul Reaver 3 as it concludes Raziel's storyline while Kane is there for the ride of it. I for one really like Defiance mainly for Tony Jay's final role as the Elder God before he passed away. Always enjoy Tony Jay's VA roles but his best will always be Frollo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame. That's just my 2 cents on Defiance but I will say it was odd that didn't get the remake treatment for a Soul Reaver 3.

@davillain: Technically Defiance actually ends on a cliffhanger with much in the air as to what and who. The follow-up to Defiance would have involved the Elder God against Kain with the pure Soul Reaver Blade, that as much is certain, it's unknown if Raziel would return or not.

The voice acting is indeed legendary and some of the best in any English video game. I imagine recasting any the deceased cast for any sequel in the future would be a heavy burden on the voice-actor who raises to the challenge. Considering the intended projects are full-on remakes stands to assume they want the original audio and pay the families royalties.