Vampyr gets narrative-focused Story Mode, Hard Mode in next week's update

Vampyr developer Dontnod has confirmed the release date for the game's upcoming difficulty update.

This particular Vampyr update is designed for players who didn't enjoy the game's combat, as well as those who did. Vampyr is a narrative-heavy game, but many felt it's being undercut by lacklustre combat.

Fans of Dontnod's Life is Strange, and narrative-focused games in general, would be happy to know that a new Story Mode difficulty is being added to the game in a free patch to be released on Wednesday, September 26 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

Story Mode is the game's easiest difficulty, with much less of a focus on combat to emphasise the game's excellent narrative. Hard Mode, on the other hand, ramps up the combat difficulty and awards players less XP when killing enemies, which means they'll have to rely on hunting even more.

Both new modes will be available before starting the game. The existing difficulty has been renamed to Normal Mode. You should also expect other fixes and tweaks in the patch, and the addition of Nvidia Ansel on PC.

For the full list of path notes, check out this Steam forum post. Vampyr is also on sale for 33% off on Steam until Monday, September 24.

If you're looking to jump in, you might want to bookmark our collectables guide, and have a look at these tips before playing.