Vampirium: 1997 screenshot
Image: Bithell Games

What if Dishonored played like a solo tabletop RPG? Reductive, perhaps, but that's my first-glance impression of Vampirium: 1997, the freshly announced next game from critically lauded indie studio Bithell Games. It's a minimalist take on the Immersive Sim genre—think Deus Ex, Dishonored or Thief—that trades real-time first-person 3D graphics for map blueprints, prose and turn-based combat. An 'im-slim', perhaps, to quote lead developer Mike Bithell.

It also has a very exciting setting. You are a vampiric assassin, which is already pretty cool. Better yet, you're working for King Dracula of England. So, a bloodsucking James Bond with a license to devour the foes of the ascendant undead monarchy. You might be the bad guy here, but I cannot fault the vibes. Or style. The minimalism applies to the aesthetics as well, with cold, professional monochrome UI with neon yellow and red highlights.

You can take a first peek at the game and get a feeling for how it plays in the debut showcase video below, narrated by Bithell himself. Despite the low-fi aesthetics, all of the classic interactions you'd expect in the genre are present, including sneaking through shadows, dispatching unaware guards, and hiding bodies in nearby lockers, plus alternate routes through missions opened up by overhearing the right information.

It's good to see Bithell Games still alive and kicking, even if they've made a pivot towards the undead. After their recent (and underrated, IMO) Tron: Catalyst and Tron: Identity underperformed, the studio suffered layoffs. This might also explain the minimalist aesthetic of their new game, but they look to be doing good work with limited resources.

There's no release date yet for Vampirium 1997, but it will debut as an Early Access title, with an estimated two years of development and episodic content releases planned on the way to v1.0. You can wishlist the game on Steam now, and we'll be sharing updates as and when they happen.