Vampirem – Early Access Gameplay

The tombs are dark, the blood supply is running low, and somewhere in the shadows there is almost certainly another vase that I have somehow failed to smash.

This Monday stream took an unexpected detour away from our usual point-and-click adventures. With Broken Sword finished earlier than planned, we descended instead into Vampirem for an early look at Ravenblood’s supernatural journey through crypts, dungeons, monsters, puzzles and an alarming amount of destructible pottery.

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🩸 About Vampirem

Vampirem tells another story from the world of Bloodlust, this time through the eyes of Ravenblood: part Ghost, part Vampire, and very much out for revenge.

Raven begins this journey seriously weakened. Two of his original blood donors have been destroyed, taking an ancient bloodline—and a sizeable portion of his power—with them. Recovering that lost strength means venturing deeper into the tombs and dungeons of the Vampirem, fighting whatever is waiting below.

You can learn more through the official Vampirem website, visit the Steam page, or follow the game on Twitter and Facebook.

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🦇 Where We Are in the Journey

This was our first proper journey into Vampirem, so much of the session was about discovering how Raven’s powers, combat, equipment and dungeon exploration fit together.

It was also a particularly interesting first look because we were playing an early-access build supplied by the developers. That turned the evening into equal parts dungeon crawl, technical test and unexpected developer Q&A.

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⚔️ What Happens in This Episode

Things began carefully enough as I experimented with Raven’s supernatural abilities. Warp quickly proved invaluable for crossing gaps and escaping trouble, while the Sight control began an entire evening-long migration from V to C, briefly to F, and eventually onto a mouse button.

Then the collectibles appeared.

From that moment, the objective marker had competition. Barrels, jars, hidden pickups and breakable scenery repeatedly dragged me into side rooms while chat resurrected unpleasant memories of those Assassin’s Creed flags that definitely never consumed ridiculous amounts of my time. Missing half the vases in one area naturally led to the perfectly reasonable suggestion that we restart the entire game.

The dungeon itself soon became considerably less welcoming. Shadows looked suspicious, traps made narrow corridors feel dangerous, and one particularly unpleasant enemy demonstrated that Raven was not yet powerful enough to fight everything he encountered. Unfortunately, telling me not to fight something has historically been an unreliable method of stopping me from trying.

We also stumbled into the glyph puzzles, initially with more enthusiasm than understanding. After assuming I had completely ruined one, I finally noticed the small instruction explaining that glyphs could be discovered inside vases. Suddenly all that pottery destruction became essential research. With a little help from chat, we eventually assembled the right paw-print, swirl and arrow-like combination and opened the puzzle properly.

Meanwhile Raven’s inventory steadily filled with rings, necklaces, weapons, armour and stones. Naturally, dungeon survival briefly had to wait while everything was reorganised into neat little groups. Regeneration bonuses became particularly attractive as our health situation deteriorated, while stronger equipment and level-up points gradually turned Raven into something slightly more capable of surviving my decisions.

Then came the bosses.

The first proper fight arrived while Raven had almost no health, forcing me to learn dodging, healing and Bloodstone abilities while something large and unfriendly was actively trying to murder us. Warp became an emergency escape button, healing involved a certain amount of frantic experimentation, but somehow the boss went down.

Things became even more interesting when one of the developers joined us in chat. Between fights, we were able to ask about the game’s structure and future plans. We learned that the game was planned around nine bosses and an ending, with successive runs becoming progressively harder as Raven grows stronger. We also discussed the intended early-access release and a ballpark price around £15.

Of course, this useful developer conversation happened while I was fighting scorpions, getting lost in rooms I had already visited and smashing everything that looked remotely smashable.

One later boss inevitably became “The Scorpion King,” sending the conversation wandering into The Mummy Returns, questionable early-2000s CGI and Dwayne Johnson films. Fortunately, our Scorpion King encounter ended rather better than the visual effects from that particular movie.

Chat supplied plenty of other diversions throughout the night. Spiders brought us to arachnophobia, Eight Legged Freaks and one viewer’s recent real-life spider encounter. Somehow Young Frankenstein, Big Trouble in Little China, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Dead Space, Costume Quest, Manual Samuel, Stardew Valley and Broken Sword also found their way into the dungeon.

By the later stages we were better equipped, more comfortable with Raven’s abilities and still completely incapable of ignoring a collectible visible twenty metres away. A library spider puzzle apparently solved itself without any of us being entirely sure how, another encounter suggested destroying nearby objects could damage an enemy, and another boss fell after a mixture of teleporting, regeneration and mild panic.

Eventually I realised we had reached that dangerous point where “one more room” becomes another entire level. I decided it was time to stop—after killing one final group of enemies.

Naturally, that was when Raven suffered our first death of the stream.

Honestly, there could hardly have been a more appropriate ending.

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🎥 Watch the Episode

If you want to see the dungeon exploration, boss fights, developer conversation, control experiments and catastrophic inability to leave a vase untouched for yourself, you can watch the full episode below.

Watch Vampirem – Early Access Gameplay on YouTube

You can also explore the Vampirem playlist and visit the Dr Ravenholm YouTube channel for more gameplay, livestream archives and ongoing series.

If you enjoy the episode, give it a like, leave a comment and subscribe so you do not miss whatever dungeon we wander into next.

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🔴 Join the Adventure Live

The videos capture the journey, but Twitch is where the questionable decisions happen in real time.

Come join us live on Twitch or over on YouTube. Chat helped untangle puzzles, kept the running jokes alive and even joined the conversation when the developer appeared, so there is always room for another voice in the party.

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🌑 Community & Links

The dungeon doors do not close when the stream ends. If you want to stay connected between adventures, there are plenty of other paths through the Ravenholm network.

Live and Community: Join the conversation over on the Dr Ravenholm Discord, where streams, games and whatever else we have wandered into continue long after the credits roll.

Socials: You can also find me on TikTok, Bluesky, Instagram, Facebook, Threads and X.

Music: When the dungeon finally goes quiet, you can find my music on Spotify and Apple Music.

Support: If you would like to support the channel, visit the Dr Ravenholm Shop, Teespring or the Streamlabs tip page.

More: Beyond the streams, you can explore the Transparent Aluminium Business Centre, download the service brochure, learn more about me or visit the blog.

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🕯️ Until the Next Descent

For an early look, Vampirem gave us plenty to sink our teeth into: bosses defeated, mysteries uncovered, equipment upgraded and only a moderately irresponsible amount of pottery destroyed.

We will be keeping an eye on the game as development continues. Somewhere down there are more bosses, more secrets and—most importantly—more vases.

Until next time, have a lovely day.

— Dr Ravenholm