this post was submitted on 21 Feb 2025
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Cyberpunk

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What is Cyberpunk?

Cyberpunk is a science-fiction sub-genre dealing with the integration of society and technology in dystopian settings. Often referred to as “low-life and high tech,” Cyberpunk stories deal with outsiders (punks) who fight against the oppressors in society (usually mega corporations that control everything) via technological means (cyber). If the punks aren’t actively fighting against a megacorp, they’re still dealing with living in a world completely dependent on high technology.

Cyberpunk characteristics include:

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This isn't exactly a recommendation for BloodNet, it's more of me just complaining that it's the only cyberpunk vampire property I'm aware of. And the gameplay looks really boring, with barely any vampires involved.

You'd think a filthy neon-lit undercity full of high-tech low-lifes would be perfect hunting grounds for vampires, yet I don't know of any real cyberpunk vampire stories.

I don't consider Ultraviolet to be an especially cyberpunk movie, or for hemophages to be vampires. Also the movie is bad. Are there any Shadowrun novels with vampires, maybe? Seems like that would fit pretty well.

I tried googling for other cyberpunk vampire stories just in case I was forgetting something and I guess there's a Cyberpunk 2020 expansion called Night's Edge which has vampires in it. That's cool, although I'd prefer a narrative story.

In my search I also found a new series called The Cybernetic Vampire which I'm hoping is exactly what I'm looking for. But the kindle book is only one dollar and it's 650+ pages long. I'm pretty wary if the author thinks his 650+ pages of effort are only worth one dollar, but I'll probably give it a try given my lack of any other choices.

Do you know of any other cyberpunk stories that feature vampires?

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Doesn't Vampire: The Masquerade have a sci-fi element?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

Not to my knowledge... Does it?

[–] Timecircleline 2 points 1 day ago

The Dresden Files vampires don't exactly fit, but you did make me think of White court/Red court vampires

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

Daybreakers is a debatably cyberpunk vampire movie. The corporate exploitation vibes are spot-on

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I would say Daybreakers is definitely a sci-fi vampire movie (of which there also aren't many) but I personally wouldn't call it cyberpunk. Maybe there's a twist I don't remember, but I thought the corporation was simply trying to keep up with demand, not that they were doing anything outright evil to increase profits.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

They were farming and oppressing humans and trying to monetize/monopolize artificial blood, IIRC. Been a long time since I last saw it, though

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

That's the one I was thinking of.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Huh... Until this post, I thought Ultraviolet was the only vampire cyberpunk media in existence.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

And how depressing is that?? For Ultraviolet to be the best example of cyberpunk vampires. So disappointing.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

The one good thing I always keep in mind about Ultraviolet is that it was better than Aeon Flux and even felt more like the Aeon Flux cartoon than the AF movie did.

Although that might be even more depressing if you're a hardcore Aeon Flux fan.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The Firefall series kinda fits the bill. The first book is called Blindsight, the second Echopraxia. It's maybe not so much cyberpunk in that society is mostly absent from the books, but it is in the future with some crazy technology and there are vampires.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Legit biological vampires, and it's hard sci-fi. I've read both books an embarrassing number of times.

[–] jaemo 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Fess up. How many time have you read either book? I swear I'm probably at 12-14 for Blindsight. Think I've extracted everything I'm smart enough to understand. Some of the math and statistical terms elude me.

[–] jaemo 1 points 7 hours ago

At least 6 reads of each Blindsight and Echopraxia. I'm really hoping for Omniscience to drop one day, but I distracted myself a bit with Freeze Frame Revolution.

Each time I re-read any if them I find a different interpretation. Like a prism you keep discovering facets on or something. I suppose that's the byproduct of how excitingly unreliable the narrators are and how a baseline (like me) would perceive the motives of post singularity artilects.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Priest also might scratch this itch. I enjoyed that one.

IIRC it's based on a Korean comic, which in turn was based on the Blood game?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago (2 children)

That's true. Priest has an odd mix of cyberpunk city within the walls and wild west outside the walls (even though that makes no sense). Definitely a fun movie, but the vampires never show up inside the cyberpunk city. If only there had been a sequel...

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago

The Priest manhwa apparently has very little to do with the movie, and it wasn't particularly vampire-centric. Very much Weird West, although the community for that's gone pretty quiet lately.

I would think immortality and hightened abilities make for an odd clash with cybernetics. Nobody who expects to live for another 200 years is going to sign up for a Generation 1 implant.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

~~This year apparently.~~

I was had.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I think of "Blade" when I think of vampire movies. But probably won't fit the cyberpunk genre..

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

Yeah, as much as I enjoy Blade, I don't think there's any way I could justify it being cyberpunk. At least there's [email protected] for those movies!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I've never heard of this movie. 😳

I'll definitely check it out and get back to you, thanks!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I will say, It's not a great movie. But it's also not a complete waste of time, if you enjoy vampires and tech-noire type settings.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

I'll set my expectations accordingly. I do enjoy vampires and tech-noire settings though, so I think I'll be able to handle it.

Edit: And it's on Tubi! I'll definitely be watching it tonight now.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

Well, The Breed is an interesting movie. Definitely not cyberpunk at all but it is a noir vampire movie, which I've never seen done before.

It was weird how the movie starts by saying "the near future" and yet all clothes, cars, and sets looked like they were from the 1940s. It definitely helped create a "film noir" feel, I just wish they hadn't mentioned the near future as if this was supposed to be our world when it's more of an alternate history. Overall, it's not exactly an award-winner, but like you said, I don't feel like I wasted my time watching it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

One of my favorite podcasts was on this subject, it’s worth a listen. https://www.stephenwinter.me/adventures-in-america