Sometimes I really want to read a short summary of what to expect from a game… and thankfully people can also submit their summaries of games they played and help me (and others) find games that cater to their interests!
submitted by @lairofsentinel
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what to expect from VAMPIRE: THE MASQUERADE: BLOODLINES 2
Story-driven detective-like “action” adventure that is sold as RPG but has no elements of RPG.
Stats don’t exist. As I said, there is no RPG here.
There are no choices in conversations, there is only an illusion of a choice: you have several options that, until you don’t pick the correct one, it doesn’t continue with the story, making you restart the conversation over and over without any penalty.
You play two main characters: Phyre [an elder] in the present, and Fabien [a Malkavian detective] in the past.
The game is placed in Seattle and has some random cameos from the Bloodline1 game and other media.
You cannot customize your main character Phyre. You can only pick their genre, hairstyle, outfit, piercings+make-up, and eye colour.
Phyre can belong to one of the following clans: Banu Haqim, Brujah, LaSombra, Tremere, Toreador, Venture.
There are no manual saves, you have to use a mod for that. What you have is an auto-save at the start of scenes or after a loadscreen. If the file gets corrupted, you lost your game.
The writing is good and has good characters with an interesting, driving story that keeps feeding your curiosity.
There is a good amount of subtle, integrated lgbt content and racial diversity.
Fully voiced. Although at times the voice acting is a bit weird.
It has good music, with the same compositor of Bloodlines 1, so the style remains almost intact in my opinion, at least when it comes to music and ambient music.
It has a pakour gameplay in the rooftops similar to Mirror’s Edge which is cool. It gives a good sense of what being a Vampire in VTM means: “a predator of the night”. However, since it’s only used for travelling, it gets old soon.
Combat sucks. No other way to describe it. It’s first-person camera combat, very messy and hard to aim or control. The best way to approach most fights is through stealth, killing the enemies from the distance. Avoid melee combat as much as possible.
There is a degree of gore present in the game: you behead enemies, or use your hands as knives, piercieng chests. Not super detailed, but clearly the animations reinforce this feeling of "you are a predator in the middle of the night". It's closer to sense "The Beast".
A lot of your time is wasted walking along the city to go to talk to X or Y character.
Side quests only provide some xp and blood, and can be skipped without any consequence, since all of them are of the type “fetch-quest”, or “kill x target”.
This game is nothing alike the old vtmb 1. Under no criteria this is its “successor” or “sequel”. It’s just another game set in this dark fantasy world of WoD, closer to the style of game we find in Swansong.
There is no Thirst or Humanity system, so evil actions or good actions have no consequences in terms of the humanity of the vampire. If you dont want to drink blood during the game, you will have no consequences either.
There are some questionable mechanics that would contradict the lore: for example, no matter your clan, you can learn all the powers of the other clans by grinding blood.
“Romance” does not exist. It’s a kind of embarrassing “vampire flings”. Your character says embarrassing things to some NPCs who give you fetch-quests, and they eventually accept to go “intimate”, which is a black screen with each of them crying some embarrassing pun associated with their bloodline… which is terrible, really.
There is no personal horror in the characters. You don’t see their humanity struggling with the Beast, which is usually an essential mark in this franchise. It makes feel these characters more like thin-bloods than real vampires that belong to a clan. The game does a poor job in showing how the characters have to deal with their clan’s weaknesses.
Short game, around 20 hours, with almost no re-playability since you can unlock all the powers of all clans by grinding blood. And clan-related options in the conversations are few and far between.
It has multiple endings that are mostly a combination of a series of choices you did along the story.
——- Plot? ——-
In 2024, Phyre awakens from a century-long torpor. Blood-starved, their predatory instincts take over, and they rampage through the city, violating the Masquerade in the process. When Phyre regains control, they discover a strange power-suppressing brand etched into their flesh and Fabien's voice in their mind. To look for answers, they will approach the Camarilla of Seattle where a set of intrigues, mysteries, and political frictions unfold.
——- Gameplay? ——-
Game heavily based on conversations. It has some few choices that will be reflected in the ending flavour. There is a clumsy, junky combat system that I recommend to avoid as much as possible.
——- Characters? ——-
The main ones you control: Phyre [elder of a clan of your choice], and Fabien [Malkavian]. There are many NPCs that will take important roles in the story and in the mystery we are investigating.
——- LGBT? ——-
There are trans and gay characters of all genders, including non-binary ones.
——- Sadness level? ——-
Very low. The story is not focused on the character’s emotions, but mostly on the mystery that motivates the plot.
——- Happy ending? Deaths? ——-
There are a lot of deaths. The ending is very neutral [it's VTM after all] and depends on few choices you pick along the story.
