Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines 2 Needed More Time in the Coffin

Vampire: The Masquerade is a very interesting and complex TTRPG. One I have not yet had the privilege in playing. But Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines is a game I have had the privilege to play. I had many mixed feelings on it and most were being rather frustrated with how outdated it was when I played it back in 2019. When I saw the sequel announcement I was tentatively excited, but nervous. As the game languished in Development hell, even switching developers, I got even more nervous. But it did come out last month. So I decided to play it.

I have seen very few people like the game, especially seeming to dislike how different it is from the 20 year old original. But I like to pride myself on going into games with an open mind and keeping in mind that they are their own experience and that's okay. That said, I had some mixed feelings on Bloodlines 2. What were those feelings? Did I find the game interesting? Was the World of Darkness lore properly rendered? Were the RPG elements sufficiently deep? Was the game fun to play? Were the characters actually interesting? Sort of. It's just such a mixed game. Let's dive into why.

The Premise

You are Phyre, and Elder vampire who has awoken in December of 2024 with a Malkavian detective named Fabien in your head for an unknown reason and you have these strange marks over your body and particularly one on your hand. You have no idea how you got to Seattle as you have been in Torpor (a kind of hibernation) for 100 years. In Seattle there has been a drastic power change just before you wake up where the Prince (the ruler of the local Vamps) has been replaced and the Sheriff (of the vampires who keeps the Masquerade intact) has gone rogue. Now, you have to search the city to find not just what's going on in the local Vampire politics but also why you awoke all the way in Seattle, why Fabien is in your head, why you have a mark on your hand, and most importantly who the fuck put it there. And you have to do all of that during the week of Christmas, what a world.

The Good

First off I have to say that Bloodlines 2 reminded me of one thing and one thing only, The Dresden Files. I mean this with the absolute highest amount of respect for the game and for the book series. Fabien, the Malkavian detective that is in your head, is a dead ringer for Harry Dresden. Sure, he's a vampire, not a wizard, but he has the same type of personality as Harry. They do similar things, investigate supernatural cases. The game made me feel not just like I was playing as a vampire who couldn't violate the masquerade but also that I was playing an actually very well put together detective story.

This particularly comes out in the flashback sequences where you play as Fabien. These are the moments where the Dresden Files experience really comes about. In those sequences, Fabien is actively investigating a serial killer who just so happens to go after Kindred. These are really interesting moments of the game that happen while Phyre is asleep. They really allow you to see what happened in Seattle before Phyre awoke, and once she is awake, what is going on now in the present. I really appreciate not just being dropped in with no context to what happened prior to the opening, I like seeing the lead up. Having this made me feel rather tense because I knew some things were going to happen, but not when or how. I was instantly intrigued and a game that does that while also being able to handle flashback sequences effectively is very special. Add on the Dresden Files vibe and it's just wonderful.

Another thing that I loved were the quests that ended up in some kind of boss fights. For instance, there's one where you have to infiltrate a club only to find out that the head of that club, a fellow vamp, has turned all of her club goers into horrible Ghouls who can't help but mildly bounce to the music. The atmosphere in the club is fucking fantastic and made me uneasy. It made me concerned and worried about what was ahead of me. I found it to be a truly unnerving experience and it ended in a fun boss fight that ended in something I hadn't quite expected, an attempt at forced seduction which lead to Phyre taking some....drastic action to stop it. This was a great time and is only one of these moments. There's another one with mannequins and dealing with the memories of the boss which sort of takes the place of the boss fight. That section showed that Bloodlines 2 can not only make an unnerving section of the game that ends in a boss fight but also one that ends in a confrontation instead, similar in memory to some confrontations in Deus Ex Human Revolution except without all the HUD info helping you know what's happening with your responses.

Oh, speaking of the atmosphere, that extends beyond just the sequences I've already talked about, the game being set during late December of 2024 with a ton of snow on the ground adds a lot of atmosphere as well. It adds this unnerving quiet throughout the city that allows for you to be able to hear far more than you would otherwise and forces you to feel...uneasy about all that you are doing. Whether that be when leaping from rooftop to rooftop, or just running down the street hearing the homeless NPCs talking about how they'd absolutely kill for a warm bed right now, the uneasiness is everywhere and never leaves.

Despite how I've seen some people complain about the combat feeling boring I felt quite the opposite. It was not just enjoyable but hectic, fun, and had a great mix of normal attacks, using telekinesis to pick up items and throw them at enemies or guns and fire them, dashing and attacking which lead to kicks, heavy attacks by holding the attack button, and biting enemies once they have taken enough damage. It is far more enjoyable than the original, which had shit combat both because of the jank and because of the era of 3D combat. One of the best parts of the combat is how it feels so fluid as well. I never felt overwhelmed or like I was just simply repeating the same singular power over and over again.

Speaking of using the same attack and powers over and over again, I experimented a lot with powers as I slowly upgraded over the course of the game. Instead of allowing the ability to unlock new abilities and upgrade them like in the first game, you can access abilities from other clans because you are an Elder who is very powerful and can just do that. I actually much preferred this because it allowed for far more variety in the kind of powers I could use. For instance, with these powers I could dive into shadow and come out of an enemies shadow, kiss them to brainwash them and have them fight for me, shoot blood missiles at the other enemies dive into the shadow of an enemy so I can emerge behind them, attack and feed on them, boil the blood of another enemy so the other enemies congregate, then find an explosive and telekinesis it into the crowd to take most of them out. This is also a very early idea of the combat. I was able to do some different things later on that I really liked. Like creating an earth shattering effect around me by slamming into the ground and killing everyone in the AoE. You get 4 active abilities that you swap out with the other clans abilities and while that can feel limiting, it's meant to be playable really quickly so having 4 means you can very quickly use your abilities while if you had more it would take much longer and interrupt the flow of combat. Overall, a ton of fun combat options.

The story is also very well put together, not just the mystery flashback sections that I talked about several paragraphs ago, but also when you play as Phyre. She's the new Sheriff in the city and has to solve who put a mark on her hand and bound Fabien's consciousness to her mind. There's a lot of things I didn't see coming and many many moments where I thought I figured it out and it turned out there was another layer to the story than I was expecting. All in all, the story was a great time. I also imagine if you had more experience with Vampire The Masquerade lore then you'd be even more interested because there's some big players here that I definitely didn't expect to be mentioned.

Finally, I was so glad to find out that Seattle is rather small. It's about the size of one of the hub worlds from Avowed which makes it quick to traverse and not a chore to get around in. You have enemies that get introduced throughout the course of the game that can appear and disappear depending on the choices you make and that's rather interesting. And all while keeping the world in a digestible size. Personally, I adored this. I'm tired of massive worlds for games, I want more small open world games. They're more interesting, more fun to run around in, can be more dense (although this one wasn't) and just are all around better compared to all of the massive game worlds that are touted as this amazing thing in the industry.

The Bad

While the main quest is very well done and intriguing, I can't say the same for the side quests. They are, to put it simply, boring as fuck. The problem is that they come from clan vendors and all of these quests are basically fetch quests. They take slightly different forms of course, some are "track this guy, kill him, then come back here and get something" or "take this package and drop it off" or "collect these things across the map over the course of the game". There are some mild exceptions, there's one where you're tracking down and saving the scientists Ghouls who were kidnapped and that was definitely more interesting. I just wish the other ones didn't feel so boring. The good news was the gameplay and traversal was so fun (and the world wasn't exhaustively massive) that I enjoyed these basic as fuck side quests still, even if the quests themselves sucked.

Frustratingly, there are also some of the main quests themselves that have an incredibly...boring quest design where you're mostly just running around the city talking to people and then maybe eventually defeating some enemies then talking to more people. It's definitely not all of the main quests, there's just an overuse of this kind of idea of being the sheriff so you have to talk to everyone before you actually get to the interesting part of the quest. Now, I did mention with the side quests that the traversal and combat made those easier to deal with, the same applies here. But that doesn't change that I felt rather disappointed so many of the main quests have this simplistic design. This is a moment where it felt like the Developer needed more time to make the quest design for these main quests more actually...interesting. Like, yes I'm interested in the story, but that doesn't mean I don't notice when almost all I've done for the quest I'm playing is run around the city talking to different vamps. Thankfully, this isn't the entirety of the main quests design, but it being used at all is disappointing.

I also wish there was more interaction with the world when it comes to breaking the Masquerade. In the first one there were actual consequences for it, here it's kinda a big ol' nothing burger. It just means you have to break the line of sight and wait. It's disappointing. I think this plays into the lack of serious RPG elements. The game definitely feels like playing a game that needed more time to more fully develop those elements. To make the experience feel more interactive. It's honestly a shame we don't have any consequences because it actually has a really interesting setting that could have lead to some really interesting branching paths. Such a shame.

Okay, you remember how earlier I mentioned that I really enjoyed the powers that are from other clans? Well, there's a problem. You have to have certain currencies in order to get these powers and you don't get them much during normal playing. Instead you have to go around feeding on certain NPCs who happen to glow red, pink, or purple for their associated currency. Each feeding gives you 100 of that currency. This means that if you want to unlock a ton of the powers then you have to go nuts and just feed on everyone around you that you see. To be blunt, I found this boring as fuck. Grinding is not a fun mechanic for me, it's boring and just shouldn't exist in an RPG game. They also, initially, tied all of the clothes customization to clan unlocks which meant if you wanted to see what an outfit looked like you had to grind for it. This was how I played it and it sucked. I ended up grinding a lot just to get a cooler outfit. And also because of the powers, the outfit was more of just a benefit to the powers honestly but sometimes it still felt like it was the primary driver.

Finally here, I wanted more choices. Sure, you have moments where choices you make determine enemies in the world and characters you have to deal with and even parts of the ending. But they were never super deep. I wanted some kind of choice to make the game more dynamic. Not to the point of breaking the narrative, just more choices. I felt like every big mission should have ended in a choice but in reality it was more like half of them did. It was disappointing.

The Ending - Detailed

**Start Spoilers**

After discovering that Lou and Campbell were the ones that ran the Rebar killings back in the 20s, and that Lou took Fabien's Sire underground as a captive turning him into the gardener only for us to come along and break his neck, you eventually get to Weaver tower to investigate (after being distracted with a quest to go investigate the Anarch leader Kasumi to see if she was Sabat). This leads to you finding Ryong staked in the Prince's office where you turn around to find Safia as she stakes you. See, it turns out Safia didn't die back at that garden place. She just got a look-a-like. Safia is the one who orchestrated this whole thing. As payback for Lou taking Gideon from her.

After you awake with the sun out, Safia kills Ryong by burning her in said Sun and gives you the chance to join her once more and go after Lou together. Phyre refuses and Fabien tells you to go out the window. Which you do only to crash down, slowly charring up, and manage to crawl your way into the sewer. Why you took forever to burn but Ryong didn't is likely because of age or something like that. I don't know.

Then we flash back to the night you woke. Fabien intends to record Campbell confessing to being the original Rebar Killer so he can mail it to the Justicars eventually after he finds their address. This leads him across the city talking and talking only to eventually come to the very building he got killed in and that your coffin was in. Campbell uses his convincing powers to get Fabien to destroy the recorder, then see if the coffin is safe to open. Once that conversation is done you get to see Fabien make the ultimate sacrifice as a one last fuck you to Campbell for taking out Gideon where he directly awakes you by cutting himself and pouring his blood into your mouth. This, obviously wakes you and you see the moment of death that you saw early in the game. Then you go over and kill Campbell by slapping his head clean off.

Fabien then wakes up in the same garden you've seen time and time again. Only to find you sitting there. You have a little chat and find out that he used all he could to keep your body from disintegrating (oh that's why you didn't die right away). This used up all his essence and he finally dies in a rather emotional scene.

Cut to waking up and finding Seattle literally covered in bloody footprints because the Sabat have taken over. You get to Weaver tower and find Safia at the top. You have a little conversation, and then have a really cool fight with her and her naked self (she's covered in blood and runes). Once you beat her you...well.. kill her. Then your mark clears and it goes to black only for Tolly to come in with a voice over to talk about what happened after. Basically, Kasumi took over the town since the Camarilla was basically destroyed, Lou "fell" out of a window, and you, Phyre remain in Seattle as the Sheriff. Credits.

**End Spoilers**

The Ending - Reaction

Honestly. Meh. I wish Fabien had been able to stick around. I liked seeing Safia get her comeuppance but I also wish, desperately, I had been able to join her and go after Lou instead who I think deserved it far more. I think my biggest issues with the ending have to do with the lack of choice in it all. I wanted to be able to do something in the last mission that would change the ending even slightly but instead, nope. The choices that happened earlier in the game were the only ones that actually had an impact. It was disappointing. But that's what I wanted, not what I got. What I got wasn't bad, just I think could have been better. Especially if there was some more post final boss information instead of what felt like a hastily rushed together slideshow with Tolly narrating. Overall, could have been better.

The Conclusion

I think my biggest issue with Bloodlines 2 is that it desperately needed more time in the oven, and I really really wanted to like it more. The combat is fun, the traversal is fun, the majority of the main quests are fun, it has a real Dresden Files vibe. But once those things aren't what you're doing the game kinda falls apart. The thing is that The Chinese Room has proven they are capable of making a fun game with weird and interesting aspects to it, they just need an actual reasonable development time. I don't think it's a bad game, it just needed more time.

If you have been considering buying it, you should wait for a sale. Probably a decent one. Don't go in expecting something super deep, don't go in expecting something that is gonna knock your socks off. But if you go in to find an interesting main quest that has truly intriguing World of Darkness lore and fun combat then you will have a good time. It's definitely not worth the 60 bucks it's listed for. But it is still fun, if you're craving something like it.

Meow,

Cat