I feel for Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2. If it was named something like Fang Bastard: The Punching Of The Many, the trailers wouldn’t have so many views, but those who’d watched them would probably be quite jazzed for that new bitey-talky game that looks a bit like Dishonored with more story branching. It isn’t, and they aren’t. Instead, it’s called Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2, a name packed with some of the weightiest words in RPGdom.
I don’t pity it, though. Three hours and change into Bloodlines 2, I’ve determined that I’d quite enjoy a Dishonored with more story branching, actually. Not as much as if I could express my roleplaying chops outside of very specific dialogue menus, or if I cared more about the fellow nightcrawlers on the other side of those conversations. But for all the tricky development and heavy heritage, I’d be lying if I said I haven’t enjoyed being The Chinese Room’s version of a souped-up vampire prowling a snowy, bisexual-lit Seattle.
That’s Phyre, by the by, your qualifyingly customisable elder vamp who wakes up with – in typical RPG fashion, apparently – someone else’s voice in their head. It belongs to the lingering essence of Fabien, an amusingly out-of-place noir detective (and lesser vampire) who’d been sniffing around some strange murders in Seattle’s supernatural community. Not the worst brain passenger to have, all things considered, and he even grants the occasional break from all the bloodsucking and discussion-having with some investigative flashbacks told from his perspective – complete with his own set of mindreading and spirit medium powers.
It’s Phyre’s kit, though, that makes the action component of Bloodlines 2 feel like the real deal. Within minutes of ending their centuries-old slumber, they’ll have remembered how to scamper up tower blocks, glide across rooftops, and thwack ghouls with enough force to send them airborne. I can’t even find the bathroom lightswitch when I wake up. A few XP points will also quickly get your four introductory clan powers up and running, and while they form a starter pack of sorts, all of them are brimming with ancient shithousing power.
I opted for the Ventrue clan, on the grounds that their skills would suit the aggressive stealth style I default to when games give me the option: ordering a distant foe to snap their own neck, for instance, or commanding one to attack their mates, so their numbers thin before needing to move in for up-close takedowns. When proper fights broke out, my lack of direct punching tools did have me coveting the bulky Brujah, especially their long-ranged charge attack and anime-baiting quickfire jab rush. But in tandem with the generous traversal skills and weapon-lobbing telekinesis (yet another of Phyre’s innate powers – OP nerf pls), there’s a serious and satisfying action-stealth game to be played with Ventrue moves.
The Dishonored comparison isn’t a joke: I was a rooftop prowler to rival Corvo himself, messing with enemies’ heads from afar before dashing and leaping over their dwindling numbers to drain their necks one by one. Play slow, and Bloodlines 2 feels considered and cerebral. Play fast, and it’s downright exhilarating. Either way, it’s hard to go wrong with the fighty parts.
This would be a perfect place to go “Shame the roleplaying sucks,” but I won’t because it doesn’t. Or at the very least, it does try some commendable twists on the conversation ‘em up aspect. Your reputation, for instance, is not measured for factions but for individuals: specific freaks, mobsters, and charlatans who each have their own preferences for how snarky, reverential, reassuring, or threatening you make your chosen responses. This starts off as a simple matter of picking the line you think might fit Fabien’s hastily delivered personality briefings, but eventually, they start piling into the same rooms, and trying to please everyone becomes genuinely impossible.
When the time comes to make a bigger, storyline-bisecting choice, Bloodlines 2 also seems eager to avoid Mass Effect-style, comically Mega Good/Turbo Evil dichotomies. I’ve only experienced one of these moments so far (I think), and had to leave all parties involved in a lengthy silence because – for once – a video game narrative was offering me two equally flawed yet equally compelling choices.
Still, as well-executed as that particular moment was, it was also an isolated case. The vast majority of quests I completed lacked any kind of meaningful decision-making at all – there’s a risk of minor reputational damage if you don’t choose your words carefully, but you’re also unlikely to fall out with anyone over the course of a single chat. Anyone who didn’t already hate you, at the very least. They also appear to lack multiple completion methods – you can get to the next conversation by either sneaking, brawling, or mental sabotage, but Bloodlines 2 falls short of immsim status by settling for simple A-to-B mission structures without offering room for alternate solutions.
Another crack in its credentials as an RPG is the script. Bloodlines 2 can spin a halfway decent mystery, but too much of the character chatter is flat and tropey. Fabien, for one, is forced to make two separate “If I was a betting man, and I am” quips within half an hour of each other. Still, at least his man-out-of-time detective schtick makes him memorable. I’ve already forgotten the names and faces of the majority of Phyre’s new acquaintances, perhaps save for Tolly: an unusually extroverted Nosferatu who mainly sticks in my head for cramming a prodigious density of gay stereotypes into just three appearances.
That’s especially disappointing given that TCR’s most recent success, Still Wakes the Deep, has some of the most naturalistic, believable dialogue work in… I was going to say any horror game, but sod it, just any game. Bloodlines 2 may dwarf it in scale, but nonetheless, it’d be mighty weird for the studio to trip up on storytelling while succeeding well beyond expectation on the action – a genre they’ve barely touched.
Personally, I still believe I can enjoy Bloodlines 2 for what it is: a moody power fantasy where I’ll occasionally need to decide which murderers to help out and which to screw over. That doesn’t require blinding oneself to its shortcomings as an RPG, or indeed, the immensely silly decision to split off whole other sets of clan powers – some of the best bits! – as premium DLC.
But, like I said, I feel for it. The weight of its name is only thus because we had two decades to load up our expectations, and with that much to carry, it’s not surprising to spot a few cracks.
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