Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 preview: I can’t wait to sink my teeth into the full game
Just announced at Gamescom Opening Night Live, the eagerly-awaited Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 finally has a release date. It’s not all that far away, either: it launches on PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC on 21st October, which is just two months away. Ahead of its launch, I’ve been able to go hands-on with an early build, playing through its opening missions to get a taste of what to expect from the full game. And the good news is that it’s left me eager to play more.
Taking control of Phyre, a powerful elder vampire known as the Nomad to some, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 inexplicably finds you in Seattle after awakening from 100 years of torpor. But something’s amiss – there’s a voice in your head that’s not yours, and a strange mark upon your arm. What does it all mean? The voice in your head is that of a detective named Fabien. He helps you start your journey to find the truth… and a place in the world. It’s not long until you realise it’s a dangerous time to be alive, however; with the prince of vampires just murdered, there’s a power struggle in the city, and you’ve inserted yourself in it.
While you don’t get to create your own character in Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2, you do get to customise them. You choose their gender at the start of the game, then later you choose a clan. At that point you can also change their face, hair, eyes and more, with multiple outfits opening up as you play. When it comes to vampire clans, multiple are available, each with their unique skills.
I chose Ventrue during my preview playthrough, giving me the power to control and subdue my enemies. Literally. With just a couple of button presses I could command humans to kill themselves. A little later I could take possession of them for a short while, perhaps setting them on their allies to cause some chaos. , while staggering vampires and disarming them. You’ll earn skill points as you play, which allow you to unlock further skills, and there are many more abilities to be learned to power up your character should you immerse yourself in the game’s world.
It has to be said, though, that the RPG elements of the first Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines appear to have been watered down for this sequel. You won’t find yourself agonising over attribute points, for example, and you seemingly won’t have to care about your lockpicking skill – Phyre simply rips locks off their chains. This might be disappointing to some, but Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 seeks to make up for it in other ways.
Traversal is much improved, for one, with you able to quickly run up buildings. And then there’s the narrative, which seems more ambitious. Thanks to Fabien being in your head, the game essentially has two protagonists, and you’ll be intrigued about both right from the off. It’s hard to really tell until the full game launches, but it appears that the choices you make will be truly impactful here. As you’d expect of developer The Chinese Room — the team that brought us Still Wakes the Deep and Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture — the narrative here is well-written and brought to life with excellent voice acting, too.
Perhaps the only aspect of Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 that hasn’t really impressed me so far is the combat. That’s not to say it’s bad, just that it’s nothing special. In the early hours, when your range of abilities is limited, you have to rely more on your melee skills. You can perform standard and strong attacks, with the latter also being useful to break through an enemy’s guard. A nifty dodge manoeuvre allows you to avoid incoming attacks, and when an opponent has been weakened, you can either strike them again to finish them off or feed on them.
The latter is recommended, as not only does it replenish some of your health, but it can have other benefits as well. Playing as a Ventrue, for example, it gave me a period where my flesh hardened, making me more formidable for a short while. If you want to spice combat up a little, you have the power of telekinesis, which can be used to pick items up and then throw them, but for the most part, you’ll seemingly need to rely on learned abilities to add a bit of variety. In any case, chances are you’ll want to employ stealth where you can.
Before my time with Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 ended, the last chapter I was able to play threw me a bit of a curveball. Going back in time, I was in control of Fabien rather than Phyre, with a new case for him to investigate. And as you’d expect, being a detective, his set of skills is very different to that of Phyre; they focus more on manipulating those he meets to gather evidence. Needless to say, I was soon interrogating a woman who claimed she was a vampire, clouding her mind to make her think I was someone else in order to make her open up. Along the way, I had to read a bouncer’s mind and make a fellow officer of the law forget I owed him money, too. It certainly made a change from the more violent gameplay that Phyre offers.
Ultimately, after what amounted to just over a couple of hours with Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2, I’m very much looking forward to playing more. I’m already invested in the game’s world and its characters, eager to find out just how Phyre and Fabien came to be in their predicament, and how the power struggle within Seattle plays out. Additionally, while there are some changes here that make the experience more streamlined, it still feels like it shares enough DNA with the original game to feel like a genuine sequel.
As already mentioned, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 launches 21st October on PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC. Multiple versions will be available, with the standard edition having a retail price of £49.99/$59.99. Priced at £58.50/$69.99, the Deluxe Edition of the game will include Santa Monica Memories, a cosmetic pack featuring décor items inspired by the original classic game, which will also be available separately for £9.99/$11.99. Then there’s the Premium Edition, which for £74.99/$89.99 includes Santa Monica Memories as well as Shadows and Silk, which adds the Lasombra and Toreador clan options for Phyre. Again, Shadows and Silk will be available separately, priced at £18.69/$21.99.
