Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines 2 review – An interesting piece of noir fantasy | games

YYou are an ancient and powerful vampire, and you wake up in the basement of a dilapidated building in Seattle, with no recent memories and a strange mark on your hand. The first thing you do is feed on the cop who finds you, before slamming his partner into the wall so hard that his blood splatters on the bricks. A violent, fanged rampage ensues, as you slash and tear apart your undead rivals and their ghouls while pleading with the local vampire court, and trying to keep your presence hidden from the masses of this spirited city.

But this is also a detective story: there’s a younger night stalker who shares your mind, and a voice in your head called Fabian, who talks like a 1920s moonshiner (maybe because he used to be). Fabian is not violent at all; He apparently works with the human police and the vampire underworld, feeding on the blood of agreed-upon volunteers and using his powers to solve murders. These two stories are two completely different games in the same setting, but everything in Bloodlines 2 feels strangely tied together. It’s a shame I played this right after bingeing AMC’s interview with the Vampire TV series, because the contrast is stark. One is a witty, frightening, sexually charged and brilliantly comedic reimagining of the vampire mythos. The other is Yes.

Fittingly, the development of this vampire saga appears to have been cursed. The first Bloodlines was a classic PC RPG released in 2004, and it took more than a decade for its sequel to be released. Development of Bloodlines 2 began in 2015 at Seattle-based Hardsuit Labs, led by the writer of the first game. But development was fraught with difficulties, and in 2021, the entire project was transferred to a new developer, The Chinese Room. What results is an interesting piece of work with elements from the Hardsuit version of the game woven together by The Chinese Room into a 25-hour story that almost makes sense. It’s not a complete bust, but there are a lot of obvious loose ends.

For example, there’s a giant screen of vampire abilities you can learn, and it’s clearly meant to give you some options on how to approach the game – seduction, brute force, manipulation. But you start off already super powerful, and you get the most fun with mind control and dark powers in the first two hours, giving you little reason to learn more. When I tried to do something interesting with these abilities — like possess deadly prey on the street, or interrogate someone by hacking into their head — the game often refused to comply.

Although my interactions with my vampire brothers were interesting, my interactions with humans in Seattle were downright confusing. As you walk the streets you’ll hear sex workers yelling “I just have to pay this college tuition!” no one. A businessman sitting on a bench opened with “Do you want to work together? Sexy work?”, then got up and followed me through the streets saying “I can’t wait to have sex with you!” I was so upset that I ate it. I know vampires view humans as unimportant puppets, but not like this.

The strange and inappropriate behavior of non-player characters isn’t the only thing about Bloodlines 2 that feels very late in the 2000s. It reminds me of the wave of weird and interesting first-person games that followed Deus Ex in 2000, and not just because of the outdated animation. Flying at unnatural speeds across the rooftops of Seattle is fun, and it’s also fun, as most of the game’s missions have you traveling back and forth across the city talking to people. But when you encounter ghouls – and they are there a lot Of them – you’re drawn into some of the most awkward first-person combat you’ve played in decades. It’s so unfun that I lowered the difficulty to easy after the first few hours so that these annoying skirmishes would end faster.

There’s a good story about the vamp hiding here; Cautious and risky conversations with dangerous vampires are the most interesting thing about Bloodlines 2. I enjoyed some parts of Seattle, especially the bars crowded with people listening to gothic music (of course). The Chinese Room has managed to make something playable and vaguely interesting out of a game development disaster. But after the first few hours, I kept going more out of morbid curiosity than enjoyment.