Few names evoke as much nostalgia and respect as Vampire the Masquerade – Bloodlines. A cult vampire RPG that has been around for several years and is as unique today as it was then. And every year it seems to be gaining more and more popularity. By the way, I’m not just saying this for God’s sake. You can see this for yourself in our retrospective. I’m just trying to say that the task is to create a sequel to such a game there’s nothing enviable. After years of delays, reboots, studio changes, management and publishing problems oversight but it has “finally” come. The second part made its way into the night light. But will anyone be surprised if I say that he is better off in a coffin?
There is one important thing to mention at the beginning. However, Vampire the Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 is playable… but we couldn’t get a worse version of what the Bloodlines series should be.. Everything that made the original so great is simply not here. Nada. Zero. Nothing. The second part was devoted to modern mainstream confidence. That is, towards a completely stupid, linear action adventure that is afraid to take any risks. And what’s most offensive is that it doesn’t allow us, the players, to live out vampire fantasies.
Character creation with assigning points to individual attributes has probably disappeared completely. On skills tests forget about it in dialogues. Choosing your clan – rather than fundamentally influencing how others behave towards you, changing gameplay, or opening or blocking dialogue options and entire quest lines – it is only used to select the starting perk and some form of predisposition to certain abilities. As you progress through the game, you can unlock any skill from any clan. Have you wanted to play the game differently, playing as a Nosferatu or a Malkavian? You don’t have to. Focus on dialogue choices and important decisions? Yes, they rarely appear here, but only towards the end of the game. And this primarily depends on how much sycophancy you have. Otherwise, everything just happens according to a clearly defined scenario without any serious participation on your part. and you can’t make a particularly bad decision. Compared to the first, the sequel is simply an incredibly stripped-down project. And if we got THIS after about three reboots, then I don’t even want to look at what the previous versions looked like. But if you are not looking for a vampire RPG, but you can get by with a linear action adventure… A little something – SMALL – after all, it has a Pedigree.
You will take on the role of the newly awakened vampire Fira. Nomad. A sort of legend who found himself in 21st century Seattle after 100 years of sleep. Culture and the whole world have changed beyond recognition. But this modern world also means a new beginning. If it weren’t for that rather strange situation when you have a symbol on your hand that you don’t recognize – and what’s worse, in the mind of a complete stranger. I won’t lie if I say that this story interested me very much from the very beginning. While Fire himself has a dull personality, the character in his head and the other personalities you meet provide enough contrast. The neo-noir storyline, which often reminded me of Cyberpunk 2077 in some of its concepts, kept me interested and offered a number of enjoyable moments. So when you isolate the story from the rest of the game, it’s functional and good. But all his blood is sucked away by the rest of the game.
I’ll outline for you what an average half hour of gameplay looks like. You go to point 1 to talk to someone. That someone is directing you to location 2 to another character. She wants you to deal with a group of enemies in area 3. Great, once they’re done, head back to area 2. There, a man will give or tell you something. Now you can go to location 4 and talk to another character. Once you do this, you will return to point 1 for the next dialogue. Congratulations. The quest is completed. And it’s time to do it again for the next 15 hours. Fun, right? The sheer monotony of the gameplay is further exacerbated by the fact that for most of the game you’ll have to visit about seven locations over and over and over and over again, back and forth, back and forth, until you’re completely exhausted. The game tries to make you feel like you’re in the vast city of Seattle – a modern metropolis – but the map itself makes it seem like every Czech village is bigger.
Source :Indian TV
