It might be rough and showing its age by now, but Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines is one of the best RPGs on vibes alone. The 2004 classic oozes atmosphere, with a story that’s so good it almost makes you forget about its numerous game-breaking bugs. While Bloodlines 2 doesn’t capture that same magic, it’s still a decent Vampire: The Masquerade experience, but if the mixed Steam reviews are putting you off and you’d rather wait to grab it at a discount, I have good news for you.
Let’s get this out of the way – Bloodlines 2, despite what the title suggests, isn’t a direct sequel to Troika Games’ original. Instead, it’s more of a spiritual successor, one that attempts to capture the same atmosphere but in a modern-day Seattle as opposed to Los Angeles. There’s a high bar set, considering that the first Bloodlines remains one of the best vampire games ever made, but it’s better to view it as another spin-off in the TTRPG’s universe, even if the name suggests otherwise.
Superfan and PixelArena.io news editor Lauren Bergin discusses this in her Bloodlines 2 review, giving it a mediocre 5/10 and saying that it “fails to recapture the original’s magic, instead magnifying the worst parts of Troika’s classic.” But sometimes you just want to roam the streets as a blood-hungry Kindred, and enjoying a new Vampire: The Masquerade game with all of those modern visuals is just what I wanted.
You play as Phyre, a 400-year-old elder who has awakened after a long slumber. They find themself branded, however, leaving them trapped in Seattle with their powers sapped and a chattering Malkavian called Fabien stuck in their head. Like any great World of Darkness experience, you can choose your Bloodlines 2 clan, which offers a unique playstyle, like the mage-style ranged abilities of the Tremere, or the tanky build of the Brujah. And, in classic WoD fashion, Seattle’s warring factions are busy spitting fire at one another, and Phyre quickly ends up at the heart of the chaos.
Bloodlines 2’s combat, while particularly janky, does let you live out that Elder power fantasy. For example, you can use Blood Curse to boil an enemy’s blood and make them explode like red confetti, or Hypnosis to control unwitting foes. To make things even more interesting, you can borrow other clans’ Disciplines (or their abilities, for a less fancy term) to hone your own, unique build, so if you’ve ever wondered what a crossover between Toreador and Lasombra looked like, you can find out in style.
As someone who enjoyed the original, Bloodlines 2 might not be the sequel I had hoped for, but I’m just glad that there’s a new VTM game. If the mixed reviews are putting you off, though you can already get The Chinese Room’s vampire adventure at a discount. Right now, you can grab Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 for just $55.19 / £45.99 at Fanatical, a neat little post-launch discount that makes clicking the ‘buy’ button a little easier.
If you’re hoping to become more powerful than Cain himself, you’ll want to make sure the game is running to the best of its abilities. Fortunately, our handy guide on the best Bloodlines 2 settings will give you top performance, making it much easier to power through the Bloodlines 2 missions list without too many stutters or crashes.
I’m going to use my vampiric mind control powers now and tell you to join our PixelArena.io Discord server, and fortunately, we’ve got plenty of room for more World of Darkness fans to come chat about their favorite games in the franchise.