Could we had a better Wampire The Masquerade : Bloodlines 2 ? YES, absolutly !
Is this a bad game ? NO !
Considering the hard developpement of this game it is almost a miracle to finally have it (like the first one, btw)
Let's begin.
Graphics :
Visually the game is pretty beautifull and have absolutly the vibe of Vampire the masquerade, the night streets of Seattle are gloomy the neon and other street lights give a bright red lights and give a real athmosphere to the game, the smoke, the snow and the vfx are really good, the designe of lot of characters are really good, i personnally regret that there's only 3 Nosferatu in the game, but their design is good.
Sound :
The game have a good sound design overall, the fights, weapons have good sounds too, the music are more subtle but still good.
Writting :
The game immerses you in a real maze of a mystery, you wake up after 100 years of sleep, with someone inside your head, a mysterious mark carved in your hand and a LOT of questions.
The game use the second character inside your head (Fabian, a detective) like Johnny Silverhand, a good way to justify to have frequent tips or reflexion of a character during an infiltration, or a case.
There's a lot of choices to make, and the story is rather well written, with lot of little consequences for what you decide to do.
i maybe regret that we do not have a decisive clue as player to understand who is the real threat until the revelation. (but maybe i just miss the clue).
Alas there's no writting on secondary quests... but i will get to that just after.
the characters are pretty coherent and understandable, there's not cliché and the game of power works well, just...the anarch are pretty...too good guys to be interesting i think.
The story is approximately 25h to finish straight.
Gameplay :
First BIG mistake for this game, no character's sheet, no perks or skills and no inventory, you just have your kindred power (those of your clan, AND the other...because you're ancient blablabla) the game only gives you 4 consumables like in Hogwarts legacy...nothing really interesting and of course this is NOT an RPG, or a kind of light RPG only in Dialogues.
The second BIG mistake, NO weapons, no guns, no grenades, in this game it's only fists and feet !
The fights aren't bad, but it seriously lacks something and GOD it's frustrating to be machine-gunned to death just because your character is too stupid for using a gun...
You have the possibility to use telekinesis for taking a grenades, a knife or a gun and use it before throwing it...but this is really poor.
And the FINAL BIG mistake, NO secondary quests, the story is good, but this is really what make a difference between a RPG, and a narrative game...
The game try to hide this mistake with some 4/5 repetitive objectives...but this is REALLY POOR written and executed.
Finally there's 6 clans playable : Ventrue, Lasombra, Toreadore, Tremere, Brujah and Banu Haqim.
i'm obviously disapointed that we can't play as Malkavian, even if they put Fabian (he is Malkavian) in our head to blur this.
I did not speak about bugs, because honnestly, i was lucky and just get a tiny bug close to the end, forcing me to reload, but overall i didn't have any, but this is to consider, because a LOT of people have a LOTS of bugs, the game seem unstable at the moment.
Conclusion :
For the end i must say...i pretty love this adventure and lot of characters and was REALLY happy to feel in the World of darkness again...But yeah, as expected this is not the real sequel we wanted, i really hope this is not an end for the incredible Vampire : The masquerade universe in video game, and really want a TRUE SEQUEL of the first Bloodlines, one day maybe.
Try this game if you feel like it, and, good night.
