Vampire: Masquerade – Bloodline 2 – We finally play
Blog Andrew Joseph 20 Aug , 2025 0
As an ancient monster of a vampire: Masquerade – Bloodline 2 and got my first blood, it was almost a surreal awakening. Phyre Nomad is a semi-repair character with a fixed backstory, and she has been asleep for 100 years when she woke up in modern Seattle – I feel like I've been thinking about this game almost as long as I've been thinking about it. From the announcement in 2019 to multiple delays, development dilemmas, a gentle cancellation and an almost complete reboot under the Chinese room, finally played it, and it brought me to answer my big question: Is it worth waking up from an eternal slumber? So far, I'm cautiously optimistic.
First, first: China Room is not the studio I'm going to draft, it's a sequel to one of the most popular cult hot people in the early 2000s. They gave themselves a name, sometimes abandoned “walking simulator” and linear first-person horror games like Amnesia: Pig's Machine, still wake up. But it is indeed a free-roaming open world wonder, although it's on a modest map once you walk on the city streets. Not only smoke and mirrors.
My vampire had to climb up utility pipes and fires, fly from roof to roof, slide down Moody's alley, and of course also engaged in the long-lost vampire tradition, falling a long way without causing any falls, and I was impressed by my freedom. It is not safe to do all of these things in front of Seattle's numerous mortal citizens, though, because if you hang out or leave too many witnesses, it will start filling the makeup watch gauges, which can lead to a game.
I found the system a little too forgiving in the demo – you can fall down on someone in the middle of the street, and as long as you run fast enough you won't suffer any consequences – but it's nice to see a tribute to the most basic rules of the environment: the inability to allow humans to know the existence of vampires.
This bite
In Bloodline 2: Humans use as mobile healing potion and recharge your vampire discipline – special abilities associated with each vampire clan. In a sense, this is not a survival game, as your bloodthirst rate does not increase naturally over time in the first place. But I feel like I need to feed so often that it will never become something I can ignore, which is good.
There is an interesting blood resonance system that encourages characters to feel a certain emotion – fear, anger or desire – depending on your clan, you can indulge in the clan, which allows you to unlock the currency of certain disciplines when feeding on them in this high state. As a toreador, I like to seduce someone into a dark alley before taking a bite, which creates the feeling that your vampire has a partial mortal to prey on. You can also eat in battles close to dead enemies, which is a bit forgiving because of how fast it is. I don't feel like I'll take a serious risk by pausing my snacks.
The battle may be a weak link here, at least from the few hours I was able to play. I will allow the possibility that I haven't grasped it yet. But I ran the whole process in the form of a Blood Mage, a quarrel brujah and a seductive toreador – the last one with Lasombra, is part of the premium version of Day-One-One DLC. In each case, especially melee combat is somewhat inaccurate and confusing. I tried it with the mouse and keyboard and the controller and the latter is definitely better. But I found myself really wishing for more “hard” locks. You can only use weapons, including guns, through ranged sports, which is also somewhat disappointing. What I got is that phyre is older than modern guns, but as a vampire, a vampire with a sweet double pistol is an iconic atmosphere that doesn't appear in Bloodline 2.
To be fair, the battle is by far the weakest part of the original bloodline, so I won't be fighting too much about it. Things do start to increase as you unlock more disciplines, and your core clan line is cheapest in terms of skill points and has cross-disciplinary with keywords like celerity, your family specializes in so doing moderate discounts. But, other than running, non-kinship disciplines are very expensive and there is nothing to stop you from learning any discipline you need.
As a strange person, I could boil the blood of the target, damn him, turn him into a volatile blood bomb, and then hit him with a bottle pierced by far-gold, causing him to explode and immediately take the whole room. This is definitely the most annoying thing, but it does have some repetitions. It feels more like a head than a play style. Brujah and Toreador are more of traditional melee fighters and in the long run I ended up being uplifted with a better attitude. Toreadors also have neat blinking ability and temporarily turn enemies toward you by kissing.
The dark world
However, the Chinese room has always been awesome in the atmosphere, and here is no exception. Neon alleys, weird warehouses and decadent abandoned hotel suites are drip irrigating small details. I do appreciate the way the markers change when exploring, letting you know there are undiscovered secrets nearby without simply telling you where they are. This way, searching for black horns is still an interesting challenge, but I can also satisfy the perfectionist of my inner obsessed person, that is, when the circle becomes a point, I find everything I can find.
The story is convincing, full of memorable characters, and a top-notch voice acting for the starring actors. We don't know why Phyre suddenly awakened Phyre, or the mysterious symbols on her hand restricted her power. But the Seattle Prince was assassinated recently, with a loose Canon vampire sheriff stripping the sting, oh yes, a Markavia police detective who lives in our minds.
Fabien is the movie noir black hero in every section, and he ends up sharing Phyre's brain flesh until you notice the fangs. Some flashback sequences are played from his perspective, and technically Malkavian becomes the last playable clan. So far, these segments do not include combat. All of his disciplines are designed to solve mysteries, such as the ability to force someone to tell him the testimony they left. I found him to be an interesting rhythm change. Considering the long and shadowy path that finally rested in my undead claws, I really don't know what to expect from Bloodline 2. But, headed by a well-written mystery story, let me explore my urban hunting grounds with cool athletic abilities, to say the least. So far, I don't like fighting, and the masquerade system seems to be too forgiving. But I long to spend more time with it. It's totally different from the original game, but I dare hope this might be really special. Vampire: Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 will be released on the evening of October 21.