Posted on: October 27, 2025

Alewolfex

Games: 7 Reviews: 1

Story of a Vampire Detective, Not BL 2

I’ve been waiting for this game for years, hoping to relive the atmosphere and RPG depth of the original *Bloodlines* (2004). Sadly, despite its name, this isn’t *Bloodlines 2* at all. The 2004 game captured the true spirit of Vampire: The Masquerade — meaningful choices, role-playing freedom, and a sense that every action shaped your character. Here, that soul is gone. Experience points only unlock vampire powers, not your character’s growth as a whole, and the role-playing elements have been reduced to a minimum. I honestly don’t know what part White Wolf played in this, or if they ever supervised The Chinese Room during development, because the result feels completely disconnected from the original and from the tabletop roots that defined the saga. As an action game, it works, but the combat feels a bit chaotic, and there are very few melee attack combinations. The atmosphere is good, and the story has some interesting moments, but it’s not enough to capture the depth of the original. This should have been released under a different title, maybe “The Story of a Vampire Detective named Phyre, Nomad, or Fabien” — any name would’ve worked, just not *Bloodlines 2*. It’s not a bad game, but it’s not the one fans have been waiting twenty years for.

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Edited on: November 1, 2025

Posted on: October 30, 2025

turnerd68

Games: 37 Reviews: 3

Disappointing. Incredibly Disappointing.

This is nothing but a cheap vampire console game with good graphics. It IS NOT a World of Darkness game and CERTAINLY NOT a Vampire the Masquerade game. They completely removed all of the elements that made Troika's game great. Everything about this gameplay is wrong. Just wrong. I admit I didn't have much hope for the game, simply because it is a Paradox game. I should have gone with my instincts. Played through in a day. No real replay value. The whole thing was just wrong. It would have been less disappointing if they hadn't tried to portray it as a sequel to an actual WoD game. I wouldn't have bought it, but then I wouldn't be disappointed, either. I hope somebody who actually cares, buys White Wolf and makes an actual WoD game. The game is easy enough to play, but it both looks and feels like a console game. There is nothing open about the world. I feel like, even if it had been a WoD game, we got the first chapter of what should have been four or five chapters. I literally feel cheated by paradox.

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Edited on: October 29, 2025

Posted on: October 28, 2025

Harmonea

Verified owner

Games: Reviews: 2

Just Okay

Other "most helpful" reviews have said a lot of what I would say, so I'll just point out the things that stick out to me after about 12 hours of play: 1. Combat just isn't fun. In trying to go for "fast paced," they made it a left click spam. Oh, sure, you can throw some powers in every now and then, but thinning the herd with stealth beforehand is the only thing about the combat that brings me any joy. Once they notice you and swarm, it's a chore. 2. Most of the enemy randos don't feel like they have the slightest in-universe logical reason to be where they are. Their very existence is immersion breaking -- in that I look at them and I know a game dev put them there to affect my sense of the pacing -- which is criminal in a game whose best feature is the immersive atmosphere of the World of Darkness. 3. I can't make my feminine Phyre actually look like a woman; the makeup is giving David Bowie at best, and the clothing is absolutely and utterly shapeless so that you can imagine any slender-ish body type under there. In an effort to be inclusive, the dev has left me unable to actually play a character that represents me. It's interesting that the masculine Phyre doesn't seem to have this problem. I grew up in a game era that left me used to being ignored in character selection options, but to be ignored in this particular manner feels even more hurtful than usual. 4. While I'm not done with the story yet, it's enough to keep me invested despite the game's other flaws. Even then, those who played the first Bloodlines game will feel the linearity and serious lack of clan-specific approaches to things.

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Edited on: October 22, 2025

Posted on: October 22, 2025

Peeonstuff

Games: 162 Reviews: 6

Game doesn't even work

After verifying integrity of files, checking for updates, updating all my drivers and windows 11 itself, the game still does NOT work. The game will get as far as selecting New Game > Difficulty > Gender Selection. Upon selecting either gender the game immediately freezes permanently and you can only close it through Task Manager > End Process. I looked online for fixes couldn't find any, spent 2 hours searching for any fix at all to be honest, wasted time man. REFUNDED MY PC SPECS: - Motherboard: Gigabyte Aorus Z790 UD AC - CPU: Intel i7 12700KF - GPU: NVIDIA MSI 4070Ti Gaming X Trio - RAM: 64gb 6000mhz DDR5

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Posted on: October 28, 2025

MacArthur1880

Games: 816 Reviews: 11

Not all bad but

It's just not that much fun. I am ready to give it another run but I just do not see it as a good game. Mediocre at best. It could've been worse but it doesn't make it a better game. Combat is melee only with a limited use of firearms. Travel across the map is like parkour with jumping and gliding. The story is confusing and the characters are just cliches. However, some aspects of it do deserve credit. The biggest hurdle for me was the walking. It has the symptoms of a "walking simulator" that make it unbearable for some players. Not that the original 2004 Bloodlines were much better but it's still not it for most players. I completely understand the folks who hated it, especially among the original Bloodlines fans. That said, it's a decent one time game set in the VTM universe. The graphics are decent, so is soundtrack and the general state of the game. It is, after all, a finihsed product. I just don't think it's as good as the devs thought it was.

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