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Before the actual review. Dear the Chinese Room, please, I beg you, just switch to making visual novels for a few years and work your way up to games with gameplay beyond just walking around. Bloodlines 1 had a Masquerade system and a Criminality system. Bloodlines 2 doesn’t distinguish between a supernatural act and a criminal act, so whether you’re just punching the police or using disciplines to dispatch them you’ll eventually fill the “masquerade meter” and a vampire will instantly put a stake through your chest in the middle of town for everyone to see, in order to “protect the masquerade.” BL2 is a story-driven game, whose story is about 90% filler content. The intrigue, the mystery of the game is spoiled quickly by the “hints” the story gives you, which makes the moment of reveal fall flat and have no impact on you as a player. And the narrative content between the plot points that get the story moving along are just moments of boring filler content, like the first time you had to talk to an inanimate object might’ve been a bit amusing but by the time you talk to your 3rd or 4th object you get a feeling that dialog lines are there just to fill up the runtime of the game. And if you’re not a fan of the constantly chatting companion, Fabien will drive you mad. Not only does he keep, and keep on talking when you play as Phyre, he talks even more in the other 2 timelines when you play as him. The Chinese Room made some music for BL2, they also had the music by Rik Schaffer that was made for Hard Suit Labs’ Bloodlines 2 and somehow the game makes little use of music overall, there are a lot of moments in the game where there’s no music at all or it just stops for no apparent reason. BL2 also has a lot of references (easter eggs) to BL1 and at first it was cute, but the shortcomings of BL2 made it feel like BL2 just kept referencing a game whose greatness it could never even hope to reach. Because they removed weapons from the player character, the combat is basically “first-person close combat” with the occasional throwing of things and firing of a gun until the magazine empties. There’s no replay-ability around the different clans as you can unlock almost all disciplines in one playthrough if you are willing to waste enough time to do so. This game is not worth playing even if you got it for free.
Before the actual review. Dear the Chinese Room, please, I beg you, just switch to making visual novels for a few years and work your way up to games with gameplay beyond just walking around. Bloodlines 1 had a Masquerade system and a Criminality system. Bloodlines 2 doesn’t distinguish between a supernatural act and a criminal act, so whether you’re just punching the police or using disciplines to dispatch them you’ll eventually fill the “masquerade meter” and a vampire will instantly put a stake through your chest in the middle of town for everyone to see, in order to “protect the masquerade.” BL2 is a story-driven game, whose story is about 90% filler content. The intrigue, the mystery of the game is spoiled quickly by the “hints” the story gives you, which makes the moment of reveal fall flat and have no impact on you as a player. And the narrative content between the plot points that get the story moving along are just moments of boring filler content, like the first time you had to talk to an inanimate object might’ve been a bit amusing but by the time you talk to your 3rd or 4th object you get a feeling dialog lines happening to fill up the runtime of the game. And if you’re not a fan of the constantly chatting companion, Fabien will drive you mad. Not only does he keep, and keep on talking when you play as Phyre, he talks even more in the 2 timelines when you play as him. The Chinese Room made some music for BL2, they also had the music by Rik Shafer that was made for Hard Suit Labs’ Bloodlines 2 and somehow the game makes little use of music overall, there are a lot of moments in the game where there’s no music at all or it just stops for no apparent reason. BL2 also has a lot of references (easter eggs) to BL1 and at first it was cute, but the shortcomings of BL2 made it feel like BL2 just kept referencing a game whose greatness it could never even hope to reach. This game is not worth playing, not even if you got it for free.
Kain is deified. The Clans tell tales of Him. Few know the truth. He was mortal once, as were we all. However, His contempt for humanity drove him to create me, and my brethren. I am Raziel, first-born of His lieutenants. I stood with Kain and my brethren at the dawn of the empire. I have served Him a millennium. Over time, we became less human and more ...divine. Kain would enter the state of change and emerge with a new gift. Some years after the master, our evolution would follow. Until I had the honor of surpassing my lord. For my transgression, I earned a new kind of reward... agony. There was only one possible outcome - my eternal damnation. I, Raziel, was to suffer the fate of traitors and weaklings - to burn forever in the bowels of the Lake of the Dead.