A (very) good game!
I was extremely glad to discover that this actually turned out to be a good, perhaps even very good, game.
The mood and ambience is spot on, great sound, great graphics, interesting storyline so far and, the character cast is mostly interesting and well-portrayed, staying true to VTM archetypes and tropes without becoming a hamfisted cliché of old stereotypes.
The game (IMO naturally) does a very good job of presenting the updated V5 setting and is a joy to play honestly. What it doesn't do is use the actual tabletop ruleset or base itself on two-decades old, outdated setting lore but as a 30-year veteran of the VTM/WoD franchise, I am more than happy with this. I honestly never believed Bloodlines 2 would be this good after all the development hell, Chinese Room did a great job on saving something that could easily have been another Duke Nukem Forever tbh.
Now, what stops me from giving it 5/5?
- First off, I rarely give anything 5/5, always room for improvement unless you're Disco Elysium :D
- Game narrative is mostly linear so far, and I doubt it's going to change much later, but it's engrossing, well-crafted and leaves room for free-roaming Seattle and your own interpretation of The Nomad as a character.
- A little more stat and gear play would have nice, but honestly, the current design is hella tight for the type of game this is
- The crashing, though I'm pretty sure that's more to blame on UE and having a 14th gen Intel chip