Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 - Reviews Thread

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Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Game Information

Game Title: Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2

Platforms:
  • PC (Oct 21, 2025)
  • PlayStation 5 (Oct 21, 2025)
  • Xbox Series X/S (Oct 21, 2025)
Trailer:

Review Aggregator:

OpenCritic - 64 average
Metacritic - 64 average



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Critic Reviews


3DNews - Мила Пономарева - Russian - 5 / 10
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CNET - Oscar Gonzalez - Unscored
Across the board, Bloodlines 2 is just a disappointment. It should be oozing with style and gothic vibes that make you want to paint your fingernails black and put on some My Chemical Romance. Instead, it's just the same thing over and over again that feels uninspired and unchallenging.


Dexerto - Jessica Filby - 3 / 5
Bloodlines 2 isn't your typical RPG. It tells a great and complex story while taking you on an adventure where every choice you make affects the narrative, inside a city that feels alive with lovable and hateable characters. However, it could have done so much more to live up to its predecessor and TTRPG inspiration.


Everyeye.it - Fabrizio Cenci - Italian - 8 / 10
Quote not yet available


GameGrin - Mike Crewe - 7.5 / 10
Whilst fans of the original may not like the stark difference between the two titles, Bloodlines 2 is still an engaging vampiric tale that, if given a chance, will sink its teeth into you!


Gameblog - French - 8 / 10
Quote not yet available


Loot Level Chill - Mick Fraser - 6 / 10
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 will certainly appeal to the die-hard fans of its world, thanks to the story. Unfortunately though, it commits the cardinal sin of simply not being fun enough to play, and that's a difficult coffin to clamber back out of.


PlayStation Universe - John-Paul Jones - 7.5 / 10
Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines 2 might not be the sequel that folk from 2004 wanted for their game, but it is the game we've got. Though largely sparse open world and technical issues are hardly encouraging, the beautifully evocative interior environments, surprisingly engaging traversal and combat mechanics, together with its neatly unconventional 'buddy movie' conceit which sees two vampires attempting to inhabit the same body and each with their own motivations, makes Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines 2 a good deal more intriguing than I originally expected it to be.


The Nerd Stash - Julio La Pine - 7 / 10
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 could have been an excellent vampire experience, but its uninspiring gameplay, technical issues, and frustrating combat leave it in the dark.


TheSixthAxis - Steve C - 7 / 10
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 is a good game, but one that's held back by the expectations of being a sequel to an all-time classic. If you can step away from the baggage of the Bloodlines title, there is a lot here to enjoy in terms of narrative and atmosphere, though the combat is too repetitive.
 
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Fucks sake.

Oh well, PC keys for this will bound to be available for $10 at some point next year, so I'll check it out for myself just out of morbid curiosity at some point.
 
The developers said the map would like Deus Ex Mankind Divided with that depth of level design but from what I am reading the level design is terrible.

What the hell happened
 
Fucks sake.

Oh well, PC keys for this will bound to be available for $10 at some point next year, so I'll check it out for myself just out of morbid curiosity at some point.
Yep, this is now my plan. I could handle 75-80 or so but not this and apparently the atmosphere is not the gothic vampire style it should be.

This game was supposed to launch or launch window for Series X and went through too much dev hell.
 
Sounds like the story is at least decent, but the gameplay is shit. Man that's a bummer....that being said, gameplay is patchable to a degree if the gameplay issues are minor, but if they're foundational in nature then there's only so much that can be done. Does this seem fixable at all or is there a fundamental flaw to the game design?
 
Story and characters still seem well made. Thats good enough for me. I was never expecting this to be comparable to the original, thats an unrealistic expectation especially given this game's troubled development.
 
Sounds like a solid 7/10. Some cool stuff, minor technical issues and a few game flaws.

Scores lower than that I suspect are just punishing it because of the name on the box. Will definitely pick it up on sale down the road.
 
After all this time and me thinking it came out multiple times because of the spinoffs it's finally out and it's mid af
 
I know. And some of these reviews are blatantly from ones with a vendeta that it has the bloodlines name
Would you feel the same way with Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance was released or Baldur's Gate 3, what about Fallout Tactics as Fallout 3?

This is released as Bloodlines 2, it has very big shoes to fill. We have other World of Darkness games, that aren't the immersive RPGs of Bloodlines. People are going in with big expectations. It might be a good game, but it will be expected to have certain things it that it sounds are completely missing from this game.
 
Vampire kick ass fest. It does seem there is a divide, those who never played Bloodlines seemed hyped. Those who did seem to have no time for this.
I don't know the scope of ambition needed to match Bloodlines in the modern era. That game was kinda magical even if unfinished and somewhat janky (pre-patch).
 
I don't know whats so hard about making Deus Ex with vampires & titties. Its a fairly straightforward concept, but its clear they couldn't grasp it.
 
Vampire kick-ass fest. There seems to be somewhat of a divide. Those who played Bloodlines have no time for this. Those who did not seemed hyped.
I wonder what the scope of ambition would be like to bring something like Bloodlines into the modern era. Once patched the original Bloodlines is quite magical. I think about it a lot to this day.
Curios if Chinese Room was pushed to get this out as quickly as possible. I would say they probably never had experience with RPG's anyway, but then again, I don't think they have any experience with brawlers either (as far as I can tell).
 
Not surprised, I knew this project was fucked when the first studio fucked shit up so badly that Paradox had to give to another studio. And then, being the incompetent retards that Paradox are, they chose the fucking Chinese Room as the new dev.

That being said, the original Bloodlines did also not review exceptionally well, but mostly because it was bugged to shit.
 
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As I said the ip as a whole is mid looking past the first two games released back when steam was a newborn. The newish ones are budget titles yet I keep playing them; the visual novels are fine, really enjoyed Swansong and probably gonna enjoy Bloodlines 2 as well.
 
Nowadays, any game that does the basics, without major performance issues or bugs, can score 80 or above on Metacritic. Something went very wrong with this one.
 
Would you feel the same way with Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance was released or Baldur's Gate 3, what about Fallout Tactics as Fallout 3?

This is released as Bloodlines 2, it has very big shoes to fill. We have other World of Darkness games, that aren't the immersive RPGs of Bloodlines. People are going in with big expectations. It might be a good game, but it will be expected to have certain things it that it sounds are completely missing from this game.

No. Whinging about features to be included from sequels of dead games from 20+ years ago is absurd and just fandom brainrot. Especially in the case of Bloodlines. It did a lot and was a master at none of it. Lots of mechanics and dogshit implementations of them.

Some things are eh fair game to complain about, i.e lockpicking. Easy and mundane enough thing to implement.

Other things like implementing noseratus in the same way as the original is stupid.
 
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No. Whinging about features to be included from sequels of dead games from 20+ years ago is absurd and just fandom brainrot. Especially in the case of Bloodlines. It did a lot and was a master at none of it. Lots of mechanics and dogshit implementations of them.

Some things are eh fair game to complain about, i.e lockpicking. Easy and mundane enough thing to implement.

Other things like implementing noseratus in the same way as the original is stupid.
What about actual roleplaying like having skill checks on dialog so you have a branching story?

Not including every feature is one thing. Failing to represent the genre of the game is another. Especially when the original development on the game had the work done to support it.
 
I'm still willing to give this game a chance. Wonder how the console version will look, or if the trailers were all UE5 smoke and mirrors.
 
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