Vampire: The Masquerade® - Bloodlines™ 2

SUPERSUPER!!

Je vais être honnête : je ne comprends pas vraiment une partie des critiques adressées à Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2. Pour ma part, en tant que fan absolu de la licence VTM et ayant l'intégrale de tous les suppléments de ce JDR sortie depuis la V1 jusqu'à la V5, j'ai adoré le jeu. Dès les premières heures, j'ai retrouvé tout ce qui fait le charme de VTM : les intrigues entre vampires, les manipulations, les secrets, les jeux de pouvoir et cette ambiance unique où personne n'est vraiment digne de confiance. Seattle est un excellent terrain de jeu pour ce genre d'histoire et j'ai trouvé que les scénaristes avaient parfaitement compris ce qui rend cet univers si passionnant. L'histoire m'a accroché du début à la fin. J'avais toujours envie d'en apprendre plus sur les personnages et les mystères qui entourent Phyre. Franchement, mention spéciale aux scénaristes pour le travail réalisé. La bande-son mérite aussi tous les éloges. Retrouver des musiques composées par Rik Schaffer m'a fait énormément plaisir tant elles rappellent l'atmosphère du premier Bloodlines. Le reste de l'OST est lui aussi excellent et accompagne parfaitement les moments d'exploration, d'enquête ou de tension. C'est clairement une superbe bande-son. Concernant notre personnage joueur "Phyre", j'ai adoré l'incarner en version féminine. Son charisme est incroyable et colle bien à une "Ancienne", son design est superbe et la performance de la doubleuse avec son léger accent orientale lui donne énormément de personnalité. Le fait d'avoir en plus un Malkavien coincé dans notre tête apporte une dimension excellente au jeu. Tout n'est pas parfait bien sûr. L'aspect RPG est moins présent que dans le 1 mais contrebalancé par un jeu très immersif et très dynamique dans ses combats. Le plus gênant pour moi a été l'impossibilité de configurer correctement les touches 1, 2, 3 et 4 en AZERTY pour les pouvoirs et les consommables. J'ai fini par les déplacer sur F1 à F4 et je m'y suis habitué. Les combats sont aussi plutôt fun, mais le feeling à la souris manque parfois un peu de précision lors des mouvements rapides. Au final, j'ai passé un excellent moment. Est-ce que le jeu est parfait ? Non. Est-ce qu'il retranscrit l'ambiance, les thèmes et l'esprit de Vampire: The Masquerade ? Pour moi, absolument. Si vous êtes fan de l'univers VTM et que vous aimez les histoires de vampires centrées sur les intrigues et la politique de la Camarilla, ne laissez pas les critiques vous empêcher de vous faire votre propre avis. J'ai mis environ 50 heures pour terminer le jeu en faisant toutes les quêtes secondaires ainsi que les deux DLC, soit quasiment la même durée de vie que le premier Bloodlines. Concernant les deux DLC, ils sont relativement courts (comptez entre 2 et 3 heures chacun), mais je les ai trouvés très intéressants. Ils permettent de mieux comprendre les motivations, les agissements et les conséquences des actions de deux personnages clés que l'on croise durant l'aventure principale. Leur passé y est davantage développé, ce qui apporte un éclairage précieux sur leur comportement et leurs choix. Je recommande toutefois de les faire après avoir terminé l'histoire principale, car ils prennent tout leur sens une fois que l'on connaît les événements du jeu de base. Les découvrir avant risquerait de diminuer l'impact de certaines révélations.

I really enjoyed this game. Going to buy the dlc and playthrough again. Would recommend.

After a full playthrough I can understand the mixed reviews. I recommend Bloodlines 2 to those who enjoy storytelling and/or games about vampire lore. However, the game does have moments that feel unnecessarily long (especially when it comes to side quests and some of Fabien's scenes, that just drag everything out). I also had two major bugs during the main quest, which was frustrating, but I still see what the makers were trying to achieve (and partially succeeded at, imo). So y'know, if you don't mind re-playing some parts to work around bugs this might be pretty fun after all. I think my main issue after playing it once, is, that I am curios about the other endings, but it would take me entirely too long to go through all of it again. Of course it's manageable, but I just don't have enough patience for it. I guess the vision was there and it has loads of potential, but the execution is lacking.

Out of all UE5 trash I played, this here is the ABSOLUTE WORST OF ALL in performance. I doubt there's a computer capable of running this with a stable framerate. The game itself is ok, action open world similar to Ghostwire Tokyo.

The story was good, the combat flowed pretty well, and the abilities were fun to use.

People really need to get over the whole “This is not a sequel to Bloodlines” nonsense. We knew that. We knew that when Hardsuit Labs was still working on the game that it would not be a direct sequel. And The Chinese Room stated it several times during their rework. Call this game Seattle by Night or VtM: The Nomad and suddenly the reviews would be much better. On the game’s merits: Character creation is alright. It gives you a few options to mess around with and lots of clothes to unlock. The clothing does unfortunately trend to from masculine to androgynous and really doesn’t have anything feminine outside the one DLC outfit. The story is good enough. Worth playing through if the game is on sale. At several points in the story, I thought it was reaching the ‘big reveal’ only to get more puzzle/story. If we count the story of the Court, Phyre, Fabian, and the villain as separate stories, it becomes a pretty complex Chicken vs Egg scenario. The gameplay is straight forward enough. If you want to unlock and train every ability in a single playthrough, you’re going to be doing a LOT of farming. However, all but the final boss fight come up with reasons why you can’t use your abilities and also restrict your ability to feed (by throwing enemies at you that can’t be fed on). This turns several of the pivotal battles into stab, dodge, potion, repeat. The non-boss fights are fun and you can use any number of tactics to approach a situation. For the Seattle folks. It’s a lot of cool references and slightly altered reality. Lots of history but with vampires. I enjoyed this aspect quite a bit. I haven’t played the DLC because at no point in the 30 hours I was playing the main story did I ever think “hey, Muldoon and Ysabella seem like characters I’d like to explore their side” so… I’ll play it eventually, I guess. The long and the short: It’s a good enough VtM game to buy on sale.

It's fine if you've never played the first game, followed what was initially promised, or waited for it's release.

great game, story becomes tedious with flashbacks but worth playing

tl;dr Stop reading about the game and play it. This is best experienced spoiler free, and it's an amazing experience if you're willing to slow down and meet the game where it's at. This is, in my opinion, one of the most beautifully assembled games in existence. The visuals are gorgeous, the story is phenomenal. It does an excellent job of bringing you into the World of Darkness without any prior knowledge, without being overbearing towards players who know the WoD already. That being said, if you're here because you liked Bloodlines 1, this is not a sequel. The publisher forced the devs to keep the title, despite massive rewrites that took the story far, far away from being a true sequel to Bloodlines 1. And if you're here just for high octane vampire violence full of blood and gore, this might not be the game for you. There is blood, there is gore, but this is a game that wants you to slow down between gruesome combat scenes and think about what has happened. The combat is great, but it's not the focus. This is a mystery, a noir detective story, and a damn good one at that. It doesn't click into place until the very end, but all the cards are on the table within a small handful of hours. It's beautifully done, and every red herring is replaced with an even more interesting reveal as you move forward. This isn't a sequel to Bloodlines 1. It is, however, the only thing a game called Bloodlines 2 could be: A loveletter to the first game; an incredible narrative experience; a gorgeous and gore-filled window into the World of Darkness, full of amazing performances, wonderfully crafted characters, and a story that keeps you on the edge of your seat until the very end. This game, simply, would have received better reviews if it wasn't titled Bloodlines 2. But don't let the mixed ratings deter you from trying it out; it really is an amazing experience, and well worth the roughly 24 hour playtime for your first complete playthrough—and WELL worth a second playthrough to watch all of the cards get laid in front of you Once You're In The Know.