Bloodlines 2 Fails to Meet Fan Expectations: Press Reviews Highlight Mixed Reception

The journey of  Vampire: The Masquerade — Bloodlines 2 towards its release has been fraught with challenges and setbacks. Nonetheless, Paradox and the developers from The Chinese Room managed to bring the game to launch. Did the teams succeed in creating something worthwhile from the remnants of the version developed by Hardsuit Labs? Initial reviews from the press are mixed and rather ambiguous.

At the time of writing, the reception for Bloodlines 2 is mediocre, with a score of 64 on Metacritic (PS5 version) and 66 on OpenCritic (only 40% of critics recommend it). Let’s start with the game’s positives. It has received praise for its atmosphere, engaging storyline, interesting characters, well-designed environments, and an entertaining soundtrack. Some reviewers also appreciated the abilities of the elder vampire.

However, critics pointed out a multitude of negatives. Players’ choices in Bloodlines 2 seem to have little impact—only an illusion of choice is presented. Side quests are described as dull and overly simplistic, the open world is empty and uninviting for exploration, customization options are sparse for an RPG, combat is unbalanced, and the flashback segments featuring Fabien are lacking in mechanics. All these issues are compounded by poor performance on both PC and consoles.

Charles Harte from Game Informer

Below, we summarize conclusions from several reviews as part of the published analysis.

Fraser Brown

Jessica Cogswell

Robert Purchese

Jasmine Gould-Wilson

Vampire: The Masquerade — Bloodlines 2 is set to launch on October 21 for PC (Steam, GOG, Epic Games Store), PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series, with Russian subtitles included.