Hello everyone! With E3 2019 currently underway lots of new information about various games and upcoming releases is appearing, and IGN recently posted a video showing a little over 18 minutes of Pre Alpha (I wanna stress this, PRE ALPHA) game footage of the upcoming Urban Fantasy Action RPG Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines 2, which is a game I am super excited for. I mean, I am currently playing VTM Bloodlines 1 (Thanks to my Patreon Game Club members) over on Twitch and posting it to Youtube, so you can imagine how excited I am for this.

Now I wanted to share with you all my personal observations and thoughts based on this footage as this is the first time we have had any real look at how the game is shaping up.

First, lets link the IGN Video so you can watch it.

Alright. First and foremost I want to say that the visual presentation is stunning. The city shown here, which is Seattle, is dark moody and fitting. Everything looks nice and clean, and honestly while watching this footage I kept wishing I was in control so I could explore every nook and cranny shown here. Plus, there is verticality here! Unlike VTM Bloodlines 1, they show off the fact that you have the ability to spider climb up walls in this game, which means that you can possibly find hidden areas and alternative routes into places just by really exploring each area. That alone changes the game up dramatically from the first, and I am excited to see what they do with this.

Also the current UI looks pretty solid as well. The health bar over in the lower left was easy enough to understand, with aggrevated damage being marked it seemed by the yellowish bits. Plus the Blood Meter appears to be a bit easier to read as well, with dots showing exactly how much blood you have available. One issue I have in VTM Bloodlines 1 is telling exactly how much blood I have since its a bar, but every ability references spending Points. But the bar doesnt show Points its a bar. Having Dots showing exactly how many Blood Points I have to spend is a much better idea. The compass at the top is also simple to read. It also shows you the kind of zone you are in: Masquerade, Blindspot, and Blank (which I assume means all bets are off).

I am assuming that the Blindspots are where you can take action without being seen. Maybe use the Attract command I saw popping up (which I assume is used to entice people for feeding) and then lead them over to a Blindspot to have a little snack.

Now, for those who are unaware, the Masquerade is basically the rules Vampires live by, and one of those rules is dont let the humans know you exist. In a zone marked as Masquerade, you don’t want to use your Vampire abilities lest the Kine (ie the humans) realize they are not alone in this world. I did notice the player who was controlling the game use his climbing abilities AND fall from great heights with no issue, so I wonder if those just dont break the Masquerade, or if the NPCs never saw it, or if its just not implemented. I dunno bout the rest of ya but if I saw someone run up the side of a building I would be a bit confused / concerned.

The interiors looked great as well, visually. Also, I love that I can still dance in the clubs, and that the dancing is still dumb as hell. Vampires can’t dance I suppose.

When the player meets that female Vampire (And she is a vamp, you can see her fangs if you pay attention) I felt the animations for her face were a tiny bit stiff, but I kind of expect that from a smaller studio. We are not going to get Kojima / CD Projekt Red levels of quality here just because of budget and size. The dialog was great, plenty of choices given, and I saw some skill checks later (stuff like Coercion, Humanity, ect). Also the voice acting was actually really well done. Both the lady vamp, the Nosferatu, and Slug sounded great and I really happy with that.

Speaking of the Nosferatu….I am disappointed in how human he looked. He even had fancy ass clothes! The entire point of the Nosferatu line is that they DO NOT appear human, at all. Whatsoever. He does. He looks like someone with a skin condition, and given that my day job is working with Dermatology Medications FOR SKIN CONDITIONS I know what I am referring to here. I have seen more freaky and horrifying stuff just doing my day job then I saw from him. Slug, the apparently Nosferatu Thinblood you are sent after in this demo looked more inhuman then the fullblooded Nosferatu and this disappoints me. VTM Bloodlines 1 made them look correct if you ask me, with horrible mismatched teeth, bizarre eyes, weird bumps and contusions and all that jazz. In VTM Bloodlines 1 you would NEVER mistake a Nosferatu as a human. You could with that one.

Combat is still janky as hell though. This is a pre alpha so I am hoping that gets polished up but honestly, it looks about as well done as VTM Bloodlines 1, only in pure first person rather then First for ranged and 3rd for melee. Enemies didnt react much when struck, although they did have little voice clips that indicated their confusion as to how or why the player is able to take knives and shotgun blasts without stopping. Thats a nice touch. Also the enemies still ragdoll in hilarious fashion and this pleases me.

The powers shown here are also pretty cool. We got the wall running and no fall damage, but we also get to see the mist usage to access a fan and enter a building. We get to see some sort of AOE Damage pulse, we get to see a buff that seems to make the player stronger, an enemy go invisible (OBFUSCATE!) and I think that was it. We also got to see the feeding animation, which again seemed to be taken directly from VTM Bloodlines 1 complete with the shove away.

Overall I am exceedingly happy with what I saw here. It feels like an updated version of VTM Bloodlines 1 just from what I saw, and that alone is enough for me to want to purchase / play it. I am confident that the folks behind the game are going to do a great job as long as it keeps up with the current style and feel that I saw here.

You can learn more about the game at the website, as well as find places to purchase it. Currently its set to release sometime in 2020.

As always thanks for reading everyone and Stay Nerdy! Make sure to follow me on Twitch, Youtube, Twitter, and join my Steam Group and Steam Curator pages! Pledge to my Patreon! Spread the word on social media & help me get out there so I can bring even more content to the masses. You do want more content yes?

Edit 6/13/19 – Some additional footage from GameSpot has cropped up that may give a better perspective on the combat. You can see that additional video footage below.

18 Minutes of Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines 2 Gameplay: My Thoughts & Observations

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