#lairofsentinel

Sometimes I really want to read a short summary of what to expect from a game… and thankfully people can also submit their summaries of games they played and help me (and others) find games that cater to their interests!

submitted by @lairofsentinel

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what to expect from VAMPIRE: THE MASQUERADE: BLOODLINES 2

Story-driven detective-like “action” adventure that is sold as RPG but has no elements of RPG.

Stats don’t exist. As I said, there is no RPG here.

There are no choices in conversations, there is only an illusion of a choice: you have several options that, until you don’t pick the correct one, it doesn’t continue with the story, making you restart the conversation over and over without any penalty.

You play two main characters: Phyre [an elder] in the present, and Fabien [a Malkavian detective] in the past.

The game is placed in Seattle and has some random cameos from the Bloodline1 game and other media.

You cannot customize your main character Phyre. You can only pick their genre, hairstyle, outfit, piercings+make-up, and eye colour.

Phyre can belong to one of the following clans: Banu Haqim, Brujah, LaSombra, Tremere, Toreador, Venture.

There are no manual saves, you have to use a mod for that. What you have is an auto-save at the start of scenes or after a loadscreen. If the file gets corrupted, you lost your game.

The writing is good and has good characters with an interesting, driving story that keeps feeding your curiosity.

There is a good amount of subtle, integrated lgbt content and racial diversity.

Fully voiced. Although at times the voice acting is a bit weird.

It has good music, with the same compositor of Bloodlines 1, so the style remains almost intact in my opinion, at least when it comes to music and ambient music.

It has a pakour gameplay in the rooftops similar to Mirror’s Edge which is cool. It gives a good sense of what being a Vampire in VTM means: “a predator of the night”. However, since it’s only used for travelling, it gets old soon.

Combat sucks. No other way to describe it. It’s first-person camera combat, very messy and hard to aim or control. The best way to approach most fights is through stealth, killing the enemies from the distance. Avoid melee combat as much as possible.

There is a degree of gore present in the game: you behead enemies, or use your hands as knives, piercieng chests. Not super detailed, but clearly the animations reinforce this feeling of "you are a predator in the middle of the night". It's closer to sense "The Beast".

A lot of your time is wasted walking along the city to go to talk to X or Y character.

Side quests only provide some xp and blood, and can be skipped without any consequence, since all of them are of the type “fetch-quest”, or “kill x target”.

This game is nothing alike the old vtmb 1. Under no criteria this is its “successor” or “sequel”. It’s just another game set in this dark fantasy world of WoD, closer to the style of game we find in Swansong.

There is no Thirst or Humanity system, so evil actions or good actions have no consequences in terms of the humanity of the vampire. If you dont want to drink blood during the game, you will have no consequences either.

There are some questionable mechanics that would contradict the lore: for example, no matter your clan, you can learn all the powers of the other clans by grinding blood.

“Romance” does not exist. It’s a kind of embarrassing “vampire flings”. Your character says embarrassing things to some NPCs who give you fetch-quests, and they eventually accept to go “intimate”, which is a black screen with each of them crying some embarrassing pun associated with their bloodline… which is terrible, really.

There is no personal horror in the characters. You don’t see their humanity struggling with the Beast, which is usually an essential mark in this franchise. It makes feel these characters more like thin-bloods than real vampires that belong to a clan. The game does a poor job in showing how the characters have to deal with their clan’s weaknesses.

Short game, around 20 hours, with almost no re-playability since you can unlock all the powers of all clans by grinding blood. And clan-related options in the conversations are few and far between.

It has multiple endings that are mostly a combination of a series of choices you did along the story.

——- Plot? ——-

In 2024, Phyre awakens from a century-long torpor. Blood-starved, their predatory instincts take over, and they rampage through the city, violating the Masquerade in the process. When Phyre regains control, they discover a strange power-suppressing brand etched into their flesh and Fabien's voice in their mind. To look for answers, they will approach the Camarilla of Seattle where a set of intrigues, mysteries, and political frictions unfold.

——- Gameplay? ——- 

Game heavily based on conversations. It has some few choices that will be reflected in the ending flavour. There is a clumsy, junky combat system that I recommend to avoid as much as possible.

——- Characters? ——- 

The main ones you control: Phyre [elder of a clan of your choice], and Fabien [Malkavian]. There are many NPCs that will take important roles in the story and in the mystery we are investigating.

 ——- LGBT? ——-

There are trans and gay characters of all genders, including non-binary ones.

——- Sadness level? ——- 

Very low. The story is not focused on the character’s emotions, but mostly on the mystery that motivates the plot.

——- Happy ending? Deaths? ——-

hello! thanku ^^ what came to mind was this old post on the old BioWare forums by David Gaider, it's not explicit but could this be what you're thinking of? the post is from ~2009, before DA:I, the Flemythal reveal and all the DA:I dragon-Mythal iconography.

"The cult of the Old Gods (I don't call it "the Tevinter religion" mainly because that, to me, speaks of the Imperial Chantry -- which is based in today's Tevinter Imperium) didn't contradict the existence of the Maker. Quite the opposite. The people of ancient Tevinter were aware of the existence of the Golden City and ascribed to "the Maker" (though this Creator was not called this until the appearance of the Chantry) the creation of the world. The Old Gods were not creators, though they were supposedly also not created. The Old Gods were outside of the Creator's Plan and showed up to whisper to mankind and teach them magic. According to the Chantry, they turned mankind away from their regard for a remote Creator (who ruled remotely and never interacted with his own creations) and that this is what made the Creator abandon the Golden City... though there is argument that the cult believed the Creator had abandoned it long before and that they were adrift, rescued by the Old Gods. Modern sages say that this is attempt to explain the hardships that the early human civilizations faced, and not evidence of the Maker actually being absent.

So when Andraste showed up much, much later, she was advocating a return to the "rightful" worship of the Maker... it was not a belief that came out of nowhere.

As for the elves, their understanding of their own religion is incomplete. The whole truth was lost along with Arlathan and their immortality -- much of their lore was kept by a tradition of apprenticeship, handed down from the knowledgeable to the young, and this relied on the fact that the knowledgeable were eternal. Slaves also had less opportunity to spread their lore, so the sudden aging of the knowledgeable meant that much of this information was simply gone after several generations. This, of course, is their belief: the ancient Imperium maintained that the elves were never immortal to begin with, and that their lore was lost simply because the Imperium forbade its teaching.

What one can expect from someone with a touching-power is to drain their power [and certainly the similarity of this potential power with the Dark Magic is quite interesting]. So… that may be the reason why he was isolated and trapped in a mirror guarded by the Dragons? The mirror did not allow any touching. He should not Touch creatures around, because his true power is unleashed?. any thoughts or info I dont know about this? Sorry, I’m late into this fandom t.t 2/2

I’m absolutely no such thing as a guru, but I can yeet a few ideas out there for you, since there has been speculation on the naming conventions for the elven races.

There’s a general headcanon that a single concept anchors all the elven race names together. The first part of their race names are their primal sources, and the second part is, well, we’re not 100% sure. But it is likely related to the effect of the primal source on the elves, the powers it bestows on them, or the skills they gain. Or some of all three, plus something we haven’t thought of yet. 

So we’ve got Sunfire,  Moonshadow, Earthblood, Ocean-mumble-something/Waterwet elves, Skywings, and Star Touch elves.

My personal take is that these six things are metaphors for physical embodiments of the primal sources. Six things that the elves can physically do to affect their world, thanks to their arcanum. I made this post about the six elven race names a while back, using Sarai’s comment to Callum about truly knowing something. Seemed kinda cool.

Sunfires have that heat and light being. They also seem to use their emotions to fuel those states, like Janai did when her sister was killed. With the ability to turn off their emotions and still burn hot, the question of power usage is just a matter of What?

Moonshadows can turn invisible, become one with the night, step into the darkness of their own souls. Because they will do anything, no matter how hard it is or what it costs, the question they ask isn’t what or why, but How?

Earthbloods are very steady, and they are connected to living things. The word “lifeblood” is probably integral to their magic, their perspective, and their skills. They’re deeply rooted in history, and that steadies them. They’re very patient as a result, so their question is always When?

Ocean elves are said to be warm, caring, family-oriented creatures. Water is life, and the other half of the concept of “lifeblood”. They’re those friends who will drop everything to help you move across the country, who will answer their phones at 3am because it’s you who’s calling them. The most important question to them is Who?

Skywings can literally fly, they embrace that third dimension in their calculations, they’re flexible and mentally agile. They can and will do anything they like, and it’s just a matter of Where?

Star Touch elves see so much more than anyone else. They have all the answers. Too many answers, perhaps. Do they see possible futures? Can they pick and choose how to guide the rest of the world? Divination is a heavy burden to carry, because your choices never come down to How or Where or When. When everything is possible you need to make your choices based on Why?

So, what’s the metaphor behind Aaravos’s power of touch? It seems like one of those nifty concepts that applies in a dozen different ways. Aaravos can touch everything from Viren’s ear to history itself. His ability to influence–one synonym for touch–is unparalleled, due to a combination of his long life and his powerful skill set. He turned Queen Khessa to ash with a single touch. He can magically create the ability to touch, using a willing partner and a series of magic spells that set his caterpillar free in the world, able to make physical contact with Viren.

But I think the most important aspect of touching for Aaravos is that he was imprisoned in an attempt to keep him from using every single one of his touch-related abilities. Aaravos is purposely being kept out of touch. He literally cannot touch the world, and had to watch as it passed him by, as decisions were made without him, as lives were lived and new creatures came into being, free to do exactly as they pleased without a single bit of contact, on any level, from a Star Touch who could see so much.

I know I go on a bit with my love for Aaravos being a karma god, able to give people exactly what they deserve, but if that mirror prison isn’t a karmic Star Touch punishment, I dunno what is.

If Aaravos really is growing himself a new body to pop his astral form into, then I’ll be on the edge of my seat to see exactly how his senses of touching will be unleashed. I expect there will be many instances that call back to his name: Star Touch. Physical touch, the touch of destiny, influencing events around him (the physical embodiment of ta’veren, perhaps), and maybe further-flung related ideas, like making someone “touched in the head”/driving them mad–looking at you, Viren–or bestowing gifts/powers/arcana to those around him.

Hi! ugh ive been working so much i havent had a chance to play for ages. i think i have like 10 hours of playtime but i havent like... advanced the story much lmao. i just run around killing things doing side quests before i do the plot.

I dont think so, vampirism and lycanthropy are demon-diseases. Once you got one of them, your immune system is affected only by angelic stuff or silver or things related with angelic rituals. Among demon-blood creatures, there are no effects. So I will think that, at least, they will experience poison or no effect at all. They can't turn one another. So, downloaders can't change factions. But this wasn't addressed in books nor show so far I know. This's my opinion only.

I hadn’t even thought of whether they turned or not, assumed they wouldn’t. So they could get sick/weakened from the venom (werewolf healing powers maybe clearing it from their system to avoid death maybe?). 

Personally, I can’t really say, as I haven’t studied Spanish intensively. I know a bit, like they’ve got genders for nouns too, but otherwise? No clue.

Learning German while looking at it from an English speaking point of view has been, so far, okay. The grammar and word order might not be on point when I speak, but I’m able to hold full conversations with my Oma. So it’s not TERRIBLE. 

But the nouns having genders really messes me up. In English, all you have is THE. And in German, if you don’t know the article, you can’t properly put the sentence in accusative or dative or genitive, which is very important when you’re trying to talk with clarity. And it becomes absolutely necessary when writing in German. When you speak, you can get away with wrong article-endings because, well, that ‘e’ ending sounds kind of like an ‘er’ ending and everybody is trying to focus on what you’re saying rather than on how you’re saying it.