Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines: 2 - I want to believe, but...

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TheAmbiguousLurker said:
Lou Graham may be a manipulative, traitorous bitch; but she's based on wiping the Anarchs out.
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hey, bitching around complaining about the old structure as a group of immortals is actually sticking it to the system and totally won't end in the exact same fucking thing happening when it's replaced
 
Prophetic Spirit said:
Papa Strauss is truly a good character. Somewhat mysterious but if you don't reveal his secrets, treats you like his son/daughter giving you a haven and making you a new apprendice.
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Without getting into the which ending is best debate, I think making Strauss the prince is the best outcome. Sure the sarcophagus remains an unknown but he's the only one who hasn't shown themselves to be weak, unhinged, easily manipulated, carefree, or Chinese.
 
Asian tech support said:
Without getting into the which ending is best debate, I think making Strauss the prince is the best outcome. Sure the sarcophagus remains an unknown but he's the only one who hasn't shown themselves to be weak, unhinged, easily manipulated, carefree, or Chinese.
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Oh absolutely. You fuck over everyone who needs to be fucked, don't paint a target on your back, and get to stay in a high position in the Camarilla in the end.
I find the Clan Quest mod's Sabbat ending the most satisfying overall, but that's a mod.
 
Finished it, it was OK. I liked the mystery and the main story kept me interested but I'd have been pissed off if I'd actually bought it.
Side quests: just don't do them. There's 3 types and they all involve running around in a dead city and have no story effect:
1. Go here and pick package up or drop package off
2. Go here and kill guy
3. Follow the scent trail and kill guy

On the Rebar Killer mystery - you literally never find out who the killer/killers are, I'm not joking. The person that likely did some of them couldn't have done all of them. Fabien even remarks as such at the end of the game.

On the story - I kinda liked it but I had very little expectation of it being anything other than an on-rails experience (which it is). There is very little that actually can be changed by you and the ending is barely any different regardless of what you do. The only significantly different ending happens as a result of a choice you make 2/3rds through the story which is bizarre.
The story also doesn't determine your intentions very well at all: I specifically didn't support a character all game but chose not to kill them at the end to avoid the city ending up in chaos. The game interpreted that as me supporting them and made them the Prince for the ending.

You will learn to hate the running back and forth - it's genuinely maddening they didn't recognize how bad it is. I liked Fabien but his segments suck: it's even more running around but there's no Vampire Elder wall climbing superspeed to keep it from getting dull.

There's much more I could say but it doesn't deserve too much effort. As a Bloodlines sequel it's trash, on it's own it's fine but I just like the Vampire setting.
 
BrainProlapse said:
On the Rebar Killer mystery - you literally never find out who the killer/killers are, I'm not joking. The person that likely did some of them couldn't have done all of them. Fabien even remarks as such at the end of the game.
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The second set of killings solely exist to pad the already paper thin mystery with a red herring since the only thing that matters in the modern day Fabien sections is Campbell stumbling upon Phyre and Fabien going "Fuck it, I'm taking Campbell with me.". Without it, a quarter way through the mystery you've probably already figured out 'Huh, so the Rebar Killer, who we know is a ghoul, killed every member of the court except one person before just stopping, and that person is the only character with a named ghoul underling and is completely unsubtle with being a backstabbing bitch.'.

Even the revelation of Lou/Campbell's scheme feels pretty underwhelming in connection to the main story outside of being the main villain's reason for wanting to fuck the Camarilla up. Like, it's technically important since it's the reason why two main elements of the story are in place; but like... feels like nothing would have been lost if you reduced it to something explained in another quest rather than a mystery story stretched the length of the game. It's not like you're getting deep character work on Fabien or anything despite the amount of dialogue he has.

Also, what was with that Misty plot with Campbell impregnating a woman as he embraced her? We spent an entire walking section hunting her down and it went nowhere. Fabien doesn't even ask her if Campbell's the killer and doesn't realize it until later.
 
I'm not sure if this is my own biased position, but this is starting to remind me of the season finale of Game of Thrones: We knew it was going to be shit, it came out, was indeed shit, people complained for a couple of days, and then...nothing. It was as if it had never existed. Hell, I think I saw more coverage from bullshit like Dustborn or Concord back in the day, and even the shills have quietly retreated from the forums, showing that the actual fans actually despised the game for the most part. It's amazing, in a pretty twisted way.
 
Need for Sped said:
I'm not sure if this is my own biased position, but this is starting to remind me of the season finale of Game of Thrones: We knew it was going to be shit, it came out, was indeed shit, people complained for a couple of days, and then...nothing. It was as if it had never existed. Hell, I think I saw more coverage from bullshit like Dustborn or Concord back in the day, and even the shills have quietly retreated from the forums, showing that the actual fans actually despised the game for the most part. It's amazing, in a pretty twisted way.
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Honestly, if this was just some indie game, that reaction would totally track - sure, it’d have it’s core audience, but after its 5 minutes in the sun were up it’d just be forgotten about barring some Youtuber with a following deciding to get into it.

Instead, it latched itself onto a Cult Classic and branded itself as Bloodlines 2, which meant Expectations, which anyone with two working braincells could tell it wouldn’t come close to sniffing just by looking at what the developers themselves showed. That’s not even getting into the kind of development hell this games been in - I need to know what the budget was on this one when it was all said and done, because if anyone tries to spin it that this dumpster fire made money I have a bridge to sell them…
 
Havent touched the more modern iteration of VtM so i may be using outdated knowledge, but was shown a scene where your character flings himself out of a building during the day and all i gotta ask is: Did the devs read on the lore? The moment a vampire is expose to sunlight they are gonna burn up. In case of phyre, it should have burn up faster. The fact that it survives while doing perhaps the greatest violation of the masquerade that i know of, somehow it just walks it off when normally they would slumber just to regen that type of damage. Also doesnt that mean that with the violation of the masquerade, the inquisition will crack down on Seattle? Every time im showed scenes of the game theres always some lore breaking shit or atleast stuff that normally wouldnt get a pass in the books. If someone can explain to me how phyre survives that shit while making sense i would appreciate it.
 
Tactical Wizard said:
CohhCarnage goes on a tear about modern studio practices that lead to outcomes like this. I can't find a single untrue thing in his statement.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=BcpPQxr4vMY
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He does the usual gaming shill routine though of absolving the developers of all responsibility and blaming the publisher solely, which just isn't the case.
Yes, Paradox did fumble all marketing, likely did push for being an action game rather than an RPG, should have hired better developers.
But what they didn't do was make a game with shit combat, a game with awful writing, a game that is incredibly buggy and unoptimised, those are all on the devs.
 
00R-Gundam said:
Havent touched the more modern iteration of VtM so i may be using outdated knowledge, but was shown a scene where your character flings himself out of a building during the day and all i gotta ask is: Did the devs read on the lore? The moment a vampire is expose to sunlight they are gonna burn up. In case of phyre, it should have burn up faster. The fact that it survives while doing perhaps the greatest violation of the masquerade that i know of, somehow it just walks it off when normally they would slumber just to regen that type of damage. Also doesnt that mean that with the violation of the masquerade, the inquisition will crack down on Seattle? Every time im showed scenes of the game theres always some lore breaking shit or atleast stuff that normally wouldnt get a pass in the books. If someone can explain to me how phyre survives that shit while making sense i would appreciate it.
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Vamps in VtM who are sufficiently powerful can survive brief exposure to the sun.
 
Prophetic Spirit said:
The ones who Diablerie older gens or the older gens themselfes?
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It's not so much they can resist it but they can get hurt for longer. last time I checked direct unobscured sunlight deals out aggro damage with no ability to resist it, some clans though suffer more such as the setites and I think some used to just rapidly decay as with the Samedi.
 
Prophetic Spirit said:
The ones who Diablerie older gens or the older gens themselfes?
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From my understanding going into sunlight is more or less getting hit with a truckload of aggravated damage which means you can't mitigate it or heal it easily. The older a vampire is the more it harms them (very rare and powerful exceptions may apply) so the Nomad should've gone up like a dry Christmas tree. They could survive the damage if they have enough stats but even then its aggravated, so the Nomad would fall into a torpor to try to regenerate that could take an extremely long time. A Kine or any other kindred finding them would be able to just finish them off with ease. Even if they somehow didn't get found its likely a 400+ year elder would possibly take years to awaken without outside interference or assistance.

So the Nomad would have needed to be incredibly lucky to even wake up long into the future when the schemes they're wrapped up in are finished. If not just get turned to ash from landing on the concrete in full sunlight. That's also presuming that nobody in the Camarilla or Anarchs would give them final death for a massive violation of the masquerade once they actually drag their ass into consciousness.
 
00R-Gundam said:
Havent touched the more modern iteration of VtM so i may be using outdated knowledge, but was shown a scene where your character flings himself out of a building during the day and all i gotta ask is: Did the devs read on the lore? The moment a vampire is expose to sunlight they are gonna burn up. In case of phyre, it should have burn up faster. The fact that it survives while doing perhaps the greatest violation of the masquerade that i know of, somehow it just walks it off when normally they would slumber just to regen that type of damage. Also doesnt that mean that with the violation of the masquerade, the inquisition will crack down on Seattle? Every time im showed scenes of the game theres always some lore breaking shit or atleast stuff that normally wouldnt get a pass in the books. If someone can explain to me how phyre survives that shit while making sense i would appreciate it.
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From Revised 3rd edition regarding the sun:

You get aggravated damage from sunlight automatically, and can only have a chance to soak (block) it if you have Fortitude. You roll as many dice as levels of Fortitude you have. Soak difficulty is:
3: Faint light coming through a closed curtain; heavy cloud cover; twilight
5: Fully protected by heavy clothes, sunglasses, gloves and a wide-brimmed hat
7: Indirect light coming through a window or light curtains
9: Outside on a cloudy day; hit by one ray of direct light; catching the sun's reflection in a mirror
10: Direct rays from an unobscured sun

If the damage is not soaked, then levels of damage are applied:
1 Level/Turn: Small part of body exposed - a hand or part of the face
2 Levels/Turn: Large part of body exposed - a leg, an arm or the whole head
3 Levels/Turn: Fifty percent or more of the body exposed - wearing thin clothing

Bear in mind that you have 6 health levels before being incapacitated, and a turn is about 5-6 seconds. So even a vampire with maxed out Fortitude (Which unless we're talking about a frontline fighter would be a fairly rare ocurrence for an elder) would be literally be fucking toast before even touching the ground if he attempted that.
 
BrainProlapse said:
On the Rebar Killer mystery - you literally never find out who the killer/killers are, I'm not joking. The person that likely did some of them couldn't have done all of them. Fabien even remarks as such at the end of the game.
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The original Rebar Killer was Campbell. The modern Rebar Killer was Fabien.
 
So basically Phyre is pretty fucked in that scene which, again, is wild that they just made that without thinking of the lore that the game follows. It is almost impossible to fall off that building while getting hit with sunlight, hit the ground and have to crawl to a sewer all while the sun is burning you and people are taking pictures(massive violation of the masquerade) and the character just walks it off like its nothing. The game itself is a violation of the masquerade.
 
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