I adore Vampire media of all kinds, weather its TV, films, gaming or just cool art. It's something I just love to see; a gothic aesthetic and supernatural creatures have such an amazing and dark vibe that I can never get enough of. Well except Twilight. Games in the past like Legacy of Kane or Vampyr are some of my favourites to name a few but as of today we have a new addition.
Vampire The Masquerade: Blood Hunt is a spin off and successor to the original game but in a multiplayer battle royal style. It's free to play which is great, and I'm looking forward to Swan song and its eventually sequel. But in the meantime, we have Blood hunt to explore and enjoy. First of all this game has great bones, it really has potential and the gameplay loop is great fun. I truly love its aesthetic and slightly cartoonist like art style to it. The developers clearly did some research on the genre as even as a battle royal I would class it as top 5 easily but this is where my outright praise would stop and the need to discuss some improvements and issues begins.
The game is light in content, and I mean that seriously. There is already a battle pass in place and microtransactions to be purchased for cosmetics. The games modes are very lacking to the point of a pathetically short tutorial, solos and trios. It's simply just not enough when competition of this genre is so fierce. There is no PVE mode or bot arena to learn mechanics or classes, yes, we have a hero system within blood hunt that works well. Unfortunately, it's pure trial and error with weapons, classes and teammates until you get a somewhat okay understanding of the games loop. In addition, there is one map. A cityscape which is fine but again so many battle royals offer more that the developers need to realise a solid road map needs to be stuck to and improved upon to make this serious competition for the likes of Apex, PUBG and Warzone.
In terms of gameplay, you can scan your environment to discover humans to snack on for buffs, weapon caches to scavenge and points of interest. Sometimes you can even see other enemy players if a blood hunt occurs. It’s a very simple gameplay loop of using specific class powers and an evolving meta to your advantage while a red gas cloud consumes the map. If you do end up taking full damage and get downed, you will have a spare life in solo ques or need reviving from teammates in trios. There is a regeneration mechanic to auto revive but I rarely had the opportunity.
Side note, a red gas cloud that burns you, seriously? they missed a great creative oppurinity to have a beam of sunlight burning the flesh from our bones. Oh well.
It's a very cool property to work a multiplayer-based game into, and it is worth your time especially with it being free there is no harm testing it yourself, but it lacks more than it offers at launch sadly. If you've got a couple of friends to spend some time with, jump in and test your skills against the world of the vampires but don't be surprised when the fun starts to be sucked out of you.
Written By John.P
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