I love the CRPG. But that genre's mostly dead in the mainstream. While Fallout New Vegas was marketed as a major release, the core and tedium of the CRPG has by-and-large been relegated to more niche markets. Instead, what we've got now is the post-CRPG: games that clearly descend from CRPGs, but streamline a lot of the elements in favor of more mass appeal.

Once you realize that it's the same fate that befell Cyberpunk 2077 and Fallout 4 it becomes easier to understand what exactly Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines 2 actually is. It's a really good narrative thriller seemingly crammed into a bigger open world, and the results are as interesting as its dual protagonists.

For those who don't know, Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines is based on a tabletop, and you can see its influence in Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines 2. A lot of the core elements are there: your character can descend from one of several vampire clans, all with their own backgrounds and abilities. Heck, they can even play into your dialogue choices- I chose the Banu Haqim clan in my own playthrough and at almost every turn NPCs questioned if I was even capable of rebelling against the Camarilla given my lineage.

That element of make-your-own-vampire is very much still present- as the legendary Nomad, you're capable of lifting skills from other Bloodlines too. If you were bored of the Banu Haqim's time stop, you could swap it out for a teleport, et cetera. My biggest gripe comes in when you realize how limited the skill customization actually is- your four skills are not freely customizable, and must consist of only one relocate, one strike, one distraction and one "Mastery" ult.

The struggle just comes from if you were hoping to define your vampire in any more interesting ways. Sure, you can flirt and stir vampiric lesbian panic in some characters. But for the most part, it's like sandbags with human faces printed on them- a world you don't get to meaningfully interact with outside of hunting humans for food.

On the plus side, the combat is pretty fun. Given that action-CRPGs tend to have pretty bland brawling, it feels good to throw around Ghouls and Anarchs in Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines 2. The game has a deceptive amount of depth, where despite having a single attack button you're capable of doing different moves like charged uppercuts, Bazooka Knee as well as even dash canceling to get some air juggles going.

That being said, maybe it was just down to my own bloodline but wanton chaos can be hard to deal with. Skills require you to drink blood to recharge them, so you'll mostly be playing neutral instead of spamming pilebunkers (a lost Vampire art, trust me). It helps that stealth itself is pretty fun- skulking around in the rafters, timestopping to take out groups or even using your Bloodline passives to get out of trouble.

Thankfully, while you're mostly playing the game as Phyre, the second half of the game's story is told through the eyes of Fabian- a noir detective trying to uncover a conspiracy in the city. Fabian's segments are much more linear than Phyre- you're walking around interrogating leads and using his own unique set of vampire powers to get information, and they're easily the highlight of the game.

While Phyre has the RPG mechanics, it feels like Fabian is where the sourcebook material is. Hanging around the Court is interesting, since the characters don't have to respond in open-ended ways like they would for a create-a-character. Fabian's pre-set identity means people can cuss me out for being Malkavian, or talk mad shit about my sire Gideon. It helps that Fabian's sections are in the past- you get to see how cool the Seattle court was before the major events of the game take place.

If you can accept the post-CRPG as a modern genre, Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines 2 is a perfectly passable experience. No, you're not going to soar to the heights of its predecessor, and anyone with tabletop experience is going to immediately feel the walls close in on them.

But that doesn't discount from how good what we actually got is- the game's major playground is fun to roam around and just mindlessly beat on Anarchs, while the Fabian portions of the game feel like the bones of a genuinely interesting narrative experience.

Still, if you're a gun and ball guy looking to explain your repertoire, this is a great first step into the wonderful world of action-based RPGs. It could just use a little more bite.

Game reviewed on PS5. Review code provided by publisher