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

[ZMOT]

On a scale of 1 to Star Shitizen, where would we put it?

since it's pretty much dependent on luck, hard to say.
worst case old company was simply too shit and too infested to ever do a proper release and would turn out like cp2077, so all paradox wants is a release that not complete dogshit technically.
best case someone high up at paradox cares about the IP itself enough, looked at it, thought "...the fuck?", pulled the plug and tries to salvage what's possible.

 

[Takayuki Yagami]

Nines should have revealed he was actually a Ventrue pretending to be a Brujah to keep his team together. That would have been a bigger twist than finding out Vader is your father.

I don’t think the Ventrue and Brujah share enough disiplines for that to work considering Nines has no issues entering fights directly if I remember right.

 

[Snekposter]

Ventrue and Brujah share Presence, Ventrue also having Fortitude whereas Brujah have Potence for combat Disciplines, and the Brujah do have Celerity whereas the Ventrue have Dominate, but given how close Ventrue and Toreador tend to be at times, wouldn't be impossible for a Ventrue to learn knowledge of it.

 

[EnemyStand]

I don’t think the Ventrue and Brujah share enough disiplines for that to work considering Nines has no issues entering fights directly if I remember right.

Also want to point out you don't see Nines actually do any fighting during the game. Jack shows off Celerity and Potence during the tutorial, but the most Nines does is run off some Sabbat shovelheads with a grenade and kills a werewolf offscreen. So really, he could've been whatever clan (other than Nos) the devs wanted.

 

[Tactical Wizard]

Ventrue and Brujah share Presence, Ventrue also having Fortitude whereas Brujah have Potence for combat Disciplines, and the Brujah do have Celerity whereas the Ventrue have Dominate, but given how close Ventrue and Toreador tend to be at times, wouldn't be impossible for a Ventrue to learn knowledge of it.

Out of clan disciplines are a thing.

 

[Snekposter]

That's exactly what I was referencing with my post. I'd need to double-check, but isn't it somewhat required to learn it from someone who already has it?

 

[Takayuki Yagami]

Also want to point out you don't see Nines actually do any fighting during the game. Jack shows off Celerity and Potence during the tutorial, but the most Nines does is run off some Sabbat shovelheads with a grenade and kills a werewolf offscreen. So really, he could've been whatever clan (other than Nos) the devs wanted.

If he killed a werewolf offscreen I still can’t imagine Ventrue. It’s been a long time since I looked at VtM but I’m not sure Ventrue have direct combat powers aside from being able to walk off injuries with Fortitude. What can a Ventrue do to a werewolf besides tank some hits without bombs?

 

[EnemyStand]

If he killed a werewolf offscreen I still can’t imagine Ventrue. It’s been a long time since I looked at VtM but I’m not sure Ventrue have direct combat powers aside from being able to walk off injuries with Fortitude. What can a Ventrue do to a werewolf besides tank some hits without bombs?

Well, Fortitude would actually give a Ventrue a better chance of taking werewolf hits. If we go with the theory of Nines winning by shoving his grenade down its throat, Endurance is a more useful Discipline than Potence in that specific instance. So Ventrue would still be possible.

 

[Corn Flakes]

Enough Firearms and Dex, plus silver bullets, will give any werewolf pause. Particularly if the vamp knows what's coming.

The problem isn't so much that werewolves just tear vampires apart in melee. That's part of it, definitely. It's also that werewolves can and usually do attack during the day. And in packs. A well-prepared vampire with the right resources and preparation can take on a single werewolf. It'll be chancy, but it can be done. The problem is that then said vamp has to deal with the rest of the pack.

So sure, Nines could have gotten the pup to play fetch with a grenade, or gone full Bonny & Clide on its ass with silver bullets. You don't need disciplines to do it, and Ventrue have one of the most useful for fighting against a Garou to begin with: Fortitude. Using the Revised rules (the ones from Bloodlines 1), it's the easiest way to soak aggravated damage. And anything helps when you're going up against something that gains +4 Strength and aggravated damage in Crinos.

 

[Snekposter]

Won't lie, a Ventrue being badass enough to shove a hand grenade down a Crinos-form Black Spiral Dancer (since IIRC Griffith Park was inhabited by Dancers and the werewolf is albino white like many are) is quite a feat. Would also explain the lack of retribution since he says its young and the Dancers are well... I doubt they'd really give many shits about a young wolf weak enough to lose to a single vampire.

 

[Ginger Piglet]

What can a Ventrue do to a werewolf besides tank some hits without bombs?

He can beat it by being crazy prepared. Batman has no superpowers, but he is stupidly wealthy and has all the gear that doesn't exist yet. Similarly, a Ventrue has contacts and access to excessive wealth and could probably lay their hands on a nailbomb with silver nails or suchlike.

 

[FunPosting101]

I personally doubt that paradox can fix this game unless they're willing to redesign it from the ground up. This isn't like the problems with Cyberpunk 2077 where the game just crashes a lot or suffers from other technical glitches, look up that gameplay video posted in this thread a while back. The combat(something that you'll probably be doing a lot of, if the first game is any indication about this one at all)was fucking terrible.

Combine that horrible hand-to-hand combat with weapons not even being something you can permanently equip and all you really have is shitty face punching combined with disciplines and that isn't enough to make a core part of the gameplay experience compelling enough.

 

[EnemyStand]

I personally doubt that paradox can fix this game unless they're willing to redesign it from the ground up. This isn't like the problems with Cyberpunk 2077 where the game just crashes a lot or suffers from other technical glitches, look up that gameplay video posted in this thread a while back. The combat(something that you'll probably be doing a lot of, if the first game is any indication about this one at all)was fucking terrible.

Combine that horrible hand-to-hand combat with weapons not even being something you can permanently equip and all you really have is shitty face punching combined with disciplines and that isn't enough to make a core part of the gameplay experience compelling enough.

Pretty typical. One had junky combat so the sequel thinks they can get away with it. Problem is with the advances in technology and big budget they have literally no excuse to have bad combat. VtMB was loved in spite of its flaws, not because of them.

 

[LieLieFyre]

I think they're just gonna let it die quietly. Probably wont even say its dead.

 

[Ginger Piglet]

I personally doubt that paradox can fix this game unless they're willing to redesign it from the ground up. This isn't like the problems with Cyberpunk 2077 where the game just crashes a lot or suffers from other technical glitches, look up that gameplay video posted in this thread a while back. The combat(something that you'll probably be doing a lot of, if the first game is any indication about this one at all)was fucking terrible.

Combine that horrible hand-to-hand combat with weapons not even being something you can permanently equip and all you really have is shitty face punching combined with disciplines and that isn't enough to make a core part of the gameplay experience compelling enough.

So on the scale of 1 to Star Shitizen, a nice round Duke Nukem Forever then?

 

[FunPosting101]

Pretty typical. One had junky combat so the sequel thinks they can get away with it. Problem is with the advances in technology and big budget they have literally no excuse to have bad combat. VtMB was loved in spite of its flaws, not because of them.

The actual problem is worse than this, the combat in Bloodlines 2 looks worse than the combat in Bloodlines 1. The combat in the first game was janky, but functional, the combat in this game looks vaguely functional at best.

So on the scale of 1 to Star Shitizen, a nice round Duke Nukem Forever then?

Either that, or a nice and broken Daikatana.

 

[Ginger Piglet]

The actual problem is worse than this, the combat in Bloodlines 2 looks worse than the combat in Bloodlines 1. The combat in the first game was janky, but functional, the combat in this game looks vaguely functional at best.


Either that, or a nice and broken Daikatana.

I always think that Last of Us 2 was this generation's Daikatana. Egotistical designer, loads of shrieking about how smart and innovative it is, turns out to have an idiot plot and jettison all character development in favour of cheap shock tactics.

 

[Corn Flakes]

I always think that Last of Us 2 was this generation's Daikatana. Egotistical designer, loads of shrieking about how smart and innovative it is, turns out to have an idiot plot and jettison all character development in favour of cheap shock tactics.

Unfortunately, LoU2 was shilled to hell and back by the media and the woketards latched on to the "controversy" like the good little consoomers they are. Daikatana, on the other hand, had people lining up around the block before its release to rip it to shreds.

 

[EnemyStand]

Unfortunately, LoU2 was shilled to hell and back by the media and the woketards latched on to the "controversy" like the good little consoomers they are. Daikatana, on the other hand, had people lining up around the block before its release to rip it to shreds.

So our Daikatana was Cyberpunk?

 

[Corn Flakes]

So our Daikatana was Cyberpunk?

Exactly. Troubled darling developer, misallocation of resources and multiple delays included.