Is Vampire: The Masquerade — Bloodhunt Worth Playing?

I spent over 20 hours playing the latest test, during which I noticed some aspects that can “break” the game, what’s missing, and what I liked.

Downsides

• Uniform customization of almost every clan member. Often, players make their characters look the same, making it difficult to identify who is coming towards you and what abilities they will use.
• Strong melee weapons that can kill a fully-equipped opponent with just 2 hits or up to 3 hits with bare fists.
• A significant nerf is needed for the “Peacekeeper” abilities, as they become invulnerable to attacks, casually approaching you and eliminating you with melee weapons.
• More active targets and the ability to introduce soldiers into the game. Since they don’t act while standing in one place, you can engage them with shots or something similar. You become a target, but they ignore the nearby enemy (opponent) who can hide among them and attack you.
• Soldiers calmly witness you killing a peaceful civilian (drinking blood).
• Unstable profile leveling: You receive 200 levels for a game if you haven’t killed or helped anyone, and 200-250 experience points for character leveling. Then, while playing the same character, you get 10+ kills, 4 assists, and deal 3,000 damage to enemies, you receive 300 profile experience and 350 hero (character) leveling. So, what’s the point of KDA if you can simply go die twice and get almost the same amount of experience?
• Fast respawn after death, especially noticeable in the “fast gas” mode, where you can respawn in the gas zone in just 3 seconds and not get out of it.
• Knockout when you fall, respawn is cool, but the problem is that in the final moments, it becomes complicated because you remain against a couple of people. Respawn greatly affects the game. For example, if there are 3 people left (you and two opponents), you knock out one and go to find the other. However, you can’t finish them off or heal in such a small zone, and while you were dealing with the last one, the previous one has already respawned somewhere and is healing, while you are injured from the previous fight.
• Weak game balance or skill level. I often encountered strong players or characters who could get 15-20 kills in a game, often killing everyone before the 4th zone. Thus, there were fewer than 5 people left in the 4th zone, and additional life is still active, which should end not only after the 5th round but also after a smaller number of survivors.
• Unclear mechanics of obtaining bonus cells for drinking the blood of innocents. The maximum can be raised to 2 out of 3. Either I’m doing something wrong, or in 20 hours, I couldn’t raise at least one bonus cell where there were 3 out of 3 cells. The reasons are unknown, but it says there’s no space, drink blood to increase the cell, but it never increased. I even tried drinking only one type – the result was the same, zero.
• Damage from a sniper headshot, even considering armor – 160. At the same time, four times I went into a “knockout” when jumping from building to building, and the sniper hit me in the head while jumping between buildings, causing fatal damage, exceeding 160, and I fell to the ground in a knockout.
• Lack of discussion and voice chats, team play implies playing with random people who communicate, but there’s no division by region and language selection for games. Complete absence of communication and silence among players in chat, as if they have gone extinct or don’t know which button to use for the microphone, or they communicate in Discord, as it’s unclear in the party. But there’s a strong need for language and region selection for matchmaking.
• Achievements, tasks, and trials – they didn’t give anything in the last test, absolutely nothing. There’s no bonus for collecting items in the collection (they weren’t counted either, it’s unclear why this is mentioned in the in-game menu guide), and completed trials also didn’t convert into profile experience, not to mention Steam achievements.
• Experience for the top rank is converted equally, starting from level 10 of the character. You get very little experience, and it hardly levels up the hero. To level up one more level, you need a minimum of 4-6 games with 300 points each, which are given only for a large amount of damage, assistance, or kills. And, as I mentioned earlier, there’s not much difference between wiping out the entire server or just running around killing one person.
• Killing civilians almost in front of other civilians, who just stand and watch you from across the street with no reaction. It would be nice if they at least looked around or something. Throughout the game, you suck blood from everyone, and no one cares.

Positives

• Excellent mechanics and variety
• Frequent mode changes, making it exciting on a single map
• Detailed and beautiful graphics
• Minimal freezes, only slight ones at the beginning of the game and in the menu
• Weapon variety, although sometimes there’s redundancy, especially with legendaries
• As someone who often plays Warzone and similar battle royales, I enjoyed the dynamics and action
• Well-optimized moments with Nvidia

What’s Missing

• Different options and bonuses
• Game matching based on language or region
• Information about the “uniqueness” of weapons, like crossbows. It’s unclear whether they have explosive tips or gas. I’d like to know this information before picking them up, rather than wasting time on tests to figure it out
• Additional hunter clans for vampires that can interfere with the gameplay and add complexity
• Additional trials, tasks, and introductions to the main characters located in the main hall. Currently, they seem important, but it’s unclear who they are and why they are there
• Additional familiars; the only one available is the bat. Some dogs or wolves would be a nice addition to diversify the game
• Fanatics – hints mention them, but they were absent in the test. Their role and impact remain unclear
• More people, factions, and actions on the map with missions and points. For example, open hunting for another clan member for experience rewards. Not just a simple elimination, but an individual hunt on the map. Capturing points or weapons at specific locations, intercepting peaceful individuals, or engaging in combat with soldiers
• Additional first-person perspective for observing how a person plays, where they are looking, and how they shoot from the spectator’s view. Often, camera rotations and shots are visible, even though you can’t see where the player and opponent are, making it unclear if someone is cheating or simply skilled. This could serve as a reporting or commendation system

In conclusion, the test went better than the first one. I liked the new elements and modes, but the balance (weapons and abilities) feels significantly off in places. Close combat seems overly emphasized, especially with certain characters who have strong close combat abilities.

I would like to see additional complexities because currently, not many players are participating. However, when hardcore battle royale players join, you can see how they dominate the entire server even before the 4th round, racking up 20 kills. This frustrates them and other players as well. You end up not reaching the finals because someone with a pistol kills you, and even after respawning nearby, they find and eliminate you again. The whole game, and they continue clearing the server. Many left Warzone due to these issues, attributing it to cheaters or hardcore players (it’s hard to distinguish between them).

Nevertheless, thank you for the closed test and your work. We hope for improvements in the future!