After some time as an Early Access title, Sharkmob has finally released its Battle Royale takes place in the universe of world of darkness. The title is called Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodhunt and is now available for PC and PS5 players to immerse themselves in the beautiful city of Prague and fight for control of the beautiful city of Prague coveted by several warring vampire clans. I’ve spent a few days playing Bloodhunt since the books were released and there’s a lot to talk about.
As a battle royale, one of the main aspects that sets Bloodhunt apart from its competitors is its playable classes. Called archetypes, they are divided into two major groups: the clan and the class. The clan is the house or family to which the archetype belongs, and as such it may be toreador (the attractive clan), the brujah (the brutal clan), the Nosferatu (the hidden clan, whose members are quite zombie-like) and more recently the Venue (the noble clan so to speak). Each clan has a common core ability: for example, the Toreador can use projection to teleport through the area, while the Brujah can use large leaps to get around.
Classes are subsections of each clan and define each archetype’s individual abilities. Coming back to the Toreador, the Siren can stun people with her dazzling beauty ability, while the Muse recovers more quickly from her injuries. You can level up each archetype and unlock perks applicable to the game, but these are minor upgrades such as: B. More starting ammo, so it’s not as rewarding to play with just one archetype either.
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The thing is that while each archetype is theoretically unique, the differences are minimal, making Bloodhunt a more balanced title and easier to pick up and play as the gameplay takes less time to learn than, say, Apex Legends with its roster of Distinguished legends.
As for the characters, there is a customization system in Bloodhunt, but from what I’ve seen it’s just a way for Sharkmob to monetize the game. You can change the appearance of each archetype (be it clothing, gender, hair color, face shape, makeup, piercings, tattoos, eye color, etc.), but the initial repertoire is fairly reduced, and additional options often take you inside -game store. Not that this is an issue, as customizations and add-ons don’t affect gameplay at all; It’s just another option for those interested in getting a Battle Pass or using some premium money to customize their vampires.
Interestingly, Bloodhunt also has its social side. There is a central location called Elysium that acts as a waiting room for games and where you can talk to the vampire clan representative’s AI and meet up with other players. It’s a very well-made building that will surely delight fans interested in the World of Darkness universe, but other than that and its beautiful aesthetic there’s not much to do.
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the map of Prague It’s quite original considering what’s been seen on BR so far. Since vampires can climb walls and generally use the world as a playground, the roofs are the first level and the street is more of a basement or lower level. Most of the firefights and duels – which are indeed very smooth thanks to the fantastic shooting system – take place on rooftops, letting you leap over Prague’s skyline and scale the magnificent architecture. That doesn’t mean the road doesn’t matter, nothing could be further from reality. you will find it below ankle boots, but most of all they’re the place to find naïve people, which are great for food, and sometimes they’ll give you bonuses to use in combat, e.g. B. improving your regeneration ability, dealing more melee damage or reducing recovery times. However, you can only obtain a limited number of upgrades per game, so you must choose your victims carefully, or you will be marked as bloodhunted, which will make your position visible to any player on the map for 60 seconds.
It should be added that the alley is not only the hunting ground for vampires, since in each game you can meet several AI units. Whether the deadly military faction die legal entity or vampire cultist bots, there are many reasons why you should avoid this area during combat: opposing factions and other enemies will not hesitate to kill you no matter how it disrupts your matchup with opposing vampires. But the point is that Bloodlusts Prague moves away from the traditional BR maps and is more immersive and alive thanks to its imposing appearance and a good handful of AI and NPCs. All this is possible thanks to a smaller and more concise scale than in the maps of. for example Fortnite, Apex Legends or Call of Duty: Warzone.
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The map’s more collected design also helps draw attention away from the more common issues battle royals face. Encounters are faster, more engaging, and generally not as onerous with loot as in other BR titles. That’s not to say this is the solution, as there will still be times when loot is scarce and you’ll be overwhelmed by opposing teams in Trio mode – meaning dying in a three-way battle (killed by a third to become team in the middle of a fight against another) is a fairly common problem that you have to face. From what I’ve seen, this doesn’t happen as often in single player as players tend to spread out more, but it’s something to keep in mind as it affects the way how you play.
Despite all its positive and unique aspects, there are things that don’t quite convince me, such as: comebacks. Sharkmob aims to lighten the punitive and unforgiving nature of battle royale games by introducing the security of having a Extra health is available to you in single player, but returning to the game very close to where you died and with a halfway decent charge isn’t a way to fix it. Of course it’s more balanced at higher levels, but when you’re early in the game the gear you respawn with is sometimes better than what you can find as loot, and that seems a bit unfair to me. Especially when a vampire you just killed starts chasing you who is now better equipped than you despite being the one who lost in the one-on-one first.
Having said that, I have to admit that I’m quite impressed with Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodhunt. Its unique approach to battle royale makes it an engaging and fun addition to the subgenre that I can devote some of my free time to. Whether it will stand the test of time is another question, because live streaming and battle royale are two very competitive industries, and we’ve already seen several hopefuls struggle to succeed and fail miserably. However, if Sharkmob continues at its current pace and provides entertaining content to keep the fans and playerbase interested, I think Bloodhunt has a pretty bright future ahead of it. We will see.
