I’ve probably always thought that the immersion VR offers is the format’s strongest card. Or the greatest advantage, if you will. I have no problem putting myself in other games, but there’s a feeling like you’re really there. There are plenty of games that do this well, and we’ll be citing Half-Life: Alyx as the standard for how best it can and should be for a long time to come. Just like we called Super Mario 64 the standard for 3D platformers for a long time. It feels like, as was the case with Alyx, the developers have taken a close look at the design, and things are promising from the start. The location of Vampire: the Masquerade – Justice Df209c20b3c2e42cfa0fca239d570a56e is Venice and the surroundings feel like what I wanted them to do to make me feel like I was there. Even if I’m not really there.
In the game’s first mission, it’s very much about mastering the mechanics. There are well located little stops that explain how to proceed. The setup before you start is also great in terms of convenience, with every possibility you can think of to move and turn the character. I know this is important for a lot of people to avoid getting motion sickness while playing in VR, and we’ve included every setting you can think of. From changing the type of sport you prefer, to the speed during turns and other facilities in the menu.
After setting up my preferences, the adventure began. It won’t take long to realize what a gaming experience this is, and if you’re expecting action, you’ll probably be disappointed. Instead, D019b43274085429e83e1e79cfdc37959 Instead, D019b43274085429e83e1e79cfdc37959 is a game about being as stealthy as possible without missing a kill. I was quickly drawn to the world, but I also found it a bit gray and boring, and quickly realized that so much of the game’s effort at creating atmosphere also made it feel a bit like the opposite.
Anyway, at the beginning of the game I had the seemingly simple task of reaching the city’s sewers and starting to make my way through the alleys. The game’s level design is fairly narrow, but you still have a good chance to choose different paths and handle your progress differently. However, in most cases it is important to remain hidden, as this will eventually result in you being killed if you are discovered. Instead, you stick to high ground, hiding and sneaking up on your enemies so you can bite their necks. The answer is yes. After all, you are a vampire and have it all. Bite is important for replenishing energy, which in turn allows you to use your abilities, and here we come to the first and most important point, the game works against you a bit, making the whole thing more boring than it should be.
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Therefore, in order to utilize abilities, this energy is necessary. The first ability you have is invisibility, which allows you to sneak past people who want to kill you. But, like everything else you do in the game, even attacking your enemies, you need to have enough first. You can supplement this in a few different ways, including sneaking up on an unsuspecting person, grabbing them, and leaning in to suck blood. There are also a lot of mice running around, you can pick them up and drain them. But they contain much less blood than humans, so you’ll have to pick up most of these rodents to regain enough strength. It was fun to grab an enemy and drink from it, and I couldn’t help but open my mouth and make my own noise. Unfortunately, the process isn’t entirely smooth and often takes unnecessary time, leaving you vulnerable to discovery, or is just a slow process. This is a problem with the game in general – simple things like pulling a lever or spinning a wheel, or even opening a door, feel a little clunky.
But the biggest problem is that when almost everything you do requires energy, the game mechanics are here to fight against themselves, and even if you can upgrade your skills, you’ll often run out of energy and be told you need more. Much blood. When a little bit into the game you get a weapon and can create arrows for it, then this also costs energy, even if you can create an arrow that puts people to sleep, you can keep sucking on it a little bit and it becomes It’s one of those loops where it ends up feeling like a chore and you need energy to do something that consumes energy, which in turn allows you to… well, you get the point.
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The game allows you to choose your route and strategy, but it’s a stealth game in every way, and your strategy quickly becomes the easiest way to get around your enemies with the least amount of effort. The problem is, when your energy is constantly being harvested this way, it causes more frustration than fun. Unlucky. There are a lot of sighs when sucking feels like a constant chore, and when I realize at one part of the game that I’d rather run away than slyly get around some enemy, it feels like I’m doing it in a bad way Cheating because I exploited a flaw. I mentioned before that even though the levels are designed to be very tight, there are opportunities to play in different ways, the game encourages you to try different paths or strategies to overcome obstacles, but since once you’re discovered you’ll rarely get lucky, big Part of it is just not being seen, either sneaking past someone or trying to bite someone in the neck.
If you also try to kill an enemy with an attack, you miss the chance to drain them of their blood. For example, one ability is to grab your enemy with both hands to open a small door, but if they are killed this way, you’ve drained the energy without getting it back. One time, I had to take out some enemies, and since the rats kept reappearing, I gathered enough strength to clear the place, and I went to a high-altitude room, where I sucked the critters dry and took out an enemy. and repeat the process.
The slightly gray visual style gets some life with details like chimneys and neon lights, and there’s good success with the light and water effects as you make your way through the game’s sewers, but it suffers from the typical VR problem. It all feels rather boring and dated, which contrasts with the atmosphere which I still think is generally pretty good. I found myself thinking how funny it would be to shoot me instantly if an enemy wasn’t patrolling. There’s an exploration and puzzle level in the game that showed how much better those sections were when I tried to make my way through areas with multiple enemies.
Because there’s something to like here. As I said, the atmosphere was quite successful, although the horror level could have been improved a lot. Exploring the environment was fun as I avoided enemies, and the soundscapes with intense music were nice to have even though the sounds were coming from the wrong direction and there was talk even after I’d killed everyone in sight. Clearing out swaying enemies with a well-aimed arrow, putting them to sleep, and then biting their necks is a lot more fun than trying to sneak away undetected. However, it limits you as a player too much, as you have to pick up rat after rat to collect energy. They should think more about game design and make these games more entertaining. The fact that regular attacks drain energy is probably my biggest complaint here. Of course, I know the game is heavily focused on stealth and finding strategic ways to take out those who are trying to kill you. But it should have been done better, because as a vampire you become so desperate once you run out of your energy, and you do it so quickly, it’s a little ridiculous.
Another factor that weighs heavily on the overall experience is movement. There is a teleportation mechanism that is mainly used to reach higher heights or get over ledges. The system is a bit inconsistent, however, and the white circles that tell you where you can go don’t always cooperate, so parts of it become frustrating. The experience is slowed down by a few such annoying and poorly designed elements when there are already so many other annoying things.
The game actually fluctuated in terms of ratings during my time with it. It’s the most annoying thing I can think of – and it makes a huge difference in terms of entertainment. From the more interesting parts to the downright boring, the parts are mostly marred by poor game design. Despite all the criticism, I really wouldn’t say the game is bad, but it has a lot of untapped potential that unfortunately never really bites.
