The Masquerade – Bloodhunt. Impressions of the closed alpha test – Igromania

Not a bad vampire battle royale for anyone.

World of darkness – an excellent role-playing universe with a rich history. It’s just that in the format of video games, things are somehow not very good for the “World of Darkness”. Except good Vampire: The Masquerade – Redemption and immortal Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines and there is nothing special to remember. The long-awaited Bloodlines 2 constantly carry over, and little things like Coteries of New York you can not take into account at all. However, there is tremendous potential hidden in urban fantasy with vampires, werewolves and wizards, so it should come as no surprise that bosses Paradox Interactive continue to seek the use of their intellectual property. Now we have decided to tackle the main scourge of modern multiplayer: “royal battles”. The dubious honor of turning a leisurely RPG into an online TPS goes to a young but experienced team Sharkmob, collected, in particular, from the authors Hitman and The division… True, from the closed alpha test, the rich experience of the developers is not visible too much.
Played Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodhunt. Closed alpha test impressions

I will kill everyone, I will remain alone

In the world Bloodhunt troubled times came: people received evidence of the existence of the undead, revived the glorious tradition of witch hunting and took the bloodsucker seriously. Naturally, the Camarilla, led by all its princes, princes and elders, was completely unable to protect ordinary vampires from the organized and close-knit hunters of the Office – a special unit of the Second Inquisition. A wave of Kindred rebellions against weak and decentralized power has swept across the planet. Now the Anarchs and the Camarilla are already openly tearing each other’s throats, the Masquerade is flying to hell, the Special Forces of the Department in combat exoskeletons take to the streets, the streets of Prague are covered in bloody fog, machine-gun fires rumble over the tiled roofs and spells sparkle … Yes, not for such a Vampire: Masquerade we are used to!

However, if we put aside the unconventional approach to the familiar universe, we are left with a completely traditional Battle Royale. The essence, in general, is the same as in any “royal battle”: a spacious map, weapons and equipment scattered everywhere. 45 people (or rather, vampires) enter – one leaves. The differences are visible only in some details.

Deadly red gas, according to the classic laws of the genre, from time to time shrinks its circle. At the end, the location narrows to a small patch, like a claustrophobic nightmare

Firstly, we have not ordinary people here, but powerful children of the night. Each of them calmly withstands a burst from a machine gun in the stomach, briskly jumps along the walls, like the Prince of Persia, and without hesitation falls from the roofs, breaking the asphalt, like Alex Mercer from Prototype… Vampiric acrobatics is an important aspect of survival. And when combined with some abilities that seriously increase mobility, it makes any skillful bloodsucker a very difficult target. The main thing is not to forget to use all the available arsenal. Therefore, by the way, there is no transport in the game, all cars are either just decorations, or caches with armor and weapons. And why does Dracula need a moped?

Secondly, each bloodsucker has the very same superpowers: clan and class (classes here are called archetypes). There are only three clans available so far. The big Brujahs play tanks and berserkers, arrange local earthquakes and swallow tons of bullets. The hideous Nosferatu sly ones become invisible, send bats on scouts and hurl stinking “sewer bombs”. And the exquisite charms of the Toreador charm those around them and literally dazzle the enemies with their beauty … The result is a classic trio “warrior – thief – magician”. Each clan corresponds to two archetypes, which, in theory, should open up a lot of scope for tactics. However, there is no fundamental difference between the clans, unlike the same Bloodlines.

There are not many appearance settings yet, but it is already possible to blind some funny freak

Thirdly, not only live players are actively involved in the massacre. There are a lot of people in Prague at night under the control of artificial intelligence. Here are also vampire bots, designed to add mass to the battles and even out the dynamics of matches a little. And ordinary people are “neutral” – by and large, walking first aid kits, some of which are able to give the vampire small bonuses like increased damage in melee. And the soldiers of the Department, who, even without any mystical powers, are able to break any ghoul so that it does not seem a little, but they can get good equipment up to a minigun.

This is where the Masquerade mechanic enters the scene. If you kill civilians, use superpowers in plain sight, and just run too close to the soldiers, not only they will take up arms against us. The order for the Blood Hunt will come into force (hence the title of the project): the player who became the target begins to see everyone else, which makes the poor fellow the main prey in the district. All that remains is to run and hide – there is good where.

Each vampire has a built-in radar: heightened senses help to look for weapons, victims and enemies

The bloody mist is like deception

It can be seen that the authors tried their best to create the world of the game. They wrote good texts for the built-in encyclopedia (to open them all, you need to run around the city and generally play properly). We worked on the atmosphere. Carefully, with all the care, the capital of the Czech Republic was transferred to a virtual format. It is a pity that during the local heap-mala, which sooner or later turns into any battle, there is absolutely no time to look at the local beauties. But here there was a place for both real sights (like the Prague clock tower or the Zizkov TV tower), and fictional ones – like the trendy nightclub Divine Disco. Prague is really beautiful in some places … but it’s too cramped here! Especially at the end of the round, when the ring of deadly red gas is compressed so tightly that there is absolutely no time left for running or hiding.

Of course, the language does not dare to call the map monotonous. After all, roofs open to all the winds with hipster bars, and dark gateways, and a cozy cemetery, and abandoned construction sites, and the famous Stare Mesto, and much more are available to us. But the problem is that there is only one location here, although it is rich. As a result, even in a short time of the round, the gray-brown night Prague with its endless roofs begins to tire. And that’s not the only problem with Bloodhunt.

Become a prey in Blood Hunt is the most adrenaline-pumping fun of the game

Almost nothing remains of the original setting. We did not get not only a fascinating story – the “royal battle” is quite capable of doing without it, but even an intelligible rationale for why all these ghouls gathered in one place and staged a massacre. For those who are not ready to squeeze out plot information drop by drop, the game turns into just a deadly rave, the participants of which jump around and shoot each other from their machines like mad. At the same time, all the genre problems of Battle Royale are in place: a very uneven pace of the round, a high threshold for entry and, paradoxically, total monotony. And shooting is the central game mechanic! – made so-so: there are not so many weapons, and the difference between the barrels is not too noticeable.

This is where the question arises: who wants to play this? Fans of the World of Darkness universe? Well, frankly speaking, there are not so many of them. And those that are, for the most part, prefer the depth of the gameplay and the thoughtful role-playing of tabletop RPGs – they don’t need these jumping shots for nothing. Battle Royale fans? Well, only if they come to the evening in search of something new. So far, Bloodhunt doesn’t look like a game that many will quit for. Fortnite battle royale or PUBG… However, the key word here is “bye”: a very early version was available in the alpha test, consisting mainly of stubs. And we only had a couple of days to try it. So let’s see: the game still has a chance to become better.

Moreover, the first brainchild of Sharkmob also has advantages. For example, despite the widest list of possible bugs, I have not come across a single one – if everything is so good in the alpha version, the project should be polished to shine for release. And the game itself is promised to be made free of charge, so there will definitely be no reason not to try it, even if additional accessories will obviously be sold for real money. However, the developers promise that there will be no “kill all” buttons in the assortment. Well, we will be able to check soon: Bloodhunt will be released in the third or fourth quarter of 2023.

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