Vampire: the Masquerade - Justice

I will probably always think that the immersion offered by VR is the format's strongest card. Or biggest advantage, if you will. I have no problem putting myself in other games, but there's something about feeling like you're actually there. There are a lot of games that do this well, and for a long time to come we'll be citing Half-Life: Alyx as a standard for how it can, and should, be done at its best. Much in the same way that we referred to Super Mario 64 as a standard of 3D platforming for a long time. It also feels like it's the case with Alyx that the developers have taken a closer look at the design, and it all starts off quite promising. The location of Vampire: the Masquerade - Justice is Venice and the surroundings feel like what I want them to do to make me feel like I'm there. Even though I'm not really there.

In the game's first mission, it's very much about getting to grips with the mechanics. There are well-placed small stops that explain how to proceed. The settings before you start are also good in terms of convenience, with all the possibilities you can think of to move and turn the character. I know that this is important for many to not get motion sickness from playing in VR and we are offered all the settings you can think of regarding this. From changing the type of movement you prefer, to speed when turning and other amenities are in the menu.

With my preferences set, the adventure starts. It doesn't take long to realise what kind of gaming experience this is and if you're expecting action, you'll probably be disappointed. Instead, Vampire: The Masquerade - Justice is as much of a stealth game as it can be, without missing any opportunities to kill. I am quickly sucked into the world, but I also find it a bit grey and boring and quickly realise that much of what the game does to create an atmosphere, also makes the game work against itself a bit.

Anyway, at the beginning of the game, I have a seemingly simple mission to get to the city's sewers and start making my way through the alleys. The game is quite narrow in its level design, but you still have quite good opportunities to choose different paths and tackle your progress in different ways. For the most part, however, it is important to stay hidden because if you are discovered, it ends up with you being killed. Instead, you stick to high places, hide and sneak up on your enemies so you can bite them in the neck. Of course. After all, you're a vampire with all that entails. Biting people is important for replenishing energy, which in turn allows you to use your abilities, and here we come to the first and biggest point where the game works against you a bit and makes the whole thing more boring than it should be.

So to utilise abilities, this energy is required. The first ability you have is to become invisible so you can sneak past those who want to kill you. But, just like everything else you do in the game, even attacking your enemies, you need to have enough first. You can replenish it in a few different ways, including sneaking up on an unsuspecting person, grabbing them, leaning over and sucking blood. There are also plenty of rats running around that you can pick up and drain dry. But they contain far less blood than humans, so you'll have to pick up most of these rodents to regain enough power. Grabbing an enemy and leaning on its neck to drink is fun, and I couldn't help but sort of open my mouth and make my own noises. Unfortunately, the process isn't entirely smooth and often takes an unnecessary amount of time, leaving you open to detection or just a slow process. Overall, this is a problem with the game - simple things like pulling a lever or spinning a wheel, or even opening a door, are a bit clumsy.

But the biggest problem is that the game mechanics fight against themselves here when pretty much everything you do requires energy and even if you can upgrade skills, you are often out of energy and are told that you need more blood. When a little bit into the game you get a weapon and can create arrows for it, well then that also costs energy and even if you can create an arrow that makes people fall asleep and you can go ahead and suck a bit, it becomes one of those cycles that in the end feels quite cumbersome where you need energy to do something that costs energy which in turn allows you to... well, you get the point.

The game allows you to choose routes and strategies but it is a stealth game in every way and your strategy quickly turns into the easiest way to get around the enemy with the least amount of effort. The problem is that when your energy is constantly being collected in this way, it creates more frustration than fun. Unfortunately. There's a lot of sighing when the sucking feels like a constant chore, and when I realised during a part of the game that I could rather run than cunningly get past some enemies, it felt like I was cheating in a bad way because I exploited a flaw. I mentioned earlier that even though the design of the levels is quite tight, there are opportunities to play in different ways, and the game encourages you to try different paths or strategies to get past the obstacles, but since you're pretty much out of luck once you're spotted, most of it is just about not being seen, and either sneaking past someone or trying to bite someone's neck.

If you also try to kill the enemies with an attack, you miss the chance to suck them clean of blood. One ability, for example, opens up a small gate with hands grabbing your enemies, but if they are killed like this, you have used up energy without getting it back. At one point I had to get rid of some enemies and since the rats often reappear, I gathered enough power to clear the place by going to a room at a high altitude where I sucked the little creatures dry, took out an enemy and repeated the process.

The slightly grey visual style gets some life in details such as smoke from chimneys and neon signs and succeeds well with light and water effects when making your way through the game's sewers, but it suffers from the typical VR problems I've seen a lot of in the past. It all feels rather sterile and dated and this is in contrast to an atmosphere I still think is pretty good overall. I find myself thinking that as long as there aren't patrolling enemies that shoot me dead immediately, it's pretty fun. A level a bit into the game with exploration and puzzles in the environment shows how much better these parts are when I try to get through areas with multiple enemies.

Because there are some things to like here. As I said, the atmosphere succeeds quite well, although the level of horror could have been raised quite a bit. When I avoid enemies, it's also fun to explore environments and even though sounds come from the wrong direction and there's talking even though I've killed everyone in sight, the soundscape with its intense music is just fine. Clearing the shaky enemies with a well-aimed arrow so that they fall asleep and then bite them in the neck is much more fun than trying to sneak past undetected. However, it limits you as a player far too much and you have to pick up rat after rat to gather energy. They should have thought about the game design a few more times, make it more entertaining around these games. The fact that a regular attack costs energy is probably my biggest complaint here. Sure, I understand that the game has a huge focus on stealth and finding strategic ways to take out those trying to kill you. But it should have been done better, because as a vampire it's a bit ridiculous that you're so hopeless once you've used up your energy and you do it way, way too quickly.

Another factor that drags down the overall experience a lot is the movement. There's a teleportation mechanic mostly used to get to higher heights or to get over ledges. However, the system is a bit inconsistent and the white circle that tells you where you can go doesn't always co-operate, so some parts of this become frustrating. When there are already so many other annoying things, this experience is slowed down by several such annoying and poorly designed elements.

The game has during my hours actually fluctuated a bit regarding the rating. That's the most annoying thing I can think of - that it varies quite a lot in terms of how entertaining it is. From much more fun parts to very boring ones that are mainly ruined by bad game design. Despite all the criticism, I wouldn't really go as far as to say that the game sucks, but it has a lot of untapped potential and unfortunately never really bites.