At first glance, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodhunt seems like a typical battle royale experience, with players having to compete amongst themselves to ensure their vampire remains on top. However, nothing is ever simple in the World of Darkness, and this Vampire: The Masquerade title offers new things to add a literal bloody twist to the concept.
As such, players interested in trying Bloodhunt should be delighted to know that they can sink their inner vampires in the game with entirely new concepts. Aside from Archetypes based on Vampire: The Masquerade Clans, there’s a lot to unpack in Bloodhunt that makes it better than other battle royale titles.
10 Lore Is Never Absent
One of the things that sets Bloodhunt apart from its contemporaries is the direct inclusion of lore in its presentation and concepts. Whereas the likes of Apex Legends has its lore mostly affect the background details of its locales, Bloodhunt has its story elements rooted in the core of the source material.
For instance, Bloodhunt isn’t simply a spinoff title in VTM. Rather, it's canonized as an in-game event. Set in an unspecified time after the First Convention of Prague in 2012, a Second Convention of Prague thrust the city’s Kindred into chaos as an attack in the Camarilla Sect forced a Blood Hunt (hence the title) towards the independent Anarchs, all the while the agents of the church in the Entity are on the lookout for Kindred activity.
9 Game Within A Game
Aside from Bloodhunt’s story containing lore from a story-rich game, its gameplay elements also take concepts from the TTRPG itself. Kindred Archetypes and their abilities are based on vampiric Clans and their blood gifts called Disciplines, and even the buffs gained from feeding on mortals are based on Blood Resonances in the TTRPG.
Even the battle royale elements have some root in the source material’s lore. For instance, the Red Gas mechanic that could’ve simply been dismissed as an area-shrinking effect is also canonized in the TTRPG as a Kindred-killer used by the Entity. Likewise, the Blood Hunt itself in the TTRPG is a sanctioned hunt of a vampire by the Camarilla wherein other vampires can participate. Only this time, it’s the players and their team against others.
8 The Blood Is The Key
Whereas military fiction battle royales such as Call Of Duty: Warzone and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds rely on guns in a gunfight and Apex Legends needs a mix of Legend abilities and gun type mastery to win matches, Bloodhunt puts its focus on the most iconic part of vampire fiction: blood. A lot of its mechanics actually rely on the proper usage of blood to outwit and outlast opponents.
For instance, players need to collect the right Blood Resonances from humans to add buffs to their characters, and even heal injuries at the same time. While their vampire powers only have cooldowns, the buffs from Blood Resonances also enhance their properties. It's this mini-game component that adds a lot of on-the-spot customization to characters and makes each match unique.
7 Third Person Challenges Aim
Contrary to other popular battle royales, Bloodhunt is more akin to PUBG in the sense that it’s played from a third-person POV. This is mostly due to the fact that the game has melee weapons such as clubs and katanas, but also melee fighting components such as special abilities.
However, this perspective also continuously challenges the aim of players. Since the pinpoint accuracy of FPS modes is gone in third-person, players need to be more mindful of how their aim works - especially when spray-firing against an enemy who is actively leaping, running, or using their own abilities.
6 Tiny Accessories Make All The Difference
Aside from strategically fighting vampires all over Prague, players also have the opportunity to actually customize their vampire’s stats through little trinkets. Through their inventory, players can not only use items but also benefit from special accessories to give them an advantage.
For instance, players who grab Armor throughout the game can wear them to gain a temporary shield over their health, giving them better opportunities to outlast enemies in the field. Players who know when to use these items can definitely get the upper hand - and it’s the inclusion of these trinkets that can make minute differences in a fight that makes Bloodhunt a more fun game to play.
5 Less Focus On Weapons Add Lethal Fun
Contrary to other games where weapon accessories are extremely important in improving a weapon’s overall performance, Bloodhunt simply offers a wide range of weapons for players to find and use. The weapon selections are also only ranked via rarity, adding basic augments to their overall stats.
However, aside from that, it’s only the base damage, ammo, and firing method that matter when using weapons. This more straightforward approach to weapon selection gives players more room for reckless firefights and sheer mayhem especially when using their abilities, adding more fun to the gritty and edgy game.
4 Parkour Adds A Vertical Component
While most other games offer verticality from a perspective of stairs and ladders to get to higher ground for both defense and offense, other games provide more control over the skies as a privilege - such as Legends Horizon and Valkyrie in Apex Legends who can fly to the sky. In Bloodhunt, the parkour mechanic gives players control over entire skyscrapers and rooftops - adding both a ground and skyline component to matches.
This is due to the fact that vampires can endlessly parkour and scale walls upwards without obstruction, allowing vampires to reach the top of buildings and even spires of churches to snipe or fight enemies without trouble. This adds a third dimension to fights in the game, making them more exhilarating.
3 Blood Hunts Intensify The Match
Unique to Bloodhunt is the inclusion of a Blood Hunt, basically a gameplay translation of Vampire: The Masquerade’s Blood Hunt sanction to those who violate the Masquerade, or the Kindred mandate of keeping their identities a secret to mortals. In the game, this is a penalty given to players with a tendency to kill mortals outright, especially when others witness them use their powers or feed outwardly.
In a Blood Hunt, the player’s location is revealed for a minute to everyone around them. This makes it especially dangerous to Kindred as everyone can spot where they are. Likewise, this is a great way for Kindred to bring the fight to them, especially if they haven’t fought anyone in a while.
2 Always A Second Chance
In most battle royale games, players that drop to 0 HP are often knocked out - sent out of commission unless a teammate manages to revive them. And when a character dies, teammates can often respawn them using special areas in the game map. This adds a layer of replayability within a match, and are the same mechanics Bloodhunt employs. However, perhaps more surprising is how the game almost always gives players a second chance in the game.
Firstly, playing in the Solo Blood Hunt gives players one free respawn, allowing them to resume playing after they’ve been killed. What’s more surprising is that getting knocked down in either mode gives players a chance to “respawn” and get back up with low HP after a certain amount of time, giving them a chance to escape and recuperate or steal the win from a dominating enemy.
1 The Entity Is Always A Third Party
In the middle of all Kindred chaos is the Entity, the secret agency within the Vatican in charge of hunting Kindred down. Having made a presence in Prague, players who mistakenly shoot at civilians in their presence - or the armored agents, themselves- will find themselves fighting a tactical team of specialized fighters.
Based on the gameplay, these fighters are just as tanky as vampires but carry heavier weaponry, making them a deadly NPC to face. They also add an interesting component to fights, as players can make their lives harder by feeding close to them or add them as an inconvenience to firefights by luring opponents to them.
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodhunt is currently available on PC and PS5.