The second most unique gameplay component of Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodhunt is the traversal system. Walking, running, and jumping are valid ways to get around, but to do so with style and evasiveness, players need to make use of Bloodhunt’s climbing, wall running, and slide jumping abilities. The advanced traversal mechanics in this game are very similar to those found in Titanfall 2 - a first-person shooter that emphasizes combining movement and gunplay. But while Titanfall 2’s maps play to the game’s strong movement mechanics, Bloodhunt’s first map, Prague, doesn’t feel like a vampire’s playground.
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A City Based On A City
Bloodhunt’s Prague is a fictional imagining of the capital city of the Czech Republic. The in-game city looks very much like the real deal - with old European buildings set side by side, creating long streets and alleyways for its inhabitants to get lost in. In the old, similar-looking buildings are places of interest in which players can find gear and weapons. Places like the Shopping Arcade and Disco brighten the mood of their respective neighborhoods with lights and sounds, while areas like Rooftop Restaurant and Helipad create unique high points for players to defend or do battle in. These points of interest break up the monotony that European cities are normally associated with and make Prague a more interesting place to explore.
Can’t Vampires Fly?
Unfortunately, moving from place to place and climbing these areas isn’t all that fun. The structure of Prague leaves multiple large gaps in certain areas, specifically wide streets between rows of buildings that can’t be jumped and empty spaces like those found in Railway Station. This forces repositioning players to drop down from their vantage points atop high buildings and fall straight to the ground, where they must then climb back up another building to gain ground. Considering how fast the Red Gas closes around the city, both passive and bloodthirsty vampires have to constantly be on the move if they want to win the game.
The act of climbing a building isn’t bad in and of itself, but the time it takes to scale a building is just way too long considering how often players have to do it. Vampire classes like the Vandal and Siren have movement abilities that can close the gap between these empty vertical spaces, but this puts those without said abilities at a big disadvantage. Players can chain multiple wall runs to gain height faster as an alternative, but the areas in which they can be performed are few and far between thanks to the wide gaps in the Prague map.
Indoor Areas Are Not The Place For Vampires
Building interiors are a good place for wall running thanks to the close proximity of the walls, but their structures are completely different. Traversing rooms in Prague requires precision platforming - something the Bloodhunt’s traversal system doesn’t really allow for. Instead of jumping where they want to, players will more often than not end upscaling or hugging the wrong wall. This leads to a lot of messy fights with players unintentionally climbing or sliding down walls - which is why most of them tend to avoid indoor combat altogether.
The traversal system in Bloodhunt is fun, but the Prague map doesn’t feel like the ideal place for such high-speed movements. The wide spaces between buildings either break or don’t allow for fluid maneuvers, while cramped interiors require pinpoint platforming which Bloodhunt just doesn’t have. Add in the regular need to keep climbing walls and players end up spending more time working out the game’s controls rather than stalking the night as a vampire. If the developers at Sharkmob ever decide to update the map or add another one to Bloodhunt, hopefully, they can take notes on what does and doesn’t work for players in the confines of Prague.
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodhunt is available on PC and PS5.
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