Justice Review of Vampire: The Masquerade: “Bleak, Bloody, and Immersive”

Though the gameplay isn’t as polished as it may be, Vampire: The Masquerade – Justice excels in its commitment to creating immersive virtual reality experiences.

 

The most recent virtual reality game from publisher and developer Fast Travel Games is Vampire: The Masquerade – Justice. In this narrative role-playing game, players are thrust into the World of Darkness while exploring Venice’s many lanes.

Being a genuine monster of the night and surviving these poorly lighted alleys will require mastering diverse powers and sneaky moves.

The vampirism of Vampire: The Masquerade is brought to life for players through immersive mechanisms like completely leaning in to bite into their next meal.

But since the main focus of this game is stealth, it’s critical to remain undiscovered. As such, anticipate a creepy journey rather than a barrage of action.

Up Next Immersion

Players may momentarily satisfy their appetites with Vampire: The Masquerade – Justice while they wait for the much awaited release of Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2. A number of details go above and beyond to give the impression that these are Venice’s nighttime streets.

Even though they might not have a clear function, a lot of things can be interacted with by players. For example, they can be used to toss dishes, open drawers, gently open doors, peep into alleyways, and more.

One-to-one movement is a major component of virtual reality, but being able to perform a routine task that you might perform in real life also contributes to the illusion. these helps players explore the game more as well.

Although Vampire: The Masquerade – Justice is not an open world, little features like these can give players the impression that there is a lot to see even in a constrained area.

Navigating around Vampire: The Masquerade – Justice includes a lot of entertaining VR features. While exploring the World of Darkness, players can climb pipes, slide around ledges, and cross wires.

It’s nice to have so many alternatives in one VR game, even if many do try to incorporate at least one of these different travelling techniques.

 

Playing a Limited Game

Keeping all of that in mind, there comes a point at which adding too much might become problematic.

The many traversal strategies are fascinating and thrilling, although occasionally they can be a little unpleasant if they don’t process motions correctly. 

The stealth focus of a game like Vampire:

Since stealth is a key component of the gameplay in Vampire: The Masquerade – Justice, this is very annoying.

 

 The Masquerade – Justice could be a little too ambitious at times, since there are periodic lags in movement or malfunctions in other areas.

It can be challenging to handle situations when one must avoid being noticed, such as when something gets knocked over by accident or when a victim falls from a cliff. Furthermore,

while if it’s necessary to occasionally conceal using the crouch feature, it feels quite restrictive to be in that position—especially because standing may alert enemies—which frustrates players as they attempt to manoeuvre around an impossible scenario.

 

It is expected of vampires to cure themselves by drinking the blood of living people. Players use a technique to do this where they must reach out, grip their victim’s neck, and then lean in to “bite” them. This again heightens the sense of immersion and adds a fun realistic aspect, although it’s not always functional.

 For instance, while trying to lean in, being too low might make things not register correctly, leaving players exposed as they futilely attempt to adjust their height to make things function properly.

Lastly, even though it is an option in this game, sitting down does not function in a way that makes it a preferred method to play Vampire The Masquerade – Justice.

Even though the game says it will adjust height to fit the seated position so that things work properly, it is almost impossible to explore in an appropriate manner and frequently the height adjustment simply doesn’t register correctly, leaving players with the impression that they are either 3 feet tall or 7 feet tall. The placement never reads as well as it does when playing standing up, no matter how many times you try.

Conclusions & Grade

Although many players are likely to like Vampire The Masquerade – Justice, it is more likely to appeal to the narrow demographic that prefers stealth mission games. The game offers a unique, grim, gory, and deep RPG experience.

Even with the other intriguing elements of the gameplay, many players may become frustrated trying to finish the game if they don’t have an appreciation for this kind of experience.

Additionally, some people might find the graphically complex neck-biting mechanism discussed earlier to be a bit excessive, even though the intricacies used to produce the lifelike illusions are welcomed.

On the other hand, fans of Vampire: The Masquerade – Justice will undoubtedly be delighted to discover what seems like a cutting-edge virtual reality experience.

 

Source: YouTube/Meta Quest

November 2, 2023 saw the release of Vampire: The Masquerade – Justice for PSVR 2, Meta Quest 2, and Meta Quest 3. A Meta Quest 2 code was given to Screen Rant for this review.