It is 2022, and there is a new battle royale on the block. I assumed video games had explored nearly every part price doing within the circle-shrinking style, however then I began operating up partitions and consuming up civilians like juice bins in Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodhunt. “This free-to-play battle royale is fairly darn good!” I say to my pals who, respectfully, won’t obtain it to play with me.
Bloodhunt launched on Steam in Early Entry final 12 months after I wasn’t wanting, however it got here out for actual final week. The Vampire title will certainly throw off followers of the unique Bloodlines RPG from 2004. This isn’t that. Bloodhunt makes use of Vampire’s world as a battleground for 45-player vampire-on-vampire showdowns on the streets of Prague, and fairly nicely up to now.
I am actually impressed with how nicely developer Sharkmob has nailed the fundamentals right here—weapons are punchy and simple to goal, leaping, sliding, and wall-climbing are slick, and my class vampire powers really feel instantly helpful. I am only some matches in up to now however I may need discovered a favourite within the Saboteur, a slippery vamp who can place fuel traps and poof right into a smoke cloud to zip away from unhealthy conditions.
I additionally just like the small touches that set Bloodhunt other than the crowded BR house. Gamers can feed off the blood of wandering civilians to realize passive bonuses like well being regen or melee harm boosts. Working down the road blood suckin’ like there is no tomorrow gave the impression of a good suggestion at first, till I noticed that you just get closely punished for letting a human catch you within the act of feeding—this “breaks the masquerade” and briefly highlights you on-screen for everybody to see.
Once I first noticed Bloodhunt’s rooftop hopping and high-mobility firefights, I bought a bit of nervous that I used to be strolling right into a repeat of Ubisoft’s forgotten Hyper Scape battle royale. In that recreation, gamers may transfer so quick and get so excessive that monitoring down a single kill was like pulling tooth. I have never had the identical points with Bloodhunt up to now. The excessive FOV of Bloodhunt’s third-person digicam makes monitoring airborne targets a bit simpler and I believe hitboxes are extra beneficiant too. At long-to-mid vary, I’ve already had some enjoyable back-and-forth fights poking out of canopy on the lookout for headshots.
Loads of fights appear to finish up shut vary, although, and that is the place the motion can get a bit of too frantic. Like Fortnite, there’s a whole lot of leaping and shaky aiming whereas two folks attempt to line up a shotgun blast or monitor a gentle stream of SMG bullets on one another. That is the place vampire talents can are available clutch—each class appears to have a capability that helps them interact or disengage from a combat. In my final match, I used to be operating towards an enemy with a shotgun till they force-pushed me 100 ft backward.
Bloodhunt has sufficient cool stuff going that I am shocked it additionally feels the necessity to copy a bunch of different battle royale mechanics that bathroom down an in any other case breezy recreation. You may spend a whole lot of time placing on new armor plates or taking cowl to desperately devour “blood bag” medkits. Fortunately, there aren’t any attachments to juggle or backpacks to handle.
I am having fun with Bloodhunt in the identical means I’ve loved the occasional match of Fortnite’s Zero Construct mode the previous few weeks. A low-stakes shooter with simple taking pictures and enjoyable motion is an efficient palate cleanser to an evening of intense Hunt: Showdown matches. I will proceed to plug away at it alone till I get bored with solo mode and teammates disappoint me.
I wager Bloodhunt could be much more enjoyable with pals, however as with Fortnite, I doubt I will ever handle to get two pals to strive it with me. “Free-to-play battle royale” has turn out to be a non-starter with my buddy group, and I can not actually blame them. Leaping into one other recreation with one other meta and one other loot system and one other battle move with one other roadmap is exhausting.
Bloodhunt may be a better promote if it weren’t yet one more circle-shrinker. Lately, my pals and I’ve been extra all for what comes after battle royale. I recognize that Sharkmob in all probability began improvement when bog-standard battle royale was at its peak, however hopefully it realizes that Bloodhunt may additionally excel as a PvPvE “extraction royale” kind recreation that cuts among the annoying randomness out of BR. I might additionally present up for a totally co-op mode towards AI, or principally some other implementation of Bloodhunt’s robust basis.
That stated, Bloodhunt appears to be off to begin with out the assistance of my buddy group. It reached a brand new peak of 25,000 concurrent gamers right this moment on Steam. Contemplating that is solely one in all three platforms it is on, Bloodhunt may be round for some time.
