Meta review key was provided by Fast Travel Games
Vampire the Masquerade - Justice is a continuation of the World of Darkness Universe that dates back to the 90s with table top RPG gaming. This edition of Vampire the Masquerade is developed and published by Fast Travel Games. Set in dark times with an even darker story, this game is an open-ended narrative RPG where you set out as a crime fighting vampire. Did somebody say Batman? No? Alright we’ll just get to the review then.
Gameplay and Story
Vampire the Masquerade - Justice has a noir story that really makes you feel like a crime fighting vigilante. The story has a surprising amount of twists and turns with the addition of how you want to play by using the good cop, bad cop method. Then on top of that you literally have an ability to intimidate where you raise an intimidation meter until they’re peeing their pants and running away, if that doesn’t make you feel like Bat… I mean, Vampire Man I don’t know what does.
The gameplay is actually quite fun, you’re literally a crime fighting super hero. Parkour up a wall, blink back at them with a super kick ability. You can sneak up on people and bite them to feed and that’s the equivalent of a silent take down, or you can straight up run in and show your brawling skills and just punch your way out of the situation.
Enemy takedown
There’s some abilities you learn along the way like a Cloak of Shadows where you can hide in plain sight and poof out just in time to punch somebody in the face. Then there’s a head popping vampire ray, I forget what it’s called but you literally shoot a ray of blood at their head and if you have enough energy to do so you pop their head. Then my favorite ability, the shadow trap. You leave a little trap on the floor and lure the bad guys towards you by making some noise and triggering the trap and a giant arm comes out and pulls them to the shadow realm, not the Yu-Gi-Oh one either.
All-in-all, the gameplay is really fun and the story is intriguing. I definitely think that if it wasn’t VR it would take away from the game so good job making that decision.
Graphics and Sound
I actually really like the voice actors in this game. You got your classic vampire guy who gives you the “Bleh, bleh, bleh” vibes which is awesome. But most of all your character that does that narration, he has a super deep and gritty voice that really just slams that noir theme home.
The design of the game is so fun too. It has a lot of gray and red tones which most of the time would give me the ick but man, there’s small pops of yellow that are there so you can tell it is a point of interest and then the rest just goes right back to that noir theme. Then the bad guys’ masks, reminds me of We Happy Few which has such an awesome vibe to it. So I really have no complaints here.
Feedback
The only thing that I have to complain about it also the strengths for the game. When you are fighting a lot of people you can die very quickly so you have to move quickly and some times you forget which way is up and which way is down and that can be a little disorienting.
Verdict
Vampire the Masquerade - Justice is an awesome crime fighting experience that really makes you feel like you’re living your own super hero story. The chase sequences and the stealth missions are a ton of fun and it’s never not fun sneaking up and super kicking someone to the moon like prime time Shawn Michaels.
I would definitely recommend Vampire the Masquerade - Justice to anybody who is just getting their first VR. The game is available now for VR on the Meta App Store, and for the PSVR2.
