It's clear The Chinese Room had its work cut out for it with Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2. As the long-awaited sequel to a cult classic RPG, I see evidence of that immense pressure in every pixel. It's woven through a thinly-cobbled plot, so fragile even the slightest tug at a loose thread sends the whole thing unravelling.
It's hidden beneath the dreary, funereal pall hanging over the snowy streets in what's supposed to be a seedy and bustling Seattle, the empty silence occasionally interrupted by a line of recycled NPC dialogue as you run back and forth between the same five buildings for the first 20 hours of the 30 it takes to finish it.
