Fast Travel Games has announced that its upcoming single-player RPG, Vampire: The Masquerade – Justice, will be available on November 2nd for Quest headsets and PSVR 2. We got our hands on the game at last week's Gamescom, and we're looking forward to playing more.
Released in November on Quest 2, Quest 3, and PSVR 2 for $29.99, Vampire is Fast Travel's latest follow-up to 2021's Wraith: The Oblivion – Afterlife, and their take on Rich Another attempt at a single-player VR campaign.
Besides liking long names with hyphens and colons, the two games share some similarities: both are set in the Dark World universe, both focus on single-player, first-person campaigns, It's different from Fast Travel's other recent works. However, "Afterlife" focuses on survival thrillers, while "Vampire" focuses more on a traditional single-player stealth RPG experience, presented through VR.
glorious revelation
The inspiration for Vampire's modern flat-screen stealth elements is evident from watching the game's trailers, and especially after trying out the game myself. Yes, this looks and plays a lot like a VR version of Assassin's Creed: Endgame, but that's not a bad thing. In fact, it's long overdue for someone to implement this idea. Thankfully, from what I've played so far, Fast Travel Games has done pretty well. The game features a carefully designed art style that draws inspiration from Assassin's Creed, as well as a stunning Italian water town.
Clever creative direction means that even when playing games on the lower-end Quest 2, they still perform admirably. While it still looks great on this headset, I can't wait to see what it looks like on the more powerful Quest 3 successor and the console-based PSVR 2.
vampire fun
Fast Travel also cleverly added a unique element of VR to the stealthy gameplay formula of Assassin's Creed, making the game feel less like a copycat experience and more like its own. Set in modern-day Venice, you'll play as a vampire of the Hakim clan in a linear narrative campaign that progresses through a hub area into main and side quests. As you'd expect, the game lets you switch between the poles of the silent blood-sucking biter and the loud vampiric menace. According to Fast Travel Games creative director and co-founder Erik Odeldahl, the less silent options focus more on making noise and keeping your intentions secret than on the Act with wild attacks and violent manner.
This also means that, like most games in this genre, there will be optional objectives in the missions, for players who want to be pacifist or complete missions unnoticed. Perhaps you might not understand how to achieve these goals on your first try, but you can go back and replay the missions when you become more familiar with the vampiric ways.
The main gameplay loop will have you progressing towards mission objectives while dodging or engaging enemies that stand in your way. In my playthrough, I encountered several patrolling bad guys and needed to consider my options for how to deal with the situation.
In addition to walking, you can use a dashing ability like "teleportation," which lets you jump over canals or gaps, walk through windows, or jump over enemy lines and into hideouts. There's a detective-mode-like ability on your left-hand controller that, by pointing your left hand in any direction, scans the area, revealing level obstacles and the blood hearts of enemies ready to bite.
When sneaking up behind humans (whether enemies or otherwise), you can grab their shoulders and pull them over. Once they get close enough, you'll automatically bite into the human's neck and start sucking blood. If you want to use vampiric skills (such as the vampire school), you need to periodically consume blood, which can be obtained from living humans through vampires (sadly, the blood of dead people has no value). You can also choose to be vegetarian like Edward Cullen and eat only rats and no humans.
The main school I used in my demo was "Shadow Bell," which makes you nearly invisible for a short period of time. It's useful for repositioning or moving through enemies undetected. There are other, louder trap-type options like "Blood Steamer" and "Shadow Trap", but I didn't use them.
Players can also use the wrist crossbow on their right hand to craft different types of crossbow bolts using existing hunger. Sleeping bolts are very useful for remotely putting enemies to rest, whether for sneaking past them or sucking their blood without drawing too much attention.
Like other stealth games, you can also pick up items and throw them around the environment to attract or distract attention. It's a simple and solid mechanic, although in VR you're now able to realistically grab and throw items, making it even more engaging.
Overall, the vampire skills are a familiar but solid set of skills that seem like they should offer enough variety to allow players to change the course of the game however they like. New schools of vampires will be unlocked based on experience gained in each level, so it'll be interesting to see what other undisclosed abilities are available in the full game.
The physical contact and life-stealing mechanics make it different from "just" stealth mechanics on the screen translated into a VR game. Having said that, during covert missions you will experience a higher level of stress because you are very much physically present in the helmet. Without the same sense of anxiety as playing the game on a screen, you'll definitely develop a closer connection with the world and your stealth operations in VR.
unanswered questions
Before the game's release, the biggest unknowns about Vampire involved everything that couldn't be shown in a 30-minute hands-on experience. What I got to play included a decent set of tools and a first encounter with a decent semi-free stealth level. The real question is whether you can maintain enough variety in the way you use these tools and in the level design that the whole game feels fresh.
At the same time, it's hard to tell if a level actually lets you play "your way," or if they're just options to get you from point A to point B for the sake of form.
On the Quest 2, the demo's performance was okay--especially considering the impressive environments and graphics, but there were moments when the game felt jittery and struggled to keep up with my movements. Aiming crossbow crosshairs can feel a little unreliable and tricky at times, and other interactions, like using the dash ability or picking up items, are a bit choppy, too.
Of course, it's worth remembering that we're playing a demo version of a game that's still undergoing two months of polishing and optimization. However, even with a fair amount of polish, this doesn't make up for an area of gaming where there are still some fundamental unresolved issues in interacting with VR.
While the concept of grabbing humans and pulling them closer to vampirism is fantastic, in reality, it's often a somewhat cumbersome interaction to execute correctly. NPC bodies often don't act like I'd expect them to, and it sometimes feels hard to get everything in the right place. Again, this may improve between now and release, but even so, it doesn't change the fact that what should be a lot of resistance doesn't create enough weight when pulling the body.
Still, these are just the last broad checks for the single-player-focused campaign experience coming to VR this year. For the past few months, the experience has been drier than a desert for the Quest. For players who've been waiting for something with more depth and substance than a small arcade experience or multiplayer game, Vampire seems like it'll be a good choice. Given the universal appeal of the genre, Fast Travel Games may be able to appeal to a wider audience than ever before.
Despite these unsolved mysteries, I can't wait for more blood-sucking entertainment later this year with Vampire: The Masquerade – Justice. It's available to pre-order now on Quest and PSVR 2, with a release date set for November 2.
EN_US 
ZH