We got through Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines 2 after its many years of development hell. I think the story, character writing, character models and voice acting were all pretty good. But my husband, who was the one actually playing, thinks the combat is Not Good, and you can definitely tell they cut and simplified a lot of systems down to bare bones to ship the damn thing. They also fudge the lore in a few very noticeable ways.
If you want to experience the story, turn the difficulty all the way down, because the combat isn't rewarding and there's no point suffering more with it.
