Book Review - The Art of Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2
- The Artbook Collector
- 1 day ago
- 5 min read
December 4th 2025
After being long in development and changing developers, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2, the sequel game set in the World of Darkness universe, was released in October by The Chinese Room. After fighting and biting your way through their take on Seattle, players can now jump into an artbook for the game, The Art of Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 from Dark Horse!
Released on December 2nd 2025, just 6 weeks after the game launched, the new hardcover highlights the artwork and insights behind its development for those wanting more from its world. A copy has joined the collection here, so I can let you know my thoughts and what to expect!
Build Quality
Dark Horse are no strangers to artbooks and this comes in their usual hardcover format of 23.5cm x 31cm, this time coming with 208 pages. The pages are high quality paper as always and the print quality and the binding are also very good, allowing every page to fully open due to its flexibility. These parts of the review are always short for Dark Horse, because they are consistent, reliable, and very good at what they do!
Content
Across the pages you will find a huge number of sketches, full colour renders, and 3D models, as well as some storyboards and graphic design too. It has a nice mix throughout with a heavier amount of 2D artwork, very common for an ‘Art of’ book. The text is written by Ben Matthews, Michele Nucera and Jordan Grimmer of the art team, as well as the game Director Ian Thomas for some first-hand details.
The book begins with a look at the characters, with the main character Phyre getting the most pages and there is no surprise there. There is a lot of costume design for the different looks of the clans that the player can adopt, as well as how the hands will look on screen, something I like to see and not often included. Some characters are underserved though with just a 3D model, and it would have been nice for them to get a collection of smaller designs instead.
You may be wondering if anything from the previous developer Hardsuit Labs is included, which there is as you discover quickly. Not only were they mentioned in the introduction, but very early on there is art featured from their team, as seen with the character Lou. I’m happy to see this and although it’s clear that much of the game changed, some of these designs were used in the final release and shown here.
A chapter I really liked was for the player abilities that dives into the looks of the different powers and animations. The type of abilities, visuals and colours change based on which of the clans it is assigned to, those being the Brujah, Tremere, Banu Haqim, Ventrue, Lasombra and Toreador. I always like to see this and no doubt players will find it interesting to see how different animations could have looked. This also applies to enemy abilities too, with a look at how they move and attack. It's an interesting chapter that shines the light on something you don’t always see in these books.
The rest of the chapters follow the players progression through the story with environment art and enemy concepts. I really like the style of the artwork for the game’s world, the streets aren’t anything unusual, however the use of colourful lights to give everything a vibrant look is a fun way to make it more interesting. All types of colours too, even applying this to interiors, which is my favourite part of the artwork.
One of the strongest aspects to the art behind Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 is the range of styles used within this version of Seattle. The vintage interior of The Glacier Hotel in contrast to the modern and clean Weaver Tower is an excellent example of the team’s talent, as reflected in the final game. Costume design is also very strong for the main characters and common enemies, and again highlights the range of styles the game uses. Some characters are function over fashion and other can be more elegant or made to fit into a group, such as the Sabbat cult.
Text throughout can give in-universe details on the characters and story, or the art and making of the game. Having writing from the artists themselves is always great, as it gives the best insights as to why they went a specific direction and what they were trying to achieve. It’s engaging while not giving a huge amount to read, using small paragraphs or notes on specific pieces on the pages, just the right amount.
Overall, there is nothing unexpected here, but that’s because it covers everything and it is very art focused, exactly as you would hope. I found myself enjoying the artwork, especially for the environments and abilities.
Credits
A great job here as the art is credited on the page, the best way to do it. You’ll see the same names for the 2D art, being Ben Matthews, Michele Nucera, and Jordan Grimmer, but other appear too, mostly for the 3D renders. As mentioned before, Hardsuit Labs are also credited but not with specific artists, although they may not have been known when developer The Chinese Room were given the assets after taking the reins.
Use of Space
A great job here from the design team as pages are full and the layouts are very readable. Backgrounds are kept simple as the art takes up so much of the space, with the gaps used for placement of the text. The binding does a fantastic job at minimising or removing images loss for pieces that cross the centre fold too, always a huge win. Another strong release in this regard from Dark Horse.
Value
The Art of Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 has an RRP of $55/£50, which is the norm for a video game artbook from Dark Horse. No complaints here, it’s another well made book in the publisher’s large catalogue and owners of their other books will feel happy about this.
As always, I compare prices on Amazon too and right now the book is 7% off just after release in the US, with a huge 28% off in the UK. Discounts on artbooks is much more common this early in the UK, but those elsewhere can also find deals as well, which will of course fluctuate. The price of £36 is excellent for a well-made book, but even at a higher price, those that enjoy the art seen in the previews here won’t feel let down.
Verdict
The Art of Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 a solid release that gives the art team the showcase they deserve, allowing the players with a thirst for more to dive into an interesting mix of concept art after finishing the game.
Dark Horse have shown again why they are the go-to for video game artbooks, because while it does nothing crazy, their consistent quality means that if you enjoy the game and art, then you will be happy with this book on your shelf!
If you liked the review, you can order a copy of the book for your own collection here;
