Highly recommended to both the casual player and the completionist.

I have done 3 playthroughs of this game, once at release, once for Phantom Liberty and the latest one during patch 2.31 to finally do a 100% playthrough. At the beginning the game was plagued with issues, bugs and horrible optimization but with the patches, fixes and DLC this game has transformed into one of the best. It's an incredible experience and well worth your time.

Now that I have explored the entire map, gone down every route and experienced the entirety of the story, I can happily say that this is one of the best games I have ever played and it was worth every second.

Thank you CDPR for letting us experience Night City.

"I just want the world to know I was here. That I mattered." - V

To start with: I firmly believe that the result of the misleading marketing, the mistreatment of this game, the IP and questionable business decisions are entirely the fault of Paradox. The incompetence Paradox has shown should convince you of never supporting them or their endeavours with the Vt:M IP (and more...) ever again, unless licensed to people who actually knows and has the experience to know what to do with it.
Many other reviewers talk about the common issues and severe lack of features so I won't include them here, but generally I agree with them.

Without taking into account that this game shouldn't be called Bloodlines 2, it is a severely undercooked game that does not deserve a $60 price tag and cannot be recommended at its current state, I would wait for a very steep sale. The only reason I've been able to play for 20 hours is due to the story and the music. Taking into account that the game IS called Bloodlines 2, I cannot recommend the game at all, for any reason.

The Chinese Room are not known for making action adventure games and I believe they tried to do the best with what they got but the fact is that this game should've been made by another studio that have the experience and are competent in this genre. At its current state this game would've been better suited as a visual novel. The fact is that the only redeeming factor of the gameplay is map traversal and rooftop movement, the rest is just subpar. Combat is severely lacking and feels janky, most of the mechanics aren't explained properly and more often than not you will die due to poor design choices. I did appreciate the clan skills and how you're able to pick & choose to fit your own playstyle but as it stands currently I'd rather just skip the combat encounters than directly engage with them.

The dialogue system also suffers from a few issues. NPCs in this game will react to the things you say in a few different ways which affects your relationship with them positively and negatively. In combination with the poor save system that only allows for checkpoints and autosaves, the game does a "Fallout 4" on you by giving dialogue options so vague that you expect one thing only for the protagonist to say a completely different thing. It's a shame because I really enjoyed the writing and the voice acting but without being able to quicksave, there is no way I can confidently play as my clan and character without getting punished for it.

The last issue that really bothered me was the animations, most of the animations felt extremely lackluster and certain sections of the game made me facepalm out of embarrassment due to the low quality and effort spent on them. Honestly, the Ysabella (Atrium) section made me feel like I was playing a low quality 1-dev horror game rather than a $60 AAA game. Even textures in many places felt more like an homage to games of the early 90's than a game released in 2025.

I hope Vt:M will get the game it so desperately deserves but this was not it. I wanted to love this game so badly but at this point I cannot in good conscience recommend it to anyone.

EDIT final review: After about 45 hours I managed to 100% the game. The story of this game reminds me so much of the brilliant 1960's writers of Japan, Yasunari Kawabata and Kobo Abe. The themes, the story beats and the abstract nature of the storytelling evoked emotions in me that took me back to the time I read Snow Country and The Box Man and it couldn't have made me happier. The payoff of reading the diary entries and notes written by Sakuko, Rinko and Kotoyuki in NG++ made the journey through the 5 endings entirely worth it. Being able to see Hinako deal with her inner conflicts while struggling with the harsh reality of a poor family in a traditional and strict society in such an intimate & emotional way made it so interesting. I think it was a bold decision to write the story in the way Silent Hill f presents it and not many will experience it (the majority will most likely stop at ending 1), but it makes it even more powerful and rewarding when you can finally put the finishing puzzle pieces together and put the game down with each characters story getting the closure it deserves. All that was lacking was seeing the words おわり at the end, because it felt like I had just watched an extremely abstract and artistic Japanese masterpiece when the credits started rolling for the last time.

My original score was 8/10 but after getting 100% on the game and taking some time to reflect on the story, I believe this game is a 9/10.

original review:
ok hear me out.. silent hill...but in japan.

It's an incredible psychological horror game that follows the typical Silent Hill formula but in my opinion does it way better than previous games. This game makes an effort to keep things vague while still being able to provide contexts, clues and world building through journal entries and scattered notes as well as extensive environmental storytelling. The full extent of the story is revealed gradually through multiple endings that require several playthroughs with requirements such as completing challenges and new "optional" content. Each playthrough also adds new or alters cutscenes to reflect or reveal new information to tell the true story of Hinako Shimizu, family and friends which makes it well worth it to replay the game.

As opposed to other Silent Hill titles, this game focuses a lot more on action rather than survival through new mechanics such as perfect dodge timings, counter attacks, focus/sanity as well as a varied selection of consumables that all do different things to help you strategize, prepare and adapt to situations and monsters. The "survival horror" aspect is still there, just not the same as you're used to in other SH titles.

I have always praised Silent Hill 2 as being the best in the series but Silent Hill f is showing promise of taking that spot for me and becoming one of my favourite games.

8/10

its an ok game

Meh. Enjoyed it.