Bloodlines 2's first patch prioritizes fashion over features, and I'm not sure how I feel about it

I was curious to see what Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2's first patch would look like. While an emergency hotfix solved issues with the game's title screen freezing, as I said in my Bloodlines 2 review, there's a lot of work to be done to smooth out some pretty ugly performance issues. While the inaugural update does squash a lot of bugs, it's largely centered around customization, adding various new hairstyles and makeup looks for Phyre. In a game that's still missing some of the basics, including the ability to manually save the game, the patch feels a little odd; but hey, as a Toreador player I can confirm that fashion is important.

While The Chinese Room has issued a series of workarounds for some of Bloodlines 2's biggest issues (specifically motion blur), there are a few structural building blocks that feel like they're missing. In the vampire game's patch 1.0.2 blog post (aptly dubbed the 'Halloween update') the developer does state that it's looking to add several highly requested features, including an FOV slider and the ability to skip Fabien's story on a second playthrough, but none of that arrives with this patch.

Instead the focus is on customization, with eight new hairstyles, makeup styles, and eye colors being added to the roster. Images showcase what appear to be golden tears (perfect for my Toreador), skull-inspired face paint (perhaps the closest we'll get to Nosferatu), and a masquerade mask (ironic), as well as glowing red eyes, serpentine slits, and a curving set of horns.

Now don't get me wrong, this is a welcome addition, especially given how limited character customization felt at launch. I'm obsessed with some of the looks in here, but given how quickly they've appeared, I have to question why they weren't available from the get-go. For all of the fashionistas among us, it would certainly have saved a bit of grumbling.

Perhaps more importantly, there's a whole collection of bug fixes, too. Various title crashes have been solved, including issues with booting the game in the first place, alongside fixes for various NPC problems and missing voiceover. While I didn't experience too many gamebreaking issues during my review playthroughs, I am happy that Melancholic kine will finally react to my Toreador's snazzy outfits, as well as my Lasombra's priestly getup.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2's Halloween update patch is live now. You can view the full changelog here.

If you're looking to prowl the streets of Seattle by night, check out our guide to all of the Bloodlines 2 clans. Or, if you're already playing, we have a list of all the Bloodlines 2 missions to help you chart your progress.

What clan did you choose in Bloodlines 2? Let us know on Discord. I'm still working through my second playthrough as a particularly arrogant Tremere - then again, is there any other kind?