As you explore the city of Seattle in Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2, your character is required to operate under the titular masquerade. This is a guideline laid out by Camilla, which is kinda a vampire government that usually, though not always, sits in power in most cities. These rules are placed to protect the exposure of the hidden vampire society from mortals. In Bloodlines 2, this serves more like a wanted system with several tiers of exposure based on your actions, and the game gives leeway to breaking the code, which, by the end, you will probably do all the time anyway.
Any action that exposes Vampires, when viewed by an NPC, will be counted as an infraction, not just an act of violence. This includes double jumping, gliding, or even doing your quick dodge move. In this case, double jumping might have a brief effect as you double jump and then land, but a continuous action like gliding can build it up much faster. Throughout the world, police will also walk, indicated by a yellow glow, and committing actions in front of these characters will cause the gauge to fill much faster than a random civilian. There are three levels total to the gauge, starting at green, then yellow, then red. All of this is represented in the top center of the screen, with an eye that represents whether you are visible as well.
The green gauge, in particular, doesn’t negatively impact the player at all. This acts more as an indicator that you are being noticed, but that there is no problem as of yet. The yellow stage, which occurs when the green fills up, acts very similarly to the green in that nobody is really hunting you or acting fully aware, but this creates some pockets you should avoid. For instance, in green after a glide, you could land and stand there with no worry, but if you are in the yellow, remaining nearby to what caused this situation could cause the gauge to increase even without action. ommitting a minor infraction in front of a cop might also cause an instant escalation as well.
This brings us to the red portion of the gauge, which is actually breaking the masquerade, logistically. Cops will begin to actively attempt to shoot you, and people will start running away from you, and the gauge will continue to fill as long as there is a line of sight to you. Should this final gauge fill to max, you will receive an instant death as an assassin of the court stabs you with a stake through the back. What is important to note about this is that while you do respawn, resonance, which are the three types of blood points you can gather around the world, will be lost upon your revival. Not all of it, but usually 150 in 2 categories. Getting caught biting a person will instantly move you to the red gauge, which can be hard to avoid, given that even alleyways have tons of people in them, and even criminals choose to use the buddy system.
The best recourse, if you reach the red bar, is to head up to the rooftops. No humans will travel up there, and as long as you stay away from the edges, you are safe to let the gauge cool off. Enemies like ghouls and thin-bloods will populate the rooftops, so be ready to defend yourself if you need to. As they are supernatural, they will not increase your wanted level. If the building is high enough, just move across the roofs to avoid a fight; nobody will see you anyway. At worst, the loss of resonance is a minor punishment for the grinding to unlock abilities, but otherwise, you are allowed a lot of leeway to violate the code and still get away with it.
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