The latest in the batch of 2nd edition Chronicles of Darkness games, Promethean: the Created isn't changed as much in this new edition, probably because it was a brand new game to start with (as opposed to Vampire: the Requiem, Werewolf: the Forsaken, and Mage: the Awakening, who all took varying amounts of inspiration from the older World of Darkness games). As such, this book doesn't dramatically alter the game, just tweaks and updates in various places.

On the Lineage front, two are added: the Unfleshed (mechanical and artificial creations) and Extempore (spontaneous Promethean). I never cared much for either before: the Unfleshed feel out of place to me, not being made of corpses, and probably deserve more extensive treatment if not a separate system to descibe them; while the Extempore always boil down to player/storyteller working them out themselves, and would be a better fit as a sidebar. But I assume others will feel differently. The five core lineages are better defined than they were before, and I appreciated in particular the reworked Tammuz.

The Refinements go from five to ten, including all the core ones and the ones published in later books, together with an entirely new one: Phosporum, the refinement of thrill-seekers and mortality. I really enjoyed this latest addition, but all together it means the book has to present seventeen spalts (seven lineages and ten refinements) which take a lot of word count, which I feel perhaps might have been used to better flesh out the rest of the setting.

Mechanics wise, the 2nd edition is as finely tuned as the other CoD games. A few specific Promethean merits were added, all Bestowments were included, and Transmutations received a major overhall, making them more flavorful than previously. I truly appreciate the efforts of the Onyx Path team to have supernatural powers differentiate from the Discipline model (the 1 to 5 dots, buy in sequence kind). Once again though, with 15 Transmutations to cover, the mechanics take a lot of space in the book.

A core promise of this new edition was to make Promethean more approachable, and in this I think the game is a success: the Pilgrimage through which Promethean go to achieve humanity is both more structured and mechanically sound, while the drawbacks are easier to manage - though still significants.

Antagonists receive their own chapter, with a welcome new addition in the form of Alchemists. Pandorans lost the Mockeries which divided them into different pseudo-lineages, perhaps more fitting in theme for divisive creatures but something I regretted. Detailed Firestorm rules are back, and so are the enigmatic qashmallim, a personal favorite.

Finally as in other CoD game a chapter covers settings from different parts of the world. Those are regrettably short, possibly to accomodate for the nomadic life of most Prometheans. But they do point at interesting variations, such as places were Wastelands don't occur as easily, or others where qashmallim appear with surprising regularity.

Overall, this book is a 4 stars for me because it didn't "wow" me in the same way the original did, and I disagreed with some of the choices which were made (the inclusion of the two additional lineages in particular). But this is still a very solid book and one that I will use in my CoD campaign.