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[Draugoth]

The story of Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines 2 revolves around control: the amount and type of control you have over others, the control they exert over you, and the control you lose – and slowly regain. – about yourself and your destiny, confirmed the devs in a new blog update

Players will take on the role of an Elder, who has had his powers suppressed and now everyone is trying to control him. It's up to you to decide who to trust and who to betray.

You wake up trapped in Seattle, with all your power artificially suppressed – reduced to a mere pawn, to be used and exploited. After all, what are others if not our most disposable possessions? And what better asset than a controlled and gagged Elder?

Our main NPCs like Lou, Ryong and Tolly have their own plans and your involvement can help them. It may not be in your best interest to bite every hand that tries to take you down, but rather to choose, to play along - to wait for the right time. Or not. It's up to you.

According to the studio, the Neo-Noir theme serves to challenge the boundaries of ethics and addresses issues such as retaliation, paranoia and isolation. These elements reflect well the reality of a Vampire.

We focus on the characters, who knows what and who has the power in any given situation, and how the player can use that to their advantage. No one in Bloodlines 2 knows everything about everything, no matter how much they may pretend to know. So the way the player navigates these alliances and learns new information makes the player feel like they are investigating a complex web of lies. We try to make sure the player feels in control of what information they know, who they share those secrets with, and for what reason.

The studio states that choosing the protagonist to be an Elder allowed the character to be established as someone who already knows a lot about this world of vampires, but also gives the opportunity to leave gaps for players to discover information. Something the studio is striving for is "balancing opportunity and story with players' desire to roleplay their own character."

Vampires don't relate to each other in the same way we do, especially extremely ancient vampires like our protagonist. They don't have “friends”, for example – it's all about power and possession, which are the antithesis of any genuine connection. It's a challenge to try to disconnect from how we see something and get into that mindset to represent it properly.

You have to focus first on making this character interesting to learn about and spend time with - you can't expect players to initially identify with him, or maybe even like him. It takes finesse to balance this, to zoom out and find broader, more universal entry points that can encourage players to feel like they can identify with that character.

 

[Hudo]

I am honest. I have not much confidence in Paradox' choice of developer for this project. The Chinese Room seem woefully inexperienced for this kind of game. Their walking simulators and mediocre "being hunted by some immortal being"-horror games are not inspiring much confidence...

 

[StereoVsn]

Meh, double meh and a giant meh on top. Much like the post above, I have 0 faith they this turn out to be actually a good game on top of the conversation choices.

And even with the story they are trying to be super convoluted. We shall see I guess.

 

[Inuteu]

At this point, Im glad the game is not cancelled

 

[HL3.exe]

Staffing up and getting more veterans on board is common. Sure, they lack the portfolio to have confidence in them making a full fledged RPG. But, I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.

I mean, Alien Isolation -a first person immersive action adventure- was made by a RTS focused developer. Everything is possible if you get the right people involved.

 

[Moneal]

Hopefully these guys can pull an Avalanche Software and do this right.

 

[Flabagast]

I choose to believe. As others have said above, it is not unheard of of having a dev pulling something from left field with great success.

This is a miracle this game is still in production and we have way too fee immersive simulations anyways, so every new one is great.

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

Just cancel this game already

 

[amigastar]

They've switched from UE4 to UE5. Hopefully it looks amazing.

Dev Diary#5: A Dive into Next-Gen Game Development - Paradox Interactive

Paradox Interactive is a world leading PC games publisher known for games such as Cities: Skylines, Europa Universalis and Crusader Kings.

www.paradoxinteractive.com

 

[Dazraell]

I've seen some brief gameplay snippets from clan reveals and read about Chinese Room's take at the story and honestly.... my excitement gets lower and lower every time they reveal something new. Plus them reducing number of clans from 5 (as in Hardsuit version) to 4 and then already announcing new ones as paid DLCs is just insulting. I will look forward for reviews and maybe one day I will play it, but this won't be my day one purchase

 

[MagiusNecros]

I don't think these devs will be able to get the right atmosphere down. Only good VTM games are Redemption and Bloodlines. The other games just steer off into Visual Novel territory. I feel like the closest thing we have to a more recent Vampire game that has "Masquerade" elements at play is Vampyr.

It's really telling when VTM has 7 playable clans in the base game vs Vaporware that dropped 7 down to 5 and then to 4. And locking a couple clans(probably Malkavian and Nosferatu) as post-launch DLC. Makes it hard to be excited.

The storyboard also seems pretty shallow.

And swapping to a new engine just tells me the game won't come out until 2026 at the earliest but is probably gonna show up in 2028.

 

[WitchHunter]

Promising mechanics

 

[Hudo]

And locking a couple clans(probably Malkavian and Nosferatu) as post-launch DLC.

Is this confirmed? If so, that's a big "fuck you". But then again, I just remembered that Paradox are publishing it so... yeah. They'd do something like this.

 

[MagiusNecros]

Is this confirmed? If so, that's a big "fuck you". But then again, I just remembered that Paradox are publishing it so... yeah. They'd do something like this.

I believe so. You can even preorder Special Editions of the game that talk about including 2 DLC packs.

If it was me and I made Bloodlines 2 it would continue from the first game following the ending where you get shoved into the ocean as the PC enters Torpor and you could play it off that it's many years later and you technically are an Elder and need to rediscover all your abilities all over again...but of course in Bloodlines you had 7 clans to choose from.

And removing/locking out Malkavians a fan favorite is one good way to push people away from the game.

 

[Dazraell]

Is this confirmed? If so, that's a big "fuck you". But then again, I just remembered that Paradox are publishing it so... yeah. They'd do something like this.

They only confirmed two DLCs, one is supposed to be a fifth playable clan, while the second one is supposed to be a standalone story about a different clan

I also think one of them will be Malkavian. If that's the case, putting the most recognizable clan behind additional paywall rubs me the wrong way

 

[Hudo]

I believe so. You can even preorder Special Editions of the game that talk about including 2 DLC packs.

If it was me and I made Bloodlines 2 it would continue from the first game following the ending where you get shoved into the ocean as the PC enters Torpor and you could play it off that it's many years later and you technically are an Elder and need to rediscover all your abilities all over again...but of course in Bloodlines you had 7 clans to choose from.

And removing/locking out Malkavians a fan favorite is one good way to push people away from the game.

They only confirmed two DLCs, one is supposed to be a fifth playable clan, while the second one is supposed to be a standalone story about a different clan

I also think one of them will be Malkavian. If that's the case, putting the most recognizable clan behind additional paywall rubs me the wrong way

It's like they want this game to fail or something...

 

[Dazraell]

It's like they want this game to fail or something...

This is just my opinion, but it's probably a result of having a publisher who desperately wants to have a game out after so many years and so much money pumped into it and hiring a studio that doesn't seem to care about making a proper Bloodlines sequel, but instead wanting to create their own VTMB game

At this point Bloodlines name only works against them. Whenever I look, either Steam forums, comments on YT under their videos or even official World of Darkness Discord, most common replies are dissing at Chinese Room's game and saying it's not a Bloodlines game they would like to play

 

[Hudo]

This is just my opinion, but it's probably a result of having a publisher who desperately wants to have a game out after so many years and so much money pumped into it and hiring a studio that doesn't seem to care about making a proper Bloodlines sequel, but instead wanting to create their own VTMB game

At this point Bloodlines name only works against them. Whenever I look, either Steam forums, comments on YT under their videos or even official World of Darkness Discord, most common replies are dissing at Chinese Room's game and saying it's not a Bloodlines game they would like to play

I really want to believe that Bloodlines II is going to be as good but... you know. I have yet to see or read or hear anything that manages to convince me. I am just curious how Paradox ended up choosing The Chinese Room. You are probably right that they just want to get this thing out the door at this point.

 

[Dazraell]

I really want to believe that Bloodlines II is going to be as good but... you know. I have yet to see or read or hear anything that manages to convince me. I am just curious how Paradox ended up choosing The Chinese Room. You are probably right that they just want to get this thing out the door at this point.

Well, RPGCodex first leaked that Chinese Room is a dev over a year before their involvement was officially confirmed. That rumor said Paradox picked Sumo Digital because of their reputation of "finishing unfinished projects", Sumo then recommended Chinese Room to take over as they're their subsidiary

As for the why the whole thing with them ditching Hardsuit happened, rumor said that Paradox was unhappy about Hardsuit's direction and felt their approach was unfit to games from modern era and game would be simply unfun to play. Hardsuit's approach was more hardcore and leaning very heavily into original Bloodlines. But what exactly happened and if that past version was that bad as Paradox claims probably will be never known

 

[Hudo]

Well, RPGCodex first leaked that Chinese Room is a dev over a year before their involvement was officially confirmed. That rumor said Paradox picked Sumo Digital because of their reputation of "finishing unfinished projects", Sumo then recommended Chinese Room to take over as they're their subsidiary

As for the why the whole thing with them ditching Hardsuit happened, rumor said that Paradox was unhappy about Hardsuit's direction and felt their approach was unfit to games from modern era and game would be simply unfun to play. Hardsuit's approach was more hardcore and leaning very heavily into original Bloodlines. But what exactly happened and if that past version was that bad as Paradox claims probably will be never known

Wow. I didn't know all this. Man...

Now I am sad...

 

[Dazraell]

Wow. I didn't know all this. Man...

Now I am sad...

Yeah, it sucks, but unfortunately it is what it is

Over the years I went from initial excitement and being in day one club to "I will just wait and see and maybe buy it on a deep sale"

I do wish them success, but I see so many red flags that I just feel that it may not be a game I was so hyped to play

 

[MagiusNecros]

Well, RPGCodex first leaked that Chinese Room is a dev over a year before their involvement was officially confirmed. That rumor said Paradox picked Sumo Digital because of their reputation of "finishing unfinished projects", Sumo then recommended Chinese Room to take over as they're their subsidiary

As for the why the whole thing with them ditching Hardsuit happened, rumor said that Paradox was unhappy about Hardsuit's direction and felt their approach was unfit to games from modern era and game would be simply unfun to play. Hardsuit's approach was more hardcore and leaning very heavily into original Bloodlines. But what exactly happened and if that past version was that bad as Paradox claims probably will be never known

What I'm getting from this is Hardsuit wanted to stay true to source material. Paradox said lolno and went with a different studio to retool the game for modern audiences. Sounds like Bloodlines 2 will fail to live up to VTM fanbases expectations.

 

[Dazraell]

What I'm getting from this is Hardsuit wanted to stay true to source material. Paradox said lolno and went with a different studio to retool the game for modern audiences. Sounds like Bloodlines 2 will fail to live up to VTM fanbases expectations.

Seems that way, yeah

I was following the news of early Bloodlines 2 development because of hype and yeah, Hardsuit was very hardcore about doing a game that carry on core gameplay from Bloodlines 1. If you read their interviews, they were the one who pitched the game to Paradox, hired a lot of original devs and pretty much treated it as a passion project - at least based on their public responses, that is. They even had meetings which goal was to "how to make our game feel even closer to original Bloodlines"

This is my pure speculation, but I think Paradox had a very different vision how that game should look to appeal to wider audience. They didn't understood that Bloodlines is a very niche and campy game that is quite an opposite of bullshit from modern games and had very different priorities. Plus their lack of experience with RPG genre could also have an impact on their decision making

One thing I like more in the newer version is that they're leaning into being the elder vampire, but I'm not a fan of a voiced protagonist, their voice and design and how all of their descriptions about clans leans extensively into how they translate to combat and almost no mentions if clans have an impact on social skills, which I always liked much more in Bloodlines 1 over combat

 

[MagiusNecros]

Yeah I think a silent Protagonist with dialogue choices is something I would prefer. Similar to old Bioware games. But I think they really want to go after the CDPR piece of the pie by making a RPG with an otherwise preset character. In this case Phyre. And based on the concept art I am not a fan of the design of the character.

VTM Bloodlines had designs for each clan that felt unique. The design for Phyre is amazingly bland and uninspired. I don't care for the design nor the name.

I'd like BL2 to be good but I think I'm in for a world of disappointment and would rather replay Bloodlines or Redemption.

A key feature that most games lack is good storytelling and with VTM if the story is lacking then I don't see it doing well.

 

[Dazraell]

You hit nail on the head, I have a similar impressions

There are plenty of games where I think voiced character works nicely, but I think silent protagonist was one of the larger strengths of original Bloodlines. With the large variety of clans, their unique responses and designs, this helped a lot with immersing yourself to this world and encouraged replayability. The lead character felt like our protagonist. Phyre won't have that advantage and with a need of every response being fully voiced, the chances for unique dialogues for each clan feels much smaller as they're not only limited by scope, but also by budget

These designs for Phyre feel very mid and unmemorable. I also don't like the whole idea of having a thinblood in the head. While I loved how CDPR did it on Cyberpunk, I'm worried this character will end up being more annoying than interesting. And there is also a matter of clans. While it's cool we get a new clan (Banu Haqim), the fact that they ditched Gangrel, Nosferatu and Malkavians who offered some unique and interesting mechanics that you couldn't find on more "base" clans, it pretty much sends a message that BL2 may not have the same level of replayability as the predecessor. Which is a huge shame