World of Darkness Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 from Hardsuit Labs

[Darth Roxor]

Lol, that's a terrible trailer.

 

[glass blackbird]

Here's the target demographic.

that has literally always been the white wolf target demographic lol. there's a reason even d&d fans made fun of the VTM people back then

 

[Cael]

• You can choose your background, gender pronoun, employment history, body type and fashion

Bye. Killing myself. Was good 2 hours of hype

 

[jf8350143]

All this talk about "politics" reminds me of the thread before Kingmaker comes out. People were complaining about "SJWs infested the game", and the barbarian is a "strong and independt women" as well. Now it's codex's 2018 GOT.

 

[Funposter]

love 2 be an immortal killing machine but also throw a hissy fit when someone doesn't call me ma'am

 

[Vincente]

love 2 be an immortal killing machine but also throw a hissy fit when someone doesn't call me ma'am

based funposter

 

[ArchAngel]

So what did I miss?
Any useful links to catch up?

 

[Arulan]

My initial impressions on all the information so far is pretty positive.
I'm seeing reports of no quest markers and some of limited quest markers. Does anyone have a source? Either way, a focus on real exploration and having to think for yourself is .

Also, apparently you can climb buildings?! This could be great for stalking prey over rooftops. Any confirmation on the open structure? (Full open-world or Bloodlines-like hubs)

Of course there will be politics in a Vampire: The Masquerade RPG set in modern times. A lot of people here have mocked other communities for doing exactly what you're doing now with RPGs like Kingdom Come: Deliverance. If you must take a hard stance on any game whose politics differs from your own, by all means, but enough with the bullshit hypocrisy. It also makes having any meaningful discussion on design pretty difficult.

See, Bloodlines had politics but I was free to spit any or all of the factions in the face. I could call LaCroix a jester or Nines a rebel without a clue.
Do you really believe this one won't favour "the right side of the history"?

Depending on what you believe in, maybe. My point is that for as much as people here laugh at the outrage of other communities and their beliefs, we have hundreds of pages (of countless threads) here of people doing the same thing. Instead of discussing RPGs, we delve into politics at every opportunity.

As for the freedom to tell factions to fuck off, I would certainly hope so.

This "of course it'll be political, it's Vampire!" is a weirdly common deflection toward something that isn't at issue at all. People would be pretty disoriented if Vampire was sanitized of politicking.

I don't get the allusion to KCD, though. Was that even about some in-game soapboxing? I thought they just hated the developer and period.

It was both, though I've certainly argued my fair share of why the former is bullshit because the game doesn't push an agenda in that regard. All the same, there is no shortage of attacking developers here for their beliefs on the other side of the spectrum.

 

[Murk]

A developer that doesn’t have extensive PnP rpg Experience, developing a VTM rpg will more than likely be a disaster (unlike Troika). Good luck with that. Can’t wait to read the codex review.

And it's apparently Bloodlines 2.

What the fuck.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/532790/Vampire_The_Masquerade__Bloodlines_2/

edit: woops, wrong thread. Oh well.

edit 2: this got moved from another thread, doesn't make much sense now.

 

[Perkel]

Positively interested but it is paradox and games comes from their new studio.
Could be good game, could be rape.

So who is going to make Arcanum 2 ?

edit:

What Avellone is on this ? LOLOLOLOLOL Avelone makes more RPGs now than Obsidian.
By quitting Obsidian he unleashed his power.

edit2:

"Careful attention to progressive, modern political and social qualities, such as being able to chose your gender pronouns"

Burn it in hell. Game will be sjw shit.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

A videogame with a political agenda cannot be an RPG, it becomes either an action-adventure game, a visual novel, or a blend between the two.
Simply by restricting the user to a specific set of paths that are only deemed acceptable by the developers they take away any form of agency from the player and undermine the entire concept of being a (western) RPG.

There is zero difference between restricting a player to the "right side of history"(as understood by the designers) and this:

Spoiler

One may be more dressed up to pretend to be what it isn't, but they are the same exact thing.

 

[Space Satan]

I see no problem with backgrounds because, well, Arcanum FFS.
On the other side, progressiveness means that NoSFERATU NO LONGER HAVE TO HIDE IN SEWERS, becuase, well, trannies and other progressive people, especially due to closenessto San Francisco means people got used to ugliness.

 

[Sykar]

That music sure was annoying.

 

[Murk]

RIP whatever expectations.

Also, fuck off, leave my goddamn memories alone you bastards.

 

[hexer]

HOLY SHIT!
I'm rewatching Paradox Twitch stream and main developers are hardcore tabletop RPG players.
They're looking forward to seeing how many diverse stories players can come up with during their playthroughs.

 

[True Ukrainian]

I see no problem with backgrounds because, well, Arcanum FFS.
On the other side, progressiveness means that NoSFERATU NO LONGER HAVE TO HIDE IN SEWERS, becuase, well, trannies and other progressive people, especially due to closenessto San Francisco means people got used to ugliness.

Getting around by sewer as a Nosferatu in Bloodlines was a real pain in the ass anyway.

 

[unfairlight]

It's gonna be shit just like the first one.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Guise, this sucker will be on Steam!

 

[Saerain]

On the other side, progressiveness means that NoSFERATU NO LONGER HAVE TO HIDE IN SEWERS, becuase, well, trannies and other progressive people, especially due to closenessto San Francisco means people got used to ugliness.

Can't wait to talk down to horrified kine about how grossly their expressions bodyshame me.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Guise, this sucker will be on Steam!

So was the Metro game.
Notice at the end of the trailer it just says "PC" — no Steam logo.

 

[Cross]

Fifteen years later, the vampires are still at each other’s throats.

Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 begins as the previous game did way back in 2004. You’re a newborn vampire, confused, taunted and about to be executed. You stand in a kangaroo court, with various bickering vampire clans prodding you for information that you just don’t know or understand.

And then it’s a flashback to when you were human and the night of your turning, as a swarm of vampires descend on humans in a chaotic slaughter for food. You wake later, with new talents and vague objectives. Stay alive, creep through the shadows, use your newfound abilities. This is an action RPG, but it also feels like an immersive sim in the vein of Dishonored.

“You could call it retroactive borrowing, ” says Martin Ka’ai Clooney, creative director developer Hardsuit Labs. “A lot of those immersive sims took a lot of their ideas and systems from games like Bloodlines. You play it now and it doesn’t really play as an immersive sim but there were a lot of those concepts that informed them.

“Bloodlines at the time was very much an RPG. It’s influence on immersive sims was important but it didn’t change the fact that at its core it was an action RPG. We loaned it out for a bit now we’re stealing it back.”

Pretty impressive that Bloodlines, a game from 2004, inspired the design of games like Thief (1998), Deus Ex (2000) and Arx Fatalis (2002).

 

[Sukhāvatī]

Guise, this sucker will be on Steam!

So was the Metro game.
Notice at the end of the trailer it just says "PC" — no Steam logo.

Probably because GOG's also getting in on it.

https://www.gog.com/game/vampire_the_masquerade_bloodlines_2

 

[Arulan]

I see no problem with backgrounds because, well, Arcanum FFS.
On the other side, progressiveness means that NoSFERATU NO LONGER HAVE TO HIDE IN SEWERS, becuase, well, trannies and other progressive people, especially due to closenessto San Francisco means people got used to ugliness.

Getting around by sewer as a Nosferatu in Bloodlines was a real pain in the ass anyway.

They mocked the sewers during one of the interviews. They seem pretty aware of Bloodlines' shortcomings. They talked about combat quite a bit too. I don't know whether sewers are going to be a thing though, but you will be able to climb buildings to stay out-of-sight.

 

[Saerain]

Fifteen years later, the vampires are still at each other’s throats.

Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 begins as the previous game did way back in 2004. You’re a newborn vampire, confused, taunted and about to be executed. You stand in a kangaroo court, with various bickering vampire clans prodding you for information that you just don’t know or understand.

And then it’s a flashback to when you were human and the night of your turning, as a swarm of vampires descend on humans in a chaotic slaughter for food. You wake later, with new talents and vague objectives. Stay alive, creep through the shadows, use your newfound abilities. This is an action RPG, but it also feels like an immersive sim in the vein of Dishonored.

“You could call it retroactive borrowing, ” says Martin Ka’ai Clooney, creative director developer Hardsuit Labs. “A lot of those immersive sims took a lot of their ideas and systems from games like Bloodlines. You play it now and it doesn’t really play as an immersive sim but there were a lot of those concepts that informed them.

“Bloodlines at the time was very much an RPG. It’s influence on immersive sims was important but it didn’t change the fact that at its core it was an action RPG. We loaned it out for a bit now we’re stealing it back.”

Pretty impressive that Bloodlines, a game from 2004, inspired the design of games like Thief (1998), Deus Ex (2000) and Arx Fatalis (2002).

Meh, "a lot of", "from games like".

 

[normie]

you can bet your ass they're in exclusivity talks, they're just waiting on the metrics to take to the negotiating table so as not to be lowballed by Tencent