Preview Bloodlines 2 E3 2019 Demo Gameplay Footage and Previews

[Infinitron]

Tags: Hardsuit Labs; Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2

Were those Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 gameplay trailers from earlier this week too short for you? Well you're in luck, because Paradox have apparently decided to let the press distribute the full-length gameplay footage that the trailers were cut from. There are actually several versions floating around. IGN and PCWorld have a copy where the encounter with the rogue thinblood Slugg ends with his death, while GameSpot have one where he's dealt with more amicably. I'll post one of each:

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A number of websites have written previews of this demo. Here's a list of all the previews I was able to find today:

Game Informer
IGN
PCWorld
Rock Paper Shotgun
Screen Rant
​

As you can see the game is still a bit rough around the edges in places, and it doesn't help that player in the IGN version is terrible at combat. Nine more months of development should be enough to address these issues, though.

 

[ZVERMIX]

Well, it certainly could be much worse. SJW infestation is nowhere to be seen, the original's atmosphere seems there, writing is a bit gamey but serviceable.

Obviously some stuff needs a lot of work, namely:

• animations (facial, skeletal and in-combat);
• voiceover (some of that is definitely a placeholder, Mitsoda is there at least 5 times) and lip synching;
  
• combat (hit detection, PC responsiveness, enemy reactions to hits and PC actions).

But that's precisely what prerelease crunch is for.
If we get a couple of well-written and memorable characters and C&C and progression are solid, it's will be a great example of resurrecting a classic for 2020 realities.

 

[Grejuva]

Not the compass....oh god not the compass.

 

[The_Mask]

This feels wonky. A full clip aimed at the head = kill, but 2 fists is also a kill.

We're a vampire, I get it, but this feels slightly too cartoony.

 

[Shin]

Holy shit, the combat in that trailer (left one) makes the combat of the outer worlds look like a masterpiece. Doesn't help that the one playing is using a controller. Also, running apparently breaks the masquarade, dude is walking slow as fuck everywhere.

But yeah, pre-alpha and all that, yada yada. Still don't think you should show pre-alpha footage if it looks this bad.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[luj1]

Wtf in the first vid @ 11:19



LOOOOOOOOOOOL

 

[unfairlight]

Combat that looks as broken, janky, unfun and shite as the first one. It'll be just as bad in the final release, if not worse due to them trying to show the game in the most positive light. Are those assault rifles forced burst fire? Please, god no. That's the worst thing you can do in any FPS.

 

[Dawnrazor]

The combination of the player being so bad plus the fact that it seems to be on a controller was too much for my virgin eyes, I'll have to wait for the next gameplay trailer.

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

Obviously a work in progress, but encouraging. The parkour is awkward, the combat needs some help, and it's obviously "consolified". Controls seem very slow and unresponsive. I'd also like to see the pulpy, fade-to-black with spotlight for feeding to return. That was a nice touch in the original. I am moved from cynical to cautious.

 

[Kaivokz]

How can someone think having a demo where it looks like a mentally retarded person is controlling the character will get people excited about the game? I bet you could take a game with tight controls, give it to one of these people, and they'll make it look like they're playing with a power glove and 5 seconds of input lag.

 

[OSK]

That was frustrating watching someone play with a controller.

Also, shouldn't leaping from from the top of buildings and climbing straight up a wall break the masquerade?

 

[Q]

Characters eyes were more lively in first. Best eyes I ever seen in games.
And they need to show us normal mouse shooting now, after this gamepad embarrassment.

 

[hexer]

I'll never understand why some devs insist on presenting their FPS gameplay using a gamepad.
Gamepads were invented for 3rd-person perspective games.. this just made it look clunky and unpolished, he's moving around like a robot.

And lip syncing looks wrong, especially in the dialog with Elif.
They need to polish these some more!

But loving the overall atmosphere and the music, very reminiscent of the first Bloodlines.
Cautiously optimistic...

Do we know how much of the content will there be in the game?
20h, 40h, 60h?

 

[Wunderbar]

I'll never understand why some devs insist on presenting their FPS gameplay using a gamepad.

smoother camera movement.

 

[Infinitron]

Combat that looks as broken, janky, unfun and shite as the first one. It'll be just as bad in the final release, if not worse due to them trying to show the game in the most positive light. Are those assault rifles forced burst fire? Please, god no. That's the worst thing you can do in any FPS.

Does that look to you like somebody trying to show the game in the most positive light?

The second video from GameSpot is played by somebody who isn't a total spaz so watch that to get a more fair impression. Unfortunately it also has less combat.

 

[Farewell into the night]

looks good, plays not perfect

 

[Haba]

Gotta love the AI shooting their guns at thin air/walls/ceiling. True successor for Bloodlines.

 

[Nano]

https://www.reddit.com/r/vtmb/comme...e_gameplay_footage_bois_wish_me_luck/eqwfd66/

Yikes.

 

[Glop_dweller]

The videos cause [for me] mild simulator sickness. It looks like I might not get to play it after all.

Decent character design
Fitting urban environment design
I like the TPP wall climbing mechanic

Bad [beta] lipsync
IMO ... it lacks the sense of style from the original.

To me, it seems like a Bioshock clone with the Vampire theme instead of Rapture.

 

[Biscotti]

Animations look incredibly jarring right now: Facial animations, combat animations, whatever the hell that cartwheel finisher was supposed to be... Hopefully they'll get touched up before release and it's not just a case of the animator(s) being incompetent.

 

[hexer]

The videos cause [for me] mild simulator sickness. It looks like I might not get to play it after all.

I'm hearing more and more complaints about this in newer FPS games.
I suspect the culprits might be Motion Blur and Temporal Anti-Aliasing effects which add lots of delayed fading which makes any hasty movement look like a blurry soup.

 

[Goral]

The only thing I've liked in this gameplay (so yeah, my opinion of it got lowered after seeing 15 minutes of it) was the fact that we got XP only for the quest (so no grinding here) and the verticality but the latter might get old really fast. The writing, as has been said already, seems rather awful based on the fragments we got. "All I need you to do" and just below "all you have to do". That's some elementary school level of writing, although the worst examples have already been posted (and yes, I'm aware that spoken language isn't the same as written one but somehow in Bloodlines they've managed to do it right). Not to mention that for some reason NPC's name is hovering over their heads, WTF?
Then we have a Nosferatu who wants us to do him a favour and in exchange he offers us absolutely nothing. WTF? The quest marker is also egregious and voice acting is just average which is a shame considering how good VO in Bloodlines is. What's possibly the worst though is that it's been developed for consoles and it shows. The wheel, the press X prompt and the dumbed down everything.

Jews are wrong, it's better to give than to take

OK, I'll just do you a favour out of the goodness of my heart.

Are you Slugg Slugg? Seriously, this name hovering is annoying, especially when in the next screen we get to know his name. That's some revolver Ocelot level. BTW, it seems strange that we know who to look just by name, she could have given us his picture or tell at least that he's a frog/ogre (not sure if telling us he's a Nosferatu would help, as fledgling and thinblood at that obvious things aren't so obvious). We learn from Nosferatu that he's a Nosferatu too but we should have learned that from Elif (it's been suggested that she knows where he is but since he knows her it's more difficult for her to get close), going to Nosferatu is just filler content and just another stop without much significance.

Visually it looks good but as I've said here the atmosphere is too dark (and yes, I know it's called WoD) and Seattle looks like too much of a shithole. It's like being forced to play in sewers for the whole game. Now compare it to Vienna (where there was snow for example) or to Prague (where we had the chance to play during the day) or to any Bloodlines (outside) location. It's just too much of a difference. Hopefully we will see some more interesting locations later because this part of Seattle is too much of a dump.

Additionally, while it may be considered as nitpicking (can't argue with that) it seems very strange to stand next to an NPC for so long while saying nothing and all he's doing is staring at us while swaying from left to right. I know it's been like this in VTMB but here it's more visible for some reason. I'm not sure if stopping the time would make it better but it looks awkward the way it is now.

Yeah, a YELLOW tent is totally inconspicuous and it's not yellow because it's easier for the player to find a yellow tent among normal ones . The real question is, can we get the data from the tent via metagaming? I sure hope so, there's only so many places a person can hide in a tent (plus with Auspex I wager it wouldn't be that hard to notice). And it must be so since all we got from Slugg was "yellow tent" and we immediately got the data so it must have been at plain sight apparently :].

And here are some questions/observations that I would like developers to know so Wesp5 , if you agree with me on anything please send it to your contact.

• WTF jumping out of a high building doesn't break the masquerade in a masquerade area?

• Is lockpicking dependant on skills? Doesn't look like it in the gameplay, there is no skill check visible (unlike in VTMB). Also, in VTMB performing criminal acts next to NPCs got police on our heads, it doesn't seem to be the case in here which is a huge decline.

• Why is everyone following the quest marker instead of exploring the area? Are there so few things to do there or is it so linear that you can't go anywhere once you receive a quest? It looks bad when compared to Bloodlines where you had the chance to meet with various relevant NPCs (other than Mercurio) or visit interesting areas (like the hospital, where you had the chance to make a ghoul). I hope it's just journalists being retarded and conditioned to just follow arrows like the sheep they are.

• Where's our laptop/computer for quests? If all we'll have is a smartphone give us at least a chance to interact with it in a significant way. If all it does is showing us quests then quest journal would be better for it.

• Where is the save/load feature? Did they disable it so that we wouldn't be able to see that other choices were illusionary only and led to the exact same results? That would be my guess because I don't believe no one would try to do it.

• Can we get the data from the tent via metagaming?

 

[toro]

I love the schizophrenic dance

 

[Mark Richard]

Not for the first time I wonder how much a player's incompetence blunts my own interest towards a game. Perhaps developers should seriously consider instituting a mandatory skill requirement at this delicate pre-release stage instead of entrusting their marketing image to Steven Butterfingers.