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

[S.torch]

Ok, I thought the missing third person would be unbearable. But the trailer looks good so far...
It just needs some good chars... I hope that giraffe chick is not the new Jeanette.

wait, what? there will not be third person? why? the first game is like from ten years ago and have both cameras

 

[Terenty]

Haha, all you people expected Mitsoda to be a good writer. It's like you didn't play Dead State

Its actually a myth perpetuated on this forum that Mitsoda is a great writer, when in reality even the first bloodlines was full of thinly veiled exposition dumps all over the place. The only thing that was good character wise in the game was face animation and voice acting and that wasnt Mitsoda's work

 

[Okagron]

Is it just me or does anyone else feel the voice acting in this trailer is super shit? It is like they picked some randos off the street to read those lines.

Yeah, it doesn't sound as good as the voice acting in the original. The voice acting of the original is fantastic, i was expecting subpar voice acting because the game came out in a time where good voice acting in videogames was still rare, but it blew me away honestly. John DiMaggio as Smiling Jack was honestly amazing.

 

[Covenant]

What the fuck is it with modern trailers and everything being from a cutscene? Even the gameplay trailer is full of mini-cutscenes.

Anyway, looks shitty. The triumph of its predecessor was in creating a low-key, cool atmosphere that you wanted to immerse yourself into, and having the freedom to do that in a variety of ways. Whereas this one just screams 'You can be a fucking cool vampire man, you can do parkour shit and blow people up with your hands and anything you like! Buy our game and we'll call you Ebony Nightshade in real life, for real dawg! It's EPIC.'

To be fair, none of that was a surprise, but the voice acting was actually worse than I was expecting. Everyone's giving it their whole 'Showing off for the kids in the drama class' thing, aren't they? The first game held a lot of its charm in the laconic delivery of both its plot and its characters. Replacing it with enthusiasm doesn't really fit the whole 'We're undead parasites lurking in the shadows of a crapsack world' thing, in my opinion.

 

[Yosharian]

Don't worry guys I'm sure the gameplay will totally make up for it

 

[anvi]

It is ok, even if the game is boring, it will be a valuable going outside simulator for British people.

 

[Viata]

The trailer made me realize how fucking great Source engine is for facial animation. Holy shit. How come not a single one could get above that level?

 

[Yosharian]

The trailer made me realize how fucking great Source engine is for facial animation. Holy shit. How come not a single one could get above that level?

Hard to appreciate just how creative and smart Valve was in the Half-Life/Half-Life 2 era until you look back at Source and realise that the industry has basically gone nowhere since

Everyone just uses the same old shitty pre-made Unreal engine instead of making their own stuff

Or they're forced to use Frostbite

And Valve is now a shadow of their former selves, RIP

 

[Roguey]

Whereas this one just screams 'You can be a fucking cool vampire man, you can do parkour shit and blow people up with your hands and anything you like! Buy our game and we'll call you Ebony Nightshade in real life, for real dawg! It's EPIC.'

 

[HeroMarine]

What the fuck? No third person? Why even make this game?

 

[ZeniBot]

Take game that is known for being a Role Playing Game.
Don't show any Role Playing Mechanics beyond a Bethesda esque dialogue tree.

Yeah this games not for me. Also disappointed that the abilities in Dialogue aren't colour coded like the originals. Oh the bar is coloured.. Fucking stupid, just colour the fucking font!

 

[Wunderbar]

 

[Alexios]

It seems like half the complaints about this game are about problems that already existed in Bloodlines.

 

[ZeniBot]

Probably because Bloodlines was rushed. Most people expect them not to pull the same shit this time but looking at the release schedule it looks like a repeat of last time. Paradox are retarded.

 

[Orma]

 

[randir14]

Take game that is known for being a Role Playing Game.
Don't show any Role Playing Mechanics beyond a Bethesda esque dialogue tree.

Yeah this games not for me. Also disappointed that the abilities in Dialogue aren't colour coded like the originals. Oh the bar is coloured.. Fucking stupid, just colour the fucking font!

God...I bet it won't even have 5 minute load screens. Fucking dropped.

 

[Mr. Hiver]

I dont see anything especially bad about facial animations or VO. Some voices could have been chosen better and a face or two could have been more expressive but it isnt as if there is anything specifically bad about any.
Besides, bloodlines looked completely horrible, the body movements and models were abysmal and facial animations were expressive but overblown. Not surprisingly considering the events, but it did not look good at all.

This game looks and sounds like you would expect a middle AA tier project to look and sound.
How good it will be depends only on missions, quests and the gameplay.

 

[ZeniBot]

If there's no revolving door that is physics based and causes me to soft lock the game I'm not buying it! lol

 

[Kyl Von Kull]

Take game that is known for being a Role Playing Game.
Don't show any Role Playing Mechanics beyond a Bethesda esque dialogue tree.

Yeah this games not for me. Also disappointed that the abilities in Dialogue aren't colour coded like the originals. Oh the bar is coloured.. Fucking stupid, just colour the fucking font!

Dude, a Bethesda game with two alternative skill checks in a single node? Bethesda would be: you’re coming with me, you’re coming with me charismatically (he comes with you and gives you a reward for being so nice), you can go, or die mutant scum.

No role playing mechanics... you mean other than what sure look like negotiation and intimidation checks? I was very pleased when I saw that, but at the end of the day these trailers are designed to appeal to people who DIDN’T play the original, because they believe (accurately IMO) that most fans of the original Bloodlines will buy this no matter what.

Incidentally, I guess they’re replacing persuasion with negotiation?

 

[Wunderbar]

Take game that is known for being a Role Playing Game.
Don't show any Role Playing Mechanics beyond a Bethesda esque dialogue tree.
Yeah this games not for me. Also disappointed that the abilities in Dialogue aren't colour coded like the originals. Oh the bar is coloured.. Fucking stupid, just colour the fucking font!

Dude, a Bethesda game with two alternative skill checks in a single node?

 

[Sarkile]

Has anyone pointed out that this releases at the same time as Cyberpunk? If they're wise they'll delay the game by like 5 months, otherwise their best case scenario is another cult hit.

 

[Kyl Von Kull]

Wunderbar 76 doesn’t even have that yet, it’s being added as DLC nearly a year after launch because the game flopped so hard that they’re willing to do anything to turn it around, even if it means adding mild role playing elements. But this kind of makes my point about Bethesda dialogue. Sure, there’s an extra perception option, but you can’t even say no to this questgiver! Your choices are:

1. Give me more information (perception)
2. I’ll do it for more money (charisma)
3. I’ll do it
4. I’ll do it if you pay me, but for less money than I’d get with a couple points of charisma

That’s actually worse than what I outlined above.

Has anyone pointed out that this releases at the same time as Cyberpunk? If they're wise they'll delay the game by like 5 months, otherwise their best case scenario is another cult hit.

It comes out in the first quarter, so between January and March. If they get it out on the early side of that window, they’ll have a few months before Cyberpunk eats everything else alive.

 

[Alexios]

The clear solution is to get a celebrity to be one of the in-game characters.

 

[HeroMarine]

Take game that is known for being a Role Playing Game.
Don't show any Role Playing Mechanics beyond a Bethesda esque dialogue tree.

Yeah this games not for me. Also disappointed that the abilities in Dialogue aren't colour coded like the originals. Oh the bar is coloured.. Fucking stupid, just colour the fucking font!

God...I bet it won't even have 5 minute load screens. Fucking dropped.

Screens loaded in 3 seconds on my Pentium IV HT. Sorry you had a shitty computer.

 

[The Last Blackguard]

It seems like half the complaints about this game are about problems that already existed in Bloodlines.

Congratulations. You're starting to figure out how the codex do.

Anyway. Feeling some trepidation from the new trailer. With the way the dialogue was written in the first game, characters didn't exactly feel grounded, but their word choice and way of speaking clearly supported their characterization. Some of the dialogue in the trailer feels like it was written to convey info pieces X Y and Z, and they just relied on the actors to sell the characterization.

Another thing. About the powers, It's too early to call if this is their focus, or they're just picking ones that are easy to show off in a trailer, but they feel more like the sort of powers you'd get in, say a customization oriented action, game, like Dishonored.

I'm reminded uncomfortably of the skills or upgrades in the Deus Ex games (all of them) that are just sort of contrived planted to justify that choice that's only useful in those specific instances.