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

[Nutria]

he other issue for a woke story-based game is that vampire fiction is fundamentally about suave mind-controlling rapists.

I'd go as far as to say that you're overthinking this. Vampire fiction involves human sexuality, and that is already enough to make it dangerous in today's culture. The holy grail for game journos is to call out a game for being problematic, so if you get anywhere near a topic like that you're going to have 50 of them jumping on you. I wish I lived in an era that was more open to talking about these things, like maybe the goddamn 1890s.

 

[KateMicucci]

The holy grail for game journos is to call out a game for being problematic, so if you get anywhere near a topic like that you're going to have 50 of them jumping on you.

Scary.

 

[gerey]

over everything else inXile has done

So marginally less shit but still shit?

and since then, they have released nothing from that IP

Considering Paradox had to fire pretty much every PnP White Wolf writer to save themselves from getting charlie hebdod by angry Chechens is it any surprise? The stench of leftist incompetence permeates everything related to the World of Darkness IP (and pretty much everything else White Wolf shits out nowadays).

Granted, the people that originally conceived WoD were also left-leaning, but they created and developed the IP during a very different time, where actual talent was both required and sought after - and it shows.

I suspect the game wasn't merely abhorrent, but in such a broken/unfinished state that it would have cost them more to invest more funds to push it through the door than to just cancel it outright and triage the bleeding.

so if you get anywhere near a topic like that you're going to have 50 of them jumping on you

The sad thing is that nobody but the publishers/developers themselves give a flying fuck what game journalists think (because they are leftists themselves). These vermin only have as much power as publishers/developers are willing to give them. If EA or Ubisoft were to come over to IGN or Kotaku and tell them to stop with the retarded hitpieces and attention-whoring or they're gonna get backlisted does anyone here think the gaming press would push the issue?

Western entertainment nowadays is one big, gay, Marxist circlejerk of leftists sucking each other off - making something the masses might actually want to read/watch/play is of tertiary importance.

 

[DeepOcean]

he other issue for a woke story-based game is that vampire fiction is fundamentally about suave mind-controlling rapists.

I'd go as far as to say that you're overthinking this. Vampire fiction involves human sexuality, and that is already enough to make it dangerous in today's culture. The holy grail for game journos is to call out a game for being problematic, so if you get anywhere near a topic like that you're going to have 50 of them jumping on you. I wish I lived in an era that was more open to talking about these things, like maybe the goddamn 1890s.

They will gladly ruin your career to fuel all those 500 useless click bait articles about how rape is a problem on the gaming industry, nowdays, the criteria for hiring on some retarded companies is if your twitter is popular enough and what best route you have than to pretend being relevant by running another human being on the ground for some pats in the back?

If you are invited on an UN panel for woman bravery against harassment, now you are set for life on the grift of pretending to be an worthy human being.

 

[Semiurge]

The sad thing is that nobody but the publishers/developers themselves give a flying fuck what game journalists think (because they are leftists themselves). These vermin only have as much power as publishers/developers are willing to give them. If EA or Ubisoft were to come over to IGN or Kotaku and tell them to stop with the retarded hitpieces and attention-whoring or they're gonna get backlisted does anyone here think the gaming press would push the issue?

Western entertainment nowadays is one big, gay, Marxist circlejerk of leftists sucking each other off - making something the masses might actually want to read/watch/play is of tertiary importance.

he other issue for a woke story-based game is that vampire fiction is fundamentally about suave mind-controlling rapists.

I'd go as far as to say that you're overthinking this. Vampire fiction involves human sexuality, and that is already enough to make it dangerous in today's culture. The holy grail for game journos is to call out a game for being problematic, so if you get anywhere near a topic like that you're going to have 50 of them jumping on you. I wish I lived in an era that was more open to talking about these things, like maybe the goddamn 1890s.

They will gladly ruin your career to fuel all those 500 useless click bait articles about how rape is a problem on the gaming industry, nowdays, the criteria for hiring on some retarded companies is if your twitter is popular enough and what best route you have than to pretend being relevant by running another human being on the ground for some pats in the back?

If you are invited on an UN panel for woman bravery against harassment, now you are set for life on the grift of pretending to be an worthy human being.

You have earned yourselves brofists for those posts, coming early april.

 

[DeepOcean]

Wasn't Wasteland 3 pretty warmly received here?

If it had two to three times the content and a functional combat system, would be a pretty damn good RPG, how it is, it is a decent RPG to waste some time in, more or less on the same category of the shadowrun RPGs, however, those have the advantage of having a much better setting and stories.

Its biggest weakness is the lack of originality through and through and it is also damn short, what thinking about, it is a pretty good compliment, NumaNuma was also short but felt like endless torture so it is an improvement over Inxile previous games.

 

[Helios]

Western entertainment nowadays is one big, gay, Marxist circlejerk of leftists sucking each other off - making something the masses might actually want to read/watch/play is of tertiary importance.

So you're saying western private businesses operating solely with (private) profit in mind are marxist and leftist? You nerds need to learn a thing or two about the world you live in... They are undoubtedly gay though, no questions about that.

Anyway, happy this POS got (effectively) cancelled. Tired of seeing clueless business shills reviving old, well-respected brands just because they can't come up with anything new. As someone has already mentioned it here, PDX should hand it over to some euro-based company as the american plague of SJW-ism as a basis for gaining publicity and access to quick buck is an antithesis to creating anything of quality.

Also, I think the 'game' was nowhere near to being finished - they probably got some half baked locations, lots of cuckified and manginated dialogue by glove-man and his new dominatrix and some random shooter mechanics. If it was playable from beginning to end, in any form, pretty sure PDX would have decided to release it soon, they're greedy fucks after all. But let's think about other options - if it truly WAS playable and simply didn't meet PDX stadards (whatever these might be) then they have to be retarded to think they can get anyone to create a decent RPG in WoD nowadays, especially without paying serious buck and hiring some actuallly experienced studio such as Obsidian. But even that is out of the question now. They don't have access to competent and experienced studios for this kind of game, so it will always end up being mediocre at best. Better for them to spend some extra millions on mindless PR and go the CPDR route - release well-marketed steaming pile of pos, so at least hyped kids will buy it.

Can't wait to see how it all unfolds, hopefully the project will die the final death soon and drag PDX to oblivion where all these greedy and clueless fucks belong.

 

[gaussgunner]

It's funny how in the 00s and 10s the paradigm was evil-publisher-poor-developer and the 20s are starting off with double trouble incompetent-developer-poor-publisher: Chaos Chronicles Forever (Realms Beyond) and Bloodlines 2

Roguey must be having a field day watching all these Codex heroes fall

I never worked on a big game but I never resented having a publisher/manager worrying about money and schedule and riding my ass when I'm on a big software project. You need the pressure to maintain focus and get it done. Devs in charge = vaporware.

 

[gaussgunner]

I hated the fact that the weapons disintegrated

I hear that a lot, but breakable weapons are a huge part of emergent gameplay. It forces to improvise in combat and creates unique situations.

And that differs from running out of ammo... how exactly?

You can count your ammo.

 

[Azdul]

I never worked on a big game but I never resented having a publisher/manager worrying about money and schedule and riding my ass when I'm on a big software project. You need the pressure to maintain focus and get it done. Devs in charge = vaporware.

Games are not fundamentally different than any other software. You can either hire expendable retards and play a slave driver, or hire competent engineers and let them do their job.

From engineering perspective Bloodlines 2 is paint-by-numbers project. The problem for Hard Suit Labs is that they are located in Seattle - so there is no good reason for competent people to work for them when there are plenty of more stable and better paying jobs around.

 

[Wesp5]

Paradox purchased White Wolf in 2015, and since then, they have released nothing from that IP.

Huh? Maybe they didn't appear as publisher themselves, but we got Vampire: The Masquerade – Coteries of New York, Vampire: The Masquerade – Shadows of New York, Vampire: The Masquerade – Night Road and [URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werewolf:_The_Apocalypse_%E2%80%93_Earthblood']Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood.[/URL]

 

[DeepOcean]

Yes, they indeed released nothing from that IP.

 

[Nephilim]

Paradox purchased White Wolf in 2015, and since then, they have released nothing from that IP.

Huh? Maybe they didn't appear as publisher themselves, but we got Vampire: The Masquerade – Coteries of New York, Vampire: The Masquerade – Shadows of New York, Vampire: The Masquerade – Night Road and Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood.

Most of the garbage they've published so far are visual novels. I don't understand why these are classified as video games and quite frankly I am puzzled as to why these projects got greenlighted in the first place.
There is no quality control whatsoever.

 

[Roguey]

Most of the garbage they've published so far are visual novels. I don't understand why these are classified as video games

They're interactive computer software.

and quite frankly I am puzzled as to why these projects got greenlighted in the first place.

Cheap to make, decent return on investment.

There is no quality control whatsoever.

Also true, though the New York Vampire VNs have a nice art style at least.

 

[Nutria]

Imagine playing a visual novel when you could just watch another episode of the Rockford Files. You don't need a lot of technology to experience stuff that's above-average content.

 

[bertram_tung]

I am cautiously optimistic for Vampire Swansong since it is made by the team who made The Council and I quite enjoyed that for what it was.

 

[jungl]

Huh? Maybe they didn't appear as publisher themselves, but we got Vampire: The Masquerade – Coteries of New York, Vampire: The Masquerade – Shadows of New York, Vampire: The Masquerade – Night Road and Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood.

Every single one is passable. Earthblood is not even worth pirating that game is the biggest example of cash grab/take paycheck and move on game I have ever played. Extremely stupid gameplay design elements like sniffing plants to get xp. Paradox should of never bought the IP if they have no in house development studios that can make a decent game out of it. In the 5 years they owned the IP someone could of made a free WoD themed flash game that is a hour long in content on a website like newgrounds that is more entertainment then anything produced in those 5 years.

 

[bertram_tung]

Earthblood actualy isn't too bad for someone who likes the setting. Better to wait for a sale though.

 

[Xelocix]

Paradox purchased White Wolf in 2015, and since then, they have released nothing from that IP.

Huh? Maybe they didn't appear as publisher themselves, but we got Vampire: The Masquerade – Coteries of New York, Vampire: The Masquerade – Shadows of New York, Vampire: The Masquerade – Night Road and Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood.

Most of the garbage they've published so far are visual novels. I don't understand why these are classified as video games and quite frankly I am puzzled as to why these projects got greenlighted in the first place.
There is no quality control whatsoever.

They get greenlit because VN's are cheap to produce and usually sell pretty well, especially in cases like VTM where the fandom has been starved for content for so long that they'll purchase virtually anything with the WoD label on it. It's not hard to understand when you think about it.

 

[Marat]

So you're saying western private businesses operating solely with (private) profit in mind are marxist and leftist?

You must be new to the internet. Rightoids have been saying this for years now. They almost started believing it too.

 

[Semiurge]

Yes, they indeed released nothing from that IP.

Why did they purchase it? It's starting to look like they just want to safeguard it from nasty right-wing developers who might make something fun out of it.

 

[randir14]

Earthblood actualy isn't too bad for someone who likes the setting. Better to wait for a sale though.

I like the setting and I uninstalled it after 30 minutes. It's rare that I ever find a game to be a total piece of shit - but Earthblood is.

 

[Flying Dutchman]

Wasn't the game almost finished? Why stop suddenly at the finish line?

I think Hardsuit might have thought and prayed (?) it was finished, but no one else did. The narrative of "oh, we're just making sure it works on next gen consoles" and "oh, COVID is fully to blame" didn't really hold water. If anything, Hardsuit might be better served to do console ports than actual content.

On the evaluation front, I was surprised because I thought the Ubisoft hatchet man was actually hired by Hardsuit as a full-time employee, but LinkedIn suggests otherwise (he only lists his consulting company, I think).

The fact he might have been brought in as an independent evaluator is even more of a loss-of-faith in Hardsuit, and maybe Paradox as well (maybe they realized they couldn't evaluate the game properly beyond recognizing something was wrong that needed a 3rd person viewpoint).

Hope Paradox paid him well, and we might owe him a debt of thanks for helping to cancel it or move it to another developer (we'll see how that pans out). Maybe he has an OnlyFans we can donate to.

 

[Lambach]

Hey guize, remember when they thought this was good enough to show to the public?



Seems even more hilarious now in hindsight.

 

[Flying Dutchman]

I like the setting and I uninstalled it after 30 minutes. It's rare that I ever find a game to be a total piece of shit - but Earthblood is.

Best review. 1 sentence, gets to the point, and the 30 minutes qualifier reminds people that the product falls well within the Steam return policy.