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

[deuxhero]

Vampire: The Masquerade: Prince is what I expected when Paradox announced they were doing Vampire. Given how this shit has turned out, I think Paradox wishes they did that too.

 

[Semiurge]

Vampire: The Masquerade: Prince is what I expected when Paradox announced they were doing Vampire. Given how this shit has turned out, I think Paradox wishes they did that too.

"VtM: Prince" is a lot less problematic title than "VtM: Jyhad". If you asked them why "Jyhad" sounds unmarketable, they couldn't give you a coherrent answer however. It's something that they say doesn't officially exist, but it still sounds bad to them. Bad mojo.

 

[Konjad]

Who cares, vampires are edgy teenager-like creatures for teenage retarded girls who like Twilight anyway.

Bloodlines just also had good writing and decent gameplay, hence it was fun *despite* being about vampires.

But I certainly don't look forward to more vampire games. They are just as shit as zombies.

If it was horror-like story akin to Dracula, then fine, but footbal managers with vampires? City builders? Crusader Vampires? What the fuck is wrong with you, people?

 

[Harthwain]

Who cares, vampires are edgy teenager-like creatures for teenage retarded girls who like Twilight anyway.

Maybe if you read Twilight. Read Vampire: The Masquerade 1st Edition manual instead.

Crusader Vampires?

There is nothing wrong with having a political game about immortal vampires hiding behind a facade of mortal governments. If anything, it fits perfectly with the lore and you don't have to fiddle why spiritus movens (the player) remains the same throughout the ages.

But I certainly don't look forward to more vampire games. They are just as shit as zombies.

Good games are good, regardless of the theme.

 

[Storyfag]

Who cares, vampires are edgy teenager-like creatures for teenage retarded girls who like Twilight anyway.

Bloodlines just also had good writing and decent gameplay, hence it was fun *despite* being about vampires.

But I certainly don't look forward to more vampire games. They are just as shit as zombies.

If it was horror-like story akin to Dracula, then fine, but footbal managers with vampires? City builders? Crusader Vampires? What the fuck is wrong with you, people?

Konjad, you are worthless. Fake tits on a zombie worthless.

 

[Razor]

The trope of vents has gotten stale and needs a bit of a redesign, even with vampire fart mode as presented. Add some excitement to them.

Quick dodge into a hallway wall vent... OOPS, that just goes to the laundry chute or incinerator! (Maybe you should have read the sign next to it.)

Recently finished another playthrough of Alien Isolation.

It had a mechanic with the vents where the Alien used it actually as a ways to quickly travel around the levels and could also crawl into the sections what the player could use. Not to mention as a access point to drop into different parts of the level, usually from the closest opening to the players position.

I also played it in VR and it was quite a experience when I heard something drop in a off branch of the vent section only to see a fully life sized Alien emerging and crawling towards me like the air vent scene with Dallas in Alien 1.

Needless to say I started to prefer to use the vents only as a last ditch option when cornered even though they contained the usual stuff like hidden goodies etc. Even that was a desperate move as the alien was more likely to investigate vents if it heard sounds coming from it. Like the opening and closing metallic shreek of the air vent access point.

A nice twist on the stock formula.

 

[Savecummer]

Porting WOD vampires into a game format would be a pain. The rules on the disciplines are too wacky, you'd have to rewrite it completely.

 

[Wesp5]

Needless to say I started to prefer to use the vents only as a last ditch option when cornered even though they contained the usual stuff like hidden goodies etc.

Wasn't the whole coming out of the vents system more or less scripted with the Alien teleporting near the player position? At least I had the feeling that it was...

 

[Razor]

Wasn't the whole coming out of the vents system more or less scripted with the Alien teleporting near the player position? At least I had the feeling that it was...

No, the alien actually physically moves around. There are only really two instances in the entire game where the Alien is ported for cutscene purposes. AI theory had a vid explaining the fundamentals behind the Alien behavior and why it felt so organic in game.

 

[vota DC]

Who cares, vampires are edgy teenager-like creatures for teenage retarded girls who like Twilight anyway.

Bloodlines just also had good writing and decent gameplay, hence it was fun *despite* being about vampires.

But I certainly don't look forward to more vampire games. They are just as shit as zombies.

If it was horror-like story akin to Dracula, then fine, but footbal managers with vampires? City builders? Crusader Vampires? What the fuck is wrong with you, people?

Why not? You play football manager with football players that are undead since they die when barely touched to obtain penalty kicks, why not vampires that are undead too?

 

[Wesp5]

No, the alien actually physically moves around. There are only really two instances in the entire game where the Alien is ported for cutscene purposes.

Interesting video, but while it might be true about only teleporting twice, the way the director AI knows exactly where the player is and makes the Alien move there and even move away after a time is exactly what I felt as cheating. Granted, the game would have been boring if the Alien would have kept to a section you left behind and were never to return, but with a real random AI this should had happened! In fact the cheating made the game more challenging that using a normal AI though...

 

[Razor]

The AI director also leads it away from you in random intervals for random amounts of time to give you breathing room, so it is not like the alien is 100% all the time in your area. Also when in VR mode you are specially keen and aware of surroundings so I did notice that its not like the AI director just leads it away in the vents and then leaded it back to where you were and thats when the Alien started to actually patrol a part of the level. No, on more then one occasion I head through the walls that the alien dropped out of the vents and did extended searches in different parts of the levels where I was long gone. In the more extreme cases even in the far ends of the map as I heard distant gun shots and screams where some human NPC-s were.

So no, its does not feel like cheating at the least and if you are not aware of the existence of the separate alien AI and the director AI guiding its search grids. It does feel like a Alien that is stalking around the level on the hunt that is very attracted to loud noises and signs of activity that in turn makes it investigate the area more thoroughly. Things that usually happen during the lore sequences when you activate machinery or pipes burst near you or play loud audio files or open locker/air vent access points or purge reactor nests etc.

The other thing with the alien AI is that it has also passive and aggressive profiles. In passive mode it sticks a lot more to the vents and moves around the level a lot more. In aggressive profile it comes out of the vents way more and is very aggressive in its search patterns in areas of disturbance which usually contains the player. You can witness this in action as in the story segments the alien is most of the time in aggressive profile BUT during the later segments of the campaign you gain partial freeroam mode via the monorail to look for hidden lore and goodies with your upgraded tools in previously visited parts of Sevastopol. Thing is a Alien is always spawned in the levels but in passive mode and its in these I heard it specially doing just random drop and searches in random parts of the level and only becoming aggressive in stalking when I did stupid shit like run or shoot a weapon.

If you know what to look for there are actually passive/aggressive profile changes during the story sequences. One of the first is during the SciMed encounter from the morgue to the doctors office section. Thats when the alien is passive. By the doctors office is a gas pipe that is very easy to burst and if you do that the alien turns aggressive and starts stalking the general area where you are. Or play the audio file on the docs computer which is a loudass CRT monitor with nails-on-chalkboard screaching loudspeakers and is required to advance the plot.

Again, lore wise this differential behavior makes sense but yet again as this is a VTMB2 thread, you can really cram anything into lore if your REALLY want to. Gameplay wise though it has a good blend of unpredictability while avoiding things like fixed spawn points or fixed patrol routes.

 

[Wesp5]

So no, its does not feel like cheating at the least and if you are not aware of the existence of the separate alien AI and the director AI guiding its search grids.

Sorry, but it did for me. If the AI was so great, why not drop the Alien into a vent with only it's sensors and let the game play out? I understand that the game is more interesting now, but still it's not really a fair game AI vs player.

 

[deuxhero]

Vampire: The Masquerade: Prince is what I expected when Paradox announced they were doing Vampire. Given how this shit has turned out, I think Paradox wishes they did that too.

"VtM: Prince" is a lot less problematic title than "VtM: Jyhad". If you asked them why "Jyhad" sounds unmarketable, they couldn't give you a coherrent answer however. It's something that they say doesn't officially exist, but it still sounds bad to them. Bad mojo.

Wasn't the card game that was such a clusterfuck it had a card, intended for information gathering, that could force your opponent to surrender if you used it twice with the right question?

I agree "Prince" on its own would be a weird title for people totally outside of VtM, though I just meant it hypothetically. Still, it wouldn't need much modification to appeal to a general audience "Vampire the Masquerade: Prince of *insert well known city here*" would work, as even the totally clueless would guess it's about a vampire leader of that city or at least a powerful vampire based in that city.

 

[Storyfag]

I agree "Prince" on its own would be a weird title for people totally outside of VtM, though I just meant it hypothetically. Still, it wouldn't need much modification to appeal to a general audience "Vampire the Masquerade: Prince of *insert well known city here*" would work, as even the totally clueless would guess it's about a vampire leader of that city or at least a powerful vampire based in that city.

Vampire the Masquerade: War of the Princes

 

[Justicar]

Nigger the Masquerade: War of the Imams

Tranny the Masquerade: Hormonelines

 

[rusty_shackleford]

all this talk about how to traverse through levels reminds me of Prey.
...


No, not that Prey. The 2006 game.

one of those 'way ahead of its time' games

 

[jungl]

Who cares, vampires are edgy teenager-like creatures for teenage retarded girls who like Twilight anyway.

Bloodlines just also had good writing and decent gameplay, hence it was fun *despite* being about vampires.

But I certainly don't look forward to more vampire games. They are just as shit as zombies.

If it was horror-like story akin to Dracula, then fine, but footbal managers with vampires? City builders? Crusader Vampires? What the fuck is wrong with you, people?

bloodlines was a overrated story fag game. You know there a reason why it only sold 72k copies and games like fire emblem 3 houses sell 3 million. Just imagine how a vampire game would sell like pancakes if they copied 3 houses gameplay formula.

You have a hub you visit after every mission and can talk to your vampire waifus and build relationships and train disciplines with. SRPG, simulation, builder, all these genres offer actual GAMEPLAY what GAMERS play. Paradox releases visual novel games that sell tiny amount because storyfags will always be a niche.

 

[Lambach]

bloodlines was a overrated story fag game. You know there a reason why it only sold 72k copies

If sales are your criteria of quality, EA's Mobile Tetris game must make you orgasm.

 

[Justicar]

If sales are your criteria of quality, EA's Mobile Tetris game must make you orgasm.

Who the fuck cares that the game you made is good when your studio dies because of it

 

[Lambach]

Who the fuck cares that the game you made is good when your studio dies because of it

The people who love the game care, I would think. How many games are there that released at around the same time as VTMB and sold way better initially, yet are pretty much completely forgotten nowadays, whereas VTMB still has a decent-sized fanbase? I'm not sure what correlation the quality of the game has with said game's ability to fund Bobby Kotick's 7th yacht.

It was a game that was fucked on release in terms of technical polish, had virtually no marketing behind it whatsoever and released the same day as Half-Life 2. No shit it sold poorly. But it's still being actively talked about to this very day, there are various mods being released for it fairly regularly, and a publisher who isn't exactly some obscure indie no-name thought it was worth buying the IP license and making a sequel for it (which was obviously a train wreck, but that's besides the point). How many 2004 games that sold way better than VTMB can claim the same? A handful at best, if even that.

 

[Justicar]

How many 2004 games that sold way better than VTMB can claim the same? A handful at best, if even that.

Lets go 2004 games that are still talked about, played by many people and SUPRISE HAVE ANOTHER INSTALLMENT

-GTA SAN ANDREAS
-WORLD OF WARCRAFT
-DOOM 3
-HALO 2
-MGS 3
-FAR CRY
-COUNTER STRIKE SOURCE
-ROME TOTAL WAR
-HITMAN CONTRACTS
-CALL OF DUTY UNITED OFFENSIVE
-Warhammer 40k : DAWN OF WAR
-STAR WARS BATTLEFRONT

and suprise each game from this list is better than vtmb you filthy storyfags. My point is developers dont give a fuck if they lost their job thanks to the game poor sales. I dont get the wankery over Vtmb it's a popamole with ok writing and atmosphere gameplay wise its trash.



Talk about legacy 4,3 m views for a 17 year old game, Vtmb cant touch this its a niche product and it always remain niche for storytards.

 

[Lambach]

Nigga, I'm pretty sure I said such games did exist, there are just very few of them. You listed 12 and half of them are games that p. much nobody plays or gives the slightest fuck about nowadays. Nobody gives a shit about Doom 3, and the select few people who do only care because it's a "sequel" (in terms of marketing) to two wildly popular previous installments. Nobody is playing the original Far Cry anymore and all of its "sequels" share only the name (exclusively for marketing purposes, yet again) and nothing else. Is there an active playerbase and a bunch of online forums dedicated to Hitman: Contracts? Or the same for Cowadooty United Offensive? Can't say I know of any, but I might be wrong.

Etc. etc.

 

[Justicar]

Is there an active playerbase and a bunch of online forums dedicated to Hitman: Contracts? Or the same for Cowadooty United Offensive?

Y like tranny vampires have active player base
https://steamcharts.com/app/2600
100 players peak today

Cock of dooty united
https://steamcharts.com/app/2640
45 players peak today :D


Warhammer 40k dawn of war
https://steamcharts.com/app/9450
700 players active today

 

[Lambach]

Who the flying fuck plays VTMB on goddamn Steam, holy shit. In all the years I've been lurking/posting on VTMB-related forums, I honestly can't remember anyone saying they were ever playing it there. It was either a GOG copy, a physical CD they purchased way back or they braved the Seven Seas.

I still have the CDs I bought way back in 2005 and keep them around as a trophy, but I got the GOG copy a couple years ago because the CDs got too damaged .