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

[Sarathiour]

Well, we're in the best case scenario. Keeping some art is probably some cope from admitting than the whole thing was an unsalvageable dumpster fire .

 

[Wesp5]

As far as I know the writing of the main story was complete, as were most of the voice overs which cost a lot of money. So I really hope they keep those and connected characters and locations. What I think didn't work at all was the actual gameplay, like the first person fights with stupid third person moves inbetween, the idea to force all players to only use disciplines because firearms get thrown away and melee weapons break, the traversal Thin Blood disciplines which needed three seperate paths for each map and were much too overpowered anyway. So the new studio would need to redo this completely...

 

[Alphons]

Alright, time to finally get this thread back on track.

Has anyone seen this?

Spoiler

 

[gerey]

As far as I know the writing of the main story was complete, as were most of the voice overs which cost a lot of money. So I really hope they keep those and connected characters and locations.

Why would being everyone's thin-blooded water boy make for a good plot? If that's any indication of what the rest of the writing is like I genuinely hope they drop everything and start from scratch.

 

[Cael]

They should just drop the whole thin-blood thing altogether. All this pandering to muh-Int8-Wizard!!!! dramacunts is just decline. If you are going to play a fantasy game, be a fucking hero, for Pete's sake! Not Quasimodo's blind, crippled half-brother.

 

[Wesp5]

Why would being everyone's thin-blooded water boy make for a good plot?

A thin blood is not much different from the low level vampire we played in Bloodlines. And part of VtM lore is that older vampires make younger vampires do their dirty work, so that is not a problem. To me the problem was that this allegedly weakest kind of vampire had much too powerfull disciplines right from the start! Weren't some of them, filling enemies lungs with fog or have them eaten by bats, already instakills?

 

[gerey]

A thin blood is not much different from the low level vampire we played in Bloodlines.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but IRC the PC in Bloodlines was a middle-generation vampire, either 7th or 8th, basically a "peer" of the likes of Janette and LaCroix, and by no means weak.

Now compare that to the protagonist of Bloodlines 2, who is basically the inbred, chromosome-hoarding, ginger stepchild of Cain's brood and the equivalent of a manlet on the dating market. You're the bottom bitch of the whole city basically.

There's no good reason to make the PC a thin-blood other than the faggot devs' fixation on letting you choose a clan after the prologue. Even for the tabletop you're usually advised not to be a thin-blood, since you're basically dooming yourself to being an ADIS-ridden hobo that can easily get fucked over by humans even.

 

[Vincente]

I might be the only guy on this site that likes Thin-blood Alchemy and thin-bloods in general. I like the idea of a weak Kindred trying to even the odds with careful planning and premade blood elixirs, kind of like a Witcher.

 

[whydoibother]

So which studio is working on VTMB2 right now?

 

[Vincente]

So which studio is working on VTMB2 right now?

Roguey and others are saying it might be The Chinese Room, but there is no official statement yet.

 

[whydoibother]

So which studio is working on VTMB2 right now?

Roguey and others are saying it might be The Chinese Room, but there is no official statement yet.

They are owned by Sumo Digital, who recently suffered a big fail with a Robin Hood game. And they laid off staff a few years ago, they are small now. And they've only made "walking simulator" narrative games, no action games.
So I doubt they would be working on this. And I hope they wouldn't be working on it, at least not alone.

 

[vortex]

So which studio is working on VTMB2 right now?

I would like it's Rocksteady.

 

[Roguey]

They are owned by Sumo Digital, who recently suffered a big fail with a Robin Hood game.

According to one poster here, it was Sumo Digital's idea to make them do Bloodlines.

And they laid off staff a few years ago, they are small now. And they've only made "walking simulator" narrative games, no action games.

Addressed already. The big list of circumstantial evidence:

https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads...adox-interactive.126124/page-541#post-7565339
https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads...adox-interactive.126124/page-541#post-7577295
https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads...adox-interactive.126124/page-541#post-7578021
https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads...adox-interactive.126124/page-543#post-7633802
https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads...adox-interactive.126124/page-549#post-7670194
https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads...adox-interactive.126124/page-549#post-7670328
https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads...adox-interactive.126124/page-554#post-7745386
https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads...adox-interactive.126124/page-556#post-7817949

That last link, with the call for a game director with experience with "first-person games, narrative, action-adventure, RPG, horror" is the smoking gun as far as I'm concerned (combined with how they've hired two narrative designers with RPG experience).

 

[Storyfag]

There's no good reason to make the PC a thin-blood other than the faggot devs' fixation on letting you choose a clan after the prologue.

I *think* it's more of the faggot IP runners' fixation with sticking it to teh Patriarchy, uplifting the downtrodden, etc, etc. As of Vampire 5th edition rules, thinbloods are expected to be legitimate starting characters. Why would they make this design choice when Clans are the meat of the lore is beyond my understanding. But it merely carried over to Bloodlines 2.

 

[Vincente]

Why would they make this design choice when Clans are the meat of the lore is beyond my understanding. But it merely carried over to Bloodlines 2.

And Camarilla themselves would have you commit diablerie in order to join that clan you chose. It was pants on head tier retarded.

 

[Storyfag]

Why would they make this design choice when Clans are the meat of the lore is beyond my understanding. But it merely carried over to Bloodlines 2.

And Camarilla themselves would have you commit diablerie in order to join that clan you chose. It was pants on head tier retarded.

Yeah, well, diablerie in the Camarilla... There are situations when it is allowed. They are called the Blood Hunt.

 

[Vincente]

Why would they make this design choice when Clans are the meat of the lore is beyond my understanding. But it merely carried over to Bloodlines 2.

And Camarilla themselves would have you commit diablerie in order to join that clan you chose. It was pants on head tier retarded.

Yeah, well, diablerie in the Camarilla... There are situations when it is allowed. They are called the Blood Hunt.

Still doesn't make sense though, why would they give a nobody from nowhere, pissant thin-blood a chance to join Camarilla, a Kindred on a silver platter as an option of diablerie when they can just destroy the said Kindred and give the thin-blood the finger?

 

[Cael]

Why would they make this design choice when Clans are the meat of the lore is beyond my understanding. But it merely carried over to Bloodlines 2.

And Camarilla themselves would have you commit diablerie in order to join that clan you chose. It was pants on head tier retarded.

Yeah, well, diablerie in the Camarilla... There are situations when it is allowed. They are called the Blood Hunt.

Still doesn't make sense though, why would they give a nobody from nowhere, pissant thin-blood a chance to join Camarilla, a Kindred on a silver platter as an option of diablerie when they can just destroy the said Kindred and give the thin-blood the finger?

Considering that most vampires believe thinbloods are pests to be exterminated, it beggars belief that they would allow one to "ascend" to their level.

 

[Wesp5]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but IRC the PC in Bloodlines was a middle-generation vampire, either 7th or 8th, basically a "peer" of the likes of Janette and LaCroix, and by no means weak.

You were still Sire-less and basically a Caitiff with everybody trying to have you do their work.

Now compare that to the protagonist of Bloodlines 2, who is basically the inbred, chromosome-hoarding, ginger stepchild of Cain's brood and the equivalent of a manlet on the dating market. You're the bottom bitch of the whole city basically.

Yes, but with some of the most powerfull Disciplines ever. There is a contradiction right there...

There's no good reason to make the PC a thin-blood other than the faggot devs' fixation on letting you choose a clan after the prologue.

... because of that and that they wanted to push the V5 thin-bloods-are-cool-underdogs agenda.

 

[Cael]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but IRC the PC in Bloodlines was a middle-generation vampire, either 7th or 8th, basically a "peer" of the likes of Janette and LaCroix, and by no means weak.

You were still Sire-less and basically a Caitiff with everybody trying to have you do their work.

Sireless is not Caitiff. You had full access to specific Clan disciplines, and I believe something along the lines of 10-15 bloodpoints. That is at least 8th gen, IIRC.

 

[gerey]

You were still Sire-less and basically a Caitiff with everybody trying to have you do their work.

Not random people though, but resident Clan leaders and other assorted vampire nobility.

I think we can all agree there's a degree of difference between being an errand boy, and the errand boy of the city's prince.

... because of that and that they wanted to push the V5 thin-bloods-are-cool-underdogs agenda.

Can't imagine anything cooler than playing what is essentially a pariah with undead AIDS that are routinely hunted down like vermin by the rest of the species.

Then again, basing the game on the 5th edition was already a massive mistake anyway.

 

[Nano]

This is just so insulting. Between this and System Shock 3, that's two times that original developers revived classic IPs only for them to be handed over to randos. How did this happen twice?

 

[Tyranicon]

This is just so insulting. Between this and System Shock 3, that's two times that original developers revived classic IPs only for them to be handed over to randos. How did this happen twice?

It's pretty simple really. The devs who made the original games had a lot of passion and drive, whereas nowadays franchises have been reduced to the projected monetary value of their IPs.

I don't really expect anything good from a sequel made almost 20 years after the last installment (that's like a generation ship of theseus), but I would like to be surprised.

 

[Roguey]

It's pretty simple really. The devs who made the original games had a lot of passion and drive, whereas nowadays franchises have been reduced to the projected monetary value of their IPs.

I don't really expect anything good from a sequel made almost 20 years after the last installment (that's like a generation ship of theseus), but I would like to be surprised.

Mitsoda and Spector weren't motivated by passion and drive, just chasing former glory despite not having teams capable of doing so.

 

[luj1]

This trash is dead? Good.