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

[Saerain]

Christ, and I thought I was joking about starting with no clans but a selection of pronouns.

Who needs clan selection when you can choose pronouns?

 

[bertram_tung]

One possible upside about having lots of gender neutral xers in the game is that it may provide entertaining and funny ways to kill them too. Think of that annoying sycophant Patty in the first game.

 

[deuxhero]

It is less than a day and my hype already withered A LOT

Less than a day? This was less than HOUR after the trailer.

 

[Tweed]

I really enjoyed those eight seconds of hope I had for this game.

 

[Orma]

 

[Nano]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/va...gs-paradox-hardsuit-labs.106909/post-19102322

Okay, watched the stream and read a few impressions from news outlets. Gonna try and compile all the info so far into a single post

• Brian Mitsoda is lead writer (just like the original) alongside Avellone and Cara Ellison (who in particular wrote most of the side quests)
• Set in Seattle
• Seamless hub world
• Direct (yes, you heard that right) sequel to 2004's Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
• Takes place 15 years after Bloodlines
• Game starts off with a Mass Embrace at Pioneer Square where player is among the new vampires born from the event, you're captured and brought upon a court of prominent vampires like the first game to recount the events of the mass embrace before being sentenced to death, court is firebombed and you escape, thrust into Seattle to find out who's responsible
• Player is a thinblood at first, later on you can choose a clan
• No quest markers
• First-person with contextual third-person actions just like Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Mankind Divided.
• Fan-favourite characters from Bloodlines returning
• You can use telekenesis, turn into mist to go through vents and glide
• You can scale buildings, there's an emphasis on verticality
• Level design is very reminiscent of the original Deus Ex in the sense that you're offered many different pathways to approach a particular scenario
• Way more dialogue than Bloodlines
• Huge emphasis on character creation. You can choose your background, gender pronoun, employment history, body type and fashion
  

  “We’re interested in providing a very robust roleplaying experience for the player with something were they can really identify with their character by fine tuning and providing lots of options for them to do that,” says Rachel Leiker, UX/UI designer at Hardsuit Labs.

• Loads of secrets and hidden pathways to find
• Seattle as a hub world is described as "very active", crowds gather outside clubs and muggers prey on victims in side allies, all seamlessly done.
• Main side-questline involves hunting down and finding all the other thinblood created from the Mass Embrace, each will have their own story about entering into their new life e.g you might find a married thinblood struggling to deal with their newfound powers
• Blood resonance from VtM 5th edition will appear in this game. Using your enhanced vampire senses, you can see when NPCs are experiencing an intense emotion like fear, desire, pain, joy and anger. Humans give off a bright aura. Drinking a person with a strong resonance will give you an immediate bonus to things like melee power or seduction. If you drink a particular resonance constantly, you will acquire a taste for it and this will give you permanent buffs called "merits".
  

  “You might determine as a player that you want to focus on this resonance, or these two. That’s going to drive your hunting experience in the hub, and what types of people you’re looking for,” he said. “It’s important for us to make sure that the player can express themselves in a way that is consistent with who they are as a player, both in gameplay and in customisation.”

• If you continuously suck on people's blood in full view of the public, they'll be less wary of going to those areas and you'll see less citizens wandering the streets (!!)
• Game has modding support, available Day 1
• Emphasis on fluid combat, using vampiric speed to slide in and out of melee range and slash people and execute them with melee weapons. You can get special cinematic finishers in combat when you execute people a la Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Counters are in. Guns exist and are treated as temporary opportunities, you pick em up, use it, then discard it and move on.
• NPCs can react to you depending on what background you chose for your character in character creation
  

  Depending on this choice, you'll experience different alterations in the world as you explore. For example, if you choose the "Cop" background and visit a police station, there's a good chance someone on duty will recognize you. Alternatively, you could select the "Barista" background, and no one will remember you or give you a second look. The world is reactive to your character and your choices, the team says - and the effects of those choices can be far-reaching story consequences or something as simple as what pronoun NPCs refer to you with.

No news on who's doing the soundtrack so far :[

Dunno where the no-quest-markers part is from (the stream?), but it sure proves a lot of the people here's expectations about it wrong.

 

[conan_edw]

https://clips.twitch.tv/InterestingGlutenFreeSaladCeilingCat

Seriously, what the actual fuck?!! Go and fuck up a different IP you idiots. How do you say it will feel like vampire and then you just go and say politics were different back then?

 

[Turtle-Zone 3000]

It sounds like the paradox is strong in this one, DLCs to customize your vampire and an apartment?

 

[conan_edw]

• You can choose your background, gender pronoun, employment history, body type and fashion

Bye. Killing myself. Was good 2 hours of hype

 

[Excommunicator]

Do you realise how long I've been waiting for a stop sign item

and now we finally get one

 

[Duraframe300]

Dunno where the no-quest-markers part is from (the stream?), but it sure proves a lot of the people here's expectations about it wrong.

No questmarkers in an SJW infested game still makes it an SJW infested game.

 

[HoboForEternity]

You are a Thin-Blood. In a social vampire hierarchy you are lower than indian street shit collector.
This:

Based on tabletop, that fared THAT bad that caused White Wolf to be closed
"Political Agenda" "pronouns"

It is less than a day and my hype already withered A LOT

so saint's row's 2 character creation.

you can be big boobed, fat woman with deep voice and full beard or a 7 ft tall dude with loli voice.

i say it's incline

 

[Saerain]

I hate this go-to retort we've seen ever since V5 that "WoD has always been progressive." Because I seem to remember when "progressive" was a liberal label, and not so goddamn illiberal and postmodernist. It wasn't just my imagination, right?

 

[HoboForEternity]

2019 is no place for bigots who blindly hate because of just gender pronouns.

 

[Rivmusique]

Gameplay footage when?

 

[Alexios]

They didn't even get Damsel's beret right.

 

[Black]

You are a Thin-Blood. In a social vampire hierarchy you are lower than indian street shit collector.
This:

Based on tabletop, that fared THAT bad that caused White Wolf to be closed
"Political Agenda" "pronouns"

It is less than a day and my hype already withered A LOT

I love this, the butthurt will linger eternal.

 

[jf8350143]

They can shove as many SJW NPC in the game as they want, as long as you can disagree with them and kill them afterwards it will be fine.

 

[gerey]

It is less than a day and my hype already withered A LOT

You're still hyped after all of this?

These statements are pretty much the kiss of death for this game. Don't expect anything better than typical BioWare levels of writing, and we will likely witness something far worse.

Can't wait to be lectured on the evils of white racism by a bloodsucking parasite drinking the blood of infant children.

 

[Shaewaroz]

Calling it now, gonna be popamole console shit with SJW tranny vampires.

 

[conan_edw]

It's good that they are improving the melee combat, but the previews are saying that you will need it most of the time which is really defeating the purpose of play it how you want. I'm even beginning to doubt if there was going to be any character sheet

 

[Projas]

Well I do love a good train wreck so I'm actually super excited.

 

[Saerain]

They can shove as many SJW NPC in the game as they want, as long as you can disagree with them and kill them afterwards it will be fine.

You know the "disagreeing" dialogue will be bone-dry strawmen.

 

[Monkey Baron]

Here's the target demographic.

 

[gerey]

They can shove as many SJW NPC in the game as they want, as long as you can disagree with them and kill them afterwards it will be fine.

You know the "disagreeing" dialogue will be bone-dry strawmen.

What's this "disagreeing" you are talking about? Are you trying to be a bigot and a racist? When a paraplegic, trans-black lady of the night is speak to you what you need to do is shut up and LISTEN AND BELIEVE, therefore the options available to the player will be:
1. Yes.
2. Sure.
3. I'll say yes later because there is no other way to advance the plot, but we still need to give the goyim the illusion of choice.