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

[Semiurge]

You are missing the point. They set the industry standards, making them your superiors. So if you want to be treated as an equal among them, knuckle down.

I was kind of referring to that with the HR department, but you're right of course.

 

[Wesp5]

SS2 also had the excuse that the game constantly talks about how everything on the ship is falling apart due to being built by the lowest bidder. Still way too fast, but at least there's a believable story reason.

This was just a bad excuse, because you know what? The stupid wrench held the whole game. No, together with all the backtracking the reason behind this was to make a short game appear much longer!

 

[Tacgnol]

Not tried Condemned no Its made all the way back in 2005 (a year after Bloodlines), guess they made better games back then :D

I played Condemned at the time and while the first person melee was great, I hated the fact that the weapons disintegrated. This was as stupid as in SS2, but at least it made some sense because you were supposed to be outnumbered! In Bloodlines on the other hand you are a powerfull vampire, even as a fledgling, and you had all the choices, you could play it as a talker, a sneaker, a brawler or a shooter or mix up all of these. Why throw that away and force people into one direction? That was a bad design move right from the start.

SS2 also had the excuse that the game constantly talks about how everything on the ship is falling apart due to being built by the lowest bidder. Still way too fast, but at least there's a believable story reason.

Dorian Hart claimed there was a cut audiolog in SS2 that was supposed to explain the degradation. Still a bit of a handwave, but it would have at least explained why pistols break down after a couple of magazines.

“The maddening truth about that was, at least once during development, we talked about having an audio log in the game that talked about why that was happening — enough so that some people on the team thought we actually shipped with it. The log would have explained that as part of their takeover, the Many had released a special corrosive gas into the Von Braun that damaged weapons but was harmless to organic creatures.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

That sounds like a horrible explanation tbh. Glad it was cut.

 

[DavidBVal]

Are they refunding the pre-purchases?

Why would anyone pre-purchase a digital good is beyond me (unless it's being crowdfunded and it's clearly stated so, and willingly take the risk).

I suspected it'd end like this when I saw that first video without any gameplay and people started giving them money.

 

[Jenkem]

lots of balderdash in the last few pages.

Paradox will deliver excellence.

 

[compvet24]

This a good thread

 

[normie]

come Brian, do a tell-all

 

[Roguey]

That should be Annie, not Cara really.

That sounds like a horrible explanation tbh. Glad it was cut.

Yeah. A gas that destroys weapons but won't ultimately destroy the ship itself?

 

[Eli_Havelock]

That sounds like a horrible explanation tbh. Glad it was cut.

Yeah. A gas that destroys weapons but won't ultimately destroy the ship itself?

That would explain a lot more of the general damage around the Von Braun and the even worse state of the Rickenbacker in areas the Annelid didn't seem to really touch. It furthers the body horror theme into an absolute environmental horror to suggest that The Many weren't just taking over the ships, the ships are being actively digested as the player runs through them. Adds a bit more than just the standard interstellar corporation is cheapassing everything.

The missing audio log would have undoubtedly presented it a lot better than a Rust Monster playing a tragic Pull My Finger gag on an Iron Golem.

 

[DavidBVal]

I am backreading some of this crap, which I (wisely) had been ignoring for a couple years. I still can't figure out why Mitsoda was fired, was ever an explanation given?

Wokeware™ at its best. I suspect the franchise has become so tainted they will never find anyone with any dignity or talent willing to associate with this project, ever. Probably for the best.

 

[Lacrymas]

So, this is never releasing? Color me surprised.

 

[Latelistener]

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

Worn-out weapons can act differently depending on a weapon.

In Far Cry 2 some weapons may jam in the middle of a shootout, explode in your face, while rockets may have some weird trajectories.

Overall that was really complex and required a shit ton of work so Ubisoft ditched it after FC2 and never thought about it again.

Spoiler

 

[PlacidDragon]

I am backreading some of this crap, which I (wisely) had been ignoring for a couple years. I still can't figure out why Mitsoda was fired, was ever an explanation given?

Not as far as i can recall. Mitsoda said that his department had never been behind on the work, and that every impression he had got was that everything was fine.

 

[PlacidDragon]

So, this is never releasing? Color me surprised.

Its not cancelled, they (Paradox) are switching developer. Depending on who that new developer is, and what can be salvaged from the work up until this point (which isn't likely to be much past story, i am sure some art assets, maps etc), we are looking at...well.. at least 2 years and probably more for a release.. We'll get more information at some point, iim sure

 

[Semiurge]

I am backreading some of this crap, which I (wisely) had been ignoring for a couple years. I still can't figure out why Mitsoda was fired, was ever an explanation given?

A culling of sorts, see. They announced Mitsy's firing in front of the employees, and the ones that looked visibly shocked were culled also. "You there, what's your name, Paul is it? You're out." "And you too, over there. Yes you, pizzaface." "You there, you can close that big mouth of yours, there will be no flies here to catch anymore now that mr. pizzaface is gone, you're out."

 

[True Ukrainian]

Mitsoda and Kai were sacked and the ubisoft hatchet man joined shortly after. Paradox most likely lost faith in Mitsoda's and Kai's ability to manage the project.

 

[Dycedarg]

Mitsoda and Kai were sacked and the ubisoft hatchet man joined shortly after. Paradox most likely lost faith in Mitsoda's and Kai's ability to manage the project.

Wasn't Mitsoda the lead narrative designer? If that's the case, hard to see how any mismanagement would be his fault.

As for the game in general, Paradox should cut their losses and simply cancel the project. It's a sequel to a niche game that never had much mainstream appeal. And all they did was squander all confidence the fanbase had in the project.

 

[PlacidDragon]

Mitsoda and Kai were sacked and the ubisoft hatchet man joined shortly after. Paradox most likely lost faith in Mitsoda's and Kai's ability to manage the project.

Mitsoda didn't manage anything but the story. Cluney was a "creative director", which i believe means that he helped out multiple departments as needed ("many hats" type of job). Neither of these were among the senior leadership of Hardsuit..

As for the game in general, Paradox should cut their losses and simply cancel the project. It's a sequel to a niche game that never had much mainstream appeal. And all they did was squander all confidence the fanbase had in the project.

After sinking millions of dollars into this, i dont think they can afford that. Paradox owns the "World of Darkness" IP, where Bloodlines 2 was to be a flagship title. In their mind i am sure that it still is, just that its starting to get a very expensive flagship title

 

[Dycedarg]

After sinking millions of dollars into this, i dont think they can afford that. Paradox owns the "World of Darkness" IP, where Bloodlines 2 was to be a flagship title. In their mind i am sure that it still is, just that its starting to get a very expensive flagship title

I can see why they would think on those terms. But given the circunstances, the only scenario where it would make sense for them to complete the game would be if it was close to being finished, which is very unlikely. This thing has sunk cost fallacy written all over it.

 

[Lacrymas]

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

 

[just]

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

someone from paradox played it

 

[Lord_Potato]

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

Maybe it was too terrible to unleash it upon the public

 

[Dycedarg]

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

Do we know that? Because if the game is almost finished, Paradox's idea of hiring a former Ubisoft guy as project lead to wrap things up should have worked. There would be no need to drop Hardsuit Labs and bring in a whole new studio. Oh, and they already said the game is not coming up this year. None of it points to the game being almost done.

 

[Raghar]

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

It wasn't finished. That's the problem.

(Alternative explanation would be Mitsoda wrote it correctly, it's not a black/brown showcase, and Paradox wanna to remake it for ideologic reasons.)