World of Darkness Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 - VTMB sequel from The Chinese Room - coming early 2025

[Harthwain]

Playing as an Elder amidst licks was cool in Redemption. Hope it gives a similar feeling.

Redemption had both: you start as day-1 vampire and then have a time-skip to modern times. It was interesting, because you had a bit of a history with some well-established vampired when you wake up, but are still relatively new, despite being considered an Elder in 1999.

BL1 was about bringing the player into a dark and twisted world. Shock, horror, self-transformation were at the core. It was about becoming.

I felt that way more in Redemption than I ever did in Bloodlines, because Redemption gave you time to play as a human first and the transformation was roleplayed all the way so it had an impact. In Bloodlines it starts way too rapidly for you to be shocked. The "transformation" is done in a flash and there aren't moments in the actual game that make you question yourself after you become a vampire, because you start as one from get-go.

Thinking in relative terms LaCroix was from the Napoleonic era. Jack was even older, as he's from the golden age of caribbean piracy. Both were arguably 'Elders' but not enough to break the balance of power in a city. So, are we going to be even older than that? Such a character is inherently interesting... unless they basically work like an amnesiac who takes everything in stride. Which they probably will because they are an RPG protagonist.

I wouldn't be surprised if they go with "mostly amnesiac" route. As you said, it does fit into how RPGs handle these things. That said, it would be refereshing to play as someone a bit higher the ladder than the usual, but they have to handle that properly. As much as I liked KotOR2, I do agree that the character knowing things that the player didn't was a bit odd. Some sort of mental journal could help (or flashbacks).

Seems to be to be the same result in the end. What I have seen from the Thinbloods of HSL BL2 they were more powerful than normal vampires too! Also don't forget how overpowered the player ends up in Bloodlines. Is this really a good thing to already start off that strong? Also how would an Elder react to the modern world?

I really hope it won't end like Sleepy Hollow (2013-2017). The idea of having an officer who fought during the American Revolution (1781) transported to 2013 was cool. But Ichabod Crane gets over it waaaaay too fast (after a single episode? Maybe two?). The scenario practically begged to have many more funny interactions between "the old man" and his police sidekick about how things were in the past and how they are today. I guess that happens when you take yourself too seriously. The show had a whole bunch of similarly disappointing moments when they could've done cool things with them.

 

[Grunker]

That trailer looked jank as hell

So many uh-ohs:

- The same 2-3 combat animations copy-pasted
- Barely any NPCs doing any amount of interaction
- Not a single populated environ shown
- No systems mentioned or hinted at
- Hardly any voicework shown
- No NPC dialogue glimpsed
- Extremely stiff, awkward silent scenes showing lack of development (such as bar scene)

I’m calling it: game won’t just be bad, it’ll be an underproduced nightmare on bargain bin level

 

[Herumor]

'An awakened elder at odds with the voice in her head.' - I hope it's voiced by the guy who voiced Darkness.

Awww, what did they do to Jenny? She was a burden, this is freedom.

And speaking of, Nightdive Studios will apparently remaster that one for PC.

 

[deuxhero]

I agree that the premise is good, I'll go so far as to say that the difference between this being good to being great is down to how they introduce this 'elder' vampire to the modern world. Which in turn depends on how much of an Elder they are.

Thinking in relative terms LaCroix was from the Napoleonic era. Jack was even older, as he's from the golden age of caribbean piracy. Both were arguably 'Elders' but not enough to break the balance of power in a city. So, are we going to be even older than that? Such a character is inherently interesting... unless they basically work like an amnesiac who takes everything in stride. Which they probably will because they are an RPG protagonist.

Worth noting that LaCroix had less than 200 years as a vampire. Gary Golden, and Dr. Alistair Grout were both less than 100. VtM's standard for being "elder" was 300 (VtR made it 150). Strauss was legit elder though (old enough to have been around over 500 years ago).

 

[duskvile]

Amy Hennig Naughty Dog or Neil Druckmann Naughty Dog?

That Naughty Dog what future Amy Hennig's Naughty Dog could have been but never was.

 

[Infinitron]

Interesting that Paradox seem to be avoiding using their own YouTube channel for this.

 

[RagingNomad]

I have question. In trailer we see woman's hands, can we create own character or it will be like Cyberpunk 77 V? And they showed us potence, celerity and thaumaturgy. There is no any clans with this disciplines together. Or our character will be diablerist?

https://whitewolf.fandom.com/wiki/Thaumaturgy_(VTM)​

 

[ChildInTime]

I have question. In trailer we see woman's hands, can we create own character or it will be like Cyberpunk 77 V? And they showed us potence, celerity and thaumaturgy. There is no any clans with this disciplines together. Or our character will be diablerist?

https://whitewolf.fandom.com/wiki/Thaumaturgy_(VTM)​

You are not limited in what disciplines you can learn, you get the standard three by being a certain clan and can pretty much get all of them later, if you want.
About the character creation - on their site they use 'she' for the player character, but I doubt this will not have character creation, that would go against everything that Bloodlines is supposed to be.

 

[Ibn Sina]

Interesting that Paradox seem to be avoiding using their own YouTube channel for this.

Because its a dumpster fire in the making

 

[RagingNomad]

I have question. In trailer we see woman's hands, can we create own character or it will be like Cyberpunk 77 V? And they showed us potence, celerity and thaumaturgy. There is no any clans with this disciplines together. Or our character will be diablerist?

https://whitewolf.fandom.com/wiki/Thaumaturgy_(VTM)​

You are not limited in what disciplines you can learn, you get the standard three by being a certain clan and can pretty much get all of them later, if you want.
About the character creation - on their site they use 'she' for the player character, but I doubt this will not have character creation, that would go against everything that Bloodlines is supposed to be.

Can you point where they write "she"? I can't find it

 

[Infinitron]

Anyway, here's another interview: https://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/vampire-the-masquerade-bloodlines-2-new-developer-interview/

Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 has new developer, fall 2024 release date​

Few games have as wild of a development journey as Vampire: The Masquerade — Bloodlines 2.

A sequel to a cult-classic vampire RPG from the mid-2000s, Bloodlines 2 began its life as a 2016 pitch from developer Hardsuit Labs and Brian Mitsoda, writer of the original game, to IP owner and game publisher Paradox Interactive. Initially slated for release in early 2020, it was delayed multiple times before Paradox fired Mitsoda and took Hardsuit Labs off the project by mid-2021. Paradox chose not to cancel the game, though, instead finding a new studio to take it over the finish line.

During its PAX West 2023 keynote, Paradox announced the new studio working on Bloodlines 2 is The Chinese Room, best-known for games like Dear Esther and Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture. Ahead of this announcement, Digital Trends had the chance to speak to Sean Greaney, Paradox Interactive’s World of Darkness vice president, and The Chinese Room studio design director Alex Skidmore to learn more about what the vision for Bloodlines 2 that caused Paradox to shift developers, as well as what the vampire RPG now looks like under a new developer.

Bloodlines 2’s bad breakup​

It’s rare for a game as seemingly far along in development and publicly shown off as Bloodlines 2 to lose its developer. While former Hardsuit Labs developers and Mitsoda have voiced that they were “disappointed and frustrated” at the deterioration of that partnership, Greaney defended Paradox’s decision during our discussion.

“Hardsuit Labs is a great studio, and they did a lot of good work on this project. We just had a very different vision for the final product, and we couldn’t align on that vision,” Greaney tells Digital Trends. “And so the right thing to do was to end the collaboration and find a studio that shared that vision.”

Paradox Interactive
Because that clash in vision was big enough to cause Paradox Interactive to change development partners and delay the game’s release by several years, it begs the question of what Paradox’s overarching vision is for Bloodlines 2. According to Greaney, it’s a Bloodlines 2 that “nails the player fantasy [of] being a vampire in a video game and also brought Vampire the Masquerade V5 [a role-playing game] to a video game and showed us what that feels like.”

Greaney was adamant that Bloodlines 2 faithfully represents Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition during our conversation, and it seemed he wanted a studio that felt the same way. Paradox Interactive looked for a new studio and signed The Chinese Room on as the new developer by the end of 2021. Hardsuit Labs suffered layoffs after losing Bloodlines 2, shifted to mostly doing support work, and was acquired by Keywords Studio in May.

“The Chinese Room has this history and portfolio of amazing narrative games. That is what they were known for, and that’s what we knew we were going to need with this project,” Greaney says of why he chose The Chinese Room. “But they also had this ambition to move into an action RPG direction and were already creating the kind of studio and staff they needed to get there. The fact that they had that narrative background and their vision for this project aligned with ours made it a kind of hole-in-one decision.”

A somewhat new take on Bloodlines 2​

Surprisingly, work on the project was only partially reset when the game moved to The Chinese Room. “The work that had been done on the game was very important for getting us to a certain point, so the themes, Seattle as the setting, and a significant degree of the art and character art has been carried over,” Greaney explains. “It isn’t from the ground up, but it isn’t a straight continuation either.” skidmore went more in-depth, explaining that some aspects of the game differ somewhat from what Hardsuit Labs promised.

Paradox Interactive
For example, instead of being a newly formed Thinblood vampire finding their place in Seattle’s vampiric politics, the protagonist is a more experienced elder vampire new to Seattle. The developer change also came alongside an upgrade from Unreal Engine 4 to Unreal Engine 5. Regarding gameplay and combat, Bloodlines 2 is still a first-person game and gives players various combat options and abilities adapted from Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition. Plus, players will need to keep up the titular Masquerade by not exposing themselves as a vampire in public; there will be narrative consequences if they do.

“We want to tell a story where the player feels like they’re the star of it,” Skidmore says. “You should always feel like you’re the star of the story. And then, we focus on having a cast of great characters, great voice acting, and making the world itself a character. Our Seattle is a bit different from the real Seattle; it’s taller, brighter, darker, and seen through the eyes of a vampire. We’re trying to make that world as rich as possible and give emotional experiences to players. And potentially the odd jump scare.”

The fate of Bloodlines 2​

As someone who saw Hardsuit Labs’ version of the game in action at E3 2019 and has now spoken to The Chinese Room about its vision for the game, it’s clear that Bloodlines 2 isn’t a completely different game FROM what was first promised by Paradox; a new developer has just reinterpreted that initial concept. Expect Bloodlines 2 to be a vampire RPG with bloody combat, and even expect some characters from the game’s original trailers to show up. The Chinese Room has taken that base and tried to add its studio’s and Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition’s flair to the narrative and vampiric fantasy.

Paradox Interactive
Paradox will turn heads by pulling Hardsuit Labs off the project, causing layoffs, and then still using some of their work on this new version of the game. But The Chinese Room is a proven studio, although we’ll ultimately have to wait for the result to affirm that this was the right move. We won’t actually have to wait too long to find out, though, as Paradox Interactive promises to release Bloodlines 2 sometime next fall.

Of course, that’s far from the first release window promised for Bloodlines 2. When I brought that up, Greaney revealed that The Chinese Room’s version of the game has cleared the alpha phases of development and that Paradox Interactive is adamant about delivering on a game first announced in 2019 as soon as possible.

“If we weren’t confident in the new release window, we wouldn’t be starting the new marketing campaign,” Greaney told me. “There’s a reason we haven’t been out there communicating and marketing this title for a while. We wanted The Chinese Room to have the opportunity to get this baby, grow it with some uninterrupted development time, and clear alpha. Now that we’re through alpha, it’s the time to start talking to our fans.”

Vampire: The Masquerade — Bloodlines 2 launches for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S in fall 2024.

 

[Ismaul]

Interesting that Paradox seem to be avoiding using their own YouTube channel for this.

Because its a dumpster fire in the making

Stop giving us false hope man.

 

[Maxie]

The Chinese Room (formerly Thechineseroom) is a British video game developer based in Brighton that is best known for exploration games,[1] such as Dear Esther. The company originated as a mod team for Half-Life 2, based at the University of Portsmouth in 2007, and is named after John Searle's Chinese room thought experiment. In August 2018, it became a subsidiary of Sumo Digital.

 

[Zombra]

God I hate trailers sometimes.

 

[ChildInTime]

I have question. In trailer we see woman's hands, can we create own character or it will be like Cyberpunk 77 V? And they showed us potence, celerity and thaumaturgy. There is no any clans with this disciplines together. Or our character will be diablerist?

https://whitewolf.fandom.com/wiki/Thaumaturgy_(VTM)​

You are not limited in what disciplines you can learn, you get the standard three by being a certain clan and can pretty much get all of them later, if you want.
About the character creation - on their site they use 'she' for the player character, but I doubt this will not have character creation, that would go against everything that Bloodlines is supposed to be.

Can you point where they write "she"? I can't find it

 

[RagingNomad]

I have question. In trailer we see woman's hands, can we create own character or it will be like Cyberpunk 77 V? And they showed us potence, celerity and thaumaturgy. There is no any clans with this disciplines together. Or our character will be diablerist?

https://whitewolf.fandom.com/wiki/Thaumaturgy_(VTM)​

You are not limited in what disciplines you can learn, you get the standard three by being a certain clan and can pretty much get all of them later, if you want.
About the character creation - on their site they use 'she' for the player character, but I doubt this will not have character creation, that would go against everything that Bloodlines is supposed to be.

If you mean this string "...and an awakened elder at odds with the voice in her head..." I think its not about our char

 

[Taurist]

Why are they even bothering? More money in the money pit. VTMB was a minor cult classic. With some of the original designers on boad it had some meaning.
I cant imagine this even matching something like Outher Worlds in sales or quality.

 

[RagingNomad]

I have question. In trailer we see woman's hands, can we create own character or it will be like Cyberpunk 77 V? And they showed us potence, celerity and thaumaturgy. There is no any clans with this disciplines together. Or our character will be diablerist?

https://whitewolf.fandom.com/wiki/Thaumaturgy_(VTM)​

You are not limited in what disciplines you can learn, you get the standard three by being a certain clan and can pretty much get all of them later, if you want.
About the character creation - on their site they use 'she' for the player character, but I doubt this will not have character creation, that would go against everything that Bloodlines is supposed to be.

Can you point where they write "she"? I can't find it

In last moment of trailer you can see the woman that gives us: "My blood is singing...". I think this string about her

 

[ChildInTime]

In last moment of trailer you can see the woman that gives us: "My blood is singing...". I think this string about her

No, the player character is an established elder vampire this time, that has awoken from torpor, and that line about singing blood is because all vampires old enough can hear the call to the middle east, where they'll be eaten by the antediluvians. I reckon the voice is the same thing.

Bloodlines 2 will now star an "Elder" vampire awoken from an indeterminate torpor.
Skidmore seems keen on striking a balance between having this ancient be an established character, and letting the player sketch out their vamp of choice: "You have enough that you can fill in the character a bit as you go and roleplay, but they're also an established thing that you understand as aspirational."

 

[duskvile]

I wonder how the world will operate. Will there be hub areas around the city...

 

[RagingNomad]

In last moment of trailer you can see the woman that gives us: "My blood is singing...". I think this string about her

No, the player character is an established elder vampire this time, that has awoken from torpor.

Bloodlines 2 will now star an "Elder" vampire awoken from an indeterminate torpor.
Skidmore seems keen on striking a balance between having this ancient be an established character, and letting the player sketch out their vamp of choice: "You have enough that you can fill in the character a bit as you go and roleplay, but they're also an established thing that you understand as aspirational."

I saw that, but there is no certain point that this string about our char. It just info about another elder. Secondly, if we discard the interview, we doesn't know that our char is elder one. That's why I think here we are talking about another elder

 

[Space Satan]

Okay,aside from this freak and a community manager, other look like normal humans

 

[ArchAngel]

Okay,aside from this freak and a community manager, other look like normal humans

On the outside yes.
On the inside they might be pronoun shit eaters

 

[S.H.O.D.A.N.]

Why are they even bothering?

I think it's just Paradox being desperate for a new IP, preferably one with a wide market appeal.

 

[Roguey]

It's funny how they made a combat-heavy trailer to cut off complaints, but people who are too lazy to watch it are still calling it a walking sim, and walk-and-talk fans are upset that the trailer didn't show enough talking (those animations aren't anywhere near finished, you wouldn't want to see them, there's a reason why Lou's voice over isn't animated). People would be upset if they didn't get any news yet again this year, but nothing's really ready to show. Paradox putting themselves in a lose-lose situation.

Before Dan Pinchbeck left, he said The Chinese Room should be the "Naughty Dog of the UK."

Amy Hennig Naughty Dog or Neil Druckmann Naughty Dog?

Given that they're repurposing someone else's story, Druckmann's Naughty Dog (echoes of Uncharted 4).

If you mean this string "...and an awakened elder at odds with the voice in her head..." I think its not about our char

In this game you play an awakened elder. What are the odds of their being two awakened elders when it's such a rare occurrence? Why would one with a voice in their head matter to you the player?

Okay,aside from this freak and a community manager, other look like normal humans

I've been following their newsletter for quite a while, they're a bunch of queers.

Worse than that actually, based in Brighton which is basically a giant homosexual ghetto.

is on the money.