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

[skaraher]

Wonky mechanics and poorly designed levels dont change the fact that blazing through the whole Venture tower with a Steyr Aug and the “Mission Imposible“ OST was awesome.

 

[J1M]

As an Elder vampire, players will encounter compelling characters, maneuver complex political relationships, stalk the city streets searching for loot, and engage in intense combat while balancing the need for blood.

What did they mean by this, "stalk the streets searching for loot"? When the fuck has any vampire game focused on searching for loot?

Also, gotta love that first reply to the thread:

What's the point in an FAQ when half the answers are "not yet revealed"

Vampire dragon protagonist confirmed!

 

[J1M]

I don't think the original Bloodlines had the modern definition of loot in mind when they placed those items in the game. Seeing any sort of 'loot' mentioned in a game's description, at least games made recently, brings to mind diablo-like loot, which is effectively shit.

People were concerned that there wouldn't be any loot at all because the teaser trailer features no melee or ranged weapons used by the player.

Just nonstop pessimism no matter what they say or show or don't say or don't show.

Correct! If they wanted glory they should have shown a vertical slice or leaked the hardsuit version so we could see how bad it was.

 

[Jaesun]

I guess I'll have to wait till January when they will show in game footage. I need to see what they are doing dialogue wise and different ways to achieve goals. And whether this will be first person or third person combat.

 

[Vincente]

I need to see what they are doing dialogue wise

There's a snippet of dialogue in the dev reveal video which was posted here before.

 

[duskvile]

How would you imagine the game to play out?
Having chaperts in story, going through hub districts, or being more opened city, ...
What would the story be about?

 

[Jaesun]

I need to see what they are doing dialogue wise

There's a snippet of dialogue in the dev reveal video which was posted here before.

Thanks for that. Again, will have to wait for more info. This may or may not even end up being in the final game. Who knows. I'll just sit here and wait till January and see some actual in game footage.

 

[True Ukrainian]

If you're going to play an elder I would expect a conquest mechanic where you take control of each hub district.

 

[Caim]

If you're going to play an elder I would expect a conquest mechanic where you take control of each hub district.

Have Paradox itself make a World of Darkness game and turn it into a grand strategy thing. Play at a global level and pit princes against one another through proxy wars, exploiting humans and their connections, engage in corporate warfare and grow your personal power while avoiding the Inquisition, lupines, ghosts, wizards, demons and having fairies mess with your ghouls for a giggle.

 

[Wesp5]

Correct! If they wanted glory they should have shown a vertical slice or leaked the hardsuit version so we could see how bad it was.

Two HSL version videos and screenshot were leaked recently and Paradox couldn't remove them fast enough, so the latter one it is not ...

 

[Herumor]

Have Paradox itself make a World of Darkness game and turn it into a grand strategy thing. Play at a global level and pit princes against one another through proxy wars, exploiting humans and their connections, engage in corporate warfare and grow your personal power while avoiding the Inquisition, lupines, ghosts, wizards, demons and having fairies mess with your ghouls for a giggle.

Princes of Darkness for CK2
Princes of Darkness for CK3

 

[Cricket McBangle]

Three+ years is enough time to make a role-playing game

Not in the current year, and certainly not from this developer. Their walking simulator Everybody's Gone to the Rapture was released more than 3 years after they announced it, and that was even with funding from Sony.

I wouldn't be surprised if this ended up being a glorified action game, with a few different abilities depending on your Clan, and for the rest a boring skill tree like you have in every modern action "RPG". That might be the reason why they made the protagonist an Elder, so they wouldn't have to bother with all those pesky RPG character development systems.

Everybody's Gone to the Rapture was made by like 20 people. All those people are gone and now Bloodlines 2 is being re-jiggered by a studio that's grown 5 times that size at least plus they're receiving a lot of support from Sumo Digital, which has like a shit ton of studios who do all sorts of support work. The Chinese Room isn't even making their Still Wakes The Deep game by themselves. Sumo has thrown a lot of employees from their other studios on that project too.

A "medium"-sized AAA action-RPG in three years is totally doable especially with the inevitable DLC onslaught this game is going to receive.

You make ramping up and training 60 people out like it is a good thing instead of a huge time sink.

I never said this will result or even be likely that it will be a good game. Just that they can get it kicked out the door.

 

[Caim]

Have Paradox itself make a World of Darkness game and turn it into a grand strategy thing. Play at a global level and pit princes against one another through proxy wars, exploiting humans and their connections, engage in corporate warfare and grow your personal power while avoiding the Inquisition, lupines, ghosts, wizards, demons and having fairies mess with your ghouls for a giggle.

Princes of Darkness for CK2
Princes of Darkness for CK3

Think this but in the modern day.

 

[Trithne]

Have Paradox itself make a World of Darkness game and turn it into a grand strategy thing. Play at a global level and pit princes against one another through proxy wars, exploiting humans and their connections, engage in corporate warfare and grow your personal power while avoiding the Inquisition, lupines, ghosts, wizards, demons and having fairies mess with your ghouls for a giggle.

Princes of Darkness for CK2
Princes of Darkness for CK3

Think this but in the modern day.

Sounds like it would end up something like Empire of Sin, and probably about as good.

 

[Häyhä]

Combat in Bloodlines is serviceable at best, melee is better than shooting, but not by much. Using Celerity to hack everyone to pieces with a fire axe has it's fun moments, but in general combat isn't great.

Melee is below average from beginning to end, shooting sucks early game but is actually pretty good later on when you get access to guns that aren't complete trash.

I'll clarify that I wasn't talking about which combat style is more effective or powerful statistically, but rather which I personally think is better implemented and more fun in the game. My first playthrough character was melee-oriented Brujah (Celerity and Potence build) and the second one was a gun-wielding Ventrue (with Fortitude and Dominate) so I've experienced both. I do agree that guns get also more fun in the later game when you can mow down everyone with a Steyr AUG or Desert Eagle, you have plenty of ammo and your aiming isn't complete shit like in the beginning.

 

[La vie sexuelle]

True, but she said what she said some time after already quitting the PR job, afair.

Outstar is not working for Paradox anymore? That is news to me. Do you have a source?

By the way, what were her job qualifications other than being a hardcore fangirl?

I think she did something for CD Projekt Red or GOG on The Witcher 3 but I think she got it because she was the only one who put out a palatable YouTube channel on World of Darkness that wasn't a total cringefest. Like applesauce. Relatively speaking.

Games wouldn't cost so much money if people were hired solely based on whether they were useful. But this is not a progressive concept.

 

[Harthwain]

Games wouldn't cost so much money if people were hired solely based on whether they were useful. But this is not a progressive concept.

Or if teams were smaller. Or if you wouldn't aim for photorealistic 3D.

 

[The President]

I mean it is ultimately a tabletop game like DnD, dice rolls are a part of it. Perhaps Swansong just didn’t do it well.

Roguey just recently cited an interview with Leonard here in which he explained why dice rolls make little sense in a computer game (http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/vampire-the-masquerade-bloodlines/558109p1.html):

Boyarsky made it clear that the fighting/combo and stealth systems weren't as elaborate as fighting or stealth games that were dedicated to that sort of gameplay, but neither did he run away from the fact that this type of combat implementation is worlds away from the traditional turn-based dice rolling combat of both the paper and pencil games and even Troika's earlier RPGs. "Putting in a traditional combat system in a first-person game like this simply places an unnecessary layer between the player and the game world. It just felt wrong."

Ohh no for Bloodlines I get it. I think they adapted the skills and disciplines well enough and hopefully they’ll do something interesting now. I didn’t really play Swansong, but from what I understand it wasn’t an action game at all and meant to be more tabletop.

Say what you want about video games , they haven’t been a product that inflation has made dramatically more expensive the last two decades.

 

[La vie sexuelle]

Games wouldn't cost so much money if people were hired solely based on whether they were useful. But this is not a progressive concept.

Or if teams were smaller. Or if you wouldn't aim for photorealistic 3D.

True, but that's not what I meant. I had in mind a super-production where the work of each person is a functional component of the work.

Think about the process of designing and making an oil tanker. Expensive, isn't it? Now consider that a shipyard employs a "catamaran minority consultant" or a "keg tint selector". Then the managers would probably complain that the costs of this business are much higher than the profits.

 

[Justinian]

Combat in Bloodlines is serviceable at best, melee is better than shooting, but not by much. Using Celerity to hack everyone to pieces with a fire axe has it's fun moments, but in general combat isn't great.

Melee is below average from beginning to end, shooting sucks early game but is actually pretty good later on when you get access to guns that aren't complete trash.

I'll clarify that I wasn't talking about which combat style is more effective or powerful statistically, but rather which I personally think is better implemented and more fun in the game. My first playthrough character was melee-oriented Brujah (Celerity and Potence build) and the second one was a gun-wielding Ventrue (with Fortitude and Dominate) so I've experienced both. I do agree that guns get also more fun in the later game when you can mow down everyone with a Steyr AUG or Desert Eagle, you have plenty of ammo and your aiming isn't complete shit like in the beginning.

I meant in terms of how fun they are to play. Guns are very powerful late game but they also feel like actual guns and not BB guns. Melee is just awkward from the start and never gets any better, although I remember stealth kills being fun with Malkavian.

 

[Delterius]

do you guys think the blood of diabetics is especially valuable as it brings some sweetness to vampire lives

 

[NecroLord]

do you guys think the blood of diabetics is especially valuable as it brings some sweetness to vampire lives

Probably not if you are a Ventrue.

 

[NecroLord]

Combat in Bloodlines is serviceable at best, melee is better than shooting, but not by much. Using Celerity to hack everyone to pieces with a fire axe has it's fun moments, but in general combat isn't great.

Melee is below average from beginning to end, shooting sucks early game but is actually pretty good later on when you get access to guns that aren't complete trash.

I'll clarify that I wasn't talking about which combat style is more effective or powerful statistically, but rather which I personally think is better implemented and more fun in the game. My first playthrough character was melee-oriented Brujah (Celerity and Potence build) and the second one was a gun-wielding Ventrue (with Fortitude and Dominate) so I've experienced both. I do agree that guns get also more fun in the later game when you can mow down everyone with a Steyr AUG or Desert Eagle, you have plenty of ammo and your aiming isn't complete shit like in the beginning.

I meant in terms of how fun they are to play. Guns are very powerful late game but they also feel like actual guns and not BB guns. Melee is just awkward from the start and never gets any better, although I remember stealth kills being fun with Malkavian.

Protean is pretty cool if you are playing with Wesp5's patch. Original version of Protean is too slow and awkward. Powerful, since it does aggravated damage which vampires absolutely loathe.
You can even get Beckett to teach you Celerity which you can combine with Protean to become an engine of ass kicking.

 

[jungl]

Since they player is a elder in bloodlines 2 shouldn't they only be spamming protean and celerity every fight.

 

[skaraher]

do you guys think the blood of diabetics is especially valuable as it brings some sweetness to vampire lives

Nah Vampire Masquerade always was full edgyness and angst. Vampires cant taste anything but the mystical taste of blood/vitae. No sugar and sweetness. Everything that brings pleasure to humans is cold and mechanical to them, especially sex. Never forget these tabletop games peaked in popularity during the emo/goth wave.