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

[Herumor]

The haven looks like a garbage dump, given how it's overfilling with trash. Sure, Santa Monica haven had a poor-as-fuck vibe going for it, but this looks to be completely abandoned and parts of it look to be underground.

 

[Vincente]

The haven looks like a garbage dump, given how it's overfilling with trash. Sure, Santa Monica haven had a poor-as-fuck vibe going for it, but this looks to be completely abandoned and parts of it look to be underground.

Maybe it's upgradable? Having the secret vampire power up of calling the cleaning company crew or going to IKEA.

 

[Wesp5]

I do actually like the look of the city so far. It looks like they kept the apartment that the player character from the HSL version was in.

If you look at videos from the HSL demo you see that this is not at all the haven the player inherited there. It was more modern!

 

[Jaesun]

Actually in WoD all cities and places looks similar but also have differences. In example, Chicago is the most prescribed city have impenetrable forest with werewolf's.

Curious what Seattle might be/have in the official WoD lore? I don't remember.

 

[Caim]

Actually in WoD all cities and places looks similar but also have differences. In example, Chicago is the most prescribed city have impenetrable forest with werewolf's.

Curious what Seattle might be/have in the official WoD lore? I don't remember.

https://whitewolf.fandom.com/wiki/Seattle_(WOD)

Seattle is a Camarilla stronghold that was run by vampires that have been there since the time of the pioneers, with the prince being the big mommy milkers we saw in the old trailers until she was overthown by the graying Ventrue we also see in the trailers. It used to be a base for attacks against the Anarchs until the Free State collapsed.

As for the other game lines, it's mostly Bone Gnawers and Glass Walkers there, with two Caerns on top of a notable population of Corax. There's also a branch office of Pentex there. As for the Mages it's a major stronghold for the Technocrats, with smaller Tradition enclaves around the place. Mage even has a book that describes an entire Chantry there, called Hidden Lore. For the Wraiths it's under sway of the native Americans, and it's part of the Changelings' Kingdom of Pacifica.

So there's plenty of crossover potential.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.shacknews.com/article/137362/bloodlines-2-creative-director-interview-2023

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 dev talks picking up where Hardsuit Labs left off​

The Creative Director also gives us some insight into how the team translates the 5th edition of VTM into an action-RPG.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 has been in development for a while, but it looks like the developers are starting to accelerate the hype train. As momentum builds, we tracked down the Creative Director on Bloodlines 2, Alex Skidmore, to pick his brain about developing a game like Bloodlines 2 and everything that comes with handling such a lauded franchise like Vampire: The Masquerade. Take a look!

“What is the Chinese Room’s answer to a vampire, action-RPG?” Skidmore said when discussing how the team approached taking over the reins of the game. According to Skidmore, this is The Chinese Room’s story, world, and gameplay and the team focused on how to faithfully adapt the fifth edition of Vampire: The Masquerade into a game, “It’s a bit like adapting a book into a film, you need to make certain creative choices.”

“We get to add some things to the IP in order to get it to work for an action game,” Skidmore said with a cheeky grin. It sounds as though fans of the series might be in store for a few surprises when the game releases. Our chat with Skidmore is packed full of juicy morsels, so make sure you check out the whole interview.

If you like what you saw in this interview, then we have some good news for you. There are a ton of other fantastic interviews about Bloodlines 2 you can check out on the Shacknews Interviews YouTube channel. Be sure to keep it locked to Shacknews as we bring you the latest on Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2, which is scheduled to release sometime in 2024.

 

[Herumor]

Retard says this is the first time in VTM you get to play an Elder, which is horseshit and he would know it if he ever played or even just read about Redemption.

 

[Roguey]

"I wouldn't necessarily say we're continuing their work."

 

[Irxy]

Retard says this is the first time in VTM you get to play an Elder, which is horseshit and he would know it if he ever played or even just read about Redemption.

To be fair, he was talking about rpgs, not the trashy diablo clones.

 

[Herumor]

Retard says this is the first time in VTM you get to play an Elder, which is horseshit and he would know it if he ever played or even just read about Redemption.

To be fair, he was talking about rpgs, not the trashy diablo clones.

Still more of an RPG than those shitty VNs or interactive text prompts.

 

[La vie sexuelle]

The screenshots look like mass-produced Steam shovelware. However, it could always be worse. For now, I don't see anything catastrophic, and the developers look obese and slimy enough for me to trust them.

If we get an average game without a ton of DLC microtransactions, I will consider it a great victory for modern gaming.

 

[La vie sexuelle]

Let me present some examples what I mean as "mass-produced Steam shovelware" :

Visage

Ghost Watchers

The Outlast Trials

All screens looks like from one game :D

 

[Roguey]

All screens looks like from one game :D

Visage and Outlast Trials look like stock lighting-Unreal games, but Ghost Watchers does not (unsurprised to see it's Unity). This is just another game with the Unreal Look.

 

[StrongBelwas]

Indoor horror game at night looks the same as another indoor horror game at night isn't terribly shocking.
Bloodlines 2 doesn't look amazing, but it seems serviceable enough and there is some atmosphere. The real question will be the character models and if it runs acceptably for the look or we'll have another performance mess on our hands.

 

[Zombra]

And to be fair, the graphics engine and how it was used wasn't what made the first Bloodlines look cool; it was the content, especially the dark lighting which TCR is clearly taking great pains to do well here.

Not to say I wouldn't love it if B2 was made in the Source engine

 

[Theodora]

"What sort of vampire are you, and how do you hunt?"

Am I reading too much into it to think "feeding" is going to be more important / developed as a mechanic, than in the original? I want to think "hunt" is more than just code for "combat".

One of the worst aspects about the original game was the extended periods of forced combat. I'm not surprised that they use a flashy topic like combat for trailers, but if one thing doesn't endure from the original, ideally it'd be those extended but extremely repetitive dungeons.

the developers look obese and slimy enough for me to trust them.

 

[Caim]

"What sort of vampire are you, and how do you hunt?"

Am I reading too much into it to think "feeding" is going to be more important / developed as a mechanic, than in the original? I want to think "hunt" is more than just code for "combat".

I think it might have something to do with Blood Resonance, the mechanic introduced in the tabletop game's fifth edition where blood is affected by a person's mood. So if you drink by sneaking up on people you get a different effect from violently taking from them, scaring the shit out of them or offering to suck something else as well.

https://whitewolf.fandom.com/wiki/Blood_Resonance

 

[Vincente]

Am I reading too much into it to think "feeding" is going to be more important / developed as a mechanic, than in the original?

V5 has different feeding options for characters on the sheet like Alleycat (beat someone up in a dark alley and forcefully take their blood) Sandman (drink from the sleeping), Siren (seduce) and so on, it might be related to that.

I think it might have something to do with Blood Resonance

Might also.

 

[Herumor]

And to be fair, the graphics engine and how it was used wasn't what made the first Bloodlines look cool

But still, Bloodlines is still noted today for one of the best facial animations in video games. It's amazing how it stands up so well to the test of time.

 

[NecroLord]

And to be fair, the graphics engine and how it was used wasn't what made the first Bloodlines look cool

But still, Bloodlines is still noted today for one of the best facial animations in video games. It's amazing how it stands up so well to the test of time.

That and the really good voice acting really helps in making the characters feel genuine and almost alive.
Brian Mitsoda himself voices several characters and even though he's no voice actor, you can tell he was having a lot of fun.
Leonard Boyarsky voices Carson.

 

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

But still, Bloodlines is still noted today for one of the best facial animations in video games. It's amazing how it stands up so well to the test of time.

Source did revolutionize approach to facial animations in particular.

 

[The President]

I do actually like the look of the city so far. It looks like they kept the apartment that the player character from the HSL version was in.

If you look at videos from the HSL demo you see that this is not at all the haven the player inherited there. It was more modern!

Looks like it was decorated by the guys in Fight Club, but same layout I think.

 

[RagingNomad]

Interesting that on boxes right there u can see Rostest's mark - organization of practical metrology and certification in the Russian Federation

 

[RagingNomad]

And also CTR released free plugin for Unreal to make interactive dialogue (link). Can someone explain what it can be in VtMB2 actually?
UPD: https://www.inklestudios.com/ink/ - there is link with explanation

 

[GentlemanCthulhu]

The trailer and screenshots for this game just look awful.