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

[NecroLord]

Step 1. Be a learning animal.

Step 2. Recognize patterns.

See this:

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And this:

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and this:

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In the hands of modern writers and gamedevs. It's over.

 

[Tyranicon]

The only takeaway I got from the video was that the new artstyle is a boner killer.

Look at what they did to Lou. What is this monster? Did Christina Hendricks try to sue or something?

Old version:

 

[Moink]

It's so Vamp-over.

 

[whydoibother]

It's so Vamp-over.

Its phynished.

 

[Child of Malkav]

The only takeaway I got from the video was that the new artstyle is a boner killer.

Look at what they did to Lou. What is this monster? Did Christina Hendricks try to sue or something?

View attachment 42855

Old version:

View attachment 42856

Well, the face is one thing. But look lower, that's where the action is. There is still hope.

 

[Storyfag]

Shits and giggles aside, we're getting 6 clans, "some familiar to the players of Bloodlines 1, some quite surprising". Any predictions? Mine's on nuCamarilla & friendlies. Ventrue, Toreador, Tremere, Malk (1st DLC), of BL1, and the surprising ones would be Lasombra and for the 2nd DLC either Hecata (Giovanni and extended family, for those unfamiliar with V5) or Assamite.

 

[Vincente]

Shits and giggles aside, we're getting 6 clans, "some familiar to the players of Bloodlines 1, some quite surprising". Any predictions? Mine's on nuCamarilla & friendlies. Ventrue, Toreador, Tremere, Malk (1st DLC), of BL1, and the surprising ones would be Lasombra and for the 2nd DLC either Hecata (Giovanni and extended family, for those unfamiliar with V5) or Assamite.

4 clans at the start? Brujah, Ventrue, Tremere, Toreador. First DLC Malkavian, second DLC Lasombra.

 

[Roguey]

On voice acting https://www.pcgamer.com/vampire-the...says-the-games-ex-bioware-narrative-designer/

"Ultimately," says Bray, the choice "was down to, 'How immersive do we want the story to feel?' What having a voiced protagonist and a slightly more established character gets us is, we can go deeper into the customization, and deeper into experiencing [Phyre's] role by doing that—as opposed to trying to go more broad and encompassing all the various possibilities"

The idea of a character limited in thematic scope, with just four of Vampire: The Masquerade (VTM)'s clans to choose from (down from Bloodlines 1's initial seven), might be a bitter pill to swallow for some fans. Still, Le Bray's quick to reassure me that "there's still a lot of control there. And there's still a lot of personal personalization and player choice. But it's not in such a way that it stops the story."

...

"I don't need to use an entire paragraph to say 'this character is sad' … you can get that across with the tone of voice—like maybe the line they're saying has that sadness built in, or that emotional quality built in, and that subtext is there," Le Bray says, bringing up the CRPGs of old. "There were a lot of games where you had to have giant walls of text [but] the little smirk or a raised eyebrow gets just as much across. There's a lot more immersion we can give by having a [voiced protagonist]."

...

I also brought up what Le Bray calls the "dreaded paraphrase mismatch". For the example I used, I invoked Mass Effect 1's reporter scene, where the dialogue choice "Time to shut you up!" leads to Shepard saying "I've had enough of your snide insinuations", before decking a journalist in the face.

"Yup!" Le Bray says, laughing: "I know exactly that moment."

"Anytime we ask the player to make a choice, we want the player to get the outcome that they feel they've earned … If I press the B button to jump, and my character doesn't jump, that's a problem—it's the same kind of thing with the dialogue choice. If I want the character to yell at this other character, and I choose [that option], and it goes 'please can you just be nice to me?' it's like ugh, I didn't want that to happen."

To avoid those situations, Le Bray talks about internal play tests, where "we can send that dialogue around to other people and be like, 'hey, does this make sense to you?'" However, he also says they're experimenting with subverting expectations. "Sometimes we get to play with that, 'cause if they expect one thing, what if we do exactly the opposite, or some variation of it?"

You can take the dev out of Bioware but...

Redundant with full voice-over.

So what? Deus Ex HR and MKD gave a tool tips with the full dialogue like 10 years ago. If i'm playing rpg, i need to know what ''my'' character going to say

You're getting descriptions of what you're going to say, not even paraphrased dialogue. Also see above, they want to subvert your expectations.

Old version:

That's from a cinematic trailer which was never representative of what the in-game model would be like.

 

[Storyfag]

Shits and giggles aside, we're getting 6 clans, "some familiar to the players of Bloodlines 1, some quite surprising". Any predictions? Mine's on nuCamarilla & friendlies. Ventrue, Toreador, Tremere, Malk (1st DLC), of BL1, and the surprising ones would be Lasombra and for the 2nd DLC either Hecata (Giovanni and extended family, for those unfamiliar with V5) or Assamite.

4 clans at the start? Brujah, Ventrue, Tremere, Toreador. First DLC Malkavian, second DLC Lasombra.

Ah, but "some surprising clans" sounds like more than one.

 

[Vincente]

Shits and giggles aside, we're getting 6 clans, "some familiar to the players of Bloodlines 1, some quite surprising". Any predictions? Mine's on nuCamarilla & friendlies. Ventrue, Toreador, Tremere, Malk (1st DLC), of BL1, and the surprising ones would be Lasombra and for the 2nd DLC either Hecata (Giovanni and extended family, for those unfamiliar with V5) or Assamite.

4 clans at the start? Brujah, Ventrue, Tremere, Toreador. First DLC Malkavian, second DLC Lasombra.

Ah, but "some surprising clans" sounds like more than one.

Going out on a limb here and replacing Brujah/Toreador with Assamite then.

 

[Delterius]

assamite and lasombra as the 'surprises' would have been my first bets given that many of them joined the cam while gangrel and brujah largely left.

 

[Child of Malkav]

As long as Malkavian is in I'm happy. Tremere also but ehhh. I'm sure they'll steal their way in somehow.

 

[Storyfag]

Tremere also but ehhh. I'm sure they'll usurp their way in somehow.

FTFY

 

[Vincente]

Y'know, I'm actually going to change Lasombra with Tzimisce.

 

[Caim]

Probably no playable Nosferatu because changing everything so that people act appropriately to seeing a Nossie takes too much effort.

 

[Storyfag]

Y'know, I'm actually going to change Lasombra with Tzimisce.

I would love that. But I have no such expectations. Much less of handling one of the Dragons properly.

 

[Storyfag]

Probably no playable Nosferatu because changing everything so that people act appropriately to seeing a Nossie takes too much effort.

That is my reasoning from ommiting the Nossies from my list. As sad as it may be.

 

[Caim]

Y'know, I'm actually going to change Lasombra with Tzimisce.

I would love that. But I have no such expectations. Much less of handling one of the Dragons properly.

Tzimisce is for the modders.

Not because they'll make them playable, but the grotesquely curved bodies they add to the game makes them the fleshcrafters.

 

[Roguey]

Probably no playable Nosferatu because changing everything so that people act appropriately to seeing a Nossie takes too much effort.

I would guess that the stand-alone DLC will be a nosferatu campaign.

 

[ChildInTime]

Lasombra will be one of the defaults 100%, with Tremere being relegated to DLC.

Anyway, I'm not really bothered by the whole voiced MC thing, I'd even say it's better that way, Shepard, Thorton and V are better characters than any mute self insert, although I hope you can customize the character at least somewhat - really not liking this short haired dyke look the protag has.

Also - "Choices and conversations (even outfits!) shape how the environment and characters react to Phyre, changing how the story unfolds." Seems like they took some notes from Alpha Protocol.

 

[Vincente]

Looking back to original post-alpha reveal trailer, there's obviously Thaumaturgy, Potence and Celerity, and some dev diary notes make me think of Dominate. So Brujah/Tremere/Ventrue are most likely starting clans, with one surprise clan.

 

[Dishonoredbr]

You're getting descriptions of what you're going to say, not even paraphrased dialogue. Also see above, they want to subvert your expectations.

Can't wait to deck some chick or break a dude's arms in the game because i picked ''Get off my face'' dialogue options.

 

[ChildInTime]

You're getting descriptions of what you're going to say, not even paraphrased dialogue. Also see above, they want to subvert your expectations.

Can't wait to deck some chick or break a dude's arms in the game because i picked ''Get off my face'' dialogue options.

[GLASS HIM]

 

[GhostCow]

Are setites still around in v5? That would be a surprise they were playable

 

[Child of Malkav]

Fabien...I knew I recognized that name from somewhere...ahh...here it is