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

[Lambach]

Enlightened Science(tm) trumps such vulgar Reality Deviancy. Or at least evens the playing field.

Technically it shouldn't, because science (or rather, practical use of science) is about manipulating existing laws of the Universe to serve your practical needs, whereas the...... other stuff is all about making those rules null and void.

"Oh, you're gonna split the atom to burn me to a crisp? Universe says E=MC^2? Well I say E=MCFuckYourself, atomic bonds breaking actually just produces funny fart noises and nothing else"

I mean, the very concept of it is beyond retarded. It's like arguing with your little brother who constantly makes up new powers of his Pokemon on the go and his Pokemon has all the powers he wants all the time, so it should never have been included in the first place.

BUT.... considering that it HAD been included..... show a little follow-through on your own retarded bullshit, eh White Wolf?

 

[Storyfag]

The magical nuke thing is so funny. Yes “magical” because the standard that nuke that can disintegrate everything in it’s hypocenter isn’t strong enough.

Keep in mind that the magical nuke wasn't enough to counter level 10 Fortitude of [Ravnos]. Concentrated(!) sunlight was needed to finish the job.

 

[Storyfag]

Technically it shouldn't, because science (or rather, practical use of science) is about manipulating existing laws of the Universe to serve your practical needs, whereas the...... other stuff is all about making those rules null and void.

Enlightened Science(tm) =! science. I expected you of all people to know that full well.

BUT.... considering that it HAD been included..... show a little follow-through on your own retarded bullshit, eh White Wolf?

Full agreement here.

 

[Trithne]

The only (formerly) White Wolf setting where their high end bullshit made sense was Exalted, because it didn't need to try and dovetail it with real world logic.

In Exalted, the laws of nature are, in fact, defined and maintained by a God and local minor deities, and you can change them by convincing said deities to not do their job correctly.

 

[Delterius]

*magical nukes and tactical space lasers

its only tactical if it comes from within the stratospheric region of earth. otherwise we call it strategic

 

[J1M]

Don't trust the fanboy making a sequel to something, trust someone who can articulate the shortcomings of the original and how they will go about addressing them.

No. Fans know what they want better than people who are willing to work for nothing in order to amplify their political speech by injecting it into entertainment.

Unless a dev can point to being a fan prior to employment in the game industry, you can dismiss any related claims.

 

[J1M]

one of the vampire daddies took tactical nukes and space lasers to the face

Considering the fact that his level of mastery over his Clan's signature Discipline allows him to quite literally reshape reality itself on a whim and his reaction times are akin to a modern high-end CPU, the stupid part is that he actually died from said nukes and lasers when the more """realistic""" outcome would've been he just turns them all to flowers or soap bubbles or something.

But I get your point. Gehenna was supposed to be the one last, final, severely, extremely retarded HUZZAH to years and years of absurd metaplot bloat, and that's where the setting should've stayed. Not revived only to get cannibalized by bunch of absolute goddamn morons who wouldn't know good writing if it took a shit in their Pumpkin Spice Lattes.

and vampires aren't even supposed to be at the top of the food chain

Eh, each of the Settings is written from the POV of the species it's about. In Werewolf, wolves are king, in Mage, Mages shape reality, in Demon blah blah blah. They were never meant to be compared directly side-by-side, I think.

I say this every few months, but yes, Vampire works best as a 90s period piece.

 

[Tyranicon]

I remember when dev teams hired people based on competency.

The best people to make a sequel is the same exact team as the first one. But since that's more or less unlikely, I'll settle for people who are skilled, motivated and have at least some passion about what they do.

 

[Zombra]

I hated the way they forced you to become Reid with his modern points of view in the completely wrong time and I really hope they don't repeat that with Bloodlines 2!

I also hated the way they forced you to become Reid with his modern points of view hipster beard and haircut

 

[Lambach]

I remember when dev teams hired people based on competency.

The best people to make a sequel is the same exact team as the first one. But since that's more or less unlikely, I'll settle for people who are skilled, motivated and have at least some passion about what they do.

If the same people who made the original made the sequel it would've been an even bigger dumpsterfire.

The years have not been kind to them, to say the very least.

 

[Tyranicon]

I remember when dev teams hired people based on competency.

The best people to make a sequel is the same exact team as the first one. But since that's more or less unlikely, I'll settle for people who are skilled, motivated and have at least some passion about what they do.

If the same people who made the original made the sequel it would've been an even bigger dumpsterfire.

The years have not been kind to them, to say the very least.

I mean, it's been 20 years. There's no way that would work in any circumstance.

The best time to make a sequel is within ~5 years of the original. Otherwise public interest has waned and half your team retired/changed careers.

Bloodlines 2 requires a monumental effort to be successful, and the proper resources and talent to do so.

The only way I see this happening is if THC manages to nail a great story, with memorable characters and impactful decisions. Maybe they'll surprise us with gameplay, but I'm more skeptical on that end.

 

[Vyvian]

Voiced protagonist: ✔
Premade character with their own (cringe) name: ✔
Ancient Vampire but with modern day sensibilities: ✔

Yep we got a pile of shit on our hands over here.

 

[jungl]

over 90% of the dialogue choices in the original game had like 3 dialogue choices. The fukin game needed to be patched too at release cause it didn't work and gamers got a really janky unbalanced shit combat system game where guns sucked. I remember wanting to go back to playing deus ex with all the glaring flaws like how they fucked up making guns so trash compared to unarmed/melee. Troikia probably originally planned to port bloodlines to consoles but they went bankrupt with their terrible launch. Now fans are mad a console quality bioware clone game getting a console quality bioware clone sequel lol.

 

[Zombra]

over 90% of the dialogue choices in the original game had like 3 dialogue choices. The fukin game needed to be patched too at release cause it didn't work and gamers got a really janky unbalanced shit combat system game where guns sucked. I remember wanting to go back to playing deus ex with all the glaring flaws like how they fucked up making guns so trash compared to unarmed/melee. Troikia probably originally planned to port bloodlines to consoles but they went bankrupt with their terrible launch. Now fans are mad a console quality bioware clone game getting a console quality bioware clone sequel lol.

No one said they wanted to duplicate the problematic circumstances of the original release. We also don't want the devs to have the same car problems as the original devs, in case you were going to suggest that next because it is equally relevant. We want, and have every right to expect, a sequel that attempts to build on what was good about the original game.

 

[Delterius]

one advantage of a silent protagonist is that their generic and minimalist dialogue both a) leaves room for interpretation and b) makes it so there's no one between your reaction to the gameworld and the first person perspective of the game. now we have phyre, who is their own character rather than an elder which we get to customize. so we are gonna have to get used to playing commander shepard in seattle by night as that's the character they wanted to write.

rather than exploring the story as a given clan and drawing our own conclusions, we have assurances that our choice of phyre's clan still affects the plot. it's a different dynamic that arguably shifts the game away from being an rpg and more towards being action/adventure.

 

[Lambach]

so we are gonna have to get use to playing commander shepard in seattle by night as that's the character they wanted to write.

Hah, no, no we will most certainly fucking not.

At most, we'll have to get used to watching YT compilations of the most hilariously broken moments, just like Andromeda.

 

[std::namespace]

BUT.... considering that it HAD been included..... show a little follow-through on your own retarded bullshit, eh White Wolf?

God killed it. Problem, ravnos fanboy?

 

[Harthwain]

one advantage of a silent protagonist is that their generic and minimalist dialogue both a) leaves room for interpretation and b) makes it so there's no one between your reaction to the gameworld and the first person perspective of the game.

It could be an advantage. It is also done, because it is easier/cheaper to do that when allowing the player to create a blank slate. With more defined characters having a pre-written and voiced one is more common. Redemption this exactly this. But that game redeemed itself thanks to sheer quality of its writing and voice acting. I doubt this one will get anywhere near that level.

 

[Roguey]

Yeah, I had optimistically hoped that since this was Pinchbeck's company, that at least this would be an intellectual sequel. Unfortunately Phyre and her hair and "He's hiding something!" come across as anything but. They might come up with excuses about why they're justified in doing this character this way, but come on now. It's brainless pop culture drivel with ex post facto reasoning at best. No wonder Dan quit when he did, unable to stand the shame of being associated with this even in a minor sense.

What's truly astonishing is that this is what Paradox thought was the best pitch and worth spending even more money over. Not to mention Wester with his

I feel very good about Bloodlines 2 and we will probably be able to set a launch date for this game reasonably soon. We feel that the game has been in very good hands and we are incredibly satisfied with what we have seen.

Dude. What. That gameplay and that writing - what amounts to a glorified DARK or Vampyr, only being paid attention to by as many people as it is for being a Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines™ product. Sad for everyone involved.

 

[Zombra]

I miss Hardsuit.

 

[Herumor]

What's truly astonishing is that this is what Paradox thought was the best pitch and worth spending even more money over.

Didn't they lose 30 million recently on an HBS game?

 

[hibby]

Reception to this seems to be negative across all sites (even among their lib-left target market)

So what exactly did the mainstream not like about this?

tl;dr there are now rules about having a penis

 

[Caim]

Reception to this seems to be negative across all sites (even among their lib-left target market)

So what exactly did the mainstream not like about this?

tl;dr there are now rules about having a penis

There has to be a story option to pull a Sasha Vykos, reject your humanity, cut off your dong, throw it at the mommy milkers and have it land between her boobs.

 

[Cricket McBangle]

What's truly astonishing is that this is what Paradox thought was the best pitch and worth spending even more money over.

Didn't they lose 30 million recently on an HBS game?

Yeah, they wrote it off. I'm gonna guess that the Tencent overlords that run Sumo Digital were the only ones willing to inject more funds into this game as opposed to everyone else they supposedly who talked to who probably said "If you want us to make a Cyberpunk rip-off, we want money upfront."

 

[Semiurge]

Speaking of haircut, the first thing Fabien must have convinced the player to do after sleeping 100 years is go to a barber !

Would have to have been a Tzimisce barber. Otherwise the hair would grow back the next night.

Do nails, hair, etc non-living tissue on undead follow the same rules as the rest of their bodies?

You will always be like you were when you were sired, unless reasons like fleshcraft or magic. A 100+ year old female vampire with hair as short as that? No way unless she was trying to pass as a man when the siring happened, like those women who fought in wars as men. There are historical examples.

No wait.... surely Chinese Room isn't that evil, that they'd make you play as a woman who's always identified as a man?