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

[Cricket McBangle]

Imagine me saying 'what the fuck" like the sample used in EMF's Unbelievable that hilariously made it past radio and tv censors because no one hears it like that until they're told. Any particular names...?

I think there might be some old screenshots laying around somewhere. Someone might have them.

Im still concerned about the lack of experience that TCR has with this type of massive and iconic development project. Its not like Larian because they had previous success with D:OS1&2 so I was always confident they would create the overall global success that BG3 has become

I realize TCR has hired new people which is expected but if you look at the previous games they have released they not on the same scale or type as BL2 ....can anyone make me feel better about my doubts?

The story is being written by an ex-Bioware Narrative QA tester or Lore Doctor as Tyrannicon put it, with a Hogwarts Legacy writer as a side kick plus contracted writing staff, one of which included a writer of Rick And Morty comics.

The game is being done by a studio led by hacks (The Creative Director is from Gears Tactics and Fable, someone else was the story lead of Amnesia Rebirth) who don't have a single original bone to share between them, continuing the Paradox WOD trend of chasing after trends (failed BR shooter and now Cyberpunk rip-off) while simultaneously seeing what sticks (low-rent Dishonored VR game, interactive novels, visual novels, and continous threats of TV and Movie adaptations).

 

[Bulo]

They should have given the IP to me. I wouldn't have done anything with it, but just imagine?

 

[ERYFKRAD]

can anyone make me feel better about my doubts?

If you yourself are at the doubting stage this ship is sunk, all lost at sea.

 

[Grunker]

Honestly it's kind of funny.

Goal: Paradox wants to revive cult classic vamp cRPG

1st attempt: Decides to get studio best known for making shooters. Selling point is one of the original writers, who somehow managed to piss off everyone.

2nd attempt: Decides to get studio best known for making walking sims. Selling point is that apparently everyone who worked on the walking sims quit, so it's a whole new team that might (???) know how to make cRPGs.

Trivia: Paradox owns a dev studio that actually does make cRPGs (Harebrained). Has them work on something completely different.

You can't make this shit up.

View attachment 42926

You are making the case against your own joke though. Harebrained would make a terrible VTMB

 

[Grauken]

Harebrained would make a terrible VTMB

Given the expectations people have for a VTMB successor, every studio would fail

 

[The President]

As much as I want a great sequel, It will be 20 years between games at least when VTMB2 arrives. The game will play quite different to the original even if made by the exact team that made the first. BG3 is great but it’s worlds away in every way from the first two. The same will occur here.

 

[Semiurge]

Harebrained would make a terrible VTMB

Given the expectations people have for a VTMB successor, every studio would fail

But this will be a spectacular failure that could've easily been avoided. The blame is on Paradox first and foremost. They consistently keep handing the keys to the IP to casual studios full of soyjacked pinkos who have no appreciation for the things that elevated the original despite its flaws.

Well, that ends with this turkey once it comes out the oven. Goodbye Paradox.

 

[La vie sexuelle]

I want to see real gameplay narrated by devs. Thanks

There's a difference between saying how great your wife is when she's not around and saying the same thing when everyone else sees how fat and unkempt she is.

But you don't want to sell your wife to as many people as possible

Depends if you are Arab or not.

 

[Tyranicon]

You are making the case against your own joke though. Harebrained would make a terrible VTMB

I acknowledge that the Shadowrun guys (or what's left of them) wouldn't be my first choice, and that the timing didn't work out. But it still would've made way more sense for them to be handed the IP rather than...

-checks notes-

Working on some indiana jones tactical game that apparently bombed.

Edit: Also, come on, wtf.

 

[The President]

From my recollection many of the more skilled developers from HBS had to go over to help HSL. HSL had a problem with relying on contractors for the technical work even in 2018 even with HBS.

 

[Grauken]

many of the more skilled developers from HBS

Given that they had trouble implementing proper saving this isn't saying much

 

[BruceVC]

can anyone make me feel better about my doubts?

If you yourself are at the doubting stage this ship is sunk, all lost at sea.

You right in certain respectives, Im normally much more positive and generally objective

But we have to look at the reality amd not be naive, its unlikely that TCR will deliver on this prestigious and iconic game

 

[Jacov]

Re-watched old trailers from 4 years ago. I didn't believe in the game even back then, but man... Hardsuit's pre-render and wonky gameplay trailer made an impression that people behind them were at least somewhat competent? I don't know, it looked like... Something? New stuff is just a total nothingburger.

 

[Non-Edgy Gamer]

It's amazing how much better that looks. I'd pay $70 for a game like that.

I wouldn't pay $20 for what I saw Chinese Room (who came up with that name?) put out.

 

[Roguey]

Hardsuit's pre-render and wonky gameplay trailer made an impression that people behind them were at least somewhat competent?

They weren't competent.

FIrst iteration was a crappy game trying very hard to be like a better one. Latest iteration is just a crappy game trying to be like other crappy games.

 

[ChildInTime]

It's amazing how much better that looks. I'd pay $70 for a game like that.

I wouldn't pay $20 for what I saw Chinese Room (who came up with that name?) put out.

Now search for the leaked gameplay of the old version, watch it, and then have a revelation that what TCR showed is still better (somehow) than whatever Hardsuit were trying to do.

 

[Roguey]

Also recall that Chris Avellone, who had an inside-look at what development was like, knew that this particular studio was incapable of delivering a Bloodlines clone, but he was really high on Hopium.

I went because I wanted to help Hardsuit with the pitch, I had been working with Hardsuit for some time prior on the title, and to encourage the Paradox folks the pitch was a good idea because I knew the Paradox folks from years before. This “encouragement” was very selfish of me and in retrospect of all that was going to happen, probably kind of shitty.

Yes, selfish. Yes, shitty. Still, it wasn’t hard to rationalize. It had been so many years since the original, I wanted someone to do it, and I thought Bloodlines fans (including me) had waited long enough. I was mostly thinking of myself, though, because (surprise) I wanted to work on it in any capacity.
...
The whole experience was like the last five minutes of Barton Fink (not the beach scene, the scene before it, know-it-all), but stretched out over 2 and a half years.
....
I have no insights on the project I can share. No one I worked with in the trenches still works at Hardsuit Labs. Even more interestingly, the Paradox producers I used to work with aren’t at Paradox anymore, either. I haven’t asked them what happened, but if they ever reach out, boy am I listening, but it’s probably telling people on both sides of the ocean quit or were let go or were “whatever”’d.

 

[La vie sexuelle]

You are making the case against your own joke though. Harebrained would make a terrible VTMB

I acknowledge that the Shadowrun guys (or what's left of them) wouldn't be my first choice, and that the timing didn't work out. But it still would've made way more sense for them to be handed the IP rather than...

-checks notes-

Working on some indiana jones tactical game that apparently bombed.

View attachment 42940

Edit: Also, come on, wtf.

View attachment 42944

When it was announced that Vampire was moving to a "studio well-known and liked by gamers" I was afraid it would be them. Truly, even the RPG drought of 2013-2018 cannot explain the fondness for this studio's games. Their productions were clunky, overly simplified, boring and woke before woke.

From a financial point of view, Harebrined functioned thanks to a combination of the small scale of their production, Kickstarter and the fanatical devotion of RPG fans. But when they sailed into wider waters in much less favorable times, the ship had to sink. I hope this will happen to the remaining hacks that appeared around 2013-2016.


Side note: I hope that the new game will be moddable enough that I can replace the female models with having big boobs and model faces.

 

[Tyranicon]

You are making the case against your own joke though. Harebrained would make a terrible VTMB

I acknowledge that the Shadowrun guys (or what's left of them) wouldn't be my first choice, and that the timing didn't work out. But it still would've made way more sense for them to be handed the IP rather than...

-checks notes-

Working on some indiana jones tactical game that apparently bombed.

View attachment 42940

Edit: Also, come on, wtf.

View attachment 42944

When it was announced that Vampire was moving to a "studio well-known and liked by gamers" I was afraid it would be them. Truly, even the RPG drought of 2013-2018 cannot explain the fondness for this studio's games. Their productions were clunky, overly simplified, boring and woke before woke.

From a financial point of view, Harebrined functioned thanks to a combination of the small scale of their production, Kickstarter and the fanatical devotion of RPG fans. But when they sailed into wider waters in much less favorable times, the ship had to sink. I hope this will happen to the remaining hacks that appeared around 2013-2016.


Side note: I hope that the new game will be moddable enough that I can replace the female models with having big boobs and model faces.

Something I noticed with Harebrained is that even the most friendly and tolerant of online denizens seem to have a massive hateboner for them.

I don't really know the lore behind this. Was Battletech that bad?

But for the haters, it seems like you got your wish. 80% of the staff was laid off a few months ago and they're projecting a loss of around 30 million (they spent that much on it?!?) from Lamplighters League, so the studio seems dead.

 

[Moink]

I'm going to be honest here I've spent the last 6ish years thinking Hardsuit and Harebrained were the same company.

 

[The President]

They’ll be broke and independent and Paradox will write off the losses.

 

[sosmoflux]

So at this point it's all but confirmed that this game is going to be yet another case of soyboys and women taking something that used to be cool and deforming it into a grotesque effigy they'll burn to own straight white gamers

 

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

I hope that the new game will be moddable enough that I can replace the female models with having big boobs and model faces.

I think it's Unreal 5, and if it is, you can likely kiss modding anything relevant goodbye.

 

[La vie sexuelle]

You are making the case against your own joke though. Harebrained would make a terrible VTMB

I acknowledge that the Shadowrun guys (or what's left of them) wouldn't be my first choice, and that the timing didn't work out. But it still would've made way more sense for them to be handed the IP rather than...

-checks notes-

Working on some indiana jones tactical game that apparently bombed.

View attachment 42940

Edit: Also, come on, wtf.

View attachment 42944

When it was announced that Vampire was moving to a "studio well-known and liked by gamers" I was afraid it would be them. Truly, even the RPG drought of 2013-2018 cannot explain the fondness for this studio's games. Their productions were clunky, overly simplified, boring and woke before woke.

From a financial point of view, Harebrined functioned thanks to a combination of the small scale of their production, Kickstarter and the fanatical devotion of RPG fans. But when they sailed into wider waters in much less favorable times, the ship had to sink. I hope this will happen to the remaining hacks that appeared around 2013-2016.


Side note: I hope that the new game will be moddable enough that I can replace the female models with having big boobs and model faces.

Something I noticed with Harebrained is that even the most friendly and tolerant of online denizens seem to have a massive hateboner for them.

I don't really know the lore behind this. Was Battletech that bad?

But for the haters, it seems like you got your wish. 80% of the staff was laid off a few months ago and they're projecting a loss of around 30 million (they spent that much on it?!?) from Lamplighters League, so the studio seems dead.

Interesting, my experience was quite the opposite.

Personally, I didn't like their games for being copycats, but also for pretending to be something they are not. For example: Shadowruns, especially the first one, pretends to be a classic RPG. But it's just a tactical game, and it's full of mechanics that pretend to be something deeper. Not to mention the plots, for some reason considered good. I guess it's a matter of setting.

The same applies to Battletech. The plot is simply boring, as is the design, but my biggest pain is the very clumsily implemented mechanics and interface. Not bad at the concept level, no one is inventing the wheel here, just general clunkiness.

I hope that the new game will be moddable enough that I can replace the female models with having big boobs and model faces.

I think it's Unreal 5, and if it is, you can likely kiss modding anything relevant goodbye.

Probably so. These models looked so untouchable even in gameplays. Pity. Mods kept the original V:tB alive for decades.

 

[Roguey]

You are making the case against your own joke though. Harebrained would make a terrible VTMB

Blast from your past:

By a large margin. These games have thouroughly mediocre-to-bad gameplay, what carries them is atmosphere, charm, mystery and poignancy. Kind of like an isometric Bloodlines.

The first game loses all four halfway through, while the third game buries you in text, Pillars 1-style. So the second game is easily the best.

Sure, they had no Unreal experience, but when Troika made Bloodlines they had no Source experience, and up until that point had only made pseudo-iso turn-based/real-time games. They had RPG experience which was key. I imagine at this point at least some of the people at Paradox and HBS wish Paradox had just written off Lamplighters League as a loss alongside Hardsuit's Bloodlines 2 and made them do it instead. Not that it would necessarily look better than what we have now. A Jill Scharr/Shobo Corker/Anthea Carns-written Bloodlines 2 doesn't exactly strike up much enthusiasm.