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

[Fedora Master]

If they don't do this they are retarded

Who do you think you're dealing with

 

[Storyfag]

Malkavians in their stupid eyes mock people with mental health issues so I would be surprised that there wouldn't be
available to the player.

That was Hardsuit. We've no idea about TCR's views on this matter.

 

[negator2vc]

Malkavians in their stupid eyes mock people with mental health issues so I would be surprised that there wouldn't be
available to the player.

That was Hardsuit. We've no idea about TCR's views on this matter.

judging by the latest reveals their views don't look that different

 

[sosmoflux]

If they don't do this they are retarded

Who do you think you're dealing with

They named the main character Phyre
They made them a voiced protagonist
They went with third person character conversations
They thought all of this would play well

They are retarded

 

[Storyfag]

Malkavians in their stupid eyes mock people with mental health issues so I would be surprised that there wouldn't be
available to the player.

That was Hardsuit. We've no idea about TCR's views on this matter.

judging by the latest reveals their views don't look that different

It is, sadly, very likely. However we still do not have any concrete evidence.

 

[Wesp5]

This is a Wesp addition. I don't know if it's yet another one of his fan fics or cut content or the reasons for it being cut if that was the case, but it wasn't in the game Troika shipped.

The fact that Wesp could seamlessly add a backstory system to Bloodlines' CC is a point in it's favor if anything.

Just to clear this up, the histories were already working and could be enabled by a config variable. Some were missing and some were broken which I fixed, but my guess at why Troika didn't enable them is that you could cheat your stats by switching between histories over and over. I coudn't fix that issue either, but I made Jack comment of it which might have not been enough for an official patch !

went with a malkavian occultist expecting the pearl to bring me to 4 charisma dots, but the damn history just straight limits it to 3

Some of the limitations are hard-coded and there is nothing I can do about it...

 

[Wesp5]

The smartest thing Paradox can do is release HSL's vtmb2 as a free download for anybody who purchases TCR's vtmb2. There is no reason not to release it. Just change the name to VtM: Redacted and claim it's a Malkavian methuselah's fever dream.

And what if the HSL version is more liked by the fans than their own ?

 

[Kev Inkline]

The smartest thing Paradox can do is release HSL's vtmb2 as a free download for anybody who purchases TCR's vtmb2. There is no reason not to release it. Just change the name to VtM: Redacted and claim it's a Malkavian methuselah's fever dream.

And what if the HSL version is more liked by the fans than their own ?

 

[La vie sexuelle]

There will be no Malkavians. The concept of this clan denies neurodiversity.

DLC, obviously.

Heh. There be no DLC. DLC need sales first.

 

[Xelocix]

There will be no Malkavians. The concept of this clan denies neurodiversity.

DLC, obviously.

Heh. There be no DLC. DLC need sales first.

Andromeda 2.0 baby

 

[Storyfag]

There will be no Malkavians. The concept of this clan denies neurodiversity.

DLC, obviously.

Heh. There be no DLC. DLC need sales first.

It's Paradox...

 

[Child of Malkav]

Hello, I come from the future and I give it a solid 3/10 - great audiovisuals, boring gameplay, terrible writing and generic quests. Better than Starfield though.

So exciting.
Hey, how is vtmb 3? You also mentioned Starfield. How is the second part. Just as revolutionary as the first?
Hey another one: do we still exist in that future?
Asking for a friend, thanks.

 

[sosmoflux]

Had a quick look at the Project Creative Director & Studio Design Director @ TGR - Since at the start of that dev diary he casually mentions he has a lot of background in working on Action RPGs in a manner that rubbed me the wrong way

That background seems to be;

• Fable Legends (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhEn5q93z-A)
• Gears of War Tactics (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKRz3WjZTu8)
• Transformers Reactivate (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edBK2ZpYY_0)
• And some scripting/junior work on Fable 2 & 3 which was over a decade ago and not really direct game design experience

The game industry is weird, and the projects people get the opportunity to work on don't necessarily reveal their character or skills
But how is this "a lot of background in Action RPGs"?
This all but confirms this is a another blunder in the making

Also those "Design Pillars" suck absolute ass, incredibly basic stuff that isn't really informing anything, nor reflect the strengths of VTMB
He said;

• Feel like a Vampire
• Visceral Combat
• Explore the World of Darkness

They should've been something like;

• Immersion is Paramount (Grounded & responsive game world, stay in first person, embody your own character, characters talk directly to you, etc)
• Blood, Sex, & Danger (Vampires, sex appeal, edge of society type shit. Lean into the freaks and geeks and murder and sociopath nature of immortal beings & their conflicts)
• Power & Play (Grow the player's power, allow for varied options to encounters and problems, allow & respond to the player's quizzical exploration & creativity)

 

[The President]

The HSL version of the game is the next Resident Evil 1.5, people will be trying to get their hands on the build just to see what was there.

 

[HansDampf]

Had a quick look at Alex Skidmore - the Project Creative Director & Studio Design Director @ TGR
Since at the start of that dev diary he casually mentions he has a lot of background in working on Action RPGs in a manner that rubbed me the wrong way
That background seems to be;

• Fable Legends (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhEn5q93z-A)
• Gears of War Tactics (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKRz3WjZTu8)
• Transformers Reactivate (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edBK2ZpYY_0)
• And some scripting/junior work on Fable 2 & 3 which was over a decade ago and not really direct game design experience

The game industry is weird, and the projects people get the opportunity to work on don't necessarily reveal their character or skills
But how is this "a lot of background in Action RPGs"?
This all but confirms this is a another blunder in the making

Also those "Design Pillars" suck absolute ass, incredibly basic stuff that isn't really informing anything, nor reflect the strengths of VTMB
He said;

• Feel like a Vampire
• Visceral Combat
• Explore the World of Darkness

They should've been something like;

• Immersion is Paramount (Grounded & responsive game world, stay in first person, embody your own character, characters talk directly to you, etc)
• Blood, Sex, & Danger (Vampires, sex appeal, edge of society type shit. Lean into the freaks and geeks and murder and sociopath nature of immortal beings & their conflicts)
• Power & Play (Grow the player's power, allow for varied options to encounters and problems, allow & respond to the player's quizzical exploration & creativity)

It's almost funny watching all of this unfold again. It looks like yet another case of some wannabes abusing an existing franchise/name/fictional universe to tell their own pet story, hence the predefined protagonist. If you looked at the footage and artwork released so far, you'd never guess this is supposed to be a sequel to Bloodlines. It's the most generic AA Action RPG with currentday trends, deadly serious plot, stoic, emotionless, no fun allowed protagonist, and facial animations worse than in a 20 year old game. Their design pillars are laughable, role-playing apparently not being one of them. Fun and loud characters? First person dialogue? Gothified architecture? Dark humor mixed with horror? Over the top, sexy night clubs? HSL's version was at least an attempt at a Bloodlines game, even if it was amateurish.

 

[Roguey]

It looks like yet another case of some wannabes abusing an existing franchise/name/fictional universe to tell their own pet story, hence the predefined protagonist.

This is what Paradox wants.

"The work that Hardsuit Labs had done got us to a certain point in the project, and while the goals were reasonably aligned, we ultimately had a different vision for the project," said Greaney. "That is why we eventually moved the project to a new team—that's the best way to put it."

https://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/vampire-the-masquerade-bloodlines-2-new-developer-interview/

“Hardsuit Labs is a great studio, and they did a lot of good work on this project. We just had a very different vision for the final product, and we couldn’t align on that vision,” Greaney tells Digital Trends. “And so the right thing to do was to end the collaboration and find a studio that shared that vision.”

Because that clash in vision was big enough to cause Paradox Interactive to change development partners and delay the game’s release by several years, it begs the question of what Paradox’s overarching vision is for Bloodlines 2. According to Greaney, it’s a Bloodlines 2 that “nails the player fantasy [of] being a vampire in a video game and also brought Vampire the Masquerade V5 [a role-playing game] to a video game and showed us what that feels like.”

Greaney was adamant that Bloodlines 2 faithfully represents Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition during our conversation, and it seemed he wanted a studio that felt the same way.

You can't faithfully represent Bloodlines and 5th edition at the same time. Just using the name to get eyeballs on it.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

There will be no Malkavians. The concept of this clan denies neurodiversity.

DLC, obviously.

Heh. There be no DLC. DLC need sales first.

It's Paradox...

VtM Imperator))

 

[Joyvankek]

So yeah turns out the vampire schutzstaffel was the tremere look as I had guessed:

The outfit isn't that bad, but the PC(female?) model is fucking disgusting.
Elder vampire looking like modern lesbian 3/10 female.
That alone shows that we can pretty much forget about the dark atmosphere and fucked up themes the first one had.
I doubt we will see any homeless, or prostitutes, blood dolls will also be done in "respectful" manner.

 

[negator2vc]

The funny thing is that they will manage to make an even crapper VtM game than
Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York
At least that game had nice art

 

[Skinwalker]

If this has a female-only protagonist, it guarantees that I will never play this game. In a way, it feels like a liberation.

 

[negator2vc]

If this has a female-only protagonist, it guarantees that I will never play this game. In a way, it feels like a liberation.

Judging but what the released and said, it seems to be much worse.
The game with have an androgynous protagonist and they will allow you to choose the protagonist gender (aka in modern terms the pronouns)

 

[Gahbreeil]

Is this game militantly against making femvamp look good?

Seems so, what the fuck do they have against hot goth girls?

Ah, it's an European's dream of how Americans look. At least it looked that way during the Hardsuit era.

 

[Skinwalker]

If this has a female-only protagonist, it guarantees that I will never play this game. In a way, it feels like a liberation.

Judging but what the released and said, it seems to be much worse.
The game with have an androgynous protagonist and they will allow you to choose the protagonist gender (aka in modern terms the pronouns)

Are there games like that already? Where the protagonist's body/face shape does not change, but you merely designate it as he/she/xe/chirp/etc? Or is this rapequel gunning to become the hymen-breaker in the field of transogyny?

 

[Storyfag]

If this has a female-only protagonist, it guarantees that I will never play this game. In a way, it feels like a liberation.

Judging but what the released and said, it seems to be much worse.
The game with have an androgynous protagonist and they will allow you to choose the protagonist gender (aka in modern terms the pronouns)

This is untrue. The devs refer to the female Phyrre as "female Phyrre", which implies there will be a "male Phyrre". They have also released concept art for every Clan they will allow us to play, and some of these are definitely male.

 

[Tyranicon]

The funny thing is that they will manage to make an even crapper VtM game than
Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York
At least that game had nice art

Speaking of, are any of the VtM branded CYOAs or visual novels worth the time? I only attempted Night Road and to be honest, it was quite bad.

If this has a female-only protagonist, it guarantees that I will never play this game. In a way, it feels like a liberation.

Judging but what the released and said, it seems to be much worse.
The game with have an androgynous protagonist and they will allow you to choose the protagonist gender (aka in modern terms the pronouns)

This is untrue. The devs refer to the female Phyrre as "female Phyrre", which implies there will be a "male Phyrre". They have also released concept art for every Clan they will allow us to play, and some of these are definitely male.

I'm predicting the release of the male model to be peak ragebait.