World of Darkness Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 - VTMB sequel from The Chinese Room - coming Fall 2024

[Roguey]

I mean it has been 2½ years since the change in developer. I'm not saying it won't be buggy, and I'm not saying it will; but a working game certainly could have been built in that time.

Yeah, but the games that have been in made in that timeframe that are good are usually very different things, like platformers or so

Bloodlines itself was made in three years. The Outer Worlds was about three and a half. ELEX was nearly three years, as was Greedfall. If they were smart, I'd expect a narrow scope (far fewer features than what Troika put themselves through hell for to deliver) and a short-for-an-RPG playtime (like 15-30 hours).

 

[Moink]

Asset re-use from the cancelled version would help speed up dev time as well.

 

[Abu Antar]

A completionist 30 hour run would be good enough.

 

[The President]

Who knows, maybe they’ll delay again.

 

[Infinitron]

If this is true and the developer is indeed The Chinese Room, it puts Dan Pinchbeck's recent departure in a different light. He finished working on the game.

 

[Moink]

Call it a hunch but I am fairly sure it isn't The Chinese Room.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

Call it a hunch but I am fairly sure it isn't The Chinese Room.

That would be quite the plot twist, given that it was the most popular guess by a landslide for the last three years.

 

[deama]

What is is it supposed to be again? A telltale clone?

 

[Herumor]

What is is it supposed to be again? A telltale clone?

No, that's the other one, Swansong, with 3 different playable characters.

 

[Roguey]

If this is true and the developer is indeed The Chinese Room, it puts Dan Pinchbeck's recent departure in a different light. He finished working on the game.

Alternate interpretation is that he felt they needed more time to truly deliver a quality work and Alan Smithee'd himself away when told there could be no more delays.

 

[JBro]

Maybe they'll fix up the original Bloodlines and try to sell it as a remaster.

 

[Skinwalker]

Maybe they'll fix up the original Bloodlines and try to sell it as a remaster.

That would be the best-case scenario.

Having this abomination cancelled before it rapes the light of day would also be great.

 

[Wesp5]

Maybe they'll fix up the original Bloodlines and try to sell it as a remaster.

Paradox already tried to do that with the modder behind Project Vaulderie, but at the time Activision wasn't interested and they own Bloodlines even if Paradox owns the overall IP...

 

[Ismaul]

Who's really interested in Bloodlines 2 now? I know I'm negatively interested, like I was with Fallout 3.

It's like, there's no reason for a sequel, not the same creative team/writer. It's just IP rape/recycling to cash in on the fanbase. Just make your own VtM spiritual successor FFS, because this will never be Bloodlines 2.

I'd love a good successor without ties to the original, but frankly I just hope this cash grab sucks and fails. Worst case scenario is Fallout 3's success.

 

[Grauken]

I would be interested in a good Vampire The Masquerade cRPG whether it's Bloodlines 2 or something else, but this doesn't fill me with hope that there's something good going to come out.

 

[Anonymous Ranger]

The annonment better be them canceling the game because there’s no way they’re going to save it otherwise. If it’s not that then I really hope they announce a new VTM crpg that isn’t tied to bloodlines at all like others have said in the thread.

 

[Cricket McBangle]

The annonment better be them canceling the game because there’s no way they’re going to save it otherwise. If it’s not that then I really hope they announce a new VTM crpg that isn’t tied to bloodlines at all like others have said in the thread.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Heartless Lullaby on Steam https://store.steampowered.com/app/1926120/Vampire_The_Masquerade__Heartless_Lullaby/

This is being expanded into a full game called Heartless Symphony

 

[Fedora Master]

The annonment better be them canceling the game because there’s no way they’re going to save it otherwise. If it’s not that then I really hope they announce a new VTM crpg that isn’t tied to bloodlines at all like others have said in the thread.

Not gonna happen. The name recognition alone is too valuable to let go.

 

[Zombra]

I would be interested in a good Vampire The Masquerade cRPG whether it's Bloodlines 2 or something else, but this doesn't fill me with hope that there's something good going to come out.

What? Why? What's automatically bad about 2½ years of work behind closed doors?

The annonment better be them canceling the game because there’s no way they’re going to save it otherwise. If it’s not that then I really hope they announce a new VTM crpg that isn’t tied to bloodlines at all like others have said in the thread.

What? Why? What's automatically bad about 2½ years of work behind closed doors?

 

[Grauken]

I would be interested in a good Vampire The Masquerade cRPG whether it's Bloodlines 2 or something else, but this doesn't fill me with hope that there's something good going to come out.

What? Why? What's automatically bad about 2½ years of work behind closed doors?

If you think you have a winner at hand you put some marketing money behind it. If you don't believe in your own product you suddenly release it with almost zero amount of hype. That's a good heuristic, though obviously not flawless

Also, 2½ for a proper cRPG is rather short.

 

[Roguey]

If you think you have a winner at hand you put some marketing money behind it. If you don't believe in your own product you suddenly release it with almost zero amount of hype. That's a good heuristic, though obviously not flawless

Also, 2½ for a proper cRPG is rather short.

From Paradox's perspective, they've already spent too much damn money on this (in development since 2016). Instead of spending even more money on presentable-but-fake vertical slices, it makes sense to just wait until it's mostly done to see it as it is.

 

[sosmoflux]

Maybe they'll fix up the original Bloodlines and try to sell it as a remaster.

That's still my running assumption too. I'm amazed nobody has done it yet.

 

[Anonymous Ranger]

I would be interested in a good Vampire The Masquerade cRPG whether it's Bloodlines 2 or something else, but this doesn't fill me with hope that there's something good going to come out.

What? Why? What's automatically bad about 2½ years of work behind closed doors?

The annonment better be them canceling the game because there’s no way they’re going to save it otherwise. If it’s not that then I really hope they announce a new VTM crpg that isn’t tied to bloodlines at all like others have said in the thread.

What? Why? What's automatically bad about 2½ years of work behind closed doors?

I don’t think there’s anything bad about a development time that long. I think the game might be bad because it’s gone through two project leaders and two different companies. Neither of those are a good sign.

 

[Anonymous Ranger]

The annonment better be them canceling the game because there’s no way they’re going to save it otherwise. If it’s not that then I really hope they announce a new VTM crpg that isn’t tied to bloodlines at all like others have said in the thread.

Not gonna happen. The name recognition alone is too valuable to let go.

I know I just wish it wasn’t like that

 

[Roguey]

Ha, here's a Paradox glass door review from August 2nd.

Great if you're working on one of their main strategy titles

Pros

Overall solid benefits, competitive salary.

Cons

Under the new (original) CEO, there's a big push to focus on their core products. Any project that doesn't fall under that umbrella will receive very little in the way of publishing support so your product will hit the market with a thud

That's a way of putting it. Guess someone might have been pretty disappointed with what's happening with BL2.

On an additional note, people in the Steam forums are claiming a mod deleted the first thread about the release date. Pointless endeavor, that.