Looks like a Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines 2/successor is coming

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ArenCordial

Senior member
Sep 18, 2012
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So it looks like Bloodlines is finally getting a sequel or successor. Announcement should come tomorrow, the 21st. GOG is running a Vampire themed event right now that ends right before the expected announcement time.

More details should come tomorrow but so far what people have dug up is.
-Paradox is publishing (they own VtM these days), Hardsuit Labs is the developer. Paradox has said in the past they want a Bloodlines sequel.
-Brian Mitsoda (original Bloodlines writer) is on board in some capacity and so is Chris Avellone (seems to have worked with Hardsuit for about 2 years), so the writing should hopefully be good.
-Takes place in Seattle (where Hardsuit Labs is located and Mitsoda live). Several concept arts have been found of locations in Seattle.
-Most likely use the 5th edition VtM rules.

Credit to the folks at RPGCodex for digging it up and connecting the dots about a month ago.
https://rpgcodex.net/forums/index.p...ame-announcement-on-march-21st.126124/page-63


Pretty excited about this since I love Bloodlines, lets hope someone other than Troika can do the setting justice.



Some art.

1553132400165.png
 
GodisanAtheist

GodisanAtheist

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2006
7,879
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Oh hell yes.

Trokia released some solid games back in the day (will we ever see an Arcanum sequel? ... No but I can dream) and Bloodlines was a solid entry with some real chops (especially playing as a Malkavian or Nosferatu).

Dunno much about the Dev, but it's good to hear they have folks from the original game and MCA onboard, so there is a baseline of quality when it comes to the intangibles. Paradox is probably about the best publisher out there when it comes to these smaller market games as well, so that's a good sign.

I'll keep my fingers crossed as we hear more news.

I won't hold my breath either, I'm sure we'll get an Epic games exclusivity announcement 3 days from release :p!
 
DigDog

DigDog

Lifer
Jun 3, 2011
14,224
2,688
126
sorry if im late to the party.
I think i should say something because: *breath*

between 2012 and 2018 i dedicated my every living hour to a game called Blacklight, that i loved, but the development team gradually destroyed it with an endless stream or indefensibly bad choices, feature removal, bug fixes not fixing intended bugs but introducing new ones, major game-breaking events, lies, almost-scams. Eventually the game died of a slow death until server shutdown, as the devs managed to drive away the entire player base through every possible bad decision you can make in game development and maintenance.
It should be noted that, from the steam reviews of their previous games, this seems to be their standard modus operandi.

Aaaand, these developers have now been tasked with the development of a brand new game, and this is where this story becomes relevant.

Hardsuit Labs AKA Zombie Labs are now the GLORIOUS DEVELOPERS of VTMB.

For as much as i love the VTM source material, and am very likely to play this game at some point, i urge CAUTION. You know, read some reviews. Dont preorder. Maybe watcha couple of videos.
 
MagnusTheBrewer

MagnusTheBrewer

IN MEMORIAM
Jun 19, 2004
24,122
1,594
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DigDog said:
sorry if im late to the party.
I think i should say something because: *breath*

between 2012 and 2018 i dedicated my every living hour to a game called Blacklight, that i loved, but the development team gradually destroyed it with an endless stream or indefensibly bad choices, feature removal, bug fixes not fixing intended bugs but introducing new ones, major game-breaking events, lies, almost-scams. Eventually the game died of a slow death until server shutdown, as the devs managed to drive away the entire player base through every possible bad decision you can make in game development and maintenance.
It should be noted that, from the steam reviews of their previous games, this seems to be their standard modus operandi.

Aaaand, these developers have now been tasked with the development of a brand new game, and this is where this story becomes relevant.

Hardsuit Labs AKA Zombie Labs are now the GLORIOUS DEVELOPERS of VTMB.

For as much as i love the VTM source material, and am very likely to play this game at some point, i urge CAUTION. You know, read some reviews. Dont preorder. Maybe watcha couple of videos.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately, pre-order disease has no basis in reality.
 
DigDog

DigDog

Lifer
Jun 3, 2011
14,224
2,688
126
DigDog said:
Hardsuit Labs AKA Zombie Labs are now the GLORIOUS DEVELOPERS of VTMB.
Click to expand...

HSL have been fired.
Paradox has stated that the situation is under NDA and no info will be forthcoming about WHY they were fired - but sad old me knows why.

The game has been assigned to another, unnamed developer and ... well, Paradox lies trying to say that HSL have laid the groundwork, but more likely, considering how precious the IP is, the game will be re-built from the ground up.

 
DigDog

DigDog

Lifer
Jun 3, 2011
14,224
2,688
126
From bad news to worse news.

I mean, you really have to struggle to find a worse developer than Hardsuit Labs, but somehow THEY DID IT.

www.eurogamer.net

The Chinese Room is developing Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 will release in late 2024 on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X. The game - which tells …
www.eurogamer.net www.eurogamer.net

Development team The Chinese Room announces that they have been given the reins of VTMB2, following the firing of .. pretty much everyone that could have in any way contributed to making this game not-garbage, at HSL. This includes firing Brian Mitsoda, lead narrative writer on VTMB1.

TCR are a .. i can't spin this in any good way. Their games are pretty much summed up with Dear Esther (walking simulator), Amnesia - Machine For Pigs (again, not too different from a walking simulator, and globally panned as vastly inferior to The Dark Descent), and Everyone's Gone To The Rapture, a game that has a 3minutes36sec speedrun. That's it. That's the whole list. I'm not hiding some actually-decent title here, these are the best of their lot.
 
GodisanAtheist

GodisanAtheist

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2006
7,879
8,963
136
This game has a painfully cursed dev cycle, and its been aparent for a while that whateber gets released, if anything, is going to be a turd.

There are a really short list of devs I would have trusted with VTMB2 (Arkane before Redfall, Obsidian, Eidos Montreal, Irrational Games, basically anyone with some Shock-Like experience) but none of them have actually touched this game.
 
Dannar26

Dannar26

Senior member
Mar 13, 2012
754
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106
I have a lot of fond memories about the original. There were some jank elements to it, but the story and atmosphere were enough to keep me playing.

Sounds like it's best not to get my hopes up here...
 
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DigDog

DigDog

Lifer
Jun 3, 2011
14,224
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i watched the gameplay footage and .. well, it looks extremely bad.

remember in the second game, the famous Bloodlines 1, your first fight is at the shack by the beach. There's three guys there, and if you don't use your abilities and bloodpool correctly, they rip you apart.
Because in Vampire, when you are a 8th Gen newborn, you are just some guy, when not pumping blood points.

Instead now it's just your typical first-person melee game where you obliterate wave upon wave of useless goons, probably to walk to a boss fight that you're designed to beat. Oh yeah, and QTEs against enemy AI that wouldn't hit you if you dropped the controller. Why yes, of course it's developed primarily for Playstation, what were you thinking.

 
AdamK47

AdamK47

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
15,652
3,517
136
The game has been in development hell. Even switching studios. An outcome for a good game is unlikely.
 
GodisanAtheist

GodisanAtheist

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2006
7,879
8,963
136
Yeah they should just put this game out of its misery.

We're so deep in sunk cost fallacy land with this thing at this point...
 
DigDog

DigDog

Lifer
Jun 3, 2011
14,224
2,688
126
i know this is an unpopular opinion, but i liked the first VTM, Redemption, better than i liked Bloodlines. I liked it better story-wise, and i like it better gameplay-wise. (i think the blood pool management, etc vampiric powers, were better)
Bloodlines had the 3D first-person thing going for it, and Redemption has some stuff that clearly stinks of 1990s D&D (look at the inventory UI and tell me if it doesn't look like Diablo or any D&D inspired game); you also move with mouseclick, while having freelook in Bloodlines was considered "modern" when it came out, but now that the graphics of Bloodlines have aged badly, and Redemption still looks decent, i would probably recommend the first over the second.
If anything you can say that Redemption is too much of a power fantasy; by the last mission you are unstoppable, and if you have been extremely anal at minmaxing everything, you just break the game, but again that was in line with what people expected of CRPGs back then.
 
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