Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines: 2 - I want to believe, but...

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Both Vampire 2 and Beyond Good And Evil will be released at the same time, presented (in their true Linux builds, with ports to come shortly after) during the 2025 Linux Con heralding the Year of Linux on the Desktop
 
Michael Wade said:
This is made by a single dev and it looks a thousand times better.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=qg_DV5D-DyI
Shit cyberpunk space vampires is something I've wanted for a long time.
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I had a lot more hope for that game back when it was just a rpg maker game and had a isometric view. The scope is way too big now a single person is not going to be able to pull something like this off. This game is probably never going to come out.
 
Anon88 said:
I had a lot more hope for that game back when it was just a rpg maker game and had a isometric view. The scope is way too big now a single person is not going to be able to pull something like this off. This game is probably never going to come out.
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single person autism is a powerful force sometimes. It helps when you're using assets from other people to help you attain that goal. Not that that's a bad thing, its a reason why those assets exist in the first place.
 
someone's remaking VtM: Redemption in Skyrim for some reason.

It's interesting they chose Redemption, Bloodlines is what people usually remember between the two. I thought the project would fizzle out but they've gotten farther than I thought they would and now it doesn't look too bad. It might even end up better than Bloodlines 2.


How the fuck did the Bloodlines 2 devs fumble the bag so fucking hard? It actually makes me MATI.
 
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SmoothBore said:
someone's remaking VtM: Redemption in Skyrim for some reason.

It's interesting they chose Redemption, Bloodlines is what people usually remember between the two. I thought the project would fizzle out but they've gotten farther than I thought they would and now it doesn't look too bad. It might even end up better than Bloodlines 2.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=M9p8QDE78eg
How the fuck did the Bloodlines 2 devs fumble the bag so fucking hard? It actually makes me MATI.
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So badly I had forgotten Mitsoda was narrative lead at the start. I can't believe they just won't let it die.
 
SmoothBore said:
someone's remaking VtM: Redemption in Skyrim for some reason.

It's interesting they chose Redemption, Bloodlines is what people usually remember between the two. I thought the project would fizzle out but they've gotten farther than I thought they would and now it doesn't look too bad. It might even end up better than Bloodlines 2.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=M9p8QDE78eg
How the fuck did the Bloodlines 2 devs fumble the bag so fucking hard? It actually makes me MATI.
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There was also Project Vaulderie which was an attempt to remake Bloodlines 1 in Skyrime but Paradox got their hands on the IP and C&D'd them in a hurry.
 
I was living under a babylonian sarcophagus after this game's supposed cancellation. It seems that what was cancelled was merely the version of the game we saw back then and now we are stuck with a new one made by The Chinese Room, a dev team that still perplexes me on how they can survive off mid at best walking simulators but I digress. The little I saw from this new version already screamed "We have no faith in this project anymore, we are just going to make something release-able and get this over with since we cant can it anymore."

The concept of playing an older vampire in modern times is, oddly enough, not even original for vampire The masquerade game standards since it was literally the plot of Redemption so Im blown away that they seem to be ripping it off now...except we cared about Christof and the plot despite its somewhat melodramatic nature at times, this however is just an excuse to have the player already at the top of the food chain even tho that is not what Bloodlines was about. Bloodlines was about you being a bottom bitch even in vampire society and you climbing to the top to the point you can turn the tides of conflict towards any side (or neither). And the fact that these pricks have the audacity to have paywalled clans just makes me sick to my stomach. Many also noted the lack of gun gameplay, implying it will mostly be unarmed and melee which...yeaaah, not a good look. It just seems like a downgrade from the first version in everyway.

oh yeah, I should also comment a bit on the original version of the sequel...I personally dont think it was shaping up to be great either. They surely had more talent behind it tho but after hearing the original game's writer talking about "outdated" portrayals of sex workers and mental illness and how they should make it "appropriate" for the times just told me this was dead on arrival. Goes to show how not even Josh Sawyer was able to salvage this mess and decided to jump ship. The best I can say is that it at least resembled the original way more than the new version and thats really it. I already see people throwing tantrums, saying this is the fault of "the real fans" that didnt appreciate the first version for what it was, pretty retarded take, thinking the original version wasnt bound to be mid at best.

All in all, nothing has truly changed and honestly, it would have been better if it was indeed cancelled when I stopped following the project. it is just extremely tiresome to fans of the original and it doesnt matter in what state it comes out, the game will pretty much never be considered canon by said fans. Its a sequel that appeals to no one. It will stand as a reminder of how this game industry is lost.
Tactical Wizard said:
There was also Project Vaulderie which was an attempt to remake Bloodlines 1 in Skyrime but Paradox got their hands on the IP and C&D'd them in a hurry.
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This is why I'll smile when this game flops, these pricks deserve it.

SmoothBore said:
How the fuck did the Bloodlines 2 devs fumble the bag so fucking hard? It actually makes me MATI.
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Because Bloodlines was a lighting in the bottle where everything lined up in terms of culture, tech and skill. It only could have came out in the early 2000's, not earlier nor later.
Pentex said:
More like Vampire the Masquerade ripped off the Canadian show, or at least the 1989 pilot of the show ( "I am what I am, and I don't think Betty Ford takes vampires").

I'm sure there's a line somewhere between 'loving tribute' and 'ripping off.'
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Now you gonna tell me James Cameron ripped off Outer Limits...
 
The handsome tard said:
Because Bloodlines was a lighting in the bottle where everything lined up in terms of culture
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You could say this about VtM as a whole, it was a product of its time being an up until then unseen blend of a bunch of different subcultures that worked both as a satirical jab at the status quo and an earnest method to explore morality and philosophy. Then millennials and zoomers got their hands on Gen X's sloppy seconds, completely misunderstood the premise of the setting and sodomised it in its undeath to create neo-WoD while draining it for every cent in letting Paradox take the reigns.

Out of naive curiosity a couple of years ago I tried listening to one of the official podcast chronicles and it's some of the most embarrassing shit I've ever heard, the fact that all of these faggots feel the need to apologise and flagellate themselves about the content of the game at the start of every piece of media taking place in the universe is genuinely sickening. Nigga, if you don't like the content then play another game, why do you have to infiltrate the shit I like then mold it to your own specifications. VtM just stands as an increasingly unnecessary reminder as to why you should gatekeep anything you like as if your life depends on it.
 
⋖ cørdion ⋗ said:
Yet another visual novel. How many half-assed "games" have they released between Vamp 1 and 2? Would the game had been out already if they didn't make all these random ass fucking games nobody asked for? Do people who stan WoD even exist?
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No, the games are made by indie studios completely seperate from Paradox. In the only good, albeit lazy, move they've made since purchasing the IP, they've allowed pretty much anyone to license the IP as long as you follow their gay ass rules. The rules may be gay but I appreciate the sentiment of letting people make their own shit in the setting with minimal hoops to jump through and I've heard a few of them are pretty good.
 
wrangled tard said:
No, the games are made by indie studios completely seperate from Paradox. In the only good, albeit lazy, move they've made since purchasing the IP, they've allowed pretty much anyone to license the IP as long as you follow their gay ass rules. The rules may be gay but I appreciate the sentiment of letting people make their own shit in the setting with minimal hoops to jump through and I've heard a few of them are pretty good.
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The only negatives are it promotes lazy retards to just spam VNs and Walking Simulators usually, which are lame and not something I'd find interest in. It's still better than what the fuck Masquerade 2 is going to be though.
 
Adamska said:
The only negatives are it promotes lazy retards to just spam VNs and Walking Simulators usually, which are lame and not something I'd find interest in. It's still better than what the fuck Masquerade 2 is going to be though.
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As opposed to what? Nothing? Not like their development time would be going towards anything else and writing is arguably the most important part of any VtM product. By all means ignore the ones you don't care for but it's definitely better than nothing.
 
wrangled tard said:
As opposed to what? Nothing? Not like their development time would be going towards anything else and writing is arguably the most important part of any VtM product. By all means ignore the ones you don't care for but it's definitely better than nothing.
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Really sending it across how no one cares for the World of Darkness anymore, at least not on gaming anymore. Which sucks because Bloodline's devs had big ambitions to adapt a couple more of entries in WoD like Werewolf and Mage (I think) and even a sequel to Bloodlines. If only if only....
 
The best possible game that could be made is something like Gta 5 with a mage, vampire, and werewolf you switch between. (All having to work together) Unique mini games per character. Ability to do the same mission but different character. Deb of night and bloodlines tier soundtrack et cetra. Gta style humour is also very compatible with white wolf products. And also set in the early 2000s.

This would cost over a 100 million dollars (maybe 200) and not only wont get made but couldnt with current media writers
 
Man i love the vampire side of WoD but ill be honest, Bloodlines 1 was a product of its time, something that cant be replicated in current times because the jokes, the references would offend people(for some fucking reason). Bloodlines has a charm to it that i dont think Bloodlines 2 can't achieve. Of course i don't want to sound like a doomer or negative but Bloodlines 2 just doesnt inspire confidence and i would rather play good vampire games like Bloodlines or the Legacy of Kain games.
 
⋖ cørdion ⋗ said:
Yet another visual novel.
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What this post is referring too.

This is the third in a series about vamps from NY I think. GoG has a few more of these and the steam reviews for this one arn't good. Apparently they got a different artist and changed the story with no payoff to decisions made before according to one review. There's also a hunter meter that goes up and the story forces you to use disciplines, raising the threat level. It seems like a rushed story that's not worth the time even if the character is a Ravnos.
 
Paradox has lost faith in BL2 and World of Darkness in general:
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It's been nearly a decade since Paradox Interactive acquired White Wolf and the World of Darkness, and nearly as long since it started working with Hard Suit Labs based on its pitch for Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2. And boy has it been a rough time.

After four years working in secret, Hard Suit and Paradox announced Bloodlines 2 in 2019. We'd be playing it in 2020, the pair said. Then it was delayed. And delayed again. The 2020 target became 2021, and then it was delayed indefinitely, with Hard Suit given the boot.

For a while, it seemed like cancellation was inevitable. And it did almost end up in the bin. "If we hadn't found The Chinese Room," deputy CEO Mattias Lilja tells me, "and seen what they'd done with the early work, [cancellation] would have been the next logical step, because we could not continue as we did."

Lilja believes it's in a better place now—though it was recently struck with yet another delay, pushing it out of 2024 and into the first half of 2025. "It's been in development a very long time, but we are starting to see the game shape up to be something we can… we think it will be a World of Darkness experience."

It's strangely tepid praise, but also refreshing. The reason for this interview was not the usual marketing-driven fare. No big announcements. No hype. Just a rather frank explanation about what's going on at Paradox, the reasons why it's been struggling recently, and what it's doing to change its fortunes. But even with that in mind, there seems to be a bit of nervousness about how Bloodlines 2 will ultimately be received. And it's not something that Paradox wants to go through again.

"It is not in our strategic direction to make this kind of game," Lilja says. "So if Bloodlines 2, God willing, is successful, Bloodlines 3 [will be] done by someone else, on the licence from us. I would say it's the sort of strategic way this would work. So it's still an outlier from what we're supposed to do, we don't know that stuff, so we should probably let other people do it."

Paradox has its own small-scale experimental label, Paradox Arc, where it can try different things, but a big RPG doesn't remotely fit that. It would have to be something "very different", says Lilja, like a CRPG, but even that's a "big investment", and nowadays expectations are higher than ever thanks to Baldur's Gate 3. So "regardless of outcome," he says, Bloodlines is a "dead end".

As for the future of Bloodlines 2, specifically: "We don't drop games. We make sure they work. We make sure they fulfil the promise that they have. The rest is very much up to the players." So you can expect the usual slate of updates and fixes, but DLC? I wouldn't hold your breath.

"I think some studios do strategic investments, long term things, because they feel that the cost of not doing it is too high. But, I mean, I think it's fairly clear, at least to me, and I think to you, even in the best of cases, Bloodlines does not have a super long shelf life. That's not the way these games behave. You have an influx of players, there's a bit of word of mouth, and they have a high peak, and then they trail off. And it's not the type of gameplay that develops over time that much. So I think that's part of why these types of games are not really that attractive to us."

Yet it was the persistence of Bloodlines' fans that inspired this sequel, 20 years after the original. Better supported RPGs, meanwhile, can keep going year after year, as evidenced by the incredibly long life of Bethesda RPGs. And then there's Baldur's Gate—a 26-year-old series that's just spawned its third game, which in turn has been one of Steam's most played games for over a year, despite the lack of DLC. Some RPGs have an incredibly long tail. But it is clear they aren't in Paradox's wheelhouse, and passing the licence to other caretakers might be the smart call here.
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Turned out that Paradox recently went through a corporate shake-up, and the new guys up in Paradox have the new policy of "we'll focus on what we do well, and will just license the hell out of the other stuff". They also took one look at the shitshow that was development and just decided to cut losses and release even if it's dogshit.

It's actually amazing how badly they handled the IP, but given they started panicking due to needing to muzzle White Wolf, you can kind of see why things are as they are.
 
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