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Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines 2

chrisavellone.medium.com

What the Fuck Happened to Bloodlines 2?

So since I made a statement about what happened last year, I’ve been getting a lot of questions that have nothing to do with it. Thanks for…
chrisavellone.medium.com chrisavellone.medium.com

Bad news, lads.

So what happened after? Why did the staff change? Why did it move to another developer? Did it actually move to a developer or is that bullshit?

To all of you asking: I have no fucking idea.

I'm still catching up myself, as I've been out of the loop so long on social outlets, but here's what I can say:

- Nobody I worked with in the trenches is still there, and I have never asked them what happened. It all sounded painful. Not only did I not know why they were fired, were let go, quit, or whatever, but I respect their right to speak for themselves and they have, although in a limited capacity. I do think they were classy and respectful in their responses.

- It's also litigious and unpleasant for those who get the boot if you're not classy, respectful, and brief to the point of non-explaining, so don't blame them if you think they should have said more. They can't. And if they did, none of you would go to bat for them against the howling mob of lawyers bursting through the walls.

- Also, even if you know the reasons why someone else was fired, you can't really say them. But what most people don't know is even the company won't say why they are really firing you, which may surprise you… unless you're in management, and then you're probably whispering to yourself right now, going, "oh yeah, that's the way to do it." That's because managers know that saying next to nothing while you're firing someone is the best policy. Why? I'm glad you asked.

- The reason why a company won't say why they are firing X or Y person, because (1) they've often written their employment contracts so they don't ever have to give a reason (called a firing "at will" contract) and (2) giving the poor schlep more information on why they're getting fired puts them (the company) at risk, and most contracts are set up so the company does not have to give diddly squat when it comes to reasons before showing these people the door. It sucks, but it's the reality. Gotta protect the good ol' Executive Row from being too clear as to why they're giving out pink slips.
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That was interesting, a shame he couldn't provide more information.

It's unfortunate that HSL fucked this up so badly, a sequel to Bloodlines would've been great and the information we saw suggested that 2 had very real potential.

I'm not going to bother hoping that it gets resurrected, as wonderful and thematically appropriate as that would be, but I would like if we could get a proper post-mortem at some point. I'd love to find out what the hell happened.
 
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Iunno, what I gathered from the whispers is that bloodlines 2 was just a bad game to play, and all the writing and narrative in the world wasn't gonna save how shit the game itself was.
 
I suspect that the whole thing was an Anthem-lite situation, where lies about how ready the game was caught up with people.
After all Paradox must have been told that the game would be ready in March 2020.
 
Shame that Bloodlines 2 is up in the air, and most likely won't end up released. I dunno what the other Vampire the Masquarade games are like - visual novels, I hear? - but it seems Bloodlines 1 and 2 are cursed to have rocky development cycles. Poor game devs.

I did like how that dev described the game execs, though :p
 
Mizu said:
Shame that Bloodlines 2 is up in the air, and most likely won't end up released. I dunno what the other Vampire the Masquarade games are like - visual novels, I hear? - but it seems Bloodlines 1 and 2 are cursed to have rocky development cycles. Poor game devs.

I did like how that dev described the game execs, though :p
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The first visual novel was meh, it felt rushed. The second one was pretty good.

There's also a Choice of Games novel, for ~5 USD it's a good time waster.
 
Videogame adaptations of WoD are really just cursed aren't they? Oh well, kinda expected this tbh, the battle royal thing didn't inspire much confidence.
 

Update on Bloodlines 2

Dear Bloodlines fans, It’s been quite a while between updates while we’ve had our heads down working on the game. We remain just as dedicated to delivering a great Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines game as we were when we announced, and are...
forum.paradoxplaza.com forum.paradoxplaza.com

So after long radio silence we have a few screenshots and a promise of more information in September. Suffice to say I'm not enthused, but if Dead Island 2 can turn out to be good then maybe Bloodlines 2 will surprise us?

...It probably won't but who knows.
 
Arise ye who walk even in death, we got news about Bloodlines 2.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6b6LGubq6I&ab_channel=WorldofDarkness

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 has been quietly rebuilt by Dear Esther developer The Chinese Room with 'different gameplay mechanics and RPG systems'


By Ted Litchfield
published about 15 hours ago
The game's now slated for a fall 2024 release.

This certainly isn't what I expected. The troubled Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2, which I'd just about given up on, is now set to release next fall, over four years after its initial intended launch. Paradox Interactive has tapped The Chinese Room, developer of Dear Esther and Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, as the studio to bring the fraught RPG across the finish line.

"Fraught" doesn't really begin to describe Bloodlines 2. The sequel to Troika's 2004 cult classic (and one of my very favorite games) was initially supposed to come out in March 2020. Its first major delay came with the news that lead writer Brian Mitsoda (who also had a big hand in the original game) and creative director Ka'ai Cluney had been fired. Developer Hardsuit Labs was taken off the project entirely, and the game was delayed indefinitely in 2021.

The Chinese Room was brought in shortly after that, it's now been revealed. Ahead of today's news, I had the chance to talk to Paradox Interactive VP of World of Darkness (the broader setting of Vampire: The Masquerade) Sean Greaney, as well as Alex Skidmore, creative director of Bloodlines 2. After speaking to them, I remain uncomfortably in the dark about what happened to Hardsuit Labs' version of Bloodlines 2, but I came away excited for The Chinese Room's vision for Vampire: the Masquerade.
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Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 has been quietly rebuilt by Dear Esther developer The Chinese Room with 'different gameplay mechanics and RPG systems'

So the new developer is The Chinese Room and the new release date is around Fall 2024.

They seem to have remade significant chunks of the game but retained a lot of the evironmental and art assets and the Seattle setting around christmas or deep winter. The mechanics and story were apparently completely reworked, you now play an elder newly reawoken from torpor and step into a power vacuum in Seattle.

If I understood stuff correctly, then we will get new clan introductions in the next few months and a gameplay showcase in january.
 
My thoughts exactly, as if they looked at what Hardsuit Labs gave them and then said: "But what if we turned it all by 180°?"
 
Yeah, it's a little disconcerting that they'd just flip the premise like that. Given how fraught (to put it mildly) development has been perhaps they just looked at what story was there and said "Let's get as far away from this mess as possible."
 
I wasn't hopeful before and this news has not improved my feelings. The Chinese Room is an indie developer who have developed a handful of games including a walking simulator called Dear Esther (which scored decently) and Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs.

It's not exactly a stunning portfolio but things get really funny when one considers that they didn't actually make those games. The company's Wikipedia page says they did but that wasn't the company itself, it was the people. All of which were fired in 2017 and replaced with new hires! So Bloodline 2's great hope is an Indie company who didn't have a great record even before they sacked everyone.

I don't know about y'all but I'm not feeling inspired by this choice of developer :V
 
Fourthspartan56 said:
I wasn't hopeful before and this news has not improved my feelings. The Chinese Room is an indie developer who have developed a handful of games including a walking simulator called Dear Esther (which scored decently) and Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs.

It's not exactly a stunning portfolio but things get really funny when one considers that they didn't actually make those games. The company's Wikipedia page says they did but that wasn't the company itself, it was the people. All of which were fired in 2017 and replaced with new hires! So Bloodline 2's great hope is an Indie company who didn't have a great record even before they sacked everyone.

I don't know about y'all but I'm not feeling inspired by this choice of developer :V
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While them sacking everyone who worked on those two games sucks, saying Dear Esther isn't a stunning piece for your portfolio is just flat out wrong. Like, obviously irrelevant, completely new people working on this, but put some fucking respect on its name.
 
hellgodsrus said:
While them sacking everyone who worked on those two games sucks, saying Dear Esther isn't a stunning piece for your portfolio is just flat out wrong. Like, obviously irrelevant, completely new people working on this, but put some fucking respect on its name.
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<shrugs> I haven't played it and I just saw the 75, I'll take your word on its quality.

When I mentioned an unimpressive portfolio I meant the total number and type of their games. I don't have inherent bias against 'walking simulators' but it's undeniable that they aren't comparable to games as mechanically complex as BL2 was/is trying to be.
 
It would have been cool to have two campaigns or two optional starting origin characters in the same campaign - one for each perspective, the original story's or content's of a Fledgling/thin blood vampire barely scrapping by and struggling from the bottom-up, as well as the new direction of a newly awakened Elder ready to turn the Seattle scene on its head. Maybe even playing both perspectives in the same world/campaign to affect the world and feel the consequences of one's actions from both ends of the Vampiric power spectrum, both the top and bottom?

Not that I think that's what they are going to do, but it would be interesting way to integrate the original work/idea/vision while allowing new grounds to be explored. And an entertaining "buddy cop" scenario should they ever meet, work together or against each other, or even team up :V Alternatively, an interesting co-op campaign implementation - your thin blood and another's elder, or vice versa, which could allow for more simultaneous gameplay between either characters without having to switch back and forth between either during combat gameplay (although doing such can also be a positive), or choosing both parties' dialogue options should they converse with one another (although its amusing to consider your Elder giving a quest or task to your Fledgling).

Being an Elder will definitely at least make more sense to give the player nigh-unique levels of powers/capabilities (socially and physically) compared to the average contemporary vampire (it is certainly different from your typical protagonists origin in RPGs), AND gives you a chance to explore the "immortal living through history" aspect of being a vampire, even if its only explored in dialogue options (although it would be cool to play even short gameplay segments as flashbacks), although hopefully it would be more than just back story or RP and change your options and how you interact with other characters and the wider world (e.g. bonding with a character over shared history, or forming a rift due to an old rivalry? Factions having different starting reputations, questlines and options depending on how you've treated them in the past?) - perhaps a cost-effective but nevertheless impactful option would be having a Tyranny-style prologue builder where you decide how you acted, what you did and whom you favoured prior to the events of the game's story?

I wonder how much of the original story/character/quests/characters/systems/powers/content/etc will be preserved or discarded as well as how much the new direction might change and add onto it? Hopefully we will at least one day be able to see both the Hard Labs builds and developmental materials as well as the Chinese Room version to learn what changes between them, that would be quite interesting to compare and contrast (even if the Hard Labs version is in an incomplete state).

Anyways, I wish them the best of luck with the project going forward - hopefully we get the best possible product and experience as a result!
 
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I won't believe this is released and good until about 6 month after release of constant player praise. Otherwise just let me sleep (in my coffin) and pretend they let it die.
 
Ford Prefect said:
This is such an inversion of the original premise that it actually makes me laugh a little. Not in a bad way or anything, it's just the exact opposite lol
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Hearing this has likewise made me do a 180 on how excited I am for this game, after my initial apprehension on hearing about the *3rd* studio being assigned the project.

That's such a killer way to introduce a player character who a) is a PC and thus murders people by the dozens as part of the tutorial, who b) knows jack squat about wtf is happening in 2020's vamp society
 
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