Few video games have as wild of a improvement journey as Vampire: The Masquerade — Bloodlines 2.
A sequel to a cult-classic vampire RPG from the mid-2000s, Bloodlines 2 started its life as a 2016 pitch from developer Hardsuit Labs and Brian Mitsoda, author of the unique sport, to IP proprietor and sport writer Paradox Interactive. Initially slated for launch in early 2020, it was delayed a number of occasions earlier than Paradox fired Mitsoda and took Hardsuit Labs off the mission by mid-2021. Paradox selected to not cancel the sport, although, as an alternative discovering a brand new studio to take it over the end line.
During its PAX West 2023 keynote, Paradox introduced the brand new studio engaged on Bloodlines 2 is The Chinese Room, best-known for video games like Dear Esther and Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture. Ahead of this announcement, Digital Trends had the prospect to talk to Sean Greaney, Paradox Interactive’s World of Darkness vp, and The Chinese Room studio design director Alex Skidmore to study extra about what the imaginative and prescient for Bloodlines 2 that triggered Paradox to shift builders, in addition to what the vampire RPG now seems to be like underneath a brand new developer.
Bloodlines 2’s unhealthy breakup
It’s uncommon for a sport as seemingly far alongside in improvement and publicly proven off as Bloodlines 2 to lose its developer. While former Hardsuit Labs builders and Mitsoda have voiced that they have been “disappointed and frustrated” on the deterioration of that partnership, Greaney defended Paradox’s choice throughout our dialogue.
“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.”
Paradox Interactive
Because that conflict in imaginative and prescient was sufficiently big to trigger Paradox Interactive to vary improvement companions and delay the sport’s launch by a number of years, it begs the query of what Paradox’s overarching imaginative and prescient 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 fifth Edition throughout our dialog, and it appeared he needed a studio that felt the identical manner. Paradox Interactive seemed for a brand new studio and signed The Chinese Room on as the brand new developer by the top of 2021. Hardsuit Labs suffered layoffs after shedding Bloodlines 2, shifted to principally doing assist work, and was acquired by Keywords Studio in May.
“The Chinese Room has this history and portfolio of amazing narrative games. That is what they were known for, and that’s what we knew we were going to need with this project,” Greaney says of why he selected The Chinese Room. “But they also had this ambition to move into an action RPG direction and were already creating the kind of studio and staff they needed to get there. The fact that they had that narrative background and their vision for this project aligned with ours made it a kind of hole-in-one decision.”
A considerably new tackle Bloodlines 2
Surprisingly, work on the mission was solely partially reset when the sport moved to The Chinese Room. “The work that had been done on the game was very important for getting us to a certain point, so the themes, Seattle as the setting, and a significant degree of the art and character art has been carried over,” Greaney explains. “It isn’t from the ground up, but it isn’t a straight continuation either.” skidmore went extra in-depth, explaining that some points of the sport differ considerably from what Hardsuit Labs promised.
Paradox Interactive
For instance, as an alternative of being a newly shaped Thinblood vampire discovering their place in Seattle’s vampiric politics, the protagonist is a extra skilled elder vampire new to Seattle. The developer change additionally got here alongside an improve from Unreal Engine 4 to Unreal Engine 5. Regarding gameplay and fight, Bloodlines 2 continues to be a first-person sport and provides gamers varied fight choices and talents tailored from Vampire: The Masquerade fifth Edition. Plus, gamers might want to sustain the titular Masquerade by not exposing themselves as a vampire in public; there will likely be narrative penalties in the event that they do.
“We want to tell a story where the player feels like they’re the star of it,” Skidmore says. “You should always feel like you’re the star of the story. And then, we focus on having a cast of great characters, great voice acting, and making the world itself a character. Our Seattle is a bit different from the real Seattle; it’s taller, brighter, darker, and seen through the eyes of a vampire. We’re trying to make that world as rich as possible and give emotional experiences to players. And potentially the odd jump scare.”
The destiny of Bloodlines 2
As somebody who noticed Hardsuit Labs’ model of the sport in motion at E3 2019 and has now spoken to The Chinese Room about its imaginative and prescient for the sport, it’s clear that Bloodlines 2 isn’t a very totally different sport FROM what was first promised by Paradox; a brand new developer has simply reinterpreted that preliminary idea. Expect Bloodlines 2 to be a vampire RPG with bloody fight, and even anticipate some characters from the sport’s authentic trailers to point out up. The Chinese Room has taken that base and tried so as to add its studio’s and Vampire: The Masquerade fifth Edition’s aptitude to the narrative and vampiric fantasy.
Paradox Interactive
Paradox will flip heads by pulling Hardsuit Labs off the mission, inflicting layoffs, after which nonetheless utilizing a few of their work on this new model of the sport. But The Chinese Room is a confirmed studio, though we’ll finally have to attend for the consequence to affirm that this was the fitting transfer. We received’t even have to attend too lengthy to search out out, although, as Paradox Interactive guarantees to launch Bloodlines 2 someday subsequent fall.
Of course, that’s removed from the primary launch window promised for Bloodlines 2. When I introduced that up, Greaney revealed that The Chinese Room’s model of the sport has cleared the alpha phases of improvement and that Paradox Interactive is adamant about delivering on a sport first introduced in 2019 as quickly as potential.
“If we weren’t confident in the new release window, we wouldn’t be starting the new marketing campaign,” Greaney informed me. “There’s a reason we haven’t been out there communicating and marketing this title for a while. We wanted The Chinese Room to have the opportunity to get this baby, grow it with some uninterrupted development time, and clear alpha. Now that we’re through alpha, it’s the time to start talking to our fans.”
Vampire: The Masquerade — Bloodlines 2 launches for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S in fall 2024.
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