The news many fans have been praying for for over a decade now has finally been announced. After some teasers in the form of short video clips and screenshots of familiar, eerie locations, Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines 2 has been announced and is already listed on Steam with a proposed March 2020 release date. Originally released in 2004, the first VTMB game was Troika's swansong. A magnificent roleplaying game with unique and unmatched atmosphere, lore and world-building, it had some unforgettable levels and characters and a plot that was canon with the World of Darkness. Sadly it was hampered by bugs, teething problems from the new Source engine, a rushed and poorly timed release and more.
The roleplaying aspect of the game however was stellar, as was the storytelling and combined with it's unique vampiric ambience and World of Darkness lore, it's been a cult favourite for years. It was an unapologetically mature game, brimming with gore, violence, sex, seduction, crime, murder, religion, sleaze, corruption, deceit and horror. Fans have long since patched almost all bugs and the Community Patch is still updated to this day. The fanbase have finished and fleshed out unfinished content, balanced the game more and added a level of polish the devs never had the chance to. Combat remains fairly janky but, the vampire powers are still great.
Disaster struck in November 2006, depending on ones point of view, when CCP Games *spit* bought World of Darkness and announced a VTM MMO. It was to have all sorts of permadeath and "family/clan" features and the "walking in stations" technology later a part of Eve was originally developed for this purpose. While some players liked the idea, most did not since an MMO in development meant there would never be a single-player experience again. For fans of Bloodlines, this meant we'd never get a deep, rich, role-playing experience similar again.
After 9 years in development, the project was scrapped in 2014. There were some shenanigans with CCP licensing publishing rights to the PnP games, but good news was to come just a year later when in 2015, Paradox Interactive bought White Wolf from CCP. They went on to announce plans to develop the IP with new video and PnP games.
Tho there were hints this title would be a remake (the original video clip teaser was almost certainly Santa Monica pier, a notable location from Bloodlines), a sequel is very exciting. Set in the same world, but a different city (Seattle), the player will be "Unsanctioned Blood: A vampire created in an attack that violated every rule of the Masquerade." Not unlike our PC in VTMB, we are supposedly sired outside the rules of the Masquerade. It also includes costume DLC such as Smiling Jack and Jeannette's outfits and Damsel's beret. Will any of them be in the game? Will their voice actors reprise their roles!?
Other important questions include things like which ruleset the game will use. After VTMB's canon story led to "gehenna", the WoD was relaunched with new games and The Masquerade was replaced by Requiem. Requiem was a different ruleset with different playable clans, powers, etc. VTMB also famously had entirely different dialogue and playstyles for the Malkavians (my favourite) and Nosferatu clan players....might VTMB2 have the same? Will the combat be more action-gamey, or rely on stats like the original? Hopefully we'll learn more in the coming months.
Personally, I couldn't think of a title I'm more excited to see announced than this one. Apart from Cyberpunk 2077, a VTM game is one of few things that could garner an insta-purchase. To leave us with some hope, the Steam page description ends with:
The roleplaying aspect of the game however was stellar, as was the storytelling and combined with it's unique vampiric ambience and World of Darkness lore, it's been a cult favourite for years. It was an unapologetically mature game, brimming with gore, violence, sex, seduction, crime, murder, religion, sleaze, corruption, deceit and horror. Fans have long since patched almost all bugs and the Community Patch is still updated to this day. The fanbase have finished and fleshed out unfinished content, balanced the game more and added a level of polish the devs never had the chance to. Combat remains fairly janky but, the vampire powers are still great.
Disaster struck in November 2006, depending on ones point of view, when CCP Games *spit* bought World of Darkness and announced a VTM MMO. It was to have all sorts of permadeath and "family/clan" features and the "walking in stations" technology later a part of Eve was originally developed for this purpose. While some players liked the idea, most did not since an MMO in development meant there would never be a single-player experience again. For fans of Bloodlines, this meant we'd never get a deep, rich, role-playing experience similar again.
After 9 years in development, the project was scrapped in 2014. There were some shenanigans with CCP licensing publishing rights to the PnP games, but good news was to come just a year later when in 2015, Paradox Interactive bought White Wolf from CCP. They went on to announce plans to develop the IP with new video and PnP games.
Tho there were hints this title would be a remake (the original video clip teaser was almost certainly Santa Monica pier, a notable location from Bloodlines), a sequel is very exciting. Set in the same world, but a different city (Seattle), the player will be "Unsanctioned Blood: A vampire created in an attack that violated every rule of the Masquerade." Not unlike our PC in VTMB, we are supposedly sired outside the rules of the Masquerade. It also includes costume DLC such as Smiling Jack and Jeannette's outfits and Damsel's beret. Will any of them be in the game? Will their voice actors reprise their roles!?
Other important questions include things like which ruleset the game will use. After VTMB's canon story led to "gehenna", the WoD was relaunched with new games and The Masquerade was replaced by Requiem. Requiem was a different ruleset with different playable clans, powers, etc. VTMB also famously had entirely different dialogue and playstyles for the Malkavians (my favourite) and Nosferatu clan players....might VTMB2 have the same? Will the combat be more action-gamey, or rely on stats like the original? Hopefully we'll learn more in the coming months.
Personally, I couldn't think of a title I'm more excited to see announced than this one. Apart from Cyberpunk 2077, a VTM game is one of few things that could garner an insta-purchase. To leave us with some hope, the Steam page description ends with:
