World of Darkness Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 - VTMB sequel from The Chinese Room - coming Fall 2024

[Herumor]

Watching this, I have no idea how they thought this would appeal to anyone who even remotely enjoyed the first Bloodlines game.

 

[Haba]

Railroaded nightmare sequence with half-cooked Dishonored combat and detective vision, interrupted by short Mass Effect dialogue sections that let you choose the tone of voice you express your anger in. Wow. This is the sequel to Bloodlines?

Oooh...

 

[Gargaune]

I'm disappointed that I wasn't as amused as I thought I'd be. The game seems to give off strong Dishonored vibes, which is... good, all things considered. A choice between combat and stealth, with alternate traversal options, enemies reacting to distractions, yeah, okay. Brawler combat ain't my jam, I'd have liked guns, but your mileage may vary. Showing the same level multiple times and not going for dramatically different approaches seems like a bit of a missed opportunity for the presentation. The "destroy 4 record players" thing seemed kind of arbitrary, the sort of thing only enabled by Witcher Senses Vision™ that all games are relying on nowadays.

Didn't get any indication of the presence of an inventory mechanic or what exploration will look like in the hubs. Also, is chargen a thing? The dev seemed quite chuffed with the player choosing the protagonist's backstory as they went, responding to dialogue, but it's not exactly a novel idea - e.g. KotOR2 did it with the Exile "correcting" accounts of Revan in the first game.

Stylistically, the visual design looked fine for the most part. I rolled my eyes a bit at that last purple level, but that's just on account of everything being purple these days, can't hold it against TCR if it works for their thing. Audio-wise, it's a curious decision to give your protagonist such a pronounced foreign accent. I get the idea, she predates English being the dominant international language, but I smell memes in the water...

Oh, and you've got a dude called Fabien stuck in your head... Betting the Codex will soon discover a great and rewed appreciation for Keanu Silverhand.


P.S. "Phyre" is such a dumb name. If you're gonna go for the IRC edge, shit, at least make it "xXphyr3Xx."

 

[user]

Watching this, I have no idea how they thought this would appeal to anyone who even remotely enjoyed the first Bloodlines game.

They are going to ride the mainstream hype, and they are going to make money out of it. Much more than their effort deserves.
Make no mistake though, it's not CR's fault. It's Paradox's. They own the IP, chose the studio and set a ridiculous deadline for it, because some clueless paper-pushing idiot thought it was the best course of action to profit.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

While more Dishonored is always welcome, I fear the game also copies its biggest weakness: It's too fucking easy.

 

[Roguey]

Leave it to the RPG newbs to make Safesidian look better. Unlike Avowed, this game actually has a finished UI though.

But yeah no inventory means no weapons, just outfits.

Didn't care for how combat-heavy that sequence was. Leans into the worst aspects of Bloodlines without considerably improving its core gameplay.

Also didn't care for the constant blabbing between the protagonist and the voice in your head. A lot of stating the obvious just to hear themselves talk.

I did like the ATHF reference though.

 

[Shaja]

Not the best decision to choose that scene.

They could have showed up roaming in the city while demonstrating the social elements and areas that are restricted. Then a bit of secondary or a small primary quest.

But instead, they show up this spoiler and that scene repeats itself 3 times. I guess the content more advanced into the game is still unfinished.

Nevertheless, gliding in the air seems fun.

 

[Child of Malkav]

At least they could have done the same quest but with a different clan each time, showcasing their unique disciplines and playstyles.

 

[Herumor]

They are going to ride the mainstream hype

What mainstream hype? I don't see this game mentioned anywhere outside of this forum and 4chan shitposting.

 

[flyingjohn]

Potential codex goty 2024 to counter the Panda romance BG3 dlc?

 

[TramplePie]

Starting the gameplay trailer with the line "I do not like this" just about sums it up.

 

[Gargaune]

I still had the window open and just randomly skimmed some of the comments in the live chat towards the end... It's actually rather mixed, quite a few negative takes. Here's a few choice samples, sans names:

I get it, its not what we want it to be, but once more, it trully is a miracle we are getting anything even. True, it may even be shit. But for love of kaine, have some humanity to spare for the devs

Just give it another name, the game could work as its own thing

there is a simple solution to this: just dont play this one! the original is still there

many poor fans have been waiting over 20 years for this... oh dear XD

the devs clearly lack the vision sadly

you have to remember this is a CONSOLIZED game...

How can they make a flatter game when tech has progressed 20 years?

Imagine getting stomped by 20 year old game across the board

hoping for it to at least have a gripping story, it may save it in a sense

I'm not really familiar with this whole YouTube/stream scene, is this typical for a gameplay reveal? Or is Bloodlines 2 getting more of a hammering than usual?

 

[user]

They are going to ride the mainstream hype

What mainstream hype? I don't see this game mentioned anywhere outside of this forum and 4chan shitposting.

Yeah, I hate this probably even more than you do, but:

https://steamdb.info/app/532790/charts/

 

[Modron]

Yeah, I hate this probably even more than you do, but:

https://steamdb.info/app/532790/charts/

I'd wager more than half of those followers and wishlists were for a different game than what we're getting.

 

[Vibalist]

I still had the window open and just randomly skimmed some of the comments in the live chat towards the end... It's actually rather mixed, quite a few negative takes. Here's a few choice samples, sans names:

I get it, its not what we want it to be, but once more, it trully is a miracle we are getting anything even. True, it may even be shit. But for love of kaine, have some humanity to spare for the devs

Just give it another name, the game could work as its own thing

there is a simple solution to this: just dont play this one! the original is still there

many poor fans have been waiting over 20 years for this... oh dear XD

the devs clearly lack the vision sadly

you have to remember this is a CONSOLIZED game...

How can they make a flatter game when tech has progressed 20 years?

Imagine getting stomped by 20 year old game across the board

hoping for it to at least have a gripping story, it may save it in a sense

I'm not really familiar with this whole YouTube/stream scene, is this typical for a gameplay reveal? Or is Bloodlines 2 getting more of a hammering than usual?

It is definitely getting hammered. You can also tell this by the like to dislike ratio of the video (if you're using the browser extension that brings back dislikes). It's pretty much evenly divided, and with many negative comments getting a lot of upvotes.

The 'vamily' is not pleased, it seems.

 

[KVVRR]

Actually surprised by the combat, I expected it to look much, much worse but it actually looks kinda fun. As mentioned before there's a bit of a dishonored vibe going on which it's not a bad thing at all. And they actually went back and polished the animations for the NPC dialogue shown months ago? My my. I was expecting it to come out looking like the Avowed look we got a week ago but this is a lot better.

 

[Tyranicon]

Welp, that's about what I expected.

I suppose it's now a linear stealth brawler with very lightly branching dialogue segments. No inventory screen, no character sheet, no real RPG elements at all. Does the game even still call itself an RPG?

Time to start thinking about moving this to general gaming. Sad day really.

I'm honestly impressed they could scrape up a whole five minutes of gameplay for a 30 minute video, fwiw.

 

[user]

Yeah, I hate this probably even more than you do, but:

https://steamdb.info/app/532790/charts/

I'd wager more than half of those followers and wishlists were for a different game than what we're getting.

I'd wager that more than half of these wishlists, had no expectations about a certain kind of game at all.

 

[Ryzer]

Imagine how the devs of the first game must feel right now when the game they made flopped, but rose to fame and propped up this mediocre game to guaranteed success.

Frankly, I'd be salty.

 

[Gargaune]

It is definitely getting hammered. You can also tell this by the like to dislike ratio of the video (if you're using the browser extension that brings back dislikes). It's pretty much evenly divided, and with many negative comments getting a lot of upvotes.

The 'vamily' is not pleased, it seems.

Well, maybe there's amusement to be had still.

Time to start thinking about moving this to general gaming.

Now that would be hilarious.

 

[Vibalist]

Youtube comments:

Having Fabian as a constant voice in your head is a really poor choice. The first game used silence to a great effect, and let the player draw their own conclusions about the world around them. Could you imagine playing through the ghost hotel level with a guy going “erm, did that just happen!?” every time there was a moment of silence?

I can’t believe y’all really took out character creation

I would feel a lot more confident if Brian Mitsoda was still involved. I still hope this will be good, I want it to be good, but I'm still not convinced.

Previous devs seemed to be doing something more interesting than this.

Customizable characters and story arc (replayable games) >>>>> generic pre made characters (not replayable, not relatable, fuck the lore we want to CREATE)

I had seen Russian Indie Games with better animnations that this. And that Fallout 4 esque dialogue system... you really killed Bloodlines

Where is Vampire the masquerade bloodlines ? I have the impression of seeing dishonored 1 wish edition.

Bros at Chinese Room, why your Brujah can to telekinesis and stuff? Can we, please-Please-PLEASE, stick to how it really works? I understand, that you think cool little things like that are neat, but honestly, most of the people who would be playing are gonna be loving fans, and it's not what they would like to see.

It's with a heavy heart that I truly think this won't even come close to OG Bloodlines in terms of characters, plot, or immersion. I truly truly hope I'm wrong.

11 minutes in, this feels neither like VtM nor like Bloodlines nor like an Action-RPG at all. It feels like a walking-simulator-type horror game with a little hand-to-hand-combat thrown in.

At least the drama gives us the entertainment value the game itself won't.

 

[d1r]

Dude, that framerate...

 

[Tyranicon]

Dude, that framerate...

What, you don't like needing a top of the line PC to play a game from 2013?

 

[jackofshadows]

Did they really went with the tiny anime hands only combat? Wtf? That "marked for beating" ability looked especially ridiculous.

The "inner" dialogue was off-putting - saying things for the sake of saying something, extremely vapid.

The worst offender of course is the protag, surprise - it doesn't look or sound anywhere near somewhat ancient powerful entity, rather as yet another empowered modern butch.

Yawn, this is dull and tiresome. I wish this was even worse though, for entertainment sake.

 

[Vibalist]

It has also been brought to my attention that combat apparently looks to award XP in that gameplay video. Goodbye to Bloodlines 1's superior XP system as well, it seems.