Legacy is a crucial factor, significantly within the age of nostalgia that we reside in. You will need to think about that for each occasion of a profitable resurrection, there are 5 failed investments in outdated IP that sink beneath the waves, to solely be muttered about by individuals on the web with an excessive amount of time on their fingers. And so, lo and behold:
5) VAMPIRE: THE MASQUERADE: BLOODLINES 2 | The Chinese language Room 2025
“We made this metropolis and we’ll by no means let anybody overlook that.”
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines is one in all my favorite video games of all time. I performed it similtaneously Pathologic, and that was a heady mixture of video games to play back-to-back. It blew a lot different recreation and character writing out of the water, and made me recognize the medium’s potential greater than ever. With out both of those video games, I might not be within the place I’m in now, obsessively writing about video video games.
The unique Bloodlines – other than having an overlong title – was written crisply and succinctly. Each character had plausible motives, good excuses for his or her evil deeds, in the event that they didn’t simply revel of their monstrousness. Extra importantly, you because the participant might work together with every of those characters with real fluidity, with so many choices for issues to say. I haven’t written or talked a lot concerning the recreation on my channel earlier than, however I believe it’s an exceedingly necessary recreation in my very own private historical past – and in roleplaying recreation historical past. With so many compelling selections, places, and characters, the sport is unimaginable to place down, even when the fight encounters overwhelm the sport in the direction of the top. It’s nonetheless one in all my all-time favourites, doubtless.
So, personally talking, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 had massive footwear to fill. The truth is, I might argue these footwear have been impossibly massive. Very like the Silent Hill 2 remake, I knew that even when Bloodlines 2 was the following nice RPG, it couldn’t deal a deathblow to the unique, in my eyes. All that is with out even occupied with the very long time in improvement hell the sport languished in. Introduced in March of 2019, the sport started improvement in 2015. After varied improvement issues, with high-ranking employees members (reminiscent of Bloodlines author Brian Mitsoda) culled from the venture after 5 years of improvement in 2020. In 2021, the builders, Hardsuit Labs, have been taken off the venture by the writer, Paradox. For 2 years, the venture was principally lifeless within the water, at the very least from the surface. The truth is, the builders at respected art-game studio The Chinese language Room have been there to tackle the problem of creating Bloodlines 2. It’s not prefer it was simple crusing for them, both – solely simply releasing this yr, Bloodlines 2 feels dragged over the end line, scrappy, upset, drenched in blood. Becoming, in fact, nevertheless it makes for a messy, regularly ugly recreation. Not ugly graphically – it’s, I believe, a moody, atmospheric recreation.
Stalking the streets of Seattle is surprisingly immersive and enjoyable. The primary hour or two of gameplay offered me a really comparable feeling to exploring the world of the unique recreation – a world of darkish alleyways and grim element. Because the World of Darkness – the sport’s setting – likes to say, it’s our world, however darker. Genius, proper? However the longer I performed, the extra issues began to really feel unsuitable. There’s nothing attention-grabbing on this planet that provoked my curiosity. The facet quests are all variations on “go right here, ship one thing / homicide one thing, come again”. For these of you aware of the unique Bloodlines, you may bear in mind the quests the place you probably did must go someplace and kill somebody to cowl up the Masquerade, the legal guidelines that stop vampire society from being found and murdered by people. These can really feel comparable on paper, however Bloodlines 2 fumbles the strategy to the Masquerade. Relatively than monitoring the Masquerade as a meter that decays alongside Humanity (an element that determines whether or not or not your vampire devolves right into a murderous beast that you just lose management of, a fail state), the Masquerade is principally a detection meter, like in one thing like Murderer’s Creed or an Elder Scrolls recreation. Disguise for lengthy sufficient and it’ll simply… go away.
Relatively than having to carry out particular actions to make up for it, or having to think twice about your selections, the Masquerade is a ticking timer, a “day trip nook” punishment. Sit on the rooftops and take into consideration what you’ve completed! Relatively than approaching conditions with any explicit intelligence, on a number of events I wandered as much as the hapless sufferer in the course of the road, snapped their neck or crushed their coronary heart with my naked fingers, and simply hid on a rooftop. No penalties.
This appears like the sport’s roleplaying as a complete. Whereas I loved the beat-by-beat character writing for probably the most half, the sport saying “x will do not forget that” rings hole when there’s no affect or weight to your selections that actually feels attention-grabbing. Nothing that I might make protagonist Phyre say felt prefer it was actually sticking all through a lot of the recreation. Bloodlines 2’s promise of reactivity beats rings a bit hole even within the mission design, the place there’s just one path ahead, which frequently includes fight.
Fight is definitely a variety of enjoyable. Image a first-person, Dishonoured-style recreation which facilities round superpowered fisticuffs, and also you’ll have a fairly nice thought of the way it performs. Sadly, like the unique recreation, fight makes up a considerable amount of the sport. In contrast to the primary recreation, there’s virtually by no means a technique to circumvent fight – stealth is simply carried out in service of killing enemies from behind till they’re all lifeless, and the following plot beat could be accessed.
Phyre – not like the protagonist from the unique Bloodlines – is an Elder, which in Vampire phrases, principally means they’re presupposed to be ultra-powerful. As you lower your Technology, getting nearer to the unique vampire, Caine, your blood turns into stronger and thus turns into extra able to unbelievable feats. Thus Phyre is able to doing a little fairly enjoyable issues. You will get her to select up weapons solely by way of using telekinesis, and unload an enemy’s personal gun into them from midair earlier than summoning blood missiles to fireside at their mates. You may even glide across the metropolis like Batman – proper up till a kind of pesky civilians tsk-tsks at you, and you’ve got the Masquerade marker to cover from for twenty seconds. Moreover, the enemies you battle are explicitly ghouls – people briefly empowered by ingested vampire blood – or thin-bloods, vampires which can be technically vampires however have such weak blood their powers don’t manifest correctly. These opponents regularly rip Phyre to items. This isn’t to say this can’t occur on the tabletop – the sport is structured in such a approach that in the event you’re actually intelligent and play your playing cards proper, you possibly can blow even low-Technology vampires away. However the ghouls and thin-bloods right here don’t do something intelligent sufficient to justify it.
Low-Technology Vampire: The Masquerade plots should be smarter than simply “throw extra enemies on the gamers”. They must be concerning the hazard of summary vampire politicking. The homicide thriller the sport is centered round is a good plotline – nevertheless it’s one thing that feels a bit contrived for a Vampire Elder to be doing. To not say it might probably’t work, however Phyre simply doesn’t fairly match. Her fish-out-of-water qualities are entertaining however she matches in fairly rapidly, and her energy doesn’t match the story she’s in. The sport can’t fairly determine whether or not it desires to be an influence fantasy, the story of an underdog, or a political thriller. Typically the physique depend is so absurdly excessive I believe the Masquerade should already be damaged, in that there’s no approach lots of of individuals lifeless in an evening membership might presumably be accounted for in any clerical vogue. The boss battle and ambiance of that membership is spectacular, however there’s simply no thought as to the way it really hyperlinks into the larger world. Every little thing is simply in service of the present plot beat, earlier than we’re whisked away to different issues. The Anarch ghouls are murder-hobos as a result of we’d like waves of enemies to battle, the overarching antagonists get to trigger as many insane masquerade breaches as they like as a result of it makes for a great setpiece, and so forth. It’s all only a bit irritating, worldbuilding-wise.
Typically the sport is interrupted by sections the place you play because the Malkavian, Fabien, who mysteriously ended up in Phyre’s head. Discovering how this occurred is the sport’s first thriller, after which utilizing his reminiscences is essential to fixing the sport’s overarching homicide thriller. These are good sections in that they foreground the intrigue central to the sport’s plot, however they don’t give Fabien a lot to do past stroll across the identical streets you possibly can fly round as Phyre and decide the correct dialogue possibility. There’s no technique to fail Fabien’s sections, and since they’re reminiscences you don’t make any selections.
I believe a variety of this type of frustration boils right down to a really human tendency to have a look at the identify on the field and anticipate one thing from that identify to make it into the product. I’m enjoying a Vampire: The Masquerade recreation – and it will get a number of the feeling proper. It additionally leads you in to criticize a number of the primary worldbuilding parts. The Anarchs, for example, are historically, effectively, anarchists, vampires who wish to break free from vampire society at massive, and usually have philosophical motivations for doing so. However the Anarchs in VTMB:2 principally area an all-encompassing military of ghouls and thin-bloods to terrorize the town. They don’t stand for something particularly, and are pleased to only homicide you and others for causes that I by no means felt have been satisfactorily defined or expounded upon. In the event you’re paying shut consideration – or are pleased to handwave just a few issues – this does get a sort of passable clarification. Nevertheless it by no means feels significantly well-addressed, at the very least from my reminiscence.
The very title of Bloodlines 2 isn’t becoming both – the frequent declare I’ve seen is that the sport would’ve been higher acquired as Nomad, and I can’t assist however agree. The dialogue you possibly can select simply isn’t as much as the requirements set by Bloodlines again in 2004. And that’s a uncommon recreation, I perceive. I can’t anticipate the whole lot to only magically be pretty much as good or as impactful as a recreation I replayed 5 occasions. Bloodlines does have a railroading drawback in that you’ll find yourself enjoying lots of the identical missions no matter your selections, however there are at the very least factors within the story the place the required missions diverge, and methods to skip others. A very powerful half is how one can take care of the missions – Bloodlines was like an immersive sim in that respect. Bloodlines 2 has open fight arenas and little else. These fight arenas must be cleared earlier than you possibly can transfer on. If a recreation constructed round a well-known tabletop recreation which is famously about political scheming and violent vampire superheroics focuses on solely one of many two pillars, how can I assist however be a bit disenchanted? Bloodlines is all about how Elder vampires use you, a brand new vampire, for their very own profit. It’s enjoyable to see how everybody’s schemes interface with each other, and the way simply you could be performed in the event you aren’t paying consideration.
This yr, one in all my favorite video games, utterly unexpectedly, was Shadows of New York, set in the identical world of The Masquerade. Whereas the alternatives are principally as restricted as they’re in Bloodlines 2, there was one thing way more attention-grabbing concerning the quandaries and emotions of dropping humanity in that recreation that Bloodlines 2 can’t faucet into. As Phyre is outdated, she doesn’t have something to carry onto. Are we given something to carry onto? Probably not. Romance choices are boring flings, a fade-to-black intercourse scene after spending sufficient blood factors on a personality to unlock all their powers, and nothing additional. Fabien is enjoyable, I suppose, and I do love Lou Graham, the ruler of Seattle. However I didn’t do sufficient with these characters, nor did they modify sufficient alongside the best way, to make me really feel like my selections have been impacting the world. I already really feel like a replay would simply frustrate me, as even on a primary playthrough, the seams and limitations have been fairly obvious.
Criticizing the sport’s seams feels unfair as a result of I do know simply how onerous recreation improvement is, particularly on this scale. I do know the complexities of including even simply one substantial selection. However I believe the largest drawback actually can all be summarized with the sport’s strategy to the Masquerade itself. Very like the “sit on the rooftop” timer, the sport is incorporeal, fleeting, and sort of simply there to kill time. Bloodlines 2 could be enjoyable, and attention-grabbing, and might sometimes present a success of playable Vampire goodness that I’m all the time after. The World of Darkness is a favorite setting of mine, in spite of everything. However Bloodlines 2 illustrates the perils of cashing in on one’s personal legacy. The identify, removed from elevating the sport, appears like a crutch, or perhaps a beartrap locked on the sport’s foot. It isn’t a dangerous recreation, persay. It’s simply… advantageous. It… exists. It was a pleasant place to go on vacation for a short time, if a bit of uninteresting and repetitive, however I gained’t be going again. That’s a disgrace, however I believe it was additionally necessary to attempt. How is it potential to grow to be higher artists in any other case?
