Bloodlines 2

Paradox has officially announced Vampire: the Masquerade - Bloodlines 2. Set in Seattle, years after the events of the first game, you are one of the newly embraced kindred created after a night of a Mass Embrace. Brian Mitsoda, the creative designer and writer of the original is on board for 2.

https://www.bloodlines2.com/ for more info

 

We already know, fledgling.

Usually not a good sign.

 

Pretty sure I'll be throwing all my money at it regardless.

 

Has anyone been watching the clan videos? They're good.

 

I'm more of an Inner Sphere kind of guy.

 

5 Clans? WTF SMDH.

But seriously, where's the stealth option beyond the weird Thin Blood clan shit. Nosferatu were dope, and would have been my no.1 or 2 clan choice (and now it's maybe DLC, I guess)

But seriously seriously, I thought SMDH was a much worse acronym until I just looked it up.

 

Yeah, it bothers me a bit too. Especially since we've got both Brujah and Toreador who play basically the same despite their lore differences.

But all clan related DLC are promised to be free so there is still hope for Nosferatu. If we want to hopeful, it could be due to the time required to design extra environment available only to Nosferatu to compensate for their lack of urban access. You know, secret closed off sewers and the like...

And we at least get Malkavian!

Edit: Inserted the Thinbloods introductory video here, as we're not permitted to embed more than five media pieces. Thanks a lot, assholes.

Thinbloods:

 

Here is a pretty nice summary of most available info to date. It's updated fairly regularly too. When it comes to writing, I'm feeling pretty confident. Brian Mitsoda as lead writer is great of course, but I've thoroughly enjoyed reading Cara Ellison back when she was still writing at RPS, especially her articles on Bloodlines - the S.EXE pieces (part 1 and part 2) in particular. We'll just have to hope that Chris Avellone ups his game.

Below are the clan introductions for those who have missed them.


Brujah:

Tremere:

Toreador:

Ventrue:

Malkavian:

 

I'll probably play Ventrue like I did in the first one.

 

Toreador because sexy. And celerity is fun.

 

I'll probably play Ventrue > Malkavian > Tremere > Toreador ≈ Brujah in that order. I've always liked how Ventrue have a focus on shaping history, by making people do what they want through Dominate and being able to literally outlast foes with Fortitude.

I'm also very much a fan of them sticking to two disciplines a piece, it makes the clans much more conceptual rather than them having too much overlap. It's similar in that way to the PnP Vampire: the Requiem, which reduced the number of clans (rather than disciplines as is the case) to make each feel more archetypal of a certain vampire myth. Either approach though I think works.

EDIT:

There is a new gameplay trailer:



Looks a lot like BioShock gameplay to me, which I don't have a problem with. So long as they keep enough social options, which they seem to be doing, I'm not too bothered how action orientated the rest of the gameplay is.

 

Looks very nice! I think the action looks (and sounds, for how it's been described) pretty great. Apparently, they're going for a type of action movie flow, where combat isn't as much about what equipment you brought with you but rather picking up (and then discarding) what you find. So less carrying a backpack with 120 buckshots for your shotgun and more firing until your shotgun is empty and then bashing someones head in with it before tossing it away. Kind of like how Mirrors Edge handled weaponry, a good idea which wasn't perfectly executed.

Apart from action, we've been promised a Deus Ex like level structure, which lends itself to multiple approaches, pretty much the opposite of action oriented. That sounds pretty much perfect to me. Remember losing the firefight with the MJ12 commandos in Maggie Chow's apartment, shooting out a window and desperately jumping - not to your death but accidentally to another apartment, and the continuing playing? Good times!

Oh, and what's up with all you snotty upper class blue bloods?

 

Wait a minute, that's something only a thin blood would say. Get him fellas!

 

I'm more of a Mudblood kind of guy.

 

It's called the House of Lords for a reason :monocle:

Yeah the Deus Ex level structure sounds very appealing, hopefully they'll deliver. From the one time I bothered to complete Deus Ex I have good memories of how it was structured.

 

All the uh "hype" around Bloodlines 2 has made me curious to play the original. I know nothing about the setting but the first previews I heard about the new one left me feeling a bit jaded already. I'm not really very optimistic about modern game developers/writers being able to tell an interesting or nuanced story though.

 

Isn't it weird how like, when you were younger, the year 2030 seemed like it was really far in the future, whereas now it's actually just like next year or so.

Good mo... er… wrong thread. I mean... um... Happy Bloodlines.