15 years later, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 is finally happening - gamblerabliand

Good things come to those who wait, and in this case to those who waited a long meter. Cardinal years aft the sackin of one of the most beloved "cult" role-playacting games ever made, it's at length getting a sequel in Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2.

And spell publicly Paradox only showed a dawdler at tonight's reveal event, we were given a 30-minute behind-closed in-doors demo at this week's Gage Developers Conference. Check out the laggard below, and then read on for more details.

Good night, dandy luck

Bloodlines 2 begins with a slaughter. On a opaque Seattle night, vampires swoop down from the rooftops in Pioneer Square and conduct a Mass Embrace, converting a group of humans into thus-called "Thin Bloods." It's a dangerous and illegal act. Abandoned to the world, these bewildered and naive Tenuous Bloods endanger the Masque, the elaborate social accord that prevents humans from finding dead about vampires.

As one of these Threadlike Bloods yourself, you're captured and brought to test. Wheeled ahead a council of the governing vampire clans, you're asked to recall the events of that night in Pioneer Square, and thus expose the culprits behind this wicked deed.

Your reward for cooperating? Carrying into action.

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Leave out it altogether goes wrong. The trial scene implodes, initial American Samoa the clans squabble among themselves, then American Samoa an unexplained fire breaks out and engulfs the room. You train the opportunity to flee into the night, in that location to try and uncover who did this to you, and why.

If you're lucky, you'll subsist long enough to find out. The first person you meet, a fellow Thin Blood named Dominic, is executed before your eyes. "You're not on my list," the assassin growls before fleeing into the Nox—but that doesn't mean you're safe forever.

It's a hell of an opening, taking place in the touristy arena close to Piers 55 and 57, with the iconic waterfront Ferris wheel high overhead. If you've followed the ARG Paradox has been running these past few weeks, chances are you already sawing machine a screenshot of this area. Perhaps you mistook it for Santa Monica, the setting of the first-year spunky. And that makes the developers at Hardsuit Labs laughing, that they've captured the search and look of the first Bloodlines enough that people thought a remaster was in the works.

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But no, this is a full-fledged and modern sequel. A veridical sequel. The setting is different, the characters are different, and the timeline has advanced another 15 years. The events of the first Bloodlines did happen therein world though, and could exist documented in Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2.

More importantly, it's tonally a sequel. Hardsuit's even brought plunk for Brian Mitsoda, writer and clothes designer on the first Bloodlines, as lead tale designer for Bloodlines 2. From our demo, Mitsoda clearly has a great love for some source material and setting, talking lengthily almost how the Domain of Iniquity might work in 2019.

For example, a topic that comes up a lot: Everyone has cameras now. In 2004, when the original Bloodlines released, smartphones didn't exist. The Mas, this mandate that humans must not find out about vampires, was a lot easier to maintain. In 2019, even a various misstep can cost you. Flaring across a busy intersection? That's a problem.

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And Seattle is a very different aim from St. Nic Monica, particularly Seattle in 2019 versus Santa Monica in 2004. One of the first things I asked about was clothing. Populace of Iniquity has always felt very '90s edgy to me, all leather and sleaze, a hybrid of The Intercellular substance and Underworld.

Vampires in Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 won't necessarily conform to those stereotypes though. After poor Dominic's death, the second friendly vampire we meet is Domingo de Guzman's old landlord Dale. Dale's a shut-in, an data broker with an apartment full of junk and a propensity for bad jokes like "Stay out of the sun. This organism Seattle, that probably won't represent more of a problem." Helium wears a hoodie, and looks equal the kind of guy you'd gimmick eating Doritos over the sink at 3 a.m.

That's the realism, yeah? Vampires are meant to blend in, and that means adopting the mannerisms of Seattle, 2019. And that means tackling the sorts of social issues faced by modern-day Seattle as well—tensions betwixt old Seattle and new Seattle, its industrial roots and the recent influx of tech money. Mitsoda won't go as far as to say "Jeff Bezos is a vampire," merely these are obvious topics for Bloodlines 2 to touch on in a Seattle setting, and ones that (as a house physician of San Francisco) feeling very unventilated-to-plate.

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It wouldn't be a right sequel without those topics, of flow. It's portion of what makes the original Bloodlines fascinating, using vampires as a (ham-handed at times) metaphor. The question is whether Bloodlines 2 fanny touch connected these topics and give players choices without dipping into bad taste, a problem that recently afflicted the fifth edition of the Vampire: The Masquerade tabletop game and last year resulted in layoffs at White Wolf, with Paradox presumptuous direct control concluded production of future rulebooks. Later on totally, you put up't get people excited about a untested Vampire: The Masquerade game if the brand is irreparably tarnished.

Asked about those controversies, Mitsoda's answer was simple: "We'Ra not going to punch down."

And for now, we'll just have to take his Word for IT. Bloodlines 2 is sure a game for adults, as gritty as the original and with swears dotting what seems ilk incomplete the dialogue trees. Night life is however (obviously) prevalent, as is force. The combat system is savage, with whatsoever of the about impactful first-person melee fights I've seen since Dying Dismount. Hits send enemies flying, and there's a neat illusion where the tv camera occasionally pulls into ordinal person to flaunt a particularly wild animation—linear up the rampart and leaping murder to punch someone in the face, or flipping o'er them and delivering a hit to the back. It's slick, in a way the first gimpy perfectly was non.

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You have vampiric powers as symptomless, of line. As a Bladed Blood you'll start with ane of three powers: You can glide, turn into mist and fly ball through pissed areas, Oregon use telekinesis. And you only induce one, which forces you to employ the environments in different shipway. Later in the game you'll also join a clan, becoming a Full Blood and acquiring approach to additional abilities.

Like the original Bloodlines, there are axiomatic modulation points everywhere. You're picking one option or another, both in dialogue only likewise in how you approach the game and its missions. That sorting of engenders Bloodlines 2 to practical replays, though it's very different from the infinitely replayable menu Paradox typically focuses on.

Asked about that, Paradox says that post-release substance plans are still in flux, but that they recognize they won't be releasing new features the way they might for a Crusader Kings or a Cities: Skylines. That said, Paradox is known for releasing whatsoever features free, others paid, and that leave cover for Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2. Right off the bat, I'm told additive clans testament come post-release, and that those will beryllium free for all players while narration-ambitious content (for instance) could be paid DLC.

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The last thing I'm curious to discove more of? The environments. As I said, our demo spanned Pier 57 and Open up Square, two distinct and disconnected areas. This isn't a straggling open-global game, but rather a series of hubs. I was told that each map is sizable—the exact words were "bigger than a few blocks in apiece direction," which was mostly a reply to how I phrased the interrogative sentence—and that you can change of location to each area from the start of the gage, with no mandate additive path from place to place.

Mitsoda as wel hinted at a pretty interesting call for structure for Bloodlines 2. Afterward our contact Dominic's untimely blackwash, we took over his flat and privileged plant a massive notice board full of conspiracy theory string-graphs. I'm told that analyzing that notice board bequeath in reality give players clues as to potential leads and characters in the game itself, directing you towards quests or points of sake, which is a level of environmental storytelling I Don't cerebrate I've seen some other game deliver on, and one I'm excited to try.

Penetrate line

I'm excited. That's about it, really. A Bloodlines sequel has been a long time coming, and spell I think we all matter-of-course this when Paradox nonheritable White Wolf, it's still incredible to finally have one confirmed. Fifteen years is a long time to wait.

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If you've never played the original Bloodlines, it's worth noting you can still buy up it. It's rattling much a flawed masterpiece, and the buff patch is pretty much a essential, simply information technology's still a surprisingly riveting experience today. What it does right, it does rattling right.

And you've got plenty of time, every bit well. Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 won't be ready for release until 2020. I wouldn't be dumfounded if that's a late 2020 either, coinciding with the rumored release of next-generation consoles.

We'll get you more news when we have IT, likely at E3 or perhaps Paradox's annual fan convention later o in 2019. Until then, might too spend some meter in vampire-ridden Santa Monica.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/403469/15-years-later-vampire-the-masquerade-bloodlines-2-is-finally-happening.html

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