(Image credit: Hardsuit Labs, Paradox Interactice)
Imagine trying to compete with Half-Life 2 on the same day it was released. That's what happened to the original Vampire: The Masquerade—Bloodlines. A contract with Valve prevented Bloodlines from being released before Half-Life 2, but Activison didn't want push the release date for Bloodlines back. So, not only did Bloodlines have to compete with one of the greatest PC games of all time, but Bloodlines was marred with bugs. Commercially, it didn't do well, though it did eventually end up on our list of the best RPGs of all time.
Still, Vampire: The Masquerade fans were drawn to the cast of characters, the story, and fell in love with many of the missions. Given the circumstances around its release, Bloodlines was still widely loved and accepted, and obtained cult status. If that wasn't evident back then, it's evident now.
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines. All Discussions Screenshots Broadcasts Videos News Guides Reviews. Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines General Discussions Topic Details. Dec 12, 2018 @ 6:11am Unofficial Patch 10.2 released! This time the release canditates are first available on the ModDB.
Paradox Interactive announced Bloodlines 2 at GDC on March 21, a sequel that, by the time it releases, will have been 16 years in the making (which is a mere blink in vampire years). And until Bloodlines 2 is released, we'll be collecting every bit of news here for you to devour. Or sip casually. Whatever your feeding style.
Here's everything we know about Vampire: The Masquerade—Bloodlines 2 so far.
What is Bloodlines 2's release date?
While we won't know the precise date for a while, Bloodlines 2 will release sometime in March 2020, less than a year away. So, if you need to brush up on your vampire lore or play through the first game again, you have plenty of time.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/VampireTheMasqueradeBloodlines2
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'Welcome to the first day of the rest of your death. Having fun yet?'
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Vampire: The Masquerade — Bloodlines 2 is the sequel to 2004's Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines, currently in development by Hardsuits Labs and published by Paradox Interactive, scheduled to release in 2020.note Quite a few of the developers on the original game, most prominently designer and writer Brian Mitsoda and composer Rik Schaffer, have returned for this game. The game additionally features Cara Ellison and Chris Avellone as writers.
Fifteen years after the events in Los Angeles, on a foggy night in Seattle, vampires swoop down from the rooftops in Pioneer Square and conduct a mass embrace, converting a group of humans into so-called 'Thin-Bloods.' It's a dangerous and illegal act. Abandoned to the world, these bewildered and naïve Thin-Bloods threaten the Masquerade, the elaborate social pact that prevents humans from finding out about vampires.
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As one of these Thin-Bloods yourself, you're captured and brought to trial. Wheeled before 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 terrible deed. Your reward for cooperating? Execution. Except it all goes wrong. The trial implodes as the council members squabble amongst themselves, and an unexplained fire breaks out and engulfs the room. You take the opportunity to flee into the night, resolving to try and uncover who did this to you, and why. If you’re lucky, you’ll survive long enough to find out.
Announcement Trailer, Thinblood Trailer, Brujah Trailer, Tremere Trailer, Toreador Trailer, Ventrue Trailer, Malkavian Trailer, Extended Gameplay Trailer.
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This game features examples of:
- Alternate Reality Game: The game's existence was revealed at the climax of a particularly elaborate one, based around Tender, a surprisingly interactive fictional dating app with a suspicious interest in its participants' blood. Fans following it were greatly divided on what the trickle of information and suggestive VTMB-themed imagery meant, theories ranging from absolutely nothing, to a Bloodlines remake or remaster, a brand new IP, a mobile game, an MMO... The few who steadfastly believed it spelled a proper sequel to Bloodlines were definitely in the minority, so unlikely it was after fourteen years.
- Bloody Horror: The announcement trailer shows a bathroom sink dripping blood before it erupts from the faucet and gushes down the hallway ala the elevator scene from The Shining, and then a gigantic tidal wave of blood descending upon Seattle.
- Contrasting Sequel Protagonist: The Fledgling from the original game was a full-fledged vampire that was implied to be 8th generationnote . The protagonist of the sequel is a high generation thin-blood (according to this video) that doesn't even belong to a clan at the start of the game.
- Go Mad from the Revelation: The trailer alludes to the source material on how anyone embraced into the Malkavian clan goes insane due to becoming part of the Hive Mind that permeates the clan, forcing all the collective knowledge into the recently embraced's mind at once.'Never ending... Never silent... Never alone...'
- Hearing Voices: The introduction trailer mentions the Malkavian hear voices because of being part of a Hive Mind, but those familiar with the setting know it's also the sleeping Malkav speaking to all of his clan, too.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: The announcement trailer ends with the line '...But I have waited so long to see it again'.
- Not So Different: Each one of the clan introductory videos so far other than thin-blood and Malkavian has featured a vampire brutally murdering someone, to drive home the point that there really is no 'good guy' clan and that none of them are necessarily any more benign than the others.
- Properly Paranoid: The Malkavian in his intro trailer mentions hearing the 'murmurs of those plotting against me.' Considering the insight of Malkavian madness, he's probably right.
- Shout-Out: One preorder item is Blade's outfit from the Wesley Snipesmovies.
- Smug Snake: Tender CEO Malcolm Chandler of the Alternate Reality Game just oozed tech company smarm. It didn't last long.
- Take That!: During the announcement stream, the lead developer snarked that, unlike the first gamenote , the release of this game wouldn't be overshadowed by a new Half-Life.
- Vampire Variety Pack: Like in both the tabletop game and the previous video game, vampires will be divided into various Clans, and the player, though starting out as a Thin-Blood, will eventually get to pick one (with the Clans being introduced, each, in, an, individual, trailer).