World of Darkness Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 - VTMB sequel from The Chinese Room - coming early 2025

[Roguey]

Whether Embracer or Paradox, Swedes are just awful and clueless when it comes to running game companies.

 

[La vie sexuelle]

Whether Embracer or Paradox, Swedes are just awful and clueless when it comes to running game companies.

You forgot about Canadians.

 

[Wesp5]

I'd argue that VtM itself is already a recognized setting with some following and some of the prominent bloodlines characters already belong to it, and it's not like Bloodlines was a commercial success to begin with to latch on its name, so I still don't see the need to use the name.

I agree and I already asked the HSL people why they didn't give it another name when it had so little to do with the original. They never really answered but in their case the writer and composer of the original game were still involved so it made kind of sense to attract their fans. With TCR I rather guess that Paradox wanted to save money on redoing the whole logo, trademark and graphics stuff...

 

[SmilingGorion]

Whether Embracer or Paradox, Swedes are just awful and clueless when it comes to running game companies.

The joys of horizontal hierarchies. But honestly, who isn't clueless these days.

 

[The President]

I agree and I already asked the HSL people why they didn't give it another name when it had so little to do with the original. They never really answered but in their case the writer and composer of the original game were still involved so it made kind of sense to attract their fans. With TCR I rather guess that Paradox wanted to save money on redoing the whole logo, trademark and graphics stuff...

The game was on Steam and other platforms for years and they already had pre-orders, so TCR just took over the baton so to speak.

 

[Cologno]

Tyranicon Does the latest version of Lou Grand get your seal of approval, at least?

Not really. Looks nothing like Christina Hendricks, which visually was 100% of the appeal of the character in HSL's version, cutscene render or no.

New version looks it was made by someone who was told to make "big booba lady" but isn't sexually attracted to women and this is what we get.

Edit: wait I forgot I make porn and I'm not normal a little bit more inclined toward gratuitous sexual appeal. Uh, she's okay I guess, whatever.

For me, the very fact that a lady with tits is part of marketing shows that not everyone has lost their minds there, and even that if such a woke company finally uses tits in marketing, maybe something is finally changing in the world.

The SJW infection also started with individual cases that pushed the boundary. Now the pendulum must return to its place.

And pudgy girl titties to boot. Ah yeah.

 

[Ibn Sina]

Paradox should stick to what they do best. Monetizing autists with fat wallets with their spreadsheet simulators.

 

[J1M]

So basically it’s 4-5 abilities per clan and that’s it? Unless you get a low amount of AP while playing it shouldn’t be too tough to max out considering an OOC discipline is 2 AP.

Unless there’s separate things for non-combat situations, it doesn’t look like there’s anything RPG progression wise for non-combat.

I’ve even less faith in paradox now considering they said this game more aligned with their vision. So their vision is a game that doesn’t resemble their own TT game whatsoever?

I guess you missed the part where they talked about discovering a controller has 4 face buttons.

 

[Fedora Master]

Paradox should stick to what they do best. Monetizing autists with fat wallets with their spreadsheet simulators.

But they're shit even at their core business now.

 

[Semiurge]

The Brujah Clan is presented as the clan that has to fight brutally and get up close and directly fight enemies, but if your fist are the only weapon then every clan is going to end up going up close and directly fighting enemies, minus stealth of course.

Punching, sharp claws and the occasional surprise neck snap. Oh, and the tremere blood magic. Do a hand gesture here, and a mook explodes there. You can also enrage mooks as a brujah by flipping them off. How fun! You'll be like the Billy Miles alien hybrid from X-Files who can behead people by the swipe of his palm.

 

[Latelistener]

I like how they said they didn't want it to look like Dishonored, because otherwise the main character will hide from everyone and try to do things things through stealth, when Corvo was completely overpowered physically compared to any other human in the game and on top of it had supernatural powers.

To be honest they kind of have a point here. While Corvo was completely overpowered physically compared to any other human in the game and on top of it had supernatural powers, Arcane decided that using these to kill people was not the correct way, so they enforced stealth with their Chaos system.

Chaos system enforces non-lethal approach, not stealth.

And Bloodlines even explicitly says that tricking humans is not harder than killing them, so most of the time the game rewarded you for non-lethal approach.

 

[negator2vc]

There is a Skyrim mod under development named
Vampire the Masquerade Redemption Reawakened
that plan to recreate the VtM Redemption game in a similar style to VtM Bloodlines.
And the funny thing is that it looks way better (even in its current state) that Bloodlines 2

 

[Caim]

Todd just can't stop winning.

 

[Wesp5]

Chaos system enforces non-lethal approach, not stealth.

How do you do a non-lethal approach in Dishonored without using stealth? I can't remember many dialogue options for skipping fights like in Bloodlines.

 

[Mauman]

"Nexus only"

That annoys me. I really wish a proper competitor for Nexus would show up so they'd be forced to remove their heads from their collective asses.

Regardless, it looks interesting.

 

[Silverfish]

How do you do a non-lethal approach in Dishonored without using stealth?

A couple of ways. Dumb as it sounds, non-lethal combat is an option (shoot a guy in the leg with the crossbow, then use a n-l ground takedown, get the strength passive that allows you to ko enemies with certain thrown objects if you hit them in the head, D2 added n-l air takedowns, which don't require much height to trigger, there's more that I don't remember). Additionally, you'd be surprised how many missions allow you to simply run past every guard on the way to the objective.

 

[Itoh]

I think much of the appeal of the VtM setting was the fact that it was definitely not a straight up power fantasy. Yes, you were a lot stronger than ordinary humans, but there were all sorts of hostile factions like werewolves and mages who were deadly and poorly understood, and had to play errand boy for the older vampires. And the elders had elders of their own to answer to, and weren't so safe from the neonates - yeah, you are stronger, but every vampire has exploitable weakness, and your servants are just as smart as you, and there are a hell of a lot more of them.


VTMB did this right - it felt like you were an urban predator, not a demigod, and even near the endgame when you got overpowered you still received a nice reminder how there are always bigger fish out there. I don't think the Chinese Room understands this, so I'm just going to write this game off and pay no further attention.

 

[Skinwalker]

Has this dumpsterphyre been cancelled yet?

 

[Storyfag]

Has this dhumhphstherphyre been cancelled yet?

FTFY

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Has this dhumhphstherphyre been cancelled yet?

Fleshcrafted That For You

Just in case anyone was wondering.

 

[Storyfag]

Has this dhumhphstherphyre been cancelled yet?

Fleshcrafted That For You

Just in case anyone was wondering.

I appreciate the sentiment, but I must again stress that I am no Metamorphosist, and Vicissitude is for me just a nice bonus to all the important Tzimisce traits: possessiveness, vindictiveness, noblesse oblige, hospitality...

 

[Child of Malkav]

Has this dumpsterphyre been cancelled yet?

No, it's coming out, for all of us and there's nothing anyone can do about it.

 

[Storyfag]

Has this dumpsterphyre been cancelled yet?

No, it's coming out, for all of us and there's nothing anyone can do about it.

Don't open it.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Has this dumpsterphyre been cancelled yet?

No, it's coming out, for all of us and there's nothing anyone can do about it.

Don't open it.

Question ain't if you win or lose, it's if you bought it.

 

[Skinwalker]

Has this dumpsterphyre been cancelled yet?

No, it's coming out, for all of us and there's nothing anyone can do about it.

Speak for yourself.

*puts on his catsuit and ninja mask*