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

[The President]

Sort of looks like the Tremere melee attack is semi ranged and is like a blood razor blade.

 

[La vie sexuelle]

Somewhere back in this thread I wrote that the combat in this game would consist of clumsy animations and flat ribbons of blood. Nobody believed me. Fools!

I don't know if you noticed (or you already knew it before, I didn't) that there is no normal use of items here. No melee weapons or guns. We only have "spells", and sometimes they involve taking away an object. I wouldn't be surprised if it was more about "conjuring" the revolver than taking it from an NPC.

 

[NecroLord]

No Malkavian.
No Toreador.
No Nosferatu.

What the hell kind of Vampire: The Masquerade game is this?

 

[Bakir]

No Malkavian.
No Toreador.
No Nosferatu.

What the hell kind of Vampire: The Masquerade game is this?

Most likely reserved for dlcs. Unlucky.

 

[Vincente]

Dare I say this actually looks fine?

Yeah it looks fine.

Hijabi muslim Banu Haqim babe

They already showed the BH clothing. There's a shawl but no face veil. Fingers crossed for face mods.

 

[La vie sexuelle]

No Malkavian.
No Toreador.
No Nosferatu.

What the hell kind of Vampire: The Masquerade game is this?

Most likely reserved for dlcs. Unlucky.

DLC?

I believe this is what it looked like in Paradox's fantasies - an ever-expanding game, constantly new clans, constant income... They will probably release this game now so as not to lose face, but we probably won't see DLC.

 

[Gargaune]

Brujah's taunt (when used with mass manipulation) can encourage a whole team of opponents to drop their weapons, allowing you to turn them on their owners.

What the fuck? So you use "magic" to get enemies to drop their guns and then levitate those guns and have them fire at the enemies... How about you pack a fucking gun?! Seriously, I don't get why they skipped on firearms for this, I only played a bit of the original but it had guns. They sucked, but talk about throwing the baby out with the bath water.

P.S. Another one...

Nobody’s invulnerable to an exploding gas bottle telekinetically thrown at their head

Yeah, I'm pretty sure the telekinesis ain't the determining factor there. Just use your hands, you giant hipster douche!

 

[NecroLord]

Brujah's taunt (when used with mass manipulation) can encourage a whole team of opponents to drop their weapons, allowing you to turn them on their owners.

What the fuck? So you use "magic" to get enemies to drop their guns and then levitate those guns and have them fire at the enemies... How about you pack a fucking gun?! Seriously, I don't get why they skipped on firearms for this, I only played a bit of the original but it had guns. They sucked, but talk about throwing the baby out with the bath water.

Not "magic", but most likely the Presence discipline.
Or did I not understand correctly?

 

[Tyranicon]

So it's a hand-to-hand brawler with awesome buttons, no permanent weapons (?) in a Dishonored format...

How do you miss your target audience this badly?

 

[Gargaune]

Not "magic", but most likely the Presence discipline.

təmeɪtoʊ/təmɑːtoʊ

 

[Vincente]

with awesome buttons

I think you can't translate VtM tabletop disciplines to video game format without making them conversation stat checks or awesome buttons.

 

[Bakir]

Next diary is about The Masquerade.

Are they going to fuck it up?

 

[Roguey]

No Malkavian.
No Toreador.
No Nosferatu.

What the hell kind of Vampire: The Masquerade game is this?

Those all exist in the game world, you just can't play as one. The Hardsuit version had five clans, Troika did too many, which contributed to why it shipped as a mess.

 

[La vie sexuelle]

Next diary is about The Masquerade.

Are they going to fuck it up?

Don't expect anything more than: "If an NPC sees you using your powers, it's game over/the police will come and shoot you." However, in truth, it is difficult to exert control over a player who has decided to break all the rules. The police star rating system is the maximum that can be achieved in this matter.

 

[Roguey]

What the fuck? So you use "magic" to get enemies to drop their guns and then levitate those guns and have them fire at the enemies... How about you pack a fucking gun?! Seriously, I don't get why they skipped on firearms for this, I only played a bit of the original but it had guns. They sucked, but talk about throwing the baby out with the bath water.

All of that requires modeling/animation work they can't afford to do. Simply easier to just have all this stuff float.

Also the fellow in charge of the license feels very strongly that your character should feel like a vampire all the time, and not use regular weapons like a regular person (even though that upholds the masquerade, look just don't think about it)

 

[NecroLord]

No Malkavian.
No Toreador.
No Nosferatu.

What the hell kind of Vampire: The Masquerade game is this?

Those all exist in the game world, you just can't play as one. The Hardsuit version had five clans, Troika did too many, which contributed to why it shipped as a mess.

Troika did right by including almost all of the base clans (Camarilla ones, the Lasombra and Tzimisce are not included).
Playing as a Malkavian is a unique experience that is different from playing as a Nosferatu, who is also different from playing as a Toreador, and so on. While the game itself is rather linear storywise, the world responds to your choice of clan, as well as your decisions.

 

[Roguey]

Troika did right by including almost all of the base clans (Camarilla ones, the Lasombra and Tzimisce are not included).
Playing as a Malkavian is a unique experience that is different from playing as a Nosferatu, who is also different from playing as a Toreador, you know the drill. While the game itself is rather linear storywise, the world responds to your choice of clan, as well as your decisions.

Nosferatu was a massive mistake, it didn't even make much sense given the story (you were seduced by and had sex with a nos...?) and no one at Activision tested it because none of the QA staff wanted to play an ugly vampire.

 

[NecroLord]

you were seduced by and had sex with a nos...?)

There is an Obfuscate ability that allows you to alter your facial appearance - "Mask of a Thousand Faces".
Then there is stuff like Dominate and, of course, the ever useful Presence (make them love you or fear you).

 

[Roguey]

There is an Obfuscate ability that allows you to alter your facial appearance - "Mask of a Thousand Faces".

This is not an ability that's ever mentioned in the game, just head canon to paper over Troika's plot hole.
The manual/in-game text outright states "Disadvantages: They have an appearance of zero that can never be raised, and their Seduction Feat can never be above zero."

Then there is stuff like Dominate and, of course, the ever useful Presence (make them love you or fear you).

Nos in Bloodlines don't have access to either of these, just animalism, potence, and obfuscate (an ability that simply makes you invisible, while higher levels let you do more things and remain invisible).

 

[Gargaune]

All of that requires modeling/animation work they can't afford to do. Simply easier to just have all this stuff float.

Isn't that pushing the budgeting argument a little bit? If you can't afford to put guns in an FPS/RPG, you can't afford to make an FPS/RPG.

Also the fellow in charge of the license feels very strongly that your character should feel like a vampire all the time, and not use regular weapons like a regular person (even though that upholds the masquerade, look just don't think about it)

That I can understand, but it seems like a risky position seeing as you're making a sequel to a game that had firearms as part of its seemingly successful "vampires in the 21st century" interpretation. The first Bloodlines was an FPS/RPG, clunky on the first part, but the safe bet would be to improve the shooting, not slam the banhammer on it.

 

[Roguey]

That I can understand, but it seems like a risky position seeing as you're making a sequel to a game that had firearms as part of its seemingly successful "vampires in the 21st century" interpretation. The first Bloodlines was an FPS/RPG, clunky on the first part, but the safe bet would be to improve the shooting, not slam the banhammer on it.

"I actually played Bloodlines 1 quite recently, and it is a good game, but it is also an old game, and there are many things that would not fly today," Lilja said. "But I understand why people were super psyched by it in 2004, because it had a lot of cool [elements], and the feeling of being a vampire is really strong, regardless of other features. But I think people, they remember their feelings about it. And if they replayed it, I think they would see that it's a competently good game by 2004 standards, now that it's patched.


"But mainly we want to clarify that we're making a spiritual successor, not an actual same blueprint type of game, so people don't get disappointed and feel cheated," Lilja went on. "We really don't want that."

 

[KeAShizuku]

Yeah yeah it was a buggy mess at launch. Guess what that shit mattered in the 2000s

We are now in the era of 20 gigabyte first day patches.
CP2077 had a complete relaunch.

 

[Storyfag]

you were seduced by and had sex with a nos...?)

There is an Obfuscate ability that allows you to alter your facial appearance - "Mask of a Thousand Faces".
Then there is stuff like Dominate and, of course, the ever useful Presence (make them love you or fear you).

How dreadful of you to ninja me so perfidiously.

 

[Roguey]

Yeah yeah it was a buggy mess at launch. Guess what that shit mattered in the 2000s

We are now in the era of 20 gigabyte first day patches.
CP2077 had a complete relaunch.

They could afford it. Paradox cannot, and have already made it clear they're going to drop support asap.

 

[Ibn Sina]

Unique attack animations for each clan is incline more than all clans sharing the same brawling animations even when it does not make sense regarding different backgrounds.