Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines PS5 PlayStation

In strict accordance with the traditions of The Masquerade, the ancient mandate that decrees all vampire kindred must live in a way that does not reveal their existence to humans, we haven't heard much about Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 lately. The sequel to one of the most groundbreaking CRPGs ever made, it was supposed to be out several times over by now; like its predecessor, it seems like a major headache for everyone involved.

PC Gamer spoke to a frankly fed-up-sounding Paradox Interactive deputy CEO, Mattias Lilja, who recounted the ordeal and said that even if the game is successful, they don't want to handle a potential sequel: "It is not in our strategic direction to make this kind of game. So if Bloodlines 2, God willing, is successful, Bloodlines 3 [will be] done by someone else, on the licence from us. I would say it's the sort of strategic way this would work. So it's still an outlier from what we're supposed to do; we don't know that stuff, so we should probably let other people do it."

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Bloodlines 2 was announced in 2019, in development since 2015 by Hard Suit. It was supposed to be out in 2020 but slipped to 2021 before ultimately being delayed indefinitely. Hard Suit was canned in favour of The Chinese Room, the British developer best known for Dear Esther and Everybody's Gone to the Rapture. Lilja said: "If we hadn't found The Chinese Room and seen what they'd done with the early work, [cancellation] would have been the next logical step because we could not continue as we did."

A PS5 port was announced and the game itself, again, was supposed to be out months ago, and we got some pretty rough gameplay. It's now tentatively set to release in the first half of 2025. Not inspiring us with much confidence, Lilja said, "It's been in development a very long time, but we are starting to see the game shape up to be something we can... we think it will be a World of Darkness experience".

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, developed by Troika Games for PC, was released in 2004, set in White Wolf's World of Darkness tabletop RPG universe. It was famously challenging to make and released in a disappointing state, with modders fixing the worst issues later. However, it offered a massive amount of narrative, character choice, and replayability, which was still relatively new in the 3D RPG space. Its sequel could change the video game landscape in another universe, sharing parallels and providence with 2023's smash-hit Baldur's Gate 3.

Are you holding out hope for Vampire: The Masquerade—Bloodlines 2? What do you think of Lilja's comments? Act like a Malkavian in the comments section below.

[source pcgamer.com]