Out of the shadows, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 has emerged with a rare look at gameplay in a new trailer. A sequel that some ageing RPG fans have been waiting two decades for, Bloodlines 2 was supposed to be out several times over by now and is currently targeting a broad Q1/Q2 2025 release window on PS5.
Developed by Troika Games and polished by Activision, the original Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines was released on PC in 2004, and if you owned a trench coat at the time, chances are it was your favourite game. Considered a masterpiece by many genre enthusiasts, it was a nightmare to make, released in an abysmal state, and later patched extensively by the community.
Bloodlines 2, meanwhile, appears to be afflicted by the same curse and has been in development in some shape or another since 2016. Hardsuit Labs was ultimately removed from the project by publisher Paradox in 2021, taking it internally. That didn't seem to work out either because, in 2023, it was announced that British studio The Chinese Room (Dear Esther, Everybody's Gone to the Rapture) would take charge, which brings us to today.