Paradox assures fans Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 has not been canceled

[Cal Jeffrey]

Highly anticipated: Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines is still in the works despite its publisher's lack of communication on the title. Paradox Interactive dropped some screenshots into its Steam page and told fans it is still working on the game and would have more information – perhaps even a release date this fall.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 producer Paradox Interactive broke cover on Wednesday after a long hiatus to update fans on the heavily delayed game. The company acknowledges that it has been a long time since its last community update and that some fans who pre-ordered long ago might not be too happy about the delays and radio silence.

Paradox assures us it is still working on the game and will have more to show the community in September. In the meantime, it offered an optional refund to customers with digital pre-orders. Additionally, those who pre-ordered physical copies, including the Collector's Edition, will receive automatic "proactive" refunds.

Paradox said it is canceling physical orders because it wants to update all editions to provide players with the "best value possible." While it didn't specify what would change with physical discs, the game's FAQ indicates Paradox wants to include more bonuses in the hard copies. Refunding everyone pushes the reset button allowing them to re-choose a version once it announces the new editions or to not buy the game at all.

Meanwhile, we peppered this post with new screenshots to tide fans over until Paradox's September update (masthead is not new). Whether the publisher will have a possible release window at that time is unclear.

The delays are probably excruciating for fans who have waited almost 20 years for a sequel to the beloved original based on the tabletop RPG Vampire: The Masquerade by White Wolf Publishing. Two other licensed titles – Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong and Bloodhunt – were met with chilly receptions. Their mediocre metascores were likely due to the developers venturing too far from the original title's RPG origins.

Studio Big Bad Wolf reimagined Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong as a linear narrative, like Heavy Rain but with RPG elements. Metacritic rated it in the low to mid-60s. Bloodhunt, developed by Sharkmob, rewrote the classic RPG into a battle-royale-style game. Players were slightly more receptive to this format, but the game couldn't break out of the mid-70s on PC or PS5.

The two non-Paradox entries also had fans who were long-anticipating Bloodlines confused as to whether the title had gone through a name change or something since both games launched within months of each other last year – its last known release window. I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit that I accidentally bought Swansong for that very reason.

Whenever it finally releases, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 should be available for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbone, and Xbox Series consoles, barring any unannounced platform cancelation decisions. If you haven't played the original game, it's dated but worth the $20 asking price on Steam as long as you have a potato (or VM) still running Windows XP or earlier.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/98985-paradox-assures-fans-vampire-masquerade-bloodlines-2-has.html

 

[gamerk2]

I'm getting the sense Paradox may be spreading itself too thin; a bunch of its recent titles have been "meh" at best.

 

[Julnor]

There's a patch for VtMB that adds content, fixes issues and gets it working on modern systems. There's even a version of the patch to not add any content, but I think the additional content is seamless and was intended anyway.

I'd say get the GOG version but I guess it doesn't matter, it also goes on sale for like $5 fairly often.

The game does some good things but it's also painfully obvious they ran out of budget after the first two areas of the game. The latter half of the game is full of endless samey hallways filled with bullet sponge enemies and the tiniest social/story areas I've probably ever seen. Hollywood is like half a street and Chinatown is a street corner. Still fun, but don't pick Nosferatu your first playthrough (probably don't ever need to pick them) and don't pick Malkavorian until after one playthrough (and they have the same budget constraints where the game clearly stops caring after the first two areas). Also remember this is dated/set in the late'90s/early-00s at the latest. It's actually kind of fun to go back and see how different the world was back then, easy to forget both our daily lives and in games.

 

[sorten]

I can't believe this title is still alive. I was very excited to check it out early in the pandemic. I hope it finally gets released, but I've stopped checking for progress at this point. If it shows up, I'll be pleasantly surprised.

The first game was a lot of fun. It was released long before emo teen vampires showed up in Hollywood.