Paradox is happy with progress of Bloodlines 2

[Vinland]

https://www.gamewatcher.com/news/paradox-interactive-vampire-the-masquerade-bloodlines-2-progress-happy

"The new developer is doing quite well and we are happy with the progress of the project now, but it's still quite some time before we can start talking about release dates," CFO Alexander Bricca said during the company's Q3 interim report livestream.

"We prefer to give the studio a situation where they can focus fully on the game development and not having to address fans reaching out to them so, therefore, we have so far not disclosed the name of the studio, and we are very happy to keep it that way for still some time."

Although knowing that we'll have to wait longer before learning who helms Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2's development will be frustrating for some fans, the fact that the project is progressing well should, at least, put to rest any worries regarding its cancelation.

[Barabbah]

Finally some news. Although a bit vague. Oh well.

[Pyoro-2]

There's a small chance they'll say something next week, when they do their yearly report on how things are going etc.
https://twitter.com/PdxInteractive/status/1493228358435590149

[Monjh]

Unfortunately, old news (Nov 2021). That is one of the reasons that I think they are either canning the game or doing a release on the down low.

[Barabbah]

I don't know.


Anyway, honestly: if we know the name of the guys who are supposedly working on the game won't we harass them in order to know what the hell happened? And we already know the answer, when Avellone wrote that blog to clear his name what was the first thing we asked him? Not how he was feeling or anything related to him. No, we asked about Bloodlines 2. So much for a community :/

[Monjh]

I'm not worried about who is doing it, I'm worried we have no news at all (let's be honest, that is an excuse to not say that the game is in either the limbo or nowhere anything near a game now).


If they had something concrete (even concept art) I would be less worried - not happy, but without the imrpession that nothing is being done. They have now even less to show for than Elizabeth Holmes (Theranos) had to show for. THAT is what worries me.

[Wilhelm-Streicher]

Well i think that the Hardsuit Labs version of Bloodlines 2 is pretty much dead and the one from the unknown studio is a complete new game which for obvious reasons takes some time for a new revival.

In my opinion they should rename this game. It has very likely nothing to do with Mitsoda vision and i don´t think that they could greatly benefit from the name anymore.
Yes Bloodlines 1 has a great reputation but Bloodlines 2 with all the scandals is pretty much dead on arrival.

[Monjh]

Well i think that the Hardsuit Labs version of Bloodlines 2 is pretty much dead and the one from the unknown studio is a complete new game which for obvious reasons takes some time for a new revival.

In my opinion they should rename this game. It has very likely nothing to do with Mitsoda vision and i don´t think that they could greatly benefit from the name anymore.
Yes Bloodlines 1 has a great reputation but Bloodlines 2 with all the scandals is pretty much dead on arrival.

That I can agree (in parts) - what I'm still skeptical is that the game will be made. I hope I'm wrong.

[Wilhelm-Streicher]

That I can agree (in parts) - what I'm still skeptical is that the game will be made. I hope I'm wrong.

Even if Bloodlines 2 sucks pretty bad i would play it just for curiosity. At this time is like Duke Nukem Forever.

[Monjh]

That I can agree (in parts) - what I'm still skeptical is that the game will be made. I hope I'm wrong.

Even if Bloodlines 2 sucks pretty bad i would play it just for curiosity. At this time is like Duke Nukem Forever.

Hey, I hear you. I want to play V Rising (and I DESPISE open-world PvP) just because of the game basis.

[Pyoro-2]

Everyone complaining about what Paradox is doing with their WoD license can now apply for the job and do better:
https://career.paradoxplaza.com/jobs/1565182-licensing-manager-world-of-darkness-freelance-agent-or-employment

;)

As for the PDX report:

I don't know whether there's anything concrete about BL2 in there; I don't think so. But there's a lot about they want to approach things differently and weren't satisfied with how things went so far with 3rd party devs. In general it comes across that they really soured on 3rd party development; at least with whatever method they had in place with them so far. They'll still do them but they want it to be different.

[Compassion]

I really dont get why its a problem that we dont know the developer.

To me, all that actually matters is the final game.

Which unfortunately I rather expect to hate, because that usually the case with new games.


Especially if they made them for "a younger audience". I.e. it got dumbed down because the audience is expected to get more and more stupid, and cannot handle complexity.

Which is the vibe I got from the previous developer.

But hey, hope dies last. And maybe they make a game for roleplayers who can handle complexity.


Not that the original game was actually very complex. It was already a very simple rulesystem, compared to most other rulesystems for roleplaying games.

Another favorite game of mine is the two Baldurs Gates from the original Bioware, before it turned into EA. Especially the second part Baldurs Gate II: Shadows of Amn had hundreds of different spells. Now thats actual complexity.


P.s.: Either way that Paradox is happy with the current state is not a bad sign. Again, hope dies last.

[Wesp5]

Especially if they made them for "a younger audience". I.e. it got dumbed down because the audience is expected to get more and more stupid, and cannot handle complexity.

Which is the vibe I got from the previous developer.

I never got that impression, rather the contrary. The player starting as a Thin Blood with their own choice of three Disciplines and then turning into a full vampire mid game with another set of Disciplines would have made the game more complicated than Bloodlines! At least from the Disciplines side of things...

[Vinland]

Especially if they made them for "a younger audience". I.e. it got dumbed down because the audience is expected to get more and more stupid, and cannot handle complexity.

Which is the vibe I got from the previous developer.

I never got that impression, rather the contrary. The player starting as a Thin Blood with their own choice of three Disciplines and then turning into a full vampire mid game with another set of Disciplines would have made the game more complicated than Bloodlines! At least from the Disciplines side of things...

You start with a single thin blood discipline. When you upgrade to full vampire, you get two clan disciplines for a total of three. Not really complex. Learning "spells" as you play is an RPG staple.

[Compassion]

Yes, thats how I understood it as well, and at least how Wikipedia describes it. Not that Wikipedia is really reliable.

Also, how exactly do you "upgrade", anyway ? Diablerie ?!? I know of no other way to lower your generation in The Masquerade ?

They also mentioned theres mostly melee weapons, hardly any ranged weapons anymore. Why ?

Also apparently you're forced into first person, for most of the time. Why ?

Also theres only five clans. The first game already only implemented 7 of the 13, which could be seen as reasonable because the other 6 arent really that likely to be in the Camerilla, or in case of the Giovanni really wouldnt make too much sense for the backstory - but now only 5 ? Both Grangel and Nosferatu are some of the more interesting clans, too. If they had lost Brujah and Ventrue, I wouldnt really complain, they both play a lot like Toreador anyway. Especially Brujah if you compensate for their initial lack of social skills.

And why did these clans all lose one discipline, anyway ? For example both Brujah and Ventrue lost Presence.