Pdx to publish Vampire - The Masquerade: Bloodlines 2 in 2020

[jimmy olsen]

The Little Mermaid has an evil witch and killer eels but I wouldn't exactly call it horror.

[Sophie Scholl]

The Little Mermaid has an evil witch and killer eels but I wouldn't exactly call it horror.

The prequel, though...

Did you know:

Ariel spent her early life as a pirate who would lure unsuspecting ships to their doom onto shoals so that she could plunder the wrecks for thingamabobs!
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[HVC]

Too white.

[viper37]

Meaning you want a game with vampires, werewolves, and ghosts, but you don't want it to be scary?

If so that makes sense, I'm just trying to understand what you want.

The Witcher isn't scary.  Yet, it has vampires, werewolves and ghosts.
And the vampires aren't glittery.

[garbon]

Now been pushed back to 2025

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/developer-diary/whats-next-for-bloodlines-2.1700156/

To quickly recap, Mattias and Alex share:

Bloodlines 2's release window has been updated to the first half of 2025.

Paradox and The Chinese Room's commitment to delivering a high-quality action RPG for Vampire fans, new and old.

Some of the things they're excited about working on with the additional time.

The Chinese Room and Paradox will continue to post frequent updates, including Dev Diaries, deep dives, and more. We are not going into a quiet period; our teams have been hard at work making the best possible Vampire Action RPG and have lots of cool stuff to share.

Why are you updating the release window?
Earlier this year, Paradox reaffirmed our commitment to delivering high-quality games to our players, and the launch update is a proactive decision derived from this commitment. Though the game is in a good enough place that we could have maintained our planned release window, Paradox and The Chinese Room collaboratively decided to prioritize polish.

What will the additional time be used for?
It will be used to create a quality assurance buffer, giving more time between testing and launch, ensuring we release the game when it's ready. The extra time gives us an opportunity to adjust certain areas, such as Fabien, and incorporate other community feedback.

We will also use the time to expand the game's story, and now Bloodlines 2 will have more than twice as many endings as its predecessor.

[Caliga]

Fine with me.  Just don't release a pile of bug-ridden trash.

[Valmy]

Just make it good. We already have a Bloodlines game that failed to live up to its potential, we don't need another one.

[Josquius]

I really do wonder what's wrong in paradox. Nothing is going their way.

Though a properly debugged and complete bloodlines would be nice.

Still fingers crossed for low horror.

[Valmy]

Kids today seem to love horror games. Might be a winning move.

Of course that probably isn't the target audience 

[Syt]

With a slight delay, the game will actually come out, October 21st.

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/vampire-the-masquerade-bloodlines-2-finally-has-a-full-release-date-plus-a-bloody-good-new-trailer

"Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 has been delayed again, this time until the second half of 2025," Edwin wrote in March this year. Today I write: Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 has been given a full release date at tonight's Gamescom Opening Night Live, along with a fresh trailer.

To this point, the tale of Bloodlines 2 has been one of fan swearing induced by delays that have been a seriously regular occurence. Originally worked on by Hardsuit Labs, the game's current devs The Chinese Room have said they're going for more of a spiritual successor than straight sequel. As of that last delay earlier this year, they were also very keen not to release it in as buggy a form as another Paradox project, Cities: Skylines 2.

That brings us to today, and Bloodlines 2's appearance at 2025's Gamescom Keighleyfest. It'll release on October 21st, The Chinese Room have revealed, narrowing down the previously given window to one date that's just about close enough to halloween.

You can check out the new trailer that revealed the new date above. As you'd imagine, it contains plenty of vampirey goodness, with the player literally exploding someone into a big blood splatter at one point by cheekily messing with their heart. As Fabien and Phyre, you'll be unravelling mysteries from the past and roaming modern day Seattle.

Everything keeps coming back to a tree surrounded by sunflowers in a field that's permanently coated in an eerie orange sunset hue, where someone's chilling out as they wait for Phyre. Hopefully Phyre's on time. Vampires, assuming this shadowy figure is one, can be sticklers for promptness, especially when dawn's nearing.

Overall, it looks pretty cool, speaking some someone who enjoyed The Chinese Room's Scottish oil rig horror flick Still Wakes the Deep last year. There don't look to be any Scottish vampires in Bloodlines 2, which is a little disappointing, but to be fair this is only a two-minute look at it. The real question, though, will be how well it matches up or doesn't with the expectations of the long-suffering crypt-dwellers who really dug their teeth into Troika Games' original Bloodlines. Especially given how much the vision behind it looks to have evolved as it's stalked through the night of a pretty tumultuous development.

We'll find out on October 21st, assuming no more delays are lurking down shadowy alleyways.