Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 is a sequel to a game from over 20 years ago, and as a result, the two RPGs don’t look similar. The art is modernized, and between the combat overhaul, the more linear approach to storytelling, and a completely new developer, it does raise a big question: why call it Bloodlines 2? After all, if the new game is so different from the original, why tie it to that game instead of calling it something new? On our exclusive cover story trip to Brighton, England, we asked the developers at The Chinese Room this exact question, and they had a few responses.
An alley in Bloodlines 2
When I ask creative director Alex Skidmore why the game is called Bloodlines 2 instead of something else, he thinks for a while, then starts his answer by saying, “It’s what we were asked to do.” It’s an honest response. Notoriously, Bloodlines 2 was originally being made by Hardsuit Labs and got far enough in development to be shown at E3 2019, but the next two years were filled with delays, departures, and ultimately, the decision to remove Hardsuit Labs from the project entirely. The Chinese Room took its place, and since it was working on a project that had already been announced, it didn’t have much of a choice – this game would always be called Bloodlines 2.
It raises a more interesting question, however. What exactly makes a game a Bloodlines game? It’s a series with only one prior entry, and modernizing it, while largely for the better, creates massive differences.
It makes me think about game series like Assassin’s Creed. In its early days, I would have said it was defined by stealth, parkour, and the relationship between the past and modern day, but later entries de-emphasized all three of these traits, and the series is still going strong. It was a gradual shift, however; a jump straight from Assassin’s Creed 1 to Assassin’s Creed Shadows would be jarring, and that’s a timespan several years shorter than between the Bloodlines games.
Ultimately, you could ask a hundred fans of a game what its defining characteristics are, and no two lists would be identical. When I ask narrative director Ian Thomas what stood out about the original Bloodlines, he says, “I think that’s difficult to say from person to person, because everybody has a personal experience of it. For me, what it was so good at was atmosphere. Just completely drenched everything in atmosphere.
A street in Bloodlines 1
“The same, I think, is true of a lot of old games,” Thomas continues. “[The parts] which stick, certainly to a story game player like me, tend to be the atmosphere, the music, the lighting, the characters that you meet. Those tend to be the key ingredients for me.”
Naturally, he says the atmosphere is one of the main elements they tried to nail in the sequel: “You can meet the people and juggle the politics between them, which is very much [like] the old Bloodlines. […] But again, as I said earlier, for me, the original Bloodlines was so much about being drenched in that atmosphere, and I like to think we carry that off really well, to try and give you the same kind of feel to it.”
A vampire in Bloodlines 1
He concludes by saying the tone and the feel of Bloodlines inspired the sequel’s plot as well. “Even if, beat by beat, the story doesn’t directly descend from Bloodlines 1, the same feel – and the same shape – is there, and we’re showing almost the same kind of set of playing pieces, just in a new stage in a different state,” he says.
Unlike the newly embraced Kindred in the original game, Phyre, Bloodlines 2’s protagonist, is an elder vampire. That said, they start the game by waking up in an unfamiliar city after a 100-year sleep, so they’re practically just as new to the game’s world as a Bloodlines 1 protagonist. The game still has factions to manage, choices to make, and rules to abide by, even if this sequel seems to be more linear than its predecessor. Like Thomas says, the beats are different, but they form a familiar shape.
Still, I expect the changes may upset some diehard fans of the original, especially the fact that the base version of Bloodlines 2 only includes four clan options for Phyre (compared to the original’s seven) and excludes some of the most game-altering options, like Malkavian and Nosferatu. On the other hand, I am very excited for the new combat system. I didn’t know I wanted it until I tried it, and now I’m (pun-intended) hungry for more.
A bar fight in Bloodlines 2
While Skidmore started by saying Bloodlines 2 was what he was “asked to do,” his full response is much more thorough.
“We wanted to broaden our capability and showcase extra skills that we could do,” Skidmore says. “Because you can tell deeper stories when you get deeper mechanics, a story where you can be violent within it […] In this game, there are story choices – I don’t want to spoil them too much – where you will have people’s lives in your hands. We don’t have that in our other games. So as a studio, we’ve grabbed this opportunity with both hands.
“The World of Darkness fits our storytelling, our sort of mature style of storytelling. So ultimately, this Bloodlines 2 is what happens when The Chinese Room makes a Bloodlines 2.”
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 is out this October. For more on the game, check out our hands-on discussion during The Game Informer Show, our interview with the art director, or our exclusive digital cover story.