Vampire: The Masquerade — Bloodlines 2: Emerging from Development Purgatory
Sometimes games in development purgatory appear as though they will never see the light of day. For an extremely long time, Vampire: The Masquerade — Bloodlines 2 appeared to be one such game. But hold on to your Kindred – it looks like an escape from the shadows has been found.
Mark Your Calendars: A Fall Awakening
After an enormous delay spanning five years, the creators at The Chinese Room have now officially announced a fresh release date. Bloodlines 2 is currently due to come out this Fall, October precisely. According to them, the game's content has been completed. The developers are now hard at work in the activity of polishing, bug-squashing, and optimizing performance.
First Impressions: Better Than Expected
Along with the release window reveal, a few gaming media got a head start on hands-on with the game, playing through the start and portions of the next areas. The response was a welcome surprise. Critics were particularly impressed with the combat.
Gritty Combat and Engaging Dialogue
- Gritty Combat: Critics applauded a responsive and efficient combat system. They compared it to games like Dishonored in its focus on utilizing powerful vampiric abilities alongside melee attacks.
- Inspirational Decisions: The choice of vampire clan really has a big impact on how the rest of the cast reacts to and acts around you.
- Rich Conversations: The system of dialogue also seems to be rich, with the player needing to be mindful. You seemingly cannot just click through all the options; some lines can completely shift the direction of the conversation.
- Living Relationships: NPCs remember past encounters. Being rude and then trying to suck up to someone would lead to sarcasm, a richer and more dynamic relationship system.
Some critics felt the world of the game itself was a bit sparsely populated or empty in their preview.
Other Gameplay Morsels Revealed
- Agile Movement: Expect parkour-style movement, roof-hopping, and even a glide-like system à la games like Prototype.
- Sustaining the Masquerade: Getting caught employing your vampiric skills out in the open is not clever. Taking part in so does trigger a hunt, pouring down the authorities or even other vampires on your head.
- Blood's Power: To unlock access to new skills, you will have to prey upon humans when they are in states of unusually heightened emotions like rage, fear, or elation, with some strategic finesse to feeding.
A Glimmer of Hope for Bloodlines 2
Overall, the previews suggest Bloodlines 2 is in much healthier shape than most would have anticipated. Even the publisher, Paradox, had had serious doubts about the project previously. For long-suffering fans who have waited all this time, this deluge of positive responses and a firm release window is definitely welcome news.
