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Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 is one of the most embattled new games on 2025's roster. Last year's gameplay reveal left many World of Darkness fans feeling tepid toward it – myself included. When I read my editor's impressions in his recent Bloodlines 2 hands-on preview, I felt the flames of hope spark up once more. However, following the new release date trailer shown at Gamescom Opening Night Live, the community's skepticism has only intensified.
I get it. After numerous delays and a total rework that saw it picked up by Still Wake the Deep developer The Chinese Room, the upcoming RPG had a lot to live up to. Specifically, the legacy carved out by Troika's 2004 cult classic, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines. At face value, I agree that the sequel and its predecessor look like night and day next to each other. But I'm still not going to judge The Chinese Room too hard for the direction it's taken things, because if I really think about it, Bloodlines 2's very existence is a miracle in itself.
Just a sip
One of the biggest criticisms I've been reading is that Bloodlines 2 looks far too combat-oriented compared to the first game.
With its slick, first-person combat, comparisons to Dishonored sound pretty fair in my book, but at the same time, that's because The Chinese Room has a lot to prove when so many of us panned the rough, blocky look of its combat last February. Still, it makes sense that fans of the first Bloodlines weren't expecting anything of the sort to begin with.
The original Vampire RPG drew more heavily and recognizably from the tabletop game it's based on, being a more narrative-focused experience than a combat one. But while The Chinese Room is targeting an immersive combat experience more in-line with modern RPGs, it's worth pointing out that the studio has already stipulated in a dev diary that three kinds of gameplay styles will be implemented to help players tailor their approach – Strategic Stalker, Action Brawler, and Narrative Adventurer. Why only one of those three has been focused on in gameplay reveals is a little unfortunate, but it does show acknowledgement of the RPG's tabletop roots.
But even with the fact that we could be able to play Bloodlines 2 in a more old-school way, another big complaint is still the fact that our protagonist, Phyre, is a customizable set character rather than a wholly player-made creation.
I've spoken in the past about how that could be a good thing in itself (especially off the back of playing Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong). But given The Chinese Room's past mention of wanting to make a thoroughly modern game with Bloodlines 2, I can't fault the studio for simply getting with the times.
Telling tales
Working off expectations set by a now-defunct studio is no small task...
From Cyberpunk 2077 to The Witcher 3 and Red Dead Redemption 2, character-driven games have proven to be incredibly popular in the last decade, and Bloodlines 2 is simply following suit.
These games tell focused stories about specific people, and though we have a lot of customization and role-playing choices to make in them, the plots largely follow a set of predetermined outcomes. Even Baldur's Gate 3's most intriguing character background, The Dark Urge, is more narrativized than simply playing a player-made character. Larian's increased control over storytelling makes it one of the most memorable and best video game stories I've ever encountered, and no other playthrough has ever come close to how much I enjoyed my Durge run.
I might be an outlier in saying so, but I adore playing games for the plot. I like to get to know my protagonists and root for them, making decisions I feel would reflect their own characteristics and psychologies, and I'm excited to have that same opportunity in Bloodlines 2.
The Chinese Room had a lot of time to make up for when it took on the project in 2021, but the fact that we're getting a Bloodlines 2 at all makes me incredibly grateful. Working off expectations set by a now-defunct studio is no small task, even with the day-one extra clan DLC announcement causing (understable yet) unexpected backlash from fans. The Chinese Room still has a chance to deliver something awesome, once it does it a little damage control. Plus, if it's good enough for Larian's own Swen Vincke, it's good enough for me to at least give it a chance, too.
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