Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2

Would Mass Effect been the same without voiced?

Would Baldur's Gate 3 be the same with voiced?

Depends on the game and how it is implemented
Example of how it was implemented badly: Fallout 4

There is no right answer for this
 
I really dislike this already announcing 2 clans will be held back for DLC.

 
Fourth clan is venture.very disappointed that malkavian isn't part of the base game.

 
It seems that there is still uncertainty hinging over this game. Paradox hopes that it will be released in Q1/Q2 2025, but they will be done with the IP. Paradox has decided not to produce Bloodlines 3. Though they are in the view that The Chinese Room is delivering on their vision, cancellation may loom.

I hope that Bloodlines 2 goes gold, but this game has gone through development hell and has been a strain on Paradox. The latest postponement did seem like they weren't happy with what they had. I think it had more to do with the game-time though.

May the Chinese Room create an outstanding game.

There is an article:


But let’s go back to Bloodlines 2. “I’m very confident that we’re going to release Bloodlines 2,” Lilja states, causing this writer to let out an obnoxiously large ‘phew.’ “I’m actually quite confident that we’re going to release it in the first half of next year.

“Of course when you change developer midway through you’ve accumulated cost, but this time we gave The Chinese Room the game and went ‘this is the vision, this is what’s been done so far, but you own it.’ They have full ownership and many degrees of freedom, and they’re actually delivering a game that’s starting to look like what we really want.

“I’m starting to feel confident about Bloodlines 2, and that’s why it still exists of course; we think it’s doable and it’s worth doing.”

Lilja acknowledges player concerns about the last-minute, Life by You-style cancellation, noting that “changing developer is the step before you stop.” He reiterates, however, that “we will reach the game[‘s release], we think we know when, and we hope people will like it.”
 
At this point it should just be canned
I have no faith in Paradox as a publisher and no faith in the industry to not destroy it by adding unnecessary 'inclusive' content in spite of gameplay
 

Paradox on Bloodlines 2: "We had a game we could do, but maybe not with the team we had"​


...

Mattias Lilja on the "high risk manoeuvre" of changing dev

Development picked up where previous developer Hardsuit Labs left it after being dropped from the project in 2021, with Lilja clarifying that "like with any new studio coming in and having their own idea," Paradox let The Chinese Room decide what to carry over and out.

"Generally, it's a continuation of the same vision but they had to make it theirs," he says, adding that Paradox is looking at "the first half of 2025" as the release window and that the team is tracking well against that.

"When a game has been going this long with a sizable team in Seattle for a number of years before we moved it... It might have commercial challenges, but we liked the direction," he continues. "I'm a huge World of Darkness fan myself. So, when I play it, I'm starting to see that actually you're in that world, which is the experience we're going for."


He adds that players are probably going to compare it to Bloodlines 1 and, in terms of how it's going to play, "people who have seen it talk about Dishonored."

"So it's a bit more of an action RPG, but very steeped in the lore in the sense that you're a vampire in World of Darkness," he adds.

We ask him exactly what The Chinese Room provides that Hardsuit did not, and what the new developer brings to the table.

"Hardsuit Labs has many qualities – [but] they've never done something on this scale," Lilja says. "So that was basically building the team as they were building the game and that turned out to be very tough. And they were not shy to say so. Chinese Room is a more stable developer, so they could attack this with more confidence I'd say. And we had more confidence that they could deliver what we saw, the early work that they did.

"So it's the experience with this type of game. I mean, if you look at the Chinese Room… Crafting a game with this very tight story and a tight setting is very much what they do."
 
Seems it has changed quite a lot. Seems to now be an action game with a linear story instead of a crpg as was the original announcement...

If its only a spiritual successor as they now claim and not a followup they shouldn't be using bloodlines 2 as the name..

 
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Seems it has changed quite a lot. Seems to now be an action game with a linear story instead of a crpg as was the original announcement...

If its only a spiritual successor as they now claim and not a followup they shouldn't be using bloodlines 2 as the name..


I am curious what is being meant by this?

"I like the first game as well a lot, but we want to clarify what this game is, so people have a clear understanding of what they're buying, so they don't come in with weird expectations - because we don't want that, we want them to understand that this is an action RPG with a storyline that is more fixed. It's not the open sim it maybe shouldn't be compared to. Again, we want people to understand what they're getting into."

"I actually played Bloodlines 1 quite recently, and it is a good game, but it is also an old game, and there are many things that would not fly today," Lilja said. "But I understand why people were super psyched by it in 2004, because it had a lot of cool [elements], and the feeling of being a vampire is really strong, regardless of other features. But I think people, they remember their feelings about it. And if they replayed it, I think they would see that it's a competently good game by 2004 standards, now that it's patched.

"But mainly we want to clarify that we're making a spiritual successor, not an actual same blueprint type of game, so people don't get disappointed and feel cheated," Lilja went on. "We really don't want that."

The original trailers did make it seem that the world is more open, but perhaps they had to cut budget when dropping Hardsuit Labs. Hardsuit Labs also being a odd choice. Maybe Paradox did want to change the game's recipe. As Mattias also said back in 2023:

He also suggested that Bloodlines hasn't aged all that well, and that taking inspiration from it too zealously could be counter-productive.

I played Bloodlines many ages ago, but I also replayed it with texture and uncut content mods (which also patches the game) and to be honest I thought the game was brilliant. Other than the Vampiric and occult themes, you see the other themes in games like Cyberpunk. Nobody expected a big world like Cyberpunk, either, but something more along Deus Ex which is open, but still linear very much like the original Bloodlines. Deus Ex also have those other themes. Developers like Obsidian and Larian work with those themes which hasn't aged well, all the time, to their strengths, zealously.

Just a odd suggestion.

As long as the game is good. I am OK.
 
At this point it should just be canned
I have no faith in Paradox as a publisher and no faith in the industry to not destroy it by adding unnecessary 'inclusive' content in spite of gameplay
There has been overwhelming evidence that the game is another unfortunate victim of the non-existant modern audience
 
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