At PAX West 2023, Paradox has re-revealed Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2. The game was first revealed back in 2019, but development for the game had went under which resulting many of key staff associated with the development leaving, the project delayed indefinitely, and the main development team Hardsuit Labs, which was owned by Paradox, to be sold off.
As hinted earlier this year, Bloodlines 2 was going to resurface this month and it did. The new trailer revealed the new developer for the game and it’s The Chinese Room. This is the team famous for moody, spooky first-person horror games like Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture, Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs and Dear Esther. And more recently, Little Orpheus.
And no, this isn’t a walking simulator either. The trailer explicitly shows hand-to-hand combat featuring vampire powers. The dark, brooding setting of night-time Seattle looks good and so are the characters, who all seemed to be new faces.
How much of this version of Bloodlines 2 carries over the work done that Hardsuit Labs attempted remains to be seen. The setting and story point seems similar for now.
Bloodlines 2 is targeting a Fall (Q4) 2024 release for PS5, PC (Steam, Epic Games Store, GOG) and Xbox Series X|S.