When a major release fails, the question eventually asked is, “How obvious was the writing on the wall? And how early?” With Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2, there are so many potential points, but I’m going against the grain and saying that it was immediately after its announcement. Despite its beloved status among fans (and for good reason), the first game commercially bombed. The number of bugs and issues is also plentiful enough to justify installing an unofficial patch made by fans.
Following its acquisition of White Wolf and the World of Darkness IP, Paradox’s announcement of a sequel in March 2019 just felt completely out of left field. How would it possibly handle a role-playing game, that too with combat that it was completely alien to, even if a new studio, Hardsuit Labs, was in charge? Nevertheless, a branching narrative lasting 25 to 30 hours that would force touch decisions alongside improvements to the most dated aspects of the original were promised. It would even launch in 2020 – a complete pipe dream in retrospect.
However, there was some hope because Brian Mitsoda, who served as lead writer for the first game, was the lead narrative designer. The premise of a Thinblood turned vampire following a sudden break of the Masquerade on Christmas proved intriguing, and plans to offer combat inspired by Dishonored weren’t the worst in the world. Then again, even if Bloodlines 2 fell flat with its combat, it wouldn’t have been the biggest loss for fans if they could experience a story and world similar to the first from a key figure who understood how to capture the atmosphere of the setting.
Alas, it wasn’t meant to be. After Bloodlines 2 was delayed in August 2020, Mitsoda and creative director Ka’ai Cluney suddenly left the team. Mitsoda later revealed that he was “suddenly terminated” rather than leaving by choice, and it’s all the more baffling since he didn’t believe that the delays were due to anything on the narrative side.
By now, you know the drill. Hardsuit Labs was removed from development in February 2021, and The Chinese Room, better known for narrative-focused adventure games like Still Wakes the Deep, took over at an unknown time. While it reused the art and levels by Hardsuit, everything else changed. You were now an Elder vampire who lost their memories; there were now four clans instead of five (which eventually became six due to backlash against two being locked behind DLC). Pretty much everything saw an overhaul, which should have been the second warning for Paradox Interactive.
Now that it’s finally out, Bloodlines 2 is the quintessential example of everything that a sequel shouldn’t be. We’re not just talking about how the world is represented, the lackluster story, or even the combat’s lack of meaningful depth. The lack of weapons to equip (unless you steal them from other enemies using telekinesis), no inventory menu, the lack of skill checks or meaningful progression – the list goes on. Perhaps the worst part of it all is that choosing a Discipline based on its corresponding Clan no longer feels special. It doesn’t lead to different builds or fulfilling different vampire fantasies, be it the rebellious Brujah or the Nosferatu with faces that not even a mother could love.
As if all of this wasn’t bad enough, the mechanics governing the Masquerade are almost laughable. In the original, it was a layered gameplay system where you tried to blend in with humanity as a whole, balancing it alongside your humanity. If you break it too many times, then vampire hunters will take you out. But in Bloodlines 2, violating the Masquerade results in instant death. Even if you kill people without any vampiric powers, it’s like the game world is replying, “So you’ve chosen death,” and meting it out accordingly. Unless you manage to run away within a short window, or play stealthily, in which case, go wild. Humanity is no longer a thing either, in case it wasn’t obvious.
Some believe that The Chinese Room was completely ill-suited to the task of creating a Bloodlines sequel. A developer with no real experience crafting an RPG of this scale was a mistake from day one, and I have to agree. However, even the things that it wants to own – like the combat – are full of issues or executed poorly.
If it’s going to offer a narrative adventure, then it needs a world that doesn’t feel utterly barren and offers memorable characters. Remember that whole bit about initially taking inspiration from Dishonored’s combat? Why not lean into the immersive sim aspect some more and offer multiple ways to complete missions, as opposed to the same objectives, again and again? Why not have choices that actually mean something? Even if you tried to enjoy the game as its own separate entity, it fails in that as well.
Looking at all of these design decisions, it becomes all the more clear that The Chinese Room was brought on to salvage the project more than anything else. However, I doubt it even had enough time to ensure a proper level of polish. Even at launch, players reported issues like the game not launching, or populating with NPCs in certain quests, or keybinding not functioning. There’s no FOV slider. You can’t turn off the HUD. Motion blur is a constant headache. You can’t even manually save. While the team has offered workarounds and is working to address issues, this is far from a high-profile RPG in 2025.
All of it goes back to Paradox and its decisions. Should it have cancelled the project after the drama with Hardsuit Labs, like originally intended? Perhaps give it to a studio that would have been more suited to the task? Would more oversight and time have helped? Should it have waited before even announcing the project in the first place, or worked closely with Mitsoda to identify core issues under Hardsuit Labs, and effect change?
Development troubles can happen at any time, and you have to feel somewhat for those at the publisher who wanted to deliver something great. However, it was ultimately its decision to ship…this, and charge $60 for it, knowing full well where it lacked.
Unfortunately, despite the Johnny Silverhand-esque Fabien in his head, I don’t see Bloodlines 2 having a Cyberpunk 2077-style redemption. Band-Aids could be applied over various issues, but implementing major changes to combat and role-playing requires a lot of time and resources. And right now, it feels more like Paradox is trying to recoup whatever production costs it can before shipping the DLC and ultimately moving on from this mess.
Bloodlines 2 will suffer much like the original – a failure that no one will want to touch because it didn’t sell well. Except this time, it doesn’t even have a fervent community of loyal fans who rightfully swear by its mechanics, systems, atmosphere, and storytelling to vouch for it, further reducing the chances of a follow-up. Perhaps the biggest tragedy is that it should have had so much more – even in failure, there should have been something far more explosive to remember it by, rather than fading into the shadows with a whimper. The franchise deserved at least that much, but alas, seemingly from the fateful day of its announcement, it just wasn’t meant to be.
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