After a long absence in the spotlight, we recently saw the return of the game Vampire: The Masquarade – Bloodlines 2, which received a new trailer and confirmation that it has changed the developers: now the The Chinese Room studio, known for games such as EVERYBODY’S GONE, is now responsible for it to the rapture and amnesia: a Machine.
With the advent of the new studio, some changes were made to the project in the plot. Sarah Longthorne, screenwriter and designer of the plot of the game, presented some details about the new version.
The plot of Vampire the Masquarade: Bloodlines 2 rotates around the control: the number and type of control that you have over others, the control that they provide on you, and the control that you lose – and slowly restore. – over yourself and your fate. Players have to take on the role of an elder who has suppressed abilities, and now everyone is trying to control it. You have to decide who to trust and whom to betray.
Waking up in a trap in Seattle, you find that all your strength is artificially suppressed – you have turned into a simple pawn, which can be used and operated. In the end, who are people, if not the most affordable prey? And what could be better than a controlled and shuttled mouth of the elder?
Our main NPCs, such as LU, Ryon and Tolly, have its own plans, and your intervention can help them. Perhaps it is not in your interests to bite each hand that tries to dump you, but choose, enter the game – wait for the right moment. Or not. It depends on you.
According to representatives of the studio, the topic of Neo-Nuar questions the boundaries of ethics and affects issues such as retaliation, paranoia and isolation. These elements reflect the reality of the vampire life.
We focus on the characters, on who knows what and who has power in a particular situation, and on how the player can use this in his interests. No one in Bloodlines 2 knows everything about everything, no matter how pretended. Therefore, how the player is guided by these alliances and finds out new information, creates his feeling that he is investigating a complex web of lies. We tried to make the player feel the master of what information he knows, with whom he shares these secrets and for what reason.
According to the developers, the decision that the main character was the elder, makes it possible to create a character who already knows a lot about the world of vampires, but at the same time makes it possible to leave loopholes for new information by players. The goal of the studio – "Balance the capabilities and plot with the desire of players to create your character".
Vampires do not treat each other like us, especially such ancient vampires as our main character. They don’t have, for example, "friends" – Everything revolves around the authorities and possessions that are the opposite of true proximity. This is not an easy task – to try to distract from how we can see something and penetrate this consciousness in order to portray it correctly.
First of all, it is necessary to focus on making this character interesting to study and spending time with him – it cannot be expected that players will initially identify themselves with him or, possibly, even love him. In order to balance this, a subtle approach is required to increase the scale and find wider, more universal entry points that can encourage players to feel that they can identify themselves with this character.
For the protagonist, humanity is something distant. The plot of the game will be built on what means for him humanity after several centuries of eating people in food. What they are: "Just food" or "Is trust and friendship possible?".
Vampire release: The Masquarade – Bloodlines 2 is scheduled for 2024 for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series. Versions for PS4 and Xbox One have recently been canceled.