There was loads working towards Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines when it launched on at the present time again in 2004. No person desires to launch up towards a recreation as hotly anticipated as Half-Life 2, not to mention be pushed out half-finished on account of a weird company mandate to launch on the identical day as mentioned recreation — which, by the way, used the identical brand-new engine as V:TM-B was inbuilt, however as proprietary in-house know-how reasonably than through a third-party licence, and so very a lot getting the higher finish of the deal.
Finally, trying again on the launch debacle that surrounded Bloodlines simply reveals you ways radically the video games business has modified up to now 20 years. If the identical situation had been to play out at present, you’d in all probability see the publishers overseeing a online game tie-in to a comparatively area of interest TTRPG doing every thing of their energy to keep away from launching on the identical day as such an apparent GOTY candidate. Actually, the launch would possible be pushed again a number of months to minimise clashing over the viewers’s attentions, which satirically would have been precisely what Bloodlines’ developer Troika Video games needed and wanted however by no means received.
However there’s additionally the truth that Bloodlines managed to realize a good quantity of recognition fairly shortly regardless of its underbaked launch state. Even earlier than it gained the cult traditional standing it is best identified for at present, this wasn’t a recreation that required reassessment from a later technology of gamers, and its status initially grew out of perseverance from the followers who had been already there on the time.
Once more, that is one thing that would not occur in 2024, when a theoretically respectable recreation with efficiency points not patched out on Day 1 is most of the time dismissed as “mid” and consigned to the standing of a minor historic footnote, as gamers flip their attentions to any of the handfuls of different video games that launched that week. And truthfully, who can blame them?
The world of 20 years in the past was fairly completely different: fewer video games doing the rounds, and slower entry to the video games there have been (digital distribution was nonetheless in its infancy, keep in mind: Steam was a mere yr previous at this level, and nonetheless solely offered video games made immediately by Valve) meant that one thing like Bloodlines may nonetheless emerge with a decent 80% common crucial rating, quickly change into one thing of a darling amongst gamers, and even decide up a modest handful of end-of-year awards regardless of launching in mid-November on high of every thing else that it needed to deal with.
Sadly, the purgatorial standing of the Bloodlines IP continues to at the present time. Provided that Troika Video games folded not lengthy after Bloodlines’ launch, most followers knew higher than to count on a sequel. So when one was introduced in 2019 — with an preliminary launch window that may broadly coincide with the unique recreation’s fifteenth anniversary, but in addition risked clashing with the then-intended launch date for the hotly-awaited, GOTY-tipped Cyberpunk 2077 — the nice shock was tempered by nervous jokes about generational curses.
5 years and quite a few delays later, in fact, Bloodlines 2 nonetheless hasn’t launched — and has modified nearly past recognition, morphing from a closely-moulded direct sequel developed by Hardsuit Labs to a looser religious successor rebuilt from the bottom up by The Chinese language Room. By the sounds of issues, 2025 would possibly simply be the yr we lastly get our arms on V:TM-B2, but it surely’s honest to say that these half-joking predictions of a troubled manufacturing proved extra correct than even the prognosticators themselves anticipated.
In reality, although — and talking from the guts right here, as somebody who nonetheless considers Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines fairly probably their single favorite online game of all time even 20 years later — I am not that fearful about Bloodlines 2.
Not as a result of it is higher seen within the context of the truth that there have really been 11 official VTM video video games (plus quite a few sanctioned VTM recreation jam titles) launched up to now 20 years that weren’t Bloodlines sequels, however which did display that the IP is flexible sufficient to assist a gradual provide of excellent video games, even when they principally do not have the scope and attain to set the world on hearth. And never as a result of I think about The Chinese language Room to ship an honest World of Darkness-flavoured Dishonored-style imsim that bears little relation to the unique however stands up effectively sufficient by itself — though, for what it is price, I do really suppose that’ll be the case.
I’ve talked about this already in our end-of-year video round-ups for 2023, however final yr’s resounding Recreation of the 12 months winner Baldur’s Gate 3 has in some ways already scratched my itch for a contemporary Vampire: The Masquerade follow-up. As a deeply engrossing RPG primarily based on a well-liked tabletop setting, made distinctive by the energy of its writing, world-building, and performances (and even with a hot-yet-troubled vampire in a key position), BG3 already proved that the V:TM-B formulation could possibly be one of the vital successful ideas in video video games if a developer was given the time, house, and — crucially — funding and sources wanted to make a recreation that lived as much as all that actually glorious potential.
Seen by way of this extra holistic lens, Bloodlines’ legacy has already come full circle. A throwback title in the identical vein grew to become the primary online game ever to win all 5 main GOTY awards; if ever a degree could possibly be comprehensively confirmed in a subject as subjective as artwork and leisure, this one has been now. Bloodlines 2 may be what it must be — whether or not it finally ends up being beloved, reviled, or simply shortly forgotten — and on the finish of the day, the unique Bloodlines will nonetheless be that messy however fantastic cult traditional that set the bar for RPG storytelling in video video games.