Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 Enters Development Hell

Paradox Interactive have today released a development update stating that the games developer , Hardsuit Labs , is no longer leading the development of the game and as no time-frame can be given for a release no more pre-orders will be taken.

As a fan of the original Bloodlines I'm disappointed by the announcement , I was looking forward to revisiting The Masquerade but it seems this franchise has claimed its second victim in Hardsuit Labs , Vampire could have just become the new Duke Nukem Forever.

Few if any games escape development Hell unscathed , RiP Bloodlines 2.

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a reply to: gortex


Responded to wrong thread sorry

a reply to: gortex

That’s bad news. I was looking forward to this title.

a reply to: gortex

I suspected this may happen, first they fired some of the lead developers behind the project, then they put back the release a bit too long but we hoped that it was for good reason.

Just so those not familiar with the game can familiarize themselves here are some videos of the now likely not to be released game which was originally scheduled for release at the end of last year.


It may be that the subject matter was too violent, too adult and too controversial in it's content for them to feel happy about releasing it.

I mean here is a scene with a vampire probably a bad guy playing puppets with a family he has obviously murdered and strung up with wires around a Christmas tree, it's pretty sick, dark and twisted so perhaps? the delay is to fix potentially mentally ill serial killer inspiring content.

Neither of the older games went that far but they both still have fans to this day which shows that the genre and the franchise if done properly are money spinners (Some fans of the genre have taken it too far, dental work and even drinking one another's blood and sleeping in coffin's so Meh! nut jobs the worlds full of them though to be fair most of them are more Mary Shelley addicts - prefer a black pudding myself but only very seldom).

Here are the older games.

Released 1999-2000 (people always complained about the camera which was a common problem with games of it's type at that time and more or less a top down squad based game with a lead character - you recruited the other members as you went through the game.


This was based on the same engine as Half Life 2 and released actually before Half Life 2 itself but was released unfinished by a dying game studio that had once been a very good game studio but fallen on hard times, despite it's flaws it gained a cult following and is still kept alive today with mod's.


Still I did find that puppet scene disgusting and disturbing making me wonder what kind of content the writers were putting into it especially since no matter what we do kid's will end up playing it.

I like a good game, adult content does not bother me but that just looked evil.

They could take inspiration from other vampire franchise.

Even despite it's bloody violence Blood Rayne was utterly hilarious at least had you killing ultra evil Nazi's so your Dampere was the good guy or gal or whatever it was and it had that for the time erotic attack were she would dive on her victims leg's akimbo and wrapped around them while giving them a hickey of death (Which undoubtedly caused pimply teens to have massive zit explosions around the world with the shock of such suggestive pixelation).

Now an updated modern graphic's (Unreal engine 4 or 5) - Detroit Become human/Hellblade quality - with an open world that played like Deus Ex instead and a new Blood Rayne would likely easily outsell even VTMB but Rayne was more of an arcade style game while VTM is about Role Playing, I am a role playing fan and my ideal would be the clan's and lore of VTM in graphically updated open world setting with first and third person (you want to see your character) playthrough.

This just means that the board is open for anyone else out there that can deliver on this niche genre and steal the customers from these idiots.

Anyway now they have sucked the financial blood out of a load of pre-ordering fan's maybe they are going to ground before the light of day catches them out.


sorry about the constant pun's, it's difficult to take this seriously especially after the fool me once with cyberpunk 2077.


Offending and very disturbing scene.
(Also not particularly impressed by the animation or the character models seems almost last generation)


(the pre-purchase crowd are the family on puppet strings and the dancing characters are the developers most likely).

That's a shame I really enjoyed the older games. I wish there were more first person games that gave you something beyond just a gun and grenades. At this point horror games without a way to fight back have nearly become a trope and zombies are overplayed. The previous games had their issues but the unique gameplay and story really made up for it.

a reply to: gortex

Paradox Interactive released a statement last week that Bloodlines 2 is still in development and we should hopefully get to see more on the game in September.

It’s been quite a while between updates while we’ve had our heads down working on the game. We remain just as dedicated to delivering a great Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines game as we were when we announced, and are looking forward to showing you more in September this year.
www.paradoxinteractive.com...

"Development Hell" is never a good thing and rarely delivers a good game but hopefully Bloodlines 2 will be an exception to the rule.