Much like the titular monsters who inhabit its dreaded world of darkness, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2’s development has been a bit of a cursed creature. Once under the development of the team at Harsuit Labs, it was shifted to the horror pros at The Chinese Room, who recently released an excellent follow-up DLC to one of my favorite horror games from last year. The Chinese Room definitely knows how to strike a tone with horror, and based on a recent dive into the game’s development with Game Informer, the team sounds locked in to deliver a VtM experience that isn’t looking to just be GTA with sharp, pointy teeth.
Read More: This DLC Follow-Up To One Of Last Year’s Hidden Horror Gems Made Me Cry Out In Terror
“We’re not making GTA; this isn’t a big open world, sprawling game where the horizon is your limit,” the game’s art director, Ben Matthews, told Game Informer. Instead, the developers are aiming for density packed into a smaller region with clear boundaries, all designed to keep you focused on the central and delicate bloody balance between the “jovial, human world” and the “dark, vampire world.”
The original Bloodlines was a notoriously messy game. It gained cult status many moons ago as modders took to repairing its loose ends and, given that it offered such a unique experience, many fans were willing to overlook its shortcomings. Where else would you get to roleplay as a fledgling kindred trying to make it on the mean streets of Los Angeles?
There’ll be a little less freedom in who your character is in the upcoming sequel. Instead of rolling your own character, you’ll be given a choice of clans and genders for a pre-written character, Elder Phyre, a 400-year-old vamp newly awoken in Seattle.
That may be a bummer for those of us who wanted to play as a vampire of our own creation, but as our comrades over at PC Gamer have highlighted, forgoing a massive open world in exchange for a focused, hub-like space to prowl speaks to a more intimate experience of the kind we’d expect in something like Deus Ex. And if there’s anything that benefits from a more intimate experience, it’s certainly Vampire: The Masquerade.
Having an intimate space to play in sounds like an advantageous way to leverage the very core of what makes Vampire Vampire: Needing to preserve the masquerade. The source material isn’t just about playing as bloody monsters; it’s about staying hidden, to preserve power, to protect the vulnerable. It’s a double-edged metaphor that can make for exciting choices and high-stakes situations. And were Bloodlines 2 to be set in a massive world, it could be all too easy to get out of Dodge to avoid the deadly consequences of breaking the masquerade by feeding on humans in public or showing off your monstrous powers.
Vampires are also very restricted creatures. Sure, they live forever, but they must earn it: They have to feed, they must avoid sunlight, and it’s wise for them to ask permission before entering someone’s home. Limiting the scope of the playable space sounds like a perfect way to create the kind of contained, forced situations that lead vampires to become such dangerous cornered animals in the lore, and often at the table with dice.
The curse of Cain has clearly run through Vampire’s existence in video game form, all the way up to its present tumultuous development. But maybe this undead beast will grab us by the throat when it (hopefully) arrives later this year.
.
