Paradox Announces RPG Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2

Paradox Interactive has announced Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2. The RPG is made by Hardsuit Labs, who previously developed Blacklight: Retribution. Bloodlines 2 will be released in Q1 2020 for PC, PS4 and Xbox One.

In Bloodlines 2, players are a vampire in Seattle at the time of a war between rival clans. According to Paradox, players become “the ultimate vampire” as they roam the streets in search of prey. The protagonist must choose a clan and form alliances with the warring factions.

Combat seems to be mainly about fast melee combat. The player also has super powers. However, it is not purely a fighting game, according to Paradox players have to deal with complex political relationships and characters, and the story reacts to the player’s choices. Also, players must make sure not to break the Masquerade. That is the vampire law that keeps the vampire community separate from the human world.

Although Paradox and Hardsuit Labs are working on the sequel to Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines, both studios had nothing to do with the original game. That game came out in 2004 and was developed by Troika Games. Activision was the publisher at the time. Troika retired a year later. Fans of the game then released updates themselves and added unused content again. The ‘creative brain’ behind Bloodlines, Brian Mitsoda, is involved in the game as lead narrative designer. Chris Avellone, co-founder of Obsidian Entertainment, working on the game too. The Bloodlines series is based on the tabletop role-playing game Vampire: The Masquerade.

Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 will be released in Q1 2020 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC, on Steam as well as the Epic Games Store, GoG and the Paradox Store. The PC version will receive support for ray tracing. The game costs sixty euros. Players can already buy the Blood Moon edition for ninety euros; it also includes the season pass with additional story content.