Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 reviews have broken the Masquerade and, now that critics have glimpsed the monster The Chinese Room has sired, they’re crying, “Unclean beast! Foul creature of the night! Gendarmes, your citizenry calls for aid!” In other words, its OpenCritic score currently sits at a paltry 64 which will likely drain the hot, red blood out of any movement toward a sequel.
But, I’m here to argue it shouldn’t. While Bloodlines 2 may have performed poorly with critics and may be on track for a similarly poor commercial performance, it doesn’t matter. The circumstances surrounding this cult classic sequel are unique enough that this tells us next to nothing about the potential of the series or the public’s appetite for a Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines game.
Development Hell, Not Development Purgatory
Bloodlines 2 has been in development hell for years. It was first announced all the way back on March 21, 2019 with a planned 2020 release date. One coronavirus later, the game is finally nearing release. But in the time between, the project switched studios, with original developer Hardsuit Labs ousted after the firing of key leadership. It was resurrected by The Chinese Room in 2021, but this kind of shake-up is never a promising sign.
Development hell doesn’t always mean that a game will be bad. We got clear evidence of this in 2016, when The Last Guardian and Final Fantasy 15 — games that had been in the works for nine and ten years respectively — launched within a month of each other. Both received mostly positive reviews, and the one-two punch showed that games could successfully come out the other side.
But Bloodlines 2 is the more common result. It’s the result that gave us flops like Duke Nukem Forever, Aliens: Colonial Marines, Too Human, and led to Xbox canceling games like Perfect Dark and Everwild. Not all who wander are lost, but it isn’t always possible to find your way to the finish line after a decade in the wilderness.
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2’s Troubles Remain Mysterious
There are plenty of questions about why Bloodlines 2’s development went pear-shaped. Why did Paradox take Hardsuit off the game in the first place? Why was The Chinese Room, a developer that had never made an RPG before, Paradox’s pick for a replacement? Was TCR given the support it needed to make the game the right way? Was a true RPG that would have satisfied long-time fans ever possible given the situation TCR entered? Is TCR responsible for the way VTMB2 turned out? Or Paradox? Or both? We don’t know much about what went on behind-the-scenes, which makes drawing conclusions difficult.
Though lips may loosen now that the game is out.
Regardless of why development hell began and endured, there’s no reason to think that it’s inherent to the Vampire: The Masquerade brand. In fact, there have been 11 Vampire: The Masquerade games released in the time since Bloodlines 2 was first announced. Most are visual novels, but there have been more expensive undertakings, like the adventure game Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong and the battle royale VTMB: Bloodhunt, too.
Bloodlines 2 didn’t end up how fans wanted, but Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 3 could. Paradox could pitch an established RPG studio like CD Projekt Red or Larian, collaborate with one of the stellar studio’s Xbox has acquired like Obsidian or inXile, or find an up-and-coming RPG studio and give them an opportunity to make a worthy successor. Hell, there have been enough triple-A layoffs in the past few years that Paradox could assemble an A-team exclusively composed of developers who have already shipped incredible RPGs.
The important thing to note is that VTMB is not cursed. It’s possible to make a great game in this universe. Just not the way VTMB was made.
