New video game from Arles, Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines 2 is still in development… but apparently it didn't come close.
During an interview with the Swedish site Avanza, Fredrik Wester, CEO of Paradox Interactive, the game's publisher, indeed indicated that the option of abandoning the project was carefully considered. considered but ultimately not accepted.
A cursed line
Some might say that the Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines franchise is cursed. As a reminder, the first opus developed by Troika Games was released in November 2004, the same year as a certain masterpiece of the FPS genre, Half-Life 2. Unfortunately Bloodlines first of the name was released in a state to say the least unfinished.
Sales having been clearly insufficient compared to Troika's ambitions for its game, the studio finally had to shut down, leaving Bloodlines fallow. But it was without counting on a community of enthusiasts, who set out to save what could be saved and make this game a true misunderstood masterpiece of Action-RPGs of recent years.
Several years later, in 2019 exactly, a sequel to this illustrious title with a stormy history was announced with Hardsuit Lab at the helm, for a scheduled release in 2021. The project was finally delayed, lost its director and was postponed. many times. In February 2021, Paradox Interactive withdrew the project from the hands of Hardsuit Lab, which subsequently experienced a wave of layoffs.
History thus seems to be repeating itself for this line of ambitious RPGs in the fantastic universe of World of Darkness, but Paradox Interactive apparently intends to stay the course and finally want to see the light of day (or night, it depends) to Bloodlines 2.
Under cover of night
“When we pulled the game from its original development studio, we considered at length whether to end the project or continue with it. We were ready to completely close production. But we had a concept proposal that we found convincing to play, and we now have good hopes that it will be a good game that will meet the expectations of players,” said Fredrik Wester.
Since last February, the studio in charge of Bloodlines 2 is still a closely guarded secret of Paradox Interactive. All we know is that Fredrik Wester said in the interview conducted by Avanza that it is "a very reputable and talented studio that has already produced many games".
The CEO thus feels confident (but cautious) about the future of Bloodlines 2: “There is a strong desire for good games in the RPG genre, so I absolutely do not want to close any doors. But I'm curious to see what will happen, what we can do and how the game will be received." Avanza tried to confirm the rumors of a 2023 release, but Fredrik Wester only replied that there was "still time" before the game was ready.
Hoping that the story of Bloodlines 2 does not repeat that of its illustrious ancestor, or at least that it manages despite its setbacks to rise like the latter to the rank of masterpiece of the RPG genre.
