It’s Tuesday afternoon, just ahead of Gamescom Opening Night Live. Behaviour Interactive has just announced that The Boulet Brothers are coming to Dead by Daylight. Our news team is prepped and ready for an ONL watch party. Spirits are oh so high. Then, Paradox announces that it’s delaying Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2. “Everyone make sure Lauren’s OK,” my colleague Will says. Lauren was very much not okay.
Yet the delay hardly comes as a surprise. I wasn’t aware of any Gamescom-related announcements ahead of time, and there had been no real follow-up on ‘Fall 2024’ as the Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 release date window. Yes, there’s been a slew of dev diaries, but the silence about its launch has been relatively ominous. It’s also no secret that Paradox is struggling, with highly anticipated The Sims rival Life By You being canceled out of the blue, Cities Skylines 2’s continued woes, and the lukewarm reception to time-altering strategy game Millennia.
Bloodlines 2, unfortunately, isn’t faring much better. The reception to its gameplay has been relatively frosty, and while the inclusion of more ‘fringe’ clans like the Banu Haqim is a great step in the right direction, I’d like to have seen more than just four clans at launch. When I compare it to the original Bloodlines with its seven clans and narrative excellence, what I’ve seen from The Chinese Room’s RPG so far just doesn’t excite me.
But playing VTM Bloodlines is a chore these days. Having completed it three times in 2024 (I have a problem, I’ll admit it) I’ve been subject to all manner of crashes, bugs that make stealth traversal effectively impossible, and console commands that all but break the game’s NPCs. I’m persistent, so I deal with it, but it doesn’t mean I’m not infuriated by it.
Following the delay, I picked up my trusty Malkavian yet again, giggling at conversation responses I’ve already laughed at a dozen times. As I flirted with a man by asking if he knows that there is, in fact, weather outside, I thought to myself: ‘this game is broken yet absolutely brilliant, so why doesn’t someone just remake the original Bloodlines?’
Now, there’s a reason I’ve said remake versus remaster. Bloodlines is a product of its time, and some of its sentiments, while largely inoffensive, are outdated. Some (most) gameplay mechanics could do with an overhaul – Ming Xiao’s final boss fight is easy for some clans, torturous for others, for example – and we all know that the Nosferatu Warrens is possibly the worst videogame dungeon ever made.
The game is also just fundamentally broken. Buying Bloodlines on Steam will lead to immediate crashes, as you’ll need to install the modded, unofficial patch for it to even boot up – a serious annoyance if you’re not a modder (I’m not, so I went via GOG).
Yet reviews call it “the worst good game ever made,” “a master-class in immersion, especially for its time.” Of almost 12,000 Steam reviews, 93% are positive – people absolutely love this busted ol’ vampire game. It’s a reputation that I’m not convinced Bloodlines 2, in its current state, can live up to.
While the sequel’s player character looks great, they feel incredibly prescribed. In Bloodlines, my Malkavian could attempt to be flirtatious amid their incoherent rambling, and while the result was often an absolute dumpster fire, it’s representative of the chaos that ensues around a TTRPG table. Cutting the Malkavian clan out is a mistake given the level of flexibility it offers, but generally it seems like our Bloodlines 2 interactions are limited to positive, sassy, or aggressive with little very little leeway.
But while the Camarilla court and the various denizens of Seattle all have fleshed-out backstories, Bloodlines 2 appears to lack the original’s gritty, grimy soul. Velvet Velour, Jeanette and Therese Voreman, and even Prince LeCroix and Nines Rodriguez – these characters have their own distinct personalities and agendas, and despite their outdated models and tech, they feel like fully realized creatures who’ve kept this dusty old game alive for so long.
And that’s before I talk about the narrative. While its characters do a lot of the heavy lifting, the branching storylines, meaningful choices, and strong overarching plot are unbeatable. Side quests are fun because they often lead to bizarre interactions or intense combat scenes, and they’re subtly interwoven with the core campaign, coming back to bite you when you least expect it. In short: your choices matter.
Now imagine all of this with a modern glow-up; the dirty dancefloor of The Asylum or the Alice in Wonderland madness of Grout’s Mansion in full 4k glory. Back that up with improved and redefined gameplay, and you’re onto a winner.
We’ve seen remakes fly in recent years, after all. Dead Space, Final Fantasy 7, and all of the Resident Evil remakes; nostalgia sells – especially when it’s brought back in style. Bloodlines is an undisputed cult classic. It’s a world that players would love to exist in, but given the literal fragility of the game, they often can’t.
I’m not suggesting we just ditch Bloodlines 2. But why, over the course of a few years, can’t we have both? I’d rather see Bloodlines 2 launch in a complete state that’s faithful to the devs’ vision than a rushed-out RPG with no soul.
Remaking Bloodlines ahead of Bloodlines 2 is the perfect way to inject some excitement back into the franchise in the wake of Bloodhunt’s final death and the middling response to Swansong. The World of Darkness is teeming with unlife – why not celebrate it? Virtually, Vampire: The Masquerade – and the World of Darkness as a whole – feel like they’re at a crossroads, and I worry they’re taking a path that leads to sunlight.
I want Bloodlines 2, but I also want to play Bloodlines without the crashes, the bugs, and the general fussiness. I love this series and want to see it blossom like Dungeons and Dragons in the wake of Baldur’s Gate 3. Vampirism, at its core, is about perfecting the balance between humanity and undeath. Give us a remake and Bloodlines 2 – it’s the best of both dreary, darkened worlds.