FOR those wondering what “development hell” refers to in the gaming industry, look no further than Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines 2. First teased and announced early in 2019, Bloodlines 2 was initially being developed by Hardsuit Labs, with publisher Paradox Interactive eyeing a March 2020 release.
In late 2019, to avoid the technical mistakes in the first Bloodlines, the game was delayed for a late 2020 release. After the pandemic hit, the game was delayed again to 2021.
Then, in 2021, Hardsuit Labs was crippled by a series of layoffs before being removed entirely as the game’s developer. Over two years of radio silence later, Paradox Interactive has announced The Chinese Room as the game’s new developer in a Sept 3 announcement trailer.
The developer behind Dear Esther and Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, The Chinese Room, will be introducing new gameplay mechanics as they attempt to finish the game. According to PC Gamer, Bloodlines 2 creative director Alex Skidmore claims that the game will be rebuilt using a “new code base with different gameplay mechanics and RPG systems”.
The game will also retain the original setting of Seattle during Christmas by Hardsuit Labs, along with reusing a “significant amount of art and level design”.
However, a central shift away from what the previous developer chose is the game’s lead character, who is now an “elder” vampire (PC Gamer states these vampires are over 300 years old) compared to Hardsuit Labs’ original recently-turned “thin-blood” vampire.
“We don’t want it to be just a sort of poor homage or pastiche of the first Bloodlines. We want it to be its own thing. We’re not doing what Bloodlines did, which is a traditional RPG game start: the very first day you’re a vampire,” Skidmore explained to PC Gamer.
“The actual character you are has been a vampire for quite a while. And that was to create something different from Bloodlines to give a different experience”.
If Bloodlines 2 does not go back into a coffin, Paradox Interactive is eyeing a 2024 release for the game.
