Just moments before release, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 was delayed due to an occult outburst from The Chinese Room developers, apparently caused by the latest request from Paradox Interactive to add a microtransaction system and start charging for every neck bitten.
Now nothing remains of the Chinese Room. Nothing but a huge bubble Cromwell's appeals and bisexual coverage right in the center of Portsmouth. From time to time the level designer breaks out of the frozen iridescent surface, begging to be allowed to do Dear Esther 2 instead, only to be pulled back into the sphere of a thousand bright red fingers.
Before it became a bloody singularity, the developers of Bloodlines 2 were ready to celebrate the fateful release of a game that has become synonymous with development hell. Pedigrees 2 were announced in 2019. At the time, it was in development at Hardsuit Labs, where original Bloodlines creator Brian Mitsoda was lead storyteller and former RPS columnist Kara Ellison was senior writer. It all seemed pretty brilliant. He even earned himself the coveted double. Caldbell Thumbs up from Alice Bee and Brandy (RPS in the world).
Many ink was spilled. Some videos were made. But then everything went wrong. In August 2020 Paradox announced a delay. Then they suddenly got rid of Mitsoda. Then they snatched the project from the hands of Hardsuit Labswho subsequently laid off staff. All this in the name of “fairness of the game.” As you might expect, Mitsoda had a different view. “I was not involved in the discussions that led to the decision to delay production, and to my knowledge there were no delays caused by the development of the Bloodlines 2 narrative,” he wrote at the time of his departure from the project. “I am confident and proud of the work that me and my team have done.”
Paradox apparently I was thinking about canceling the gamebut ended up handing it over to a secret third party Later it turned out that this is the Chinese room. Then he came pre-order return, more delaysinterview with us, in which Paradox suggested that Bloodlines 2 is not a Bloodlines game at allA completely casual rake game in which Paradox decided and then indecisive pay for access to two factions of vampires, some Promising comparisons to Dishonoredand finally ours Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 Reviewin which Dominic Tarason called the game “an entertaining but flawed vampire scandal wrapped in a gripping detective story.” Whatever you think of Paradox's take on Hardsuit, The Chinese Room seems to have created a decent bonanza with what they've been given, despite being mostly known for walking and talking games.
I was interested in playing it, but, alas, nothing more. Every server that held a copy of Bloodlines 2 was reduced to bone dust. All the screens bearing his image came off the monitor, curled into a pair of bat wings and flew out the nearest window. In vain I direct you to Steam, Epic Games Store And GOG – clicking on these links in the store will simply cause the ground to open up and swallow you. Bloodlines 2 was clearly a project too strange and beautiful for this world.
