this post was submitted on 02 Sep 2023
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Short article with more information:
https://www.pcgamer.com/vampire-the-masquerade-bloodlines-2-has-been-quietly-rebuilt-by-dear-esther-developer-the-chinese-room-with-different-gameplay-mechanics-and-rpg-systems/
TLDR: Dev is The Chinese Room, developer of Dear Esther and Everybody's Gone to the Rapture. They still won't say what happened with Hardsuit Labs, the OG dev, and the mechanics and system will be totally different.
Instead of a thin-blood (new, weak vampire), you're an Elder (old, scary vampire) fresh from torpor (long VampNap).
Neither of those had any NPCs, did they? I'm not familiar with Dear Esther but from looking it up it says you just explore environments, and I remember Everybody's Gone to the Rapture having like, vague humanoid models but I don't recall them being animated, could be wrong.
I personally haven't heard of either before, and that's concerning if they don't have experience with NPCs.
Some of the best games have come from developers stepping out of their comfort zone.
Alien Isolation and Space Marine were made by RTS developers. Last of Us was made by the Crash Bandicoot developers. Insomniac made Spyro, then FPS series Resistance, then the Spiderman games.
Expecting a developer to only make one type of game forever is probably why they inevitably turn to shit and close.
It's also worth noting that the original Chinese Room was composed of eight employees, who ended up laid off around 2017. One of the two original directors quit this year, but the team is reportedly composed of over 100 people now.
People experienced with the company constantly complain that whenever they talk to someone in it, it's like they never truly understand the conversation and are just replying with formulaic phrases.
Fair enough, we won't know until it drops! I just really really hope it's going to be a worthy successor to VTM, and a studio that doesn't have experience in one of the key parts I'm expecting doesn't fill my doomer heart with hope.
I think it’s kind of misleading saying LTOU was made by Crash Bandicoot developers. It was 14 years after they made Crash Bandicoot.
I will not stand for this Ratchet & Clank erasure!
I think it’s kind of misleading saying LTOU was made by Crash Bandicoot developers. It was 14 years after they made Crash Bandicoot.
I have nothing but Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs to judge them on and based on that, they are very good at writing mysteries and cryptic stuff but they seem to be lighter on the gameplay side. From that, the writing will be good but hopefully it will have any gameplay.
Welp, there goes the exploration of the world factor.
Depends on how long the torpor lasted. If it was for a couple of centuries, a lot of has changed in 200 years. The player is going to have to find out the new political players, guns, vehicles, new clans, etc.
If the player was in torpor for a couple of decades, yeah the world exploration will be dull.
True, it'll make it more confusing for new people just now picking up the IP, and telling them to play a 20-year old game for context is a hard sell.
As someone who already played VTMB, I'm excited to be playing as an Elder for once instead of the standard fledgling.
It's at least a good explanation for why the PC will just obliterate everything else he sees like in the first one.
No no see you just woke up from Torpor, so yeah you're an elder, but also you're super weak, and nobody knows who you are so you won't get any respect until you've done some basic bitch errands. But EVENTUALLY, you'll be powerful and respected.
Yeah this "Elder fresh from torpor" angle just completely killed my excitement, shit sounds so... bland now. So typical.
I played the shit out of Blacklight: Retribution back in the day, and saw the whole transition from zombie studios to buildblock to hardsuit labs. The devs were really active on various forums, and all seemed like great people.
I've been waiting so long for them to release something new, but this sort of game was a complete departure from anything they worked on (as the main dev) in the past. I'm not shocked that it didn't worked out.
To be fair, an indie like Coffee Stain went from an absolute dumbass meme game like Goat Simulator to something crazy complex like Satisfactory.
You can't really judge what a young studio is capable of.
As for you not being a thinblood in this game, you're named as being a thorped elder waking up, so there could be RPG mechanics of you growing as you get stronger from waking up.
And they don't say which elder you are, so you could wake up as any type of elder, even a Nosferatu.
This is Sunctuary erasure.
I hope these new mechanics include a 3rd person option