Vampire: Bloodlines

I would like to hear about the underlying reasons why you bought five copies of the game.

Edited by VutherA on Mar 18th 2019 at 5:25:26 AM

Ahhh yeah. First time was I thought I'd lost the original copy. The third was my wife sent me a copy whilst I was deployed (And she couldn't find the CD in our house); FOURTH time was she had to send a SECOND copy as the first arrived with a scratched disc.

And the fifth time was on GOG so I'd have a digital installer.

So not just because I wanted five copies on my shelf! But worth it. It's a janky mess of a game, but I love the setting, love how it gives you so many variables and even make character choice have some PROPER bearing on the game (Nosferatu playthroughs are a lot harder and get trickier the further through you get... partly due to level design not really accommodating them and probably only partially by design.) and the Malkavian playthrough is funny as hell.

Especially when you talk to "the taxi driver" Incoherent screaming.

The start is a bit rough, as it FORCES combat on you. But the rest of the game is a fun niche playground.

I don't know if this is cruel, cruel misdirection, but the Paradox Twitter linked a seemingly-official Discord for whatever that described, in its rules, what the project its for actually is. I think the tweet was deleted as I was writing this message, but, uh.

Well, given that and that they're going to do a reveal in about an hour, I guess I don't want to say exactly what it seems to be? But given I already got halfway through this message I won't stop typing. I guess I'll say, if you liked Bloodlines you'd probably be interested? It's not disconnected.

Edited by Lavaeolus on Mar 21st 2019 at 2:43:06 PM

And Bloodlines 2 is officially announced:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYvWfDxhm_s

Announcement trailer. Setting is Seattle.

Edit:

Edited by bitemytail on Mar 21st 2019 at 9:35:21 AM

This looks very interesting, keeping my eyes on this.

Hmm, the "Yours, Theirs, Ours" makes me wonder if they're going to add Diablerie.

An option to truly turn to the darker sides of Vamparism/join the Sabbat (outside of mods) was one of the things I was always sad was missing from Bloodlines.

From dev interviews, it seems you'll start as a thin-blood then choose your clan later. Diablerie seems like the obvious option to do this.

My only problem is that it seems a bit like Dishonored: The Masquerade.

And we already tried that with Dark.

One of the worst games of all time, voice acting aside.

For a bit of history

Some of the original team for VTM:B are returning, specifically some of the writers

The game is being developed by Hardlight Games, who made and maintained Blacklight Retribution. Something I have no experience with.

Edited by NaraNumas on Mar 21st 2019 at 1:05:18 PM

Starting as a thinblood sounds like an interesting premise.

Some of the original writers returning sounds promising.

Edited by deludedmusings on Mar 22nd 2019 at 4:07:58 AM

I have absolutely no familiarity with this franchise but the trailer has me interested.

Anyone care to give me an overall synopsis?

Vampire politics, everyone has their own game, everyone is a potential enemy, Vampirism is awesome until it sucks, you have to hold tight onto your humanity which is really hard to do while staying fed or you'll descend into an animalistic rage, and a lesser vampire will usually get ping-ponged around by various factions manipulating them. All this while trying your damndest to not be discovered, because if you break The Masquerade, you will not survive it (in both the tabletop and the first Bloodlines, it's more or less an instant game over).

Edited by NaraNumas on Mar 21st 2019 at 1:18:01 PM

It's an Urban Fantasy setting where the world is secretly under the control of three factions of vampires. There's the incredibly old, rich, and powerful vampires (the Camarilla), the young and poor vampires (The Anarchs), and the psychotic crazy vampires (the Sabbat). You have been involuntarily turned into one of the undead and try to survive the politics of the world while not losing yourself to your monstrous side.

Or, another way, "It's Blade except you're not a vampire hunter."

Or, in the frame of video games, "It's Urban Fantasy Vampyr but good".

Edited by InkDagger on Mar 22nd 2019 at 12:19:53 PM

Very excited by this! Rockpapershotgun has a write up of a half hour demo.

And the collectors edition confirms return of the stop sign.

They're going to mirror some of the story beats from the early part of the game for familiarity but you can choose your faction and combat has been improved. Also unlike dishonoured powers are something you should use but will be fuelled by blood which means feeding more which has the loop of risking animalistic rage.

Very very excited by this.

Also itll be more "open" than dishonoured - a central hub area with places you can travel to regularly. And some discrete locations for missions.

I'd argue they're kinda similar to be honest, good world and writing, Bloodlines wins in that regard, but a mixed bag mechanically, which Vampyr wins at by a bit. The stealth and broken builds pretty much saved Bloodlines since you didn't have to bother with the underwhelming elements.

If things pan out well, this could surpass both.

Edited by UltraWanker on Mar 22nd 2019 at 1:49:16 AM

I have Vampyr in my library - got it on sale to satiate the Bloodlines craving (Which is ANOTHER thing on my "play again" list. Honestly, don't have the TIME!!) so want to give it a run through.

Features breakdown so far is interesting, with the factions you can join (Potentially even SABBAT!) clan choice, darker parts of the lore, and them working closely alongside the Pn P team to incorporate elements.

In the RPS interview, the writer says combat only features as compulsory in the tutorial (To teach you how) and they want everything else to be a choice. Which tackles one of VTM:B's original issues in how it turned run and gun at the end.

Also, recommend looking at the ARG (Tender and Trust No More websites) as they give some interesting insight into the backstory for the game and potential characters who may turn up.

It all sounds really good.

Also cool to see Cara Ellison work her way up to a senior position on a videogame, been a long time coming.

I'm wary,until I see actual gameplay I'm interested rather then hyped,it's important to note trailers almost never resemble actual gameplay.

I'm super hyped, the fact that Chris Avellone and the head writer for Bloodlines is writing it is a really good sign.

I'd say that I'm going to re-install Bloodlines but it's already installed

Edited by Fourthspartan56 on Mar 22nd 2019 at 3:12:12 AM

I am excited for this! I learned about the original last summer, and I was looking to play it but I don’t have the means.

I'll finish the first one some time this year, I promiiiiissssssssseeeeeeeee

Uh-huh, don't romance anyone, got it

Ha, quite.

I have two hopes for this game - one, that the dialogue options for my Malkavian chick are going to be similarly loopy to the first, and two is that they don't buttfuck Demention the way 5E did.