When is the Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines 2 release date? Well, that’s a question we’ve been asking for a long, long time. As the next installment in Seattle’s ongoing saga of strife and exsanguination gets a new developer and release window, there’s a lot to get excited about. Arise Kindred, there’s blood to be spilled and a power vacuum that’s in desperate need of filling.
After all, we’ve been looking for a good vampire game to sink our teeth into for some time, hoping for any word on Paradox’s Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines 2, the sequel to White Wolf’s iconic 2004 VTM RPG. The RPG game has been passed between two different developers, but it looks like we finally have gameplay footage to sink our teeth into, and a release window, too.
Bloodlines 2 release date window
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 will be released in “the first half of 2025”, this delay comes after a decision by The Chinese Room to “prioritize polish.”
Although the game is allegedly in a state where the developer could have maintained the original release window, it has decided to delay by a few months to add the finishing touches to a game that it reports is already in “a good enough place”. The Chinese Room also reports that it is using the extra time to add content to the game, including doubling the number of possible endings when compared to its predecessor.
In September 2023, it was announced that Bloodlines 2 had changed hands from Hardsuit Labs to The Chinese Room. The Chinese Room started out modding Half-Life 2 and went on to be acquired by Sumo Digital in 2018. It uploaded its reveal of Bloodlines 2 and how it came to fruition. The studio promised “immersive, wonderful worlds” for players before describing it as “powerful, dark, violent, thrilling, twisty, visceral, challenging,” and more.
Bloodlines 2 classes and clans
We now know that you play as an elder vampire, known as the “Phyre”, and your clan, appearance, gender, and origin story are chosen at the beginning of the game. The four confirmed Vampire classes you can choose from are:
- Brujah
- Tremere
- Banu Haqim
- Ventrue
Brujah is the rebellious faction of Vampire society, filled with rogues prone to becoming frenzied at a moment’s notice. They’re the pugilists of the vampire world, with a heritage that dates back to at least the Carthaginians, with many sharing the Ancient Greek Olympian Ideal of a perfect body and mind.
According to the Clan Highlight post on the official blog, A Brujah has a passive boost from their melee attacks after feeding. They can also enrage an opponent to attack you while increasing the damage they take, charge down foes with the force of a wrecking ball, and unleash a flurry of unblockable strikes. Finally, they can slam the ground with enough force to send enemies into the sky and have access to a perk where killing foes activates their clan passive, even if they didn’t feed.
Tremere is a more recent clan that formed in the Dark Ages, but a powerful set of sorcerers and warlocks that stand as defenders of the Camarilla. They’re secretive by nature, taking advantage of the unknown to instill fear, respect, and a bit of suspicion from the other Bloodlines 2 clans.
The official Bloodlines 2 blog posted a breakdown of what powers these magicians have up their sleeves. They can perform a disappearing trick on any bodies they feast on by making them dissolve. A Tremere also has a rather cruel ability to make anyone’s blood boil inside of them, with enemies and civilians alike drawn to their screaming. Other skills involve marking a target before explosively teleporting to their location to wipe out any nearby foes, cursing a victim so they explode the next time they take any damage, and a chance to receive twice as much blood when feeding.
Banu Haqim vampires are a relative newcomer to the World of Darkness universe. These vampires of Middle Eastern origin were formerly the Assamites and are essentially assassins who kill for hire while also collecting blood to perform rituals that bring them “closer to their progenitor”. The Banu Haqim have a few notable castes: Sorcerer, Vizier, Bedouin, and Courtiers. One thing they have in common is that they all embrace laws and traditions and, as such, regularly come to blows with other societies.
The Ventrue are the aristocrats of vampire society and know their place. They’re greedy by nature and will always opt to leave their rivals under the bus if it means they get ahead. They’re also immensely charming but are so used to the finer things in life that a Ventrue outcast doesn’t last long.
Other vampire clans are in the game, including fan favorites such as the Nosferatu and the Malkavians, but they won’t be playable on the release of Bloodlines 2. That isn’t to say they won’t appear as new factions in DLC.
Bloodlines 2 gameplay
Bloodlines 2 is primarily an RPG, and your choice of clan will heavily influence your character’s progression and gameplay. Brujah, for example, is a tanky brawler, whereas Tremere is more akin to spell-slinging mages.
On January 31, 2024, we got our first proper look at an extended gameplay trailer. In it, we’re introduced to ‘Phyre’, our main protagonist, who in the final game can be one of the many selectable vampire clans and gender identities. They are an elder in the vampiric community, and the version we see in the trailer is a female-identifying Brujah. While they’re suited to combat, they’re also quite impatient, which shows in the intimidating and aggressive dialogue choices available.
The early mission we see has Phyre investigating a mark in her hand that’s holding back her powers since her arrival in Seattle. She gets a tipoff about a Nosferatu called Willem, who may know the answers. She tracks him down to a GTN Distribution warehouse, and in the trailer, we see her confront him.
Not only that, but she can communicate telepathically with an ally, Fabien, during the mission. While picking up a newspaper, we see that there are options for outfit choices and an ability tree, which will no doubt be unique for each clan.
One of these powers is a vampiric sense that changes her view to highlight key objects, similar to Detective Mode in the Batman Arkham games. This is how she finds one of the collectibles in the game. Eventually, the sound of music leads her to Willem, who laments that she arrived before the song he was playing finished.
During her conversation with Willem, we learn that another Kindred, known as Ysabella, is using the mark to sap Phyre’s power, strongly hinting at a possible main antagonist and that he might know something about that. He is hiding information, of which the player has three approaches to get the info out of him. Phyre opts to remind him who she is, which sort of backfires as Willem leaps onto her and yells at her, causing her to wipe out.
She wakes back where she started, commenting that he knows how to use the mark against her. On the journey back, though, she finds that there are now ghouls inside patrolling the corridors, but notes after feeding on one of them that these are illusions. After stealthily killing several ghouls, she’s discovered and enters melee combat, where her brute strength is enough to decapitate foes. She also has a charge attack that can stun enemies that hit a wall. Feeding allows you to recover power and health, so it is encouraged.
Feeding is always at the core of Vampire: The Masquerade videogames – blood. In the original Bloodlines, you would feed on unassuming humans to regain health and discipline (or your ‘mana’). Humans living poor lifestyles drain more quickly, whereas high-flying society types drain slower, meaning you can take more blood from them. As your health and discipline bars decrease, you have to feed again and again.
Eventually, however, Willem screams at her again and sends her back to the beginning. This time, however, it seems the mannequins are alive. Once again, it’s the illusionary powers of the Nosferatu at work, and she’s quickly outnumbered, but she leads them to a narrow corridor where her charging attack picks up all the mannequins and smashes them against a wall.
The rest of the trailer is noted as rather spoiler-heavy so that we won’t go too far into the story details, but music plays a key part in some of the puzzle-solving. We also learn about the main villain and their clan.
The rest is a mystery that we are keen to dive into, but until then, you can find out the latest on any Bloodlines 2 Game Pass news. It’s also worth checking out our list of the best horror games if you fancy delving into the night, as well as our upcoming PC games calendar for 2024 and beyond.