fantasies. Even though it’s been 15
years, fans can rest easy – developer
Hardsuit Labs has roped in original
game writer Brian Mitsoda to help craft
a faithful follow-up.
For our gameplay demo we’re
placed in the shoes of a ‘Thinblood’,
the name given to a weaker vampire
who has just been ‘embraced’ – that
is, turned into a bloodsucker. At this
point of character creation, players
can choose between three vampire
classes: Mentalism is focused on
telekinetic abilities, Nebulation means
you can turn into a mist. Choose
Chiropteran and you can turn into, or
summon, a swarms of bats. Naturally,
this immediately sounds the coolest
and that’s the one we opt for.Sleepless in Seattle
It’s perpetually 1am in Seattle,
the setting for this new game and
Hardsuit Labs’ hometown. This is to
avoid an irksome day/night cycle
interfering with your quests. “We
stay away from the day/night cycle
because pretty much vampires can’t
do anything during the day so it would
be very boring!” explains Mitsoda.We begin with a message that the
various factions of Kindred (that’s
what vamps call themselves) want to
meet with us. We’re in Seattle’s oldest
neighbourhood, the Pioneer Square
district, but although we have a
number of quest markers to where we
can meet with the factions including a
bar, coffee shop and a parking garage,
there’s really only one destination for
us: the nightclub.
A similar dance club was a popular
location in the first game, on accountEveryone loves a vampire. From
Christopher Lee’s charismatic Dracula,
via the insipid toothsome teens of
Twilight to the sexier vampires of True
Blood or The Lost Boys, there’s an
appeal to sleeping all day, partying
all night, never growing old and
never dying. Yet still role-playing as
an actual vampire in a videogame
is something we’ve had few real
opportunities to do.
Those gamers who got the chance
to play Vampire: The Masquerade –
Bloodlines on PC back in 2004 fondly
remember it as an ambitious, if hugely
flawed, vampire RPG. Based on a
tabletop RPG, it put you in the role of a
newly-made vampire finding its fangs
in a post-dusk Los Angeles. There
was a lot to love about the game, but
its ambition was marred by clumsy
mechanics and the limitations of the
time. But now a belated sequel looks
like it will fully realise our vampire RPGThe original RPG was inspired by Chaosium’s Call Of Cthulhu game, as well as vampire movies
Vampire: The
Masquerade
- Bloodlines 2
Thirsty for more
Chris Burke
PUBLISHER PARADOX INTERACTIVE DEVELOPER HARDSUIT LABS
ETA EARLY 2020“There’s really
only one
destination
for us: the
nightclub”
BELOW Thanks to
a ‘mass embrace’
that took place
recently, Seattle
is crawling with
fresh vampires.
of the NPCs’, um, characterful dancing.
Walking across the dancefloor in the
Atrium club, we’re given the option to
bust a move. Yes, those crazy steps
have been faithfully recreated for a
lovely bit of fan-service. Although the
game is primarily first-person, the
camera switches to third-person for
activities such as dancing, scaling
walls or performing acrobatic feats.
Heading upstairs at the club onto a
roof terrace, we meet a woman called
Elif. She’s a Nosferatu representative,
though she herself is clearly not
a Nosferatu – a type of vampire
who, when they are embraced, are
disfigured and so are rarely seen in
public. Elif explains that they need
you to find a Thinblood by the name of
Slugg, who’s in hiding, and buy some
valuable information from him.
Conversations with NPCs are
impressive, with realistic faces that
are sharp and well drawn – something026 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE
PREVIEW