You actually have at hand it to the publishers of Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2. They’re absolutely the masters of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, the doyens of stepping on rakes, at the same time as they close to the checkered flag. The long-awaited RPG acquired a brand new trailer and what may very well show to be the final release date at Gamescom Opening Night time Reside this week. The trailer was a feisty present of Dishonored-esque mayhem, and the hands-on verdicts I’ve learn (save for stinky uncle Eurogamer) have been optimistic. Ours is forthcoming.
However then got here the revelation that this much-delayed sequel to a quintessentially faction-led RPG from an organization famous for downloadable add-ons would sell two of its vampire clans as day-one DLC. How we laughed! How we clutched our faces and chittered like gerbils! How we ran exterior, begging for the moon to fall on our heads! Despair springs anew.
Our reporter on the bottom at Gamescom is {hardware} editor James ‘Hardwearing’ Archer. He caught up with present and hopefully, ultimate Bloodlines 2 builders The Chinese language Room in individual yesterday and, very similar to a mum or dad coaxing a toddler away from a toxic snake, casually requested them ‘What is the considering behind splitting off two of the clans as DLC?’
The reply, broadly, is that the brand new clans signify extra work on prime of The Chinese language Room’s authentic plans for the sport – generally at Paradox’s request – so it is truthful to flog these bits individually. As for releasing the DLC alongside the primary sport, which naturally means that it might be bought as a part of the primary sport, a PR instructed James, not in so many phrases, that they do not need gamers to have to attend.
Narrative director Ian Thomas tried to spell all of it out. “It is worthwhile saying that the sport – effectively, I’ve solely been on the sport, I believe, for 2 and a half years – however throughout that interval, we have had big cycles of ‘What are the participant base considering? What are they asking for? How does that slot in? What does the early alpha testing say, and what are they really asking for?'” he mentioned. (Aspect be aware to any extra affluent sport builders studying: I really feel like you might be all taught by media coaching folks to stall for time with rhetorical questions. Please cease doing this, it’s totally exasperating and solely makes me suspicious.)
“So we have made an enormous quantity of adjustments over that point, primarily based on that cycle, should you like,” Thomas continued. “Together with a large quantity of story content material and options and all the remainder of it. So we now have been increasing it from the place we initially deliberate to land it, I believe, continually, and Paradox have been actually good once we go, or when the shoppers go, or when Paradox go: ‘We should always add a bit extra right here. Let’s push the date again.’ As you already know, the date has pushed again, however that has been to fatten it out into one thing that we really feel does land the place the gamers need it.”
Based on Thomas, The Chinese language Room are nonetheless “including extra content material even over the previous couple of weeks”. The additional clan materials and related story bits fall into this rubric of post-concept ‘fattening’. So do sure character customisation options like hairstyles, piercings and tattoos, in accordance with challenge design director Jey Hicks. “It is not all, like, simply fluff that we’re chucking in,” he mentioned. “It is all acquired that very same high quality there.”
The unique Bloodlines shipped with seven vampire clans, together with one of many clans Bloodlines 2 desires to paywall. They look like very totally different video games, nevertheless – Paradox have taken to describing the sequel as a “spiritual successor” – as one would possibly anticipate from the truth that The Chinese language Room have sod-all expertise making CRPGs. I believe it might be truthful to argue that Bloodlines 2 solely having 4 clans by default merely displays a obligatory change of course, nevertheless a lot followers of the unique would possibly dislike that change of course. It is also value noting that the circumstances of sport growth have modified enormously since 2004, and that given the turmoil of Bloodlines 2’s overall development under Paradox, it is miraculous they’ve something to indicate in any respect.
However that is not the case the builders made to us at Gamescom. And particularly, not one of the above actually explains the choice to ship options returning gamers would fairly anticipate to type a part of the bottom bundle as day-one DLC. The language about not wanting followers to attend simply appears like predictable camouflage for the boring reality that they’d like to earn more money.
