VTMB2 isn't coming out. Is it?

Facing the hard truths.

I've mentioned it before, but 'Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines 2' will forever have a special place in this blog as literally being the very first game that I wrote about. There's a special reverence reserved for your first foray, and though I'm typically not a sentimental person (Or at least I try not to be) VTMB 2 seems somewhat personal for me. Silly though it seems, considering that the I was never really too attached to the VTM franchise despite adoring the original, I've been pining for this sequel for a hot minute now. I had no idea about the other old school Vampire the Masquerade game, 'Redemption', which literally took my ideal concept for a vampire game and bought it to life. (Following your vampiric character through several periods throughout history) I had no idea about the Worlds of Darkness source material beyond it's name, and I didn't know about the sheer bevy or related franchises branching off onto all manner of supernatural beasties. I was a casual fan at best. (Heck, I still am. I just know about all these other branches of fandom; I still haven't had the chance to explore them.) And yet, whenever news comes our way about VTMB 2, positive or otherwise, I take it to heart like a parent adhering their child. (Or I suppose, a friend adhering their friend would perhaps be more appropriate.)

So in the ever immortal words of- quick google search- Barry Manilow? (Ew) "I feel sad when you're sad". And today I'd imagine that the video game branch of 'Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines 2' feels very sad because, as much as I rage against my very core to admit it, this game has finally completed every single possible checkbox to be considered 'a title with troubled development.' How many games have made it through this sort of nightmare and turned out decent? Even with my overbearing knowledge of gaming I had to look this up for clarification and ended up in the darkest recesses of the Internet for sources. (That's right; I went to Whatculture. May the Lord have mercy on my freshly damned soul.) And to be honest; a lot of the games that I saw there were 'maybe good depending on your taste', thus not spelling out a very hopeful road for VTMB. I mean LA Noire was good, FFXV was liked by me but hated by a lot out there and I'm sorry but I just did not like Alan Wake at all. Unless there's a clear cut- wait, DOOM? 2016's DOOM was so far gone into development hell that work on it had to be rebooted in 2011? And now it's an undeniable masterpiece! Okay than; VTMB 2 just needs to be completely restarted and undergo another 5 years of development to be good; that's no biggie, right?

Yes indeed, it seems we have a development cycle of shock layoffs, mass development studio shifts and everlasting delays; such to the point where I find myself asking that most lamentable of questions: Is VTMB 2 ever going to come out? Is this going to end up one of those unreleaseable projects like Chaos Walking. (In all fairness; that trailer did look terrible) I mean what's worse; just cancelling the game outright and letting us all imagine the greatness it might have reached, or committing to releasing a bad game and dispelling that illusion in a manner that might hurt future efforts from your company through sheer reputation knock-back? Is the sweet lie better than the terrible truth? I think 2020 rather handily showed us that gamers will no longer flock to your game if it's terrible unless you've already been grandfathered into the yearly customer subscription like the Madden games have or COD and AC. Maybe that's an indication that the vestigial limb is best removed in situations like these. >Sigh< Look at me, arguing for why VTMB 2 should be cancelled. What has led me to this place?

Well maybe that has something to do with the entire development studio being unceremoniously jettisoned. That's right, Paradox Interactive, the folk behind the curtain, have made the dual decision to kick Hardsuit labs to the curb and delay the game itself indefinitely. (Although that second decision is more just the automatic shockwave of doing something as crazy as firing your development team just under a year before your prospective launch) This comes after the lead writer, Brain Mitsoda and the game director Ka'ai Cluney; were kicked off the project for undisclosed reasons. Brian, by-the-by, was lead writer on VTMB 1 and Mr Cluney worked on Quake and F.E.A.R; meaning there must have been some serious, earthshattering direction disagreements going on behind the scenes to justify all the turbulence that Paradox has been going through. If I didn't know that Jason Schrier isn't currently kicking down doors over at Hardsuit in order to get this story, I'd be tempted to speculate.

For their part, Paradox wants to paint the picture that this is an amicable parting between the two, taking time in their announcement to 'honour' the work of Hardsuit and mention how their work on the game will be instrumental to it's coming out. But if that's the case then why were they fired? Now I don't wanna act like I know more than I do or anything, I'm sure there could be entirely normal and sane reasons for this breakup like... umm...I'm drawing a blank here... Oh, maybe Hardsuit took on another job and couldn't spare staff! (Yeah I know that's a dumb excuse; I'm trying here!) I just can't shake this underlying fear that either the game is in flames or Paradox are absolutely disgusted with the direction. (The latter would certainly explain the high-level firings better.) Yeah, I'm pretty sure that PR-speak departure note isn't going to age particularly well when the whole story inevitably lands.

But this isn't quite the end of the road, not yet. Because Paradox are already in close discussion with their replacement which is- oh they haven't said yet. It's okay though, we wouldn't know them anyway; they go to a different school. It is time to start freaking out yet? Because this is sounding like a disaster on wheels right now. This is shaping up like the forbidden recipe for total unabashed disaster and there's nothing to do on our end but sit and watch it unfold. Actually, I don't even think Anthem's development troubles were this transparent, and certainly not Cyberpunk's, what hope is there that this might turn out as a worthwhile sequel? (Paradox has stopped accepting Pre-orders, man, this is serious!) My only hail-mary plan would literally be Paradox just selling off the project to Rockstar or someone to be made, cause otherwise this is gonna end up as nothing more than new-age vaporware.

What makes this all the more heart-breaking is the fact that around this game the Vampire The Masquerade franchise has appeared to be slowly coming back into fashion through way of smaller, yet still intriguing, titles. There's 'Coteries of New York' and 'Shadows of New York' which are both VN's, as well as 'Night Road', 'Parliament of Knives' and 'Out for Blood', which are all text based adventures. There's also 'Swansong' which is said to be a narrative-focused roleplaying game that follows three protagonists, although there's no actual word on what the gameplay is shaping up as. (Feel like that would help) And, apparently, there's also a Battle Royale being made. I'm thinking that last one is a joke, but Sharkmob (the new studio who are taking it up) certainly don't seem to be in on it. Every single game I mentioned either came out in the last two years or is due out this year, indicative of a new wave of VTM interest that very much should have been spearheaded by Bloodlines 2. But that's looking more and more unlikely as the development bombshells drop and I grow increasingly jaded.

Hey, best case scenario we are all wrong and this is also frighteningly good news. The game's been delayed for another year and every extra moment results in an even better game that lives up to every expectation raised since that trailer. (A trailer which I still think is brilliant by-the-by.) My favourite vampire game gets a proper sequel, and The World of Darkness continues is slow accent to more mainstream appeal. But that's the talk of fantasy, and unfortunately we don't live in one of those. If there's any lesson to learn after 2020 is that fairytales don't exist and redflags are there to curb expectations, so consider this me officially departing the hype train and marking that thing off for fumigation; I can get my vampire fix elsewhere.