Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines at 20: A masterpiece of RPG storytelling which could simply have a blighted bloodline of its personal

There was lots working in opposition to Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines when it launched on today again in 2004. No one needs to launch up in opposition to a sport as hotly anticipated as Half-Life 2, not to mention be pushed out half-finished on account of a weird company mandate to launch on the identical day as stated sport — which, by the way, used the identical brand-new engine as V:TM-B was in-built, however as proprietary in-house know-how slightly than through a third-party licence, and so very a lot getting the higher finish of the deal.

In the end, trying again on the launch debacle that surrounded Bloodlines simply reveals you ways radically the video games business has modified previously 20 years. If the identical situation had been to play out as we speak, you’d most likely see the publishers overseeing a online game tie-in to a comparatively area of interest TTRPG doing all the things of their energy to keep away from launching on the identical day as such an apparent GOTY candidate. In actual fact, the launch would probably be pushed again a number of months to minimise clashing over the viewers’s attentions, which mockingly would have been precisely what Bloodlines’ developer Troika Video games needed and wanted however by no means acquired.

However there’s additionally the truth that Bloodlines managed to achieve a good quantity of recognition fairly rapidly regardless of its underbaked launch state. Even earlier than it gained the cult basic standing it is best recognized for as we speak, this wasn’t a sport that required reassessment from a later technology of gamers, and its fame initially grew out of perseverance from the followers who had been already there on the time.

Once more, that is one thing that would not occur in 2024, when a theoretically respectable sport with efficiency points not patched out on Day 1 is as a rule dismissed as “mid” and consigned to the standing of a minor historic footnote, as gamers flip their attentions to any of the handfuls of different video games that launched that week. And actually, who can blame them?

The world of twenty years in the past was fairly totally different: fewer video games doing the rounds, and slower entry to the video games there have been (digital distribution was nonetheless in its infancy, bear in mind: Steam was a mere yr outdated at this level, and nonetheless solely offered video games made straight by Valve) meant that one thing like Bloodlines might nonetheless emerge with a decent 80% common vital rating, quickly develop into one thing of a darling amongst gamers, and even choose up a modest handful of end-of-year awards regardless of launching in mid-November on high of all the things else that it needed to cope with.

Sadly, the purgatorial standing of the Bloodlines IP continues to today. On condition that Troika Video games folded not lengthy after Bloodlines’ launch, most followers knew higher than to anticipate a sequel. So when one was introduced in 2019 — with an preliminary launch window that will broadly coincide with the unique sport’s fifteenth anniversary, but additionally risked clashing with the then-intended launch date for the hotly-awaited, GOTY-tipped Cyberpunk 2077 — the nice shock was tempered by nervous jokes about generational curses.

5 years and quite a few delays later, after all, Bloodlines 2 nonetheless hasn’t launched — and has modified nearly past recognition, morphing from a closely-moulded direct sequel developed by Hardsuit Labs to a looser religious successor rebuilt from the bottom up by The Chinese language Room. By the sounds of issues, 2025 may simply be the yr we lastly get our arms on V:TM-B2, however it’s honest to say that these half-joking predictions of a troubled manufacturing proved extra correct than even the prognosticators themselves anticipated.

In reality, although — and talking from the center right here, as somebody who nonetheless considers Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines fairly probably their single favorite online game of all time even twenty years later — I am not that fearful about Bloodlines 2.

Not as a result of it is higher considered within the context of the truth that there have truly been 11 official VTM video video games (plus quite a few sanctioned VTM sport jam titles) launched previously twenty years that weren’t Bloodlines sequels, however which did show that the IP is flexible sufficient to assist a gentle provide of excellent video games, even when they largely do not have the scope and attain to set the world on fireplace. And never as a result of I place confidence in The Chinese language Room to ship an honest World of Darkness-flavoured Dishonored-style imsim that bears little relation to the unique however stands up effectively sufficient by itself — though, for what it is price, I do truly suppose that’ll be the case.

I’ve talked about this already in our end-of-year video round-ups for 2023, however final yr’s resounding Recreation of the 12 months winner Baldur’s Gate 3 has in some ways already scratched my itch for a contemporary Vampire: The Masquerade follow-up. As a deeply engrossing RPG based mostly on a preferred tabletop setting, made distinctive by the energy of its writing, world-building, and performances (and even with a hot-yet-troubled vampire in a key function), BG3 already proved that the V:TM-B components could possibly be one of the crucial profitable ideas in video video games if a developer was given the time, house, and — crucially — funding and assets wanted to make a sport that lived as much as all that actually glorious potential.

Seen by this extra holistic lens, Bloodlines’ legacy has already come full circle. A throwback title in the identical vein turned the primary online game ever to win all 5 main GOTY awards; if ever some extent could possibly be comprehensively confirmed in a discipline as subjective as artwork and leisure, this one has been now. Bloodlines 2 will be what it must be — whether or not it finally ends up being beloved, reviled, or simply rapidly forgotten — and on the finish of the day, the unique Bloodlines will nonetheless be that messy however great cult basic that set the bar for RPG storytelling in video video games.