Back from the undead
Paradox Interactive has announced that they haven’t given up on the development ofVampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2.
Rise, Kindred, and join us in September for a big announcement!pic.twitter.com/RdmJY7pbgA
— Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 (@VtM_Bloodlines)June 06, 2025
A September announcement tease from the publisher was accompanied with apress release stating that the difficult development ofBloodlines 2marches on.Paradox had been silent onBloodlines 2for over a year after many troubling moves: it fired the game’s lead writer, and its director, and subsequentlymoved all developmentduties to astill-unnameddevelopment team. While all these shadowy machinations happening in the background fits thematically in a vampire-based series, fans were mostly left confused.
This is what comes up when you Google someBloodlines 2search terms:
Paradox also released afew screenshotsto go with the announcement. They look great, but a handful of screenshots don’t quite measure up to the gorgeous gameplay videosthey showed three years ago.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XygaG56O_gY
This is nothing new for fans ofBloodlines
Hardcore fans still believe inBloodlines 2because they remember the early cursed days of the original.Bloodlinesmight absolutely rock now, but it took a while for it to get up to that point. At release, all we got was an unfinished game and thedemise of its development company.The originalBloodlinesby Troika Games was off to a promising start, though! It was one of the first games to use Valve’s glorious Source engine, but the hype quickly turned into a nightmare. Troubles related to overspending, dealing with a new engine, and a contract that forced Troika to only showBloodlinesafter the reveal ofHalf-Life 2and toonly release it after (the delayed)Half-Life 2put the company under great stress.
Bloodlineswas met with a mixed response upon release, though its great story and gameplay potential were obvious from the get-go. We must thank the heroic fans and ex-Troika employees who never gave up andkept on working for years on patches that fixed the game’s issues.These patches made by the community are so good thatGOG’s official release of the game has incorporated them.
So, IfBloodlines 2doesn’t play great by the time Paradox’s unannounced company believes they’ve exhausted all of its development capabilities, just consider releasing it as is. Yes, please don’t cancel it. A few fans will probably take care of the rest.
