Vampire the Masquerade - Bloodlines 2

RDR2 did set a new standard when it came to realism of the nutsack so I agree.

 

I'm all for Heap of Gore and Nutsack Physics technology crossover.

 

Castration Simulator?

 

apparently they already perfected Nutsack physics in 2004...

 

trapsaregay.webm (don't make me post this)

Yeah, no.

 

Thus far I've seen a bunch whining about pronouns, camera placement, how guns are implemented, and it just being a CG teaser.

The latter two issues I understand. Actual gameplay footage would have been nice considering there's a press demo out and the limitations on firearms are terrible if that's how it's going to be, but that's my only complaint. For the moment, I'm going to trust the developers to understand the game they're making a sequel to. I currently expect Bloodlines 2 to be an AA budgeted modern immersive sim. DXHR , Dishonored, Prey with vamps and all the warts that come with that. Until I see this thing in action, I'm fucking hyped. Unfinished games from 15 years ago don't normally get sequels.

 

Camera placement/1st/3rd person is very important.
Melee has never been implemented well in 1st person. The instant teleportation/leaps/superman agility/flight in Dishonored was just a way to implement a "good" melee system by doing most of the work for you.

That said I'm still looking forward playing this game at least for the story part.

 

Yes, camera replacement is one of the most important things in games. Just the mere fact the game apparently doesn't have third person view just concerns me. Every game with melee in first person just makes me want to play in third person because you have much better spatial awareness from that perspective. And the first Bloodlines did have third person, which helped with melee somewhat.

 

Dishonored has a proper melee combat system outside of the blink mechanic. There's just no real reason to use it considering how overpowered the other abilities are and the game being designed around stealth despite being marketed otherwise.

I do understand your point, but the melee combat in the original game was bad regardless. My memories of the game are largely as a first person experience so the fact that people care that much is kinda baffling to me but I'll concede that my experience with the game was not everyone else's because of how open the design was for the time.

 

I mean, the game literally forces you to 3rd Person camera when you attack with a melee weapon.

 

It did? (i could have sworn melee was also in first person) Well, even better then. Devs were aware how awkward first person melee is and made it third person only. Don't honestly see the difficulty of adding third person view to the game.

 

Yup, doing a run through the game now. Now keep in mind I'm playing the Plus Patch so maybe they added some functionality that does that.

But right now, when I select a melee weapon, it changes the camera to 3rd person.

And also, while in 3rd person I switch to a gun, it switches me to first person with the aiming reticule.

Bloodlines is dope!

 

It works like that normally- I do think you can shoot both first and third person though.

By the way- to anyone thinking about replaying Bloodlines, I recommend installing Clan Quest mod. It adds a quest for each clan, a couple universal ones, option to join Sabbat at Hollywood, diablerie and new hub. There is also an option to install Arsenal mod (new weapons) and Discipline rebalance (I liked some new abilities, but Ventrue losing Sleep was a bit questionable to me).

 

Still need to continue my Malkavian playthrough (i keep putting this further back in my backlog) and i might do a playthrough with the Clan Quest mod after it.

 

Not a fan of Vampires, didn't like the Masquerade, and this falls in the same. Pass. This, Cyberpunk 77, and Outer Worlds...something's just bloody off.

Other posts here basically saying gun builds are DOA, skills might not even be a thing, and it'll be a Vampyr game in build makes me hope it fucks off, really.

 

I get plenty of enjoyment out of RPGs. In particular VtM and World of Darkness.
What I don't get plenty of enjoyment out is of Action, cinematic, melee bashing, gun discarding games.

I also don't get enjoyment from game series that are pure RPG and then a "sequel" is turned into action games (Fallout anyone?).

So, no. It is not time for me to find a new hobbie, it's time for companies to stop changing pure RPG series into boring cinematic action just to attract people who don't like pure RPGs.

 

I also have to question people being hyped for a game that so far has shown only a trailer that has no gameplay. Even when my favorite franchises announce a new game, when they do it with a trailer with no gameplay, i don't feel any excitement. I just start asking for a trailer with gameplay or anything showing gameplay.

 

Adding to my previous post.

I wouldn't be this uninterested if the game wasn't a Bloodlines sequel. If it was "Vampires The Masquerade Seattle" and not advertised as a sequel, I would be thinking "This seems interesting. Probably not the game for me, because it seems too action oriented."
But it's a sequel, and that is what worries me, there's this trend of turning RPGs into Action games and call them sequels. That is annoying, I saw it happening to my favorite RPG series over time:
Fallout, Cyberpunk, The Elder Scrolls, Front Mission, Final Fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons, and more. They all turned from pure RPG, Tactical RPG, jRPG into action games, some with RPG elements (if we're lucky).

Then we also have the thing about games that are supposed to be awesome and somehow related to classic games (spiritual successors for example) that just don't cut it, Torment: Tides of Numenera comes to mind. Chris Avellone also worked on that one, and it was a totally hyped crap. Had nothing on the classic game and it actually suffered from comparing itself and calling itself a spiritual successor.
I'm pretty sure that if they hadn't associated themselves with Planescape:Torment, the game would have been seen in a more positive light.

I have seen it many times, history tends to repeat itself. Specially in the gaming industry.

So, until proven wrong. I will be cautious of games, specially when the devs and game journos start telling highlights of the game and don't mention skills and attributes, don't mention how dialogue will work, mention instead stuff like discarding guns (which goes against what VtM RPG is), like how it's focused on melee and "cool" vampire powers, how to go through ducts you can have a mist power (you could crawl in the previous game, i hope you can crawl in this one too), the trailer only shows CGI, etc.
I always noticed that what is more important in a new game announcement is not what they tell or show, but what they don't tell or show. I have been right pretty much every time I raise worries about what people do not show or tell in game announcements, and that just makes me sad, to be honest.

 

Found something interesting- Wesp (guy that spent over a decade patching Bloodlines) was shown intro and tutorial back in January.