Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 is now being developed by British studio The Chinese Room, and is set for release in 2024.
In some unexpected news, it has been revealed that Brighton-based studio The Chinese Room has been quietly developing Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 for the past few years, and the game is scheduled for release in autumn 2024.
Bloodlines 2 has had a troubled development, to put it mildly. The long-awaited sequel to the 2004 action RPG was originally announced in 2019, with a release date of Q1 2020. But the game was delayed, then lead writer Brian Mitsoda and creative director Ka’ai Cluney were fired in the middle of 2020. By 2021, publisher Paradox Interactive had announced that the developer, Hardsuit Labs, had been taken off the project, and Bloodlines 2 had been delayed indefinitely.
Now it has been revealed that Paradox handed over development of Bloodlines 2 to British studio The Chinese Room, a developer best known for its narrative-heavy games Dear Esther, Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs and Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture. The studio has had its own ups and downs: a couple of years after the release of Rapture, co-founders Dan Pinchbeck and Jessica Curry laid off the entire staff and closed the Brighton offices.
But the studio was bought by Sumo Group in 2018, and has since been built back up significantly, with around 100 people listed as working there on LinkedIn. In addition to Bloodlines 2, The Chinese Room is working on Still Wakes the Deep, a horror game set on an oil rig, which was announced back in June and is set for release next year.
The other game i’m working on has been announced at last! My dreams have been haunted by oil rigs and sexy #vtm vampires for the past few years! Art directing these games with the team at @ChineseRoom has been a total pleasure! Now just the wee job of getting them finished… https://t.co/NOZwk8jRzh
— John McCormack (@MisterMcCormack) September 2, 2023
The Chinese Room has plenty of experience with creating narrative-heavy games that drip with atmosphere, but less experience with action games and RPGs. However, as reported by PC Gamer, Alex Skidmore has been brought in as creative director for Bloodlines 2, who previously worked on Gears Tactics and the Fable series. Skidmore told PC Gamer: “This isn’t what I was expecting the Chinese Room to be working on … And really, it was a big reason why I joined, because these are the kinds of games I love working on.”
According to the article, The Chinese Room has kept much of the art and level design created by Hardsuit Labs, but has built a new code base with different mechanics and systems. The game will still be set in Seattle, but now the player will take control of an Elder vampire rather than a newly hatched one – in the game’s universe, the older the vampire is, the more powerful they are.
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 is set for release on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S in autumn 2024.
Read more: Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 offering refunds following delays
