Paradox Interactive recently re-revealed Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2, confirming that the action RPG is now being developed by The Chinese Room (Dear Esther, Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture). Of course, until early 2021, the studio in charge of the project was Hardsuit Labs, before being taken off it due to behind-the-scenes development issues– however, the project wasn’t rebooted and started from scratch.
Speaking in a recent interview with Digital Trends, Sean Greaney – vice president of the World of Darkness IP at Paradox Interactive – revealed that a lot of the work done by Hardsuit Labs has been used in the current project. In particular, new developer The Chinese Room has built on top of previous work like the game’s themes, its setting of Seattle, and “a significant degree” of art and character art.
“Hardsuit Labs is a great studio, and they did a lot of good work on this project,” Greaney said. “We just had a very different vision for the final product, and we couldn’t align on that vision. And so the right thing to do was to end the collaboration and find a studio that shared that vision.”
He added: “The work that had been done on the game was very important for getting us to a certain point, so the themes, Seattle as the setting, and a significant degree of the art and character art has been carried over. It isn’t from the ground up, but it isn’t a straight continuation either.”
Meanwhile, it’s also been confirmed that under The Chinese Room’s stewardship, the game’s development has moved from Unreal Engine 4 to Unreal Engine 5.
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 is due out in Fall 2024 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC, and Paradox Interactive is confident that the game won’t be delayed again.
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