This keeps looking better and better. Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 finally debuted some gameplay at E3's PC Gaming Show. That was a good 1:20-long trailer. This is the extended 4:33-length gameplay, though.
There are all kinds of vampire cliches stamped into the trailer. A City Run on Blood. This City Will Bleed You Dry. Etc., etc. That's just the trailer, though. From the bit of O.G. Bloodlines (2004) I've played, they'll likely manage to sidestep the cliches or do something fun with them either way. I liked the Tarantino-looking snot nose talking to you in his bathrobe; punchable face, though you probably shouldn't. I'm sure there are a lot of things you shouldn't do here. But you'll have the opportunity to do them. He gets a pass because he says, "Welcome to the first day of the rest of your death." Haha. Comedy.
The set pieces you run around look and feel a lot like original Bloodlines. I wasn't sure they'd recapture that feeling, but I think they're doing a good job of it. Deep shadows. Stabs of nightlife. Some kind of vampire vision that lights up the heart's circulatory system in your potential victims. You've got your dark magic that swarms people in a bat tornado, you've got your obligatory hot goth chick in chokers and torn jeans, and multiple choice dialogue options that take advantage of your character stats.
My only complaint is that they better embiggen the text a little on the sidebar messages that pop up. I'm not a video game developer with a 34" ultrawide monitor. Also, the first-person animations could use a little work. Your hands look weird! And the shotgun kind of auto-cocks itself once. Whatever. It's fine. They'll work on it. And I've never been a fan of the "read all five or six dialogue options before you pick one" style of dialogue trees. Seems cowardly to me. But I appear to be in the minority. And seeing all the branches of the dialogue tree is certainly in keeping with the first Bloodlines.
Bloodlines 2 is coming Q1 2020 to PC, PS4, and Xbox One. Lots of people are waiting on this one.
