Though one of the most anticipated RPGs in recent years, fired from the project at Hardsuit Labs, Mitsoda having worked with Troika Games on its predecessor. The product has been delayed multiple times, and this February publisher Paradox Interactive removed Hardsuit entirely, forcing the latter firm into layoffs. The title is no longer due to ship in 2021 - so when might we actually see it?
Aside from a turbulent development, part of the issue with Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 is its scope. Character creation is intensely important to the World of Darkness, particularly since there are many different vampire clans, each with unique abilities and alignments. The game also promises a complex plot set in a visually-rich modern Seattle, and, like a growing number of RPGs, the ability to use both violent and non-violent solutions for many problems.
The earliest potential release date for Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 is the first quarter of 2022, but this seems improbable for a few reasons. Above all, Paradox has yet to announce who will replace Hardsuit - while a studio might already be at work, there could also be no one. Even if there is a developer that company will be taking over code and other assets that it's unfamiliar with, and potentially coping with the same obstacles as Hardsuit, such as next-gen console upgrades and the COVID-19 pandemic. There's a high bar to meet, too, for Paradox's first major World of Darkness game.
What's Left to Finish In Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2?
The ambition of the effort means that there's a lot content left to build out or at least polish in Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 before it releases, particularly if Paradox wants to be competitive with titles shipping a year from now. Looming in the publisher's mind must be the disaster of CDPR's Cyberpunk 2077 - despite being a flagship RPG in development since at least 2012, it was riddled with bugs on launch last year, arriving practically crippled on previous-generation consoles. The product has sometimes been criticized for having less depth than promised, a fate that could easily befall Paradox given its own marketing.
More likely for Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2's release date is fall 2022. That would provide more breathing space while theoretically positioning it as a holiday blockbuster. It should also ensure a wider install base for the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, which will almost certainly be the minimum required consoles considering problems the base PS4 and Xbox One have running any state-of-the-art game.