Bloodlines 2 narrative director tries to get players to lower their expectations, patiently explains it's not going to have the scale of Baldur's Gate 3 or Grand Theft Auto

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Where Baldur's Gate 3 was "an entire roleplaying setting" Bloodlines 2 will apparently be "a roleplaying module".

Phyre, the Elder Kindred from Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2, stares intently at something in the distance, a frown writ into their forehead.
(Image credit: The Chinese Room)

While we will get to choose the clan and gender of our player-character in Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2, it's apparently not going to be a full "how many skill points do I want to put into Security" kind of character creation—a revelation that's set a few fans on edge. Narrative director Ian Thomas put in some damage control by explaining that decision to PCGamesN, which I'm sure White Wolf tragics will give calm and reasonable consideration to.

Elaborating on why the player-character in Bloodlines 2 isn't the typical RPG "blank slate", Thomas said, "if you're telling a specific story, I think you need a shape to pour the story into, like a mold. If you completely open up all of the options and throw somebody into a space, how do you make that character the pillar of the story?"

And Bloodlines 2 will be telling a very specific story. Comparing it to Baldur's Gate 3, which does let you go full blank-slate and wander off-piste between plot points, Thomas put the two philosophies into tabletop RPG terms. "For me Baldur's Gate 3 is writing an entire roleplaying setting, whereas what we've done is write a roleplaying module," he said, suggesting Bloodlines 2 will be more about telling a singular one-and-done story than opening up a map and letting you have at it.

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The original Bloodlines, while smaller than Baldur's Gate 3, did give you fairly free rein across its open hubs, with plenty of side missions to explore as you saw fit. Bloodlines 2, with its customizable yet defined protagonist and pre-set scenario, seems like it's aiming for something different, and you can see why the developers at The Chinese Room are eager to manage our expectations.

As Thomas says, "It does make it hard when people see [Bloodlines 2] and go 'oh I thought this was an entire setting, I thought this was GTA where we could do anything!' While we're trying to go 'no, it's this slice of time and place.'"

We'll be able to see how that choice pays off for ourselves when Bloodlines 2 releases on October 21.

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Jody Macgregor
Jody Macgregor
Weekend/AU Editor

Jody's first computer was a Commodore 64, so he remembers having to use a code wheel to play Pool of Radiance. A former music journalist who interviewed everyone from Giorgio Moroder to Trent Reznor, Jody also co-hosted Australia's first radio show about videogames, Zed Games. He's written for Rock Paper Shotgun, The Big Issue, GamesRadar, Zam, Glixel, Five Out of Ten Magazine, and Playboy.com, whose cheques with the bunny logo made for fun conversations at the bank. Jody's first article for PC Gamer was about the audio of Alien Isolation, published in 2015, and since then he's written about why Silent Hill belongs on PC, why Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale is the best fantasy shopkeeper tycoon game, and how weird Lost Ark can get. Jody edited PC Gamer Indie from 2017 to 2018, and he eventually lived up to his promise to play every Warhammer videogame.

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    1. Comment by JayTheSaltLord.

      Oh, it's "hard" for Ian to see people who were expecting an rpg as the follow up to a beloved cult rpg classic but are getting a walking sim with some parkour and combat getting mad? The poor baby. He and the rest of the devs should have declined and told the publisher to find a dev studio that could do the job properly.

      • Comment by HOHA.

        This game is a sequel to bloodlines 1 like Fallout 4 is to New Vegas.

        • Comment by Notunlike.

          Don't make the protagonist the pillar of the story. Super simple stuff.

          • Comment by FenixNoT.

            Yeah, pass. So it's not going to be as large in scope as GTA or have as much depth of choice as BG3. So it's a semi open, slightly restrained rpg and not actual open world and has far fewer player driven decisions than we hoped for. Yet BG3 was complete at launch for £50 and this will be 60 or 70, without even thinking about the 2 clans behind a pay wall. Meanwhile in BG3 I can pick any of a large list of races and backgrounds and essentially play all the story content whatever way I want, to a mind boggling degree.

            You dont have to be BG3, but if you're not coming close and you're trying to charge close to 100 quid for the full experience, welcome to the reality where that's not even close to good enough. Love the first game, don't think ill bother this time.

            • Comment by null void.

              Gamers are such entitled little children aren't they

              • Comment by sushiesque.

                It's an action focused rpg with weak action and rpg elements.

                • Comment by Vivi.

                  This game is going to flop, isn't it..

                  • Comment by Gordon.

                    It doesn't sound like its gonna live up to the original either so...

                    • Comment by jdambra91.

                      We aren't expecting BG3, we are expecting VBM2. Which apparently they couldn't pull off either.

                      • Comment by BFfourzero.

                        Doesn't need to be BG3 or any other game, just be high-quality and polished at what it does offer.