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How Bloodlines 2 is resurrecting Vampire: The Masquerade
Brian Mitsoda, the writer of the original Vampire: The Masquerade, is back overseeing the story for the sequel, Bloodlines 2. We sat down with him to find out more.
Back in 2004 the first Vampire: The Masquerade launched alongside stiff competition. Counter Strike, Metal Gear Solid 3, World of Warcraft and many other games all filled the same few weeks in November. You'd think a buggy tale about Vampires in Los Angeles wouldn't stand a chance.
Here we are, though, 15 years later and The Masquerade is a cult classic loved by many fans of dark stories. Its deep characters and otherworldly narrative still stand up today. Now, Paradox Interactive and Hardsuit Games are finally making a follow up to the original game: Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2.
One of the biggest draws of the original game is that it was set in real-world Los Angeles in a narrative that was plagued with choices that had real consequences. Consequences that made you feel like a monster. "We're never going to say this is the bad choice and this is a good one, it's about what you want to be," Bloodlines 2 writer Brian Mitsoda tells me. "I mean, ultimately you're becoming a monster. You're a vampire and you're learning how to be a better monster. A lot of that is about learning that vampires don't necessarily benefit by doing the right thing."
Bloodlines 2 takes place after a Masquerade, where a large group of people are turned into vampires. It's an event that's frowned upon in the vampire community. Usually the vampires that turn others have a responsibility for them.
That means you're a lone vampire with extraordinary abilities struggling to find your way through a gritty version of Seattle. Stuck between multiple factions, you make friends of some and enemies of others depending on decisions that shape the direction of the story.
"You have all these factions and your actions can make or break your relationship with others," Mitsoda said. "Let's say you take something that benefits you but doesn't benefit the faction, they may be pissed with you and they will never work with you again."
Bloodlines 2 takes place all over Seattle
© Paradox Interactive
The dark heart of Seattle
Like the original game’s Los Angeles setting, Bloodlines 2's Seattle is a faithful redesign of the city. The game takes points from north-west United States history and the current state of the city to help shape the narrative.
“One of the things that I wanted to bring in is the story of Seattle. Not just the history, but the modern part of Seattle. We have a huge change in the dynamic of the city because we have got all this tech money coming in and it's making the city more expensive," Mitsoda said. "The quirky stores and restaurants that were there and the kinds of people that might live in those neighbourhoods are being displaced. There are people coming in that are changing the character of the city, we're asking how much can the city change before it doesn't really feel like Seattle anymore?"
The faithful representation of the city also means that infamous locales like the jungle, a big homeless encampment, and the underground, a network of tunnels under the city, are in the game. "Seattle has an extensive underground because the city burned down in the late 1800s," Mitsoda said. 'They rebuilt the city on top of these ruins so there's a whole city underneath the ground. We spent a lot of time thinking about who would live down there."
Bloodlines 2 will have multiple hubs that include different parts of Seattle. King's Cross Station, downtown Pioneer Square, parts of Aurora and other areas are all free for exploration. "We're trying to recreate a Seattle faithfully, um, and people out of these feel and the landmarks of Seattle out," Mitsoda said. "Since it's hub-based, each hub will let you explore a certain number of blocks around that part of the city."
Building off Bloodlines
A lot has changed in game design since the original Bloodlines came out in 2004. The same mechanics, worlds and characters that came out then aren't the standard anymore. Mitsoda and the rest of the development team had to find a way to modernise the feeling of Bloodlines.
"We basically sat down and thought about what people like from the first game, trying to take what works and improve on what didn't," Mitsoda said. "We tried to keep the look and feel of Bloodlines, capturing a certain essence of night and darkness with how it weaves through the real world."
Explore Seattle in Bloodlines 2
© Paradox Interactive
From a short demo we played with Mitsoda, it was obvious that the same essence is still there. The Seattle we explored felt like a dark place. The characters we met – a beautiful vampire in a nightclub who works for one of the biggest factions in the game, an ugly creature guarding the gate of Seattle's underground and a seedy merchant of secrets – gave us pause when we first interacted with them. We didn't want to slip up and make an unnecessary enemy.
"The other thing that players really liked about the first game was the characters," Mitsoda said. "So we're trying to create memorable characters and give the player a number of ways to go about things in the story, making it all about the player’s choices in how they deal with these characters."
Advancements in game design technology and inspiration from cinematic television have led Mitsoda to want to give the majority of characters you interact with a backstory. It's probably one of the biggest improvements from the first game and if it works in the final release it could make for hours of deep storytelling.
"You're going back to these people constantly. You're seeing different sides of them based on where you are with them," Mitsoda said. "If you're joining one faction, you may see or hear secrets that you would never get if you hadn't joined them. You might see things from their point of view that you would never have seen if you'd ignored them for the entire story. And that's kind of what I want to do is add these layers to these characters that we haven't gotten to explore because in so many other games they're disposable."
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 will be hitting PS4, Xbox One and PC in 2020.
