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In a recent interview, Dan Pinchbeck – co-founder of The Chinese Room and the original creative director of Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 – shared his doubts when he first joined the project. According to Pinchbeck, the team did not have enough time or resources to make a worthy sequel for the 20-year-old hit game. He even seriously discussed convincing Paradox to remove the name “Bloodlines 2” entirely.

Bloodlines 2 had a difficult development journey. The project was first handled by Hardsuit Labs and was planned for release in 2020. However, many delays and internal problems made Paradox take the project back and give it to The Chinese Room – a studio known for story-driven games like Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture and Still Wakes the Deep.

Pinchbeck said that when he took the creative role, both he and a producer at Paradox felt calling the game “Bloodlines 2” was a heavy burden. The first game came out in a special time in the gaming industry – alongside Stalker and Shenmue – when developers could make ambitious but flawed games. The roughness, boldness, and experimental nature made many games of that era become classics.

But today, the development environment is different. Modern players do not accept ambitious but unfinished products, and trying to recreate the “magic” of Bloodlines 1 is almost impossible. Pinchbeck believed that a game called Bloodlines 2 without the depth, freedom, or role-playing of the original would disappoint both old fans and new players.

So, in his initial proposal, Pinchbeck suggested a more realistic approach: not making a huge Skyrim-style RPG, but focusing on a more linear structure like Dishonored – a focused and condensed experience that still kept the dark world of Vampire: The Masquerade. However, with too many stakeholders and different expectations, the project became tangled in a “mess of competing priorities,” as he said.

Still, Pinchbeck said building the story was a fun experience because of the cultural, political, contemporary, and ethnic diversity in The Masquerade world. In the end, he left the project midway due to exhaustion and feeling the studio had changed in a way that no longer suited him.

Despite many years of difficulties, Bloodlines 2 finally released, although critics and players had mixed opinions. Pinchbeck’s comments show part of the complex story behind one of Paradox’s most troubled projects in the past decade. 

Read more at: https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/how-do-we-get-them-to-not-call-it-bloodlines-2-chinese-room-co-founder-reveals-early-masquerade-doubts/