Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 won't have a sprawling open world for you to explore. Instead, developer The Chinese Room is giving more focus on the details of its upcoming RPG.
In a conversation with Game Informer, The Chinese Room's art director Ben Matthews explained that the scope won't be the main selling point of Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2. "One thing we really wanted to pay attention to was quantity of detail over scope," he said. "We're not making GTA; this isn't a big, open world, sprawling game where the horizon is your limit. That was something we really paid attention to, to try to make everything as dense [as possible]."
The Chinese Room has changed some things from past developers, but others it's kept the same. The protagonist, for example, is new, but the setting remains the original vision from Hardsuit Labs. Bloodlines 2 adopts a Seattle setting, during the holiday season.
"[It's] a nice hook," describes Matthews. "It's that nice juxtaposition of jovial, human world against dark, vampire world," he says, citing the game's opening. Phyre starts off in an old, deteriorating building and emerges to see the bright Seattle skyline. Phyre has been asleep for 100 years, so it makes for a jarring reawakening."
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 is out this October on PC, Xbox Series X/S, and PS5.