Black clouds have gathered over Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2, a game developed by Hardsuit Labs. First, Chris Avellone, considered the father of, among others, was cut off. Planescape: Torment, due to allegations of sexual harassment, and then Paradox Interactive, the publisher of the vampire RPG, fired the main writers – Brian Mitsoda and Ka’ai Cluney. As if that wasn’t enough, Cara Ellison, who was also one of the main plot designers of Bloodlines 2, recently left Hardsuit Labs. Now we know the names of the people who will take over their inheritance. These are Samantha Wallschlaeger and Jordan Mychal Lemos, who took over as lead story designers at Hardsuit Labs.
These are people who previously worked at studios such as Monolith Productions, ArenaNet, BioWare, Ubisoft and Sucker Punch. Samantha Wallschlaeger is known primarily from the script of Mass Effect: Andromeda, the most criticized installment of the space opera series of action RPGs by fans, and Star Wars: The Old Republic. Jordan Lemos, on the other hand, had his fingers in the plot or characters of Ghost of Tsushima released this year exclusively for PS4 and Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey nominated for the Writers Guild Awards. While the stories in these titles were more or less decent, they are far from the level that fans would expect from a sequel to Bloodlines.
Here’s what Samantha Wallschlaeger was responsible for in Mass Effect: Andromeda and Star Wars: The Old Republic. Source: LinkedIn.
The key is whether hiring new writers will involve major changes to the plot Bloodlines 2or only with corrections of what has already been developed, or possibly rewriting selected, qualitatively outliers quests, dialogues or characters. It would seem that since the work on the game was – at least theoretically – near the end, the latter option is more likely, but we really don’t know the reasons for the dismissals of Mitsoda or Cluney and the nature of the problems the upcoming RPG is facing. The concerns of the gaming community are absolutely justified. Let’s hope this story has a good ending.
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 was originally supposed to be released in March 2020, but the game suffered a few delays. The new release date is set for an unspecified period of 2021, and worrying reports in recent weeks suggest that the landslide may be larger than originally predicted. The title will come to PC, PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.
- Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 official website
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