Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2, the sequel that can't seem to catch a break, just got a new trailer. We also finally know who its new developer is, with UK-based Chinese Room taking over from the previous studio that was removed from the project in 2021. The Chinese Room is best known for Dear Esther and Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, with Bloodlines 2 being its most ambitious project by far.

The trailer acts as a relaunch, giving us a brief look at the game, a vague idea of its release window, and introducing us to the new team working on it. Surprisingly, given all of the behind-the-scenes hold-ups, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 is now aiming to launch in fall 2024.

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This news was dropped alongside a new trailer at PAX West. While not as lengthy as our previous sneak peeks at the game, it shows that The Chinese Room's take on Bloodlines 2 is consistent with what we've seen before.

Previous abilities shown off in a 2019 gameplay trailer are accounted for, like shoving your enemies at high force and flying throughout the city. It even looks like there are some new vampire powers here, as there are different moves to learn depending on your playstyle. There's highspeed punching, area of effect abilities, and even a move that straight up rips someone's face off. It's not clear how unlocking these abilities will work, but we can expect more to be shown off the closer we get to the 2024 release window.

But of course, new gameplay footage isn't the only thing of note here. Today's showcase also confirms that the mysterious company that took over development from Hardsuit Labs is The Chinese Room. It's not clear how long the team has been working on Bloodlines 2 for, or how much of Hardsuit's work has carried over, if any. However, in a trailer introducing the new team, the devs are eager to refer to the project as their own game, so we can expect some pretty substantial changes from previous builds.

Given its previous work on narrative-focused walking simulators, The Chinese Room spends much of its time speaking about the game's story. The devs say it treads the line between "the grittiness of our world and the romanticism of vampires." They're also keen to emphasise the roleplaying aspects, saying we can explore what kind of vampire we want to be, as we could in the first game all those years ago.

It's not clear why publisher Paradox Interactive didn't feel that the previous developer, Hardsuit, couldn't finish its own version of the game, especially since that had already been in development for years. Unfortunately, Hardsuit's removal from the game resulted in heavy layoffs at the studio.

As for The Chinese Room's take on the game, we can expect this to launch on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC, as was initially planned. It isn't clear if it will still launch on PS4 and Xbox One though, platforms it was originally announced for.

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