While we will get to choose the clan and gender of our player-character in Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2, it's apparently not going to be a full "how many skill points do I want to put into Security" kind of character creation—a revelation that's set a few fans on edge. Narrative director Ian Thomas put in some damage control by explaining that decision to PCGamesN, which I'm sure White Wolf tragics will give calm and reasonable consideration to.
Elaborating on why the player-character in Bloodlines 2 isn't the typical RPG "blank slate", Thomas said, "if you're telling a specific story, I think you need a shape to pour the story into, like a mold. If you completely open up all of the options and throw somebody into a space, how do you make that character the pillar of the story?"
And Bloodlines 2 will be telling a very specific story. Comparing it to Baldur's Gate 3, which does let you go full blank-slate and wander off-piste between plot points, Thomas put the two philosophies into tabletop RPG terms. "For me Baldur's Gate 3 is writing an entire roleplaying setting, whereas what we've done is write a roleplaying module," he said, suggesting Bloodlines 2 will be more about telling a singular one-and-done story than opening up a map and letting you have at it.
The original Bloodlines, while smaller than Baldur's Gate 3, did give you fairly free rein across its open hubs, with plenty of side missions to explore as you saw fit. Bloodlines 2, with its customizable yet defined protagonist and pre-set scenario, seems like it's aiming for something different, and you can see why the developers at The Chinese Room are eager to manage our expectations.
As Thomas says, "It does make it hard when people see [Bloodlines 2] and go 'oh I thought this was an entire setting, I thought this was GTA where we could do anything!' While we're trying to go 'no, it's this slice of time and place.'"
We'll be able to see how that choice pays off for ourselves when Bloodlines 2 releases on October 21.
