We got some big news on Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 yesterday: After years of waiting through a very troubled development, the game is finally set to release on October 21. But even with that long-awaited day finally in sight, Bloodlines 2 just can't avoid stepping on rakes: Eager Bloodlines fans were also informed that if they want to play as Lasombra or Toreador, they're going to have to pay extra.
Bloodlines 2 will let players select from four different vampire clans out of the box: Brujah, Tremere, Banu Haqim, and Ventrue, each with its own distinct abilities and styles of play. Malkavians are sort of in there too, as a kind of alternate personality named Fabien, who emerges as a playable character when the real playable character, Phyre, is asleep.
The Lasombra and Toreador, however, will only be available as DLC, and it ain't cheap: The Bloodlines 2 base game costs $60/£50/€60, while the premium edition—the one that includes the Shadows and Silk DLC with the two additional clans and some cosmetics—is $90/£75/€90.
The backlash across various subreddits is acute. "Is Paradox smoking crack?" is perhaps the most to-the-point reaction, but there's plenty more to see: Threats/promises to skip the game entirely (or just pirate it) are common, and there's no small amount of general venting at Bloodlines 2 publisher Paradox, which has a long-standing reputation for really squeezing the bejeezus out of the DLC lemon.
Exacerbating the situation for many is that after Bloodlines 2's chaotic development, not to mention doubts about whether developer The Chinese Room—who, for the record, I think is brilliant—is the right studio for a VtM RPG, a little goodwill would go a long way—but instead, fans get launch-day DLC.
Redditor InariGames suggested the move is purely pragmatic: Paradox said in 2024 that it's not interested in making any more RPGs, so it's not too concerned about making people mad: "There isn't a large overlap between Bloodlines and grand strategy game players so there isn't much to lose there. This was just a bad investment and they want as much money as possible back."
The Paradox Approach from r/vtmb
This all might seem a bit overwrought to non-fans, but as someone who's been through Bloodlines a few times I have no problem understanding why gating two clans behind DLC is such a big deal for some. The original game is famous for how differently it plays depending on your choice of clan, to the point that in his guide to playing Bloodlines on modern hardware, PC Gamer's Jody Macgregor recommends playing through it at least twice before tinkering with mods because your choice of clan has such a big impact on everything that follows.
So this isn't just cosmetics, or maybe a couple bonus weapons that functionally duplicate hardware included with the base game. These clans (the Lasombra, at least—the Toreador is widely viewed as a sort of "base clan," just oversexed) represent potentially very different gameplay experiences. It's arguable that four different clans in the core game is sufficient, and that it's not unreasonable to ask players to spend a little more (although I'd actually call it a lot more) for a couple more turns from different perspectives. Bloodlines fans would clearly disagree, however. (And they would probably point out that the original Bloodlines launched with seven clans.)
Charging extra for playable clans is the big complaint, but Paradox is also taking heat for leveraging Bloodlines nostalgia to sell higher-priced editions: The Bloodlines 2 Deluxe edition includes an Ankaran sarcophagus, a stop sign, and a portrait of the Voerman sisters—all iconic items from the first game—and preordering any edition will get you the Bloodlines Nostalgia Jukebook, featuring music from Rik Schaffer, the guy responsible for the incredibly moody (and incredibly good) original Bloodlines score.
Costly "special" editions, preorder bonuses, and day-one DLC are not all that unusual in today's game industry—if anything, it's the norm for major releases—but I suspect that after so many years of waiting, first for a sequel to even be announced and then for it to actually arrive, there was hope that Paradox would do everyone a solid on this one. And look, Bloodlines is absolutely a very special game, and that may have contributed to the feeling that the sequel would be given a little bit of a special treatment too, and cranked up the disappointment factor when it inevitably proved not to be the case.
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 launches on October 21. With any luck, Half-Life 3 won't surprise-launch on the same day.
