As a former teenage goth and Anne Rice fanatic (dog collar, black nail polish, absurd prosthetic vampire fangs) who still pines for the days when Troika was designing RPGs, my excitement levels following the initial Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 announcement were off the chart. But that was six years ago, and since then it's faced a cavalcade of delays, a hiatus and a change in developer. It's been such a mess that publisher Paradox never wants to make another RPG again.
So I was unsure of what to expect when I visited The Chinese Room for the very first Bloodlines 2 hands-on. I went in a sceptic. Now, though? I'm cautiously on my way to becoming a convert. After playing through the prologue twice and getting to muck around with a bunch of end-game ability combos, the thing that's stuck with me the most is how powerful I felt, and how much the game delights in leaning into the vampire power fantasy.
