Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines 2 has received a brand new preview stream courtesy of developer The Chinese Room (TCR). The video is busting with details for the upcoming gothic horror RPG and also confirms that the game's main character will be fully voiced.
TCR's principal narrative designer on the game, Arone Le Bray, took to YouTube, showing off some early cutscenes from the game where Phyre, Bloodlines 2's vampiric protagonist, appears to be fully voiced.
Le Bray also spoke with PC Gamer about this decision. In an interview with our sister publication, he stated: "What having a voiced protagonist and a slightly more established character gets us is, we can go deeper into the customization, and deeper into experiencing [Phyre's] role by doing that—as opposed to trying to go more broad and encompassing all the various possibilities."
Despite this more focused approach, however, Le Bray is keen for players to be able to customize their narrative experience. The veteran narrative designer made it clear in the developer stream that players "have options". He explained: "You have clan choices that affect, for example, the powers that you have." In addition, "elements of her background are up to you to choose... a little bit like the way that Commander Shepard in Mass Effect has a series of background choices."
Le Bray himself brings a great deal of storytelling experience to the table, having spent 14 years as a narrative quality designer at BioWare before leaving to join The Chinese Room in 2021. With experience on Mass Effect, Star Wars, and Dragon Age, Le Bray brings some serious design expertise to Bloodlines 2.
It's clear from the stream that Bloodlines 2 has more than a little BioWare DNA in its makeup, too - especially when it comes to the game's ending. As Le Bray puts it, "It's fair to say that the choices you make for characters, the way that you portray Phyre, [and] the way that you behave around other people [ensures that] the story [can] end in different ways."
Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines 2 currently has no fixed release date, but is slated for release in 2024 according to the title's Steam Page.
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