The Chinese Room has released a new dev diary that discusses more details about the upcoming title Vampire: The Masquerade—Bloodlines 2. This dev diary is the 19th dev diary that the team has released, and this one, in particular, dives into hunting and feeding in both combat scenarios and social scenarios. Both are possible as you roam the streets of Seattle. For this game, they’ve made sure to make feeding a fundamental part of the player’s actions and strategies. “You’ll be doing a lot of it- Phyre’s a little-and-often kinda drinker; that helps keep the beast in check,” says Senior Game Designer Max Bottomley. He goes on to explain how feeding is used throughout the game, and that feeding is predominantly used as a main source of healing, as well as being able to utilize discipline abilities.
While feeding in the game is very important, it’s also a huge undertaking to ensure that you do it without being spotted. Getting spotted is a Masquerade violation, with more aggressive characters unwilling to let you feed without being attacked. As a result, it’s important to isolate targets. “Feeding in the swing of combat is risky, but not impossible- if you’re mindful of which direction you start a feed from, for example, your victim can help soak up a lot of gunfire for you!” says Bottomley.
The dev diary also explains the difficulties of trying to make feeding look good from a first-person perspective in Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2, “It doesn’t really show you much at best and looks silly at worst, but a simple cut in and out of third-person can also be disorienting and feel a bit disconnected.” Because of this, The Chinese Room decided to utilize both third—or first-person perspectives for feeding, allowing for cinematic action and continuity of motion.
The dev diary also discusses hunting in detail and Phyre’s ability to use Heightened Senses, which enhances her sense of smell, allowing her to see, smell, and hear enemies. This also comes with a visual notification, and players are able to stalk their enemies via the scent of blood in the air.
Part of hunting and feeding in Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 is the Blood Resonance Events. While roaming the streets of Seattle, players will be able to track and hunt down NPCs that can become fully resonated using a specific type of blood to feed on. Once they are found, players can charm, fear, or anger to bend them to their will. These events are ‘social feeding.’ “Social feeding is a key part of the players’ time in our Seattle and revolves around influencing the NPCs in certain ways- maybe you’ll stumble upon someone angry that the ATM has stolen their card, and you can take that anger and feed on it,” says Gavin Hood, the Project Lead Game Designer.
There are three more dev diaries listed to be upcoming, each discussing more details of the game, including the Blood Resonance events and fashion. The topic of the third diary will be announced at a later date.
