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[IbizaPocholo]

Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 won't have typical RPG romantic relationships, but it will feature 'romantic feeding'

Even old undead monsters need some warmth.

www.pcgamer.com

I recently visited The Chinese Room to play a few hours of Bloodlines 2 and chat to the team, and naturally we got onto the subject of how horny vampires tend to be (especially in your average Anne Rice novel). And there is a degree of this in Bloodlines 2.

"So there are some romantic options," creative director Alex Skidmore told me. "But vampire romance isn't the same as human romance. So we have—this is probably awful and I don't want to give this soundbite—a kind of romantic feeding."

Naturally I warned him that I was absolutely going to have to put this in a headline.

"So there are points with named vampires," he continued, "where if you have played your card rights, you can do a romantic feed."

Playing your cards right might be tricky, though. As I found when I was playing, chatting to other vampires is a dangerous dance, and every dialogue option, even if it's just an innocent question, might tarnish your relationship. And these relationships are the products of how you've built your character's history, what clan you've chosen, your reputation and deeds, and a few misconceptions.

How other vampires relate to each other will also be important, narrative director Ian Thomas told me. "As Alex said, romance is very different amongst vampires, and non-traditional, but there are definitely relationships in there—as would happen if you've been with the same group of people for 100 years. And that's an interesting part of the puzzle—figuring out who is allied with who, whether that be a romantic alliance or political. So they probably could have lots of things going on behind closed doors."

There's even a hint of romance, or at least sensuousness, when you feed on humans. This is not like the animalistic combat feeds, where you're ripping out throats and guzzling on blood.

"A vampire's bite in VTM is called 'the kiss'," said Skidmore, "so the humans don't scream, and they're left afterwards sort of dazed, and probably when they snap out of it they'll go, 'That was awesome. Where did that person go?' So that's the romanticism, whereas we didn't have that for the combat feeds. We want the combat feeds to be lethal, horrible."

There's also plenty of flirty dialogue, but that might get you into a spot of trouble. I made pals with a Phyre fangirl in my prologue playthrough, and by flirting with her I was able to take charge of the conversation. But when I did it again, in front of the fangirl's boss, her boss was less amused—and she was probably the one I should have been trying to get on my side.

Navigating all of these alliances, relationships and dicey chats is gonna take a lot of work, and I'm pretty keen to get started. After spending a long time expecting very little out of Bloodlines 2's turbulent development, my hands-on has left me cautiously optimistic.

 

[IbizaPocholo]

Game Informer recently went hands on with Bloodlines 2 and shared their thoughts on the game which included a lot of new information.

 

[IbizaPocholo]

Romance is as important to RPGs as stats, dialogue, and choices these days, but what does love look like for a century-old vampire? That's what we'll find out in Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2, the long-awaited RPG sequel arriving in October. To learn more about romantic biting, plus how skills help build your perfect elder vampire, we spoke to Ian Thomas, Project Narrative Director at developer The Chinese Room, and Jason Carl, Brand Marketing Manager for White Wolf at Paradox Interactive. They gave use a closer look at how you'll navigate the World of Darkness and how they've created a worthy follow-up to a cult RPG.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 is coming PlayStation, Xbox and PC to October 21, 2025.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

Because of course it can't be as easy as vampires being just as regular humans and wanting to smash, right?

 

[A.Romero]

Because of course it can't be as easy as vampires being just as regular humans and wanting to smash, right?

Well, VTM tabletop lore borrows a lot of concepts from Anne Rice's vampires. The later feel love in a different way and can't have regular sex because their sexual organs don't work anymore. Instead, the suck each other's blood and extract orgasmic pleasure from it (or even beyond that. They all seem to be Bi as well. I don't remember what VTM exactly says about it but probably something about those lines.

 

[Westcliff]

Well, VTM tabletop lore borrows a lot of concepts from Anne Rice's vampires. The later feel love in a different way and can't have regular sex because their sexual organs don't work anymore. Instead, the suck each other's blood and extract orgasmic pleasure from it (or even beyond that. They all seem to be Bi as well. I don't remember what VTM exactly says about it but probably something about those lines.

You're right that VTM's lore draws inspiration from Anne Rice, but in the oWOD (which Bloodlines 1 is based on), vampires can still have sex, even if it's less satisfying than drinking blood. Bloodlines 1 even explicitly includes a sex scene with Jeanette. Romantic relationships, whether between vampires or with their ghouls, are also a thing, often with a tragic twist. The idea that all vampires are bi seems more like a modern projection, with VTM becoming a canvas for LGBTQ+ fantasies in recent interpretations like V5.

 

[KiteGr]

The first one didn't have either.
If this one had, it would had mostly involved the Alphabet people, so thank your lucky star!

 

[Hawk The Slayer]

Good the focus should be on gameplay and the fun factor just like the first one.