Good news, folks! Bloodlines 2 is now a vampire free-for-all. After revealing launch DLC that included two vampire clans, Lasombra and Toreador, Paradox and The Chinese Room have finally walked back the questionable decision, no longer locking away what are essentially two RPG classes.
Both clans will now be available in the base game at no extra cost, letting you flit around Seattle as a seductive monster or a manipulator of shadows.
"Thanks to our community for the frank feedback on Bloodlines 2 and the Premium Edition," said Bloodlines 2 executive producer Marco Behrmann. "That feedback made it clear: Lasombra and Toreador belong in the base game, so that is what we are doing."
Behrmann also thanked the developer for what has been a genuinely impressive turnaround for the concepts that will eventually become replacement DLC, a pair of story packs titled Loose Cannon and The Flower & The Flame, due out in 2026.
"We’re constantly impressed by their creativity and skill in weaving enticing narrative threads that expand on the main story in Bloodlines 2."
So the base game will now feature all six clans, the Deluxe Edition will include the Santa Monica Memories cosmetic pack (just some furniture for your flat), and the Premium Edition will include that DLC and an expansion pass, containing the new story packs.
This does mean less day one DLC, but honestly, who thinks that's a bad thing? Instead of paying extra for features that were designed in tandem with the rest of the game, we're getting new stories that will flesh out two characters—Brujah sheriff Benny and Toreador Primogen Ysabella—next year.
And thankfully this won't impact the release date. Bloodlines 2 is still launching on October 21.
The DLC was a bad call, there's no way around it, but while Paradox doesn't always make the right call initially, the publisher is one of the best when it comes to responding and reacting to feedback, and its leadership team owns their mistakes.
Last year, deputy CEO Mattias Lilja and chief creative officer Henrik Fåhraeus sat down with me for an exhaustive chat about what has been a tumultuous period for the company, and in 15 years of writing about games I've never had such a candid interview.
At the time, I wrote, "What's clear is that it would be a mistake to count Paradox out. While it seems to be bouncing between cancellations and delays and rough launches like an out of control pinball, it's been here before. The stakes have never been this high, and the problems have never been this high profile, but it's got a proven track record of weathering storms." And I'm hoping that Bloodlines 2 represents this bounce back.
Certainly, what I played earlier in the year gave me reasons to be excited. And when I played it again as the DLC (now not DLC) clans, I was still impressed.
So I'm not surprised there's been some kind of course correction. This happened with Cities: Skylines 2's first DLC, too, which was quickly refunded and released for free. Until it actually happened, though, I wasn't willing to bet Paradox would change its DLC plans so dramatically. The publisher had a bunch of different options, and it went with the best possible one—at least for us—so I'm happy to put my fangs away.
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