Here's a half-hour of Bloodlines 2 gameplay from Gamescom

Want to watch a half-hour of Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 gameplay? Since you're here, I'll assume that the answer is yes, and so courtesy of IGN here's a 28-minute clip of gameplay from a demo being shown at Gamescom.

To my eye, it looks very much like the Bloodlines of old: Cluttered apartment, grimy, yellow streets, muffled music and dance clubs, and people with hidden agendas who will happily jerk you around for even the slightest edge over their competitors. The combat is kind of janky but that's not entirely out of character either and will hopefully be smoothed out by the time the game rolls around. 

One thing I'm more curious about after watching the video is how Bloodlines 2 will handle Thinbloods. Thinblood NPCs in Bloodlines were basically just humans with sun sensitivity issues, but they're clearly much more powerful in Bloodlines 2. Hardsuit Labs and Paradox have said previously that Thinbloods will be more vampirically capable in Bloodlines 2 than they're typically portrayed, but the how and why of that still isn't clear.

Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 is expected to be out in March 2020. It will have a lady in red, who I would be extremely careful about dancing with.

Andy Chalk

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.