Watch 20 minutes of Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 gameplay

"It looks messy, but in that sense it's a faithful sequel," PC Gamer editor Phil Savage told me after his 20 minute preview of Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2, which you can watch above.

Phil wasn't actually playing the game, to be clear, but he got to direct the decision-making for the PR rep in control. "For context, I ended up roleplaying a deadbeat vampire asshole who thinks he's got the skills to coerce people but always fucks it up and ends up in combat," he told me. "This was, of course, accidental at first, but increasingly deliberate."

I like the sound of that, and the variety of dialogue options.

The combat looks a bit rough in this early state—though I find the wildly ragdolling enemies endearing, as they've gone out of fashion—but again, this was a pre-alpha demo, and Bloodlines 2 isn't out until March 2020.

At the PC Gaming Show earlier this week, Hardsuit Labs also revealed a new Bloodlines 2 trailer, which you can watch here. Below, I've embedded the show segment where Hardsuit's Brian Mitsoda and Cara Ellison take the stage to talk about their approach to writing vampire stories.

TOPICS

Tyler grew up in Silicon Valley during the '80s and '90s, playing games like Zork and Arkanoid on early PCs. He was later captivated by Myst, SimCity, Civilization, Command & Conquer, all the shooters they call "boomer shooters" now, and PS1 classic Bushido Blade (that's right: he had Bleem!). Tyler joined PC Gamer in 2011, and today he's focused on the site's news coverage. His hobbies include amateur boxing and adding to his 1,200-plus hours in Rocket League.