The original Bloodlines arrived in a different era, one in which developers were afforded far more leeway for flaws.
Dan Pinchbeck, the former creative director of Vampire: The Masquerade — Bloodlines 2 and head of The Chinese Room, sat down for an extensive interview with YouTuber Kat Burton, where he candidly recounted the troubled development saga behind the sequel.
The Chinese Room repeatedly tried to persuade publisher Paradox Interactive not to brand the project as Bloodlines 2.
We would sit in planning meetings and ask: how can we stop this game from being called Bloodlines 2? That felt like the single most important goal. Making a true Bloodlines 2 was impossible — there was neither the time nor the budget. The first game launched in a distinct moment for the industry when you could release wildly ambitious, bug-filled titles and players forgave them for their daring ideas. That simply doesn’t work anymore.
The developer says that trying to replicate the original’s magic under current conditions would have doomed the project: longtime fans would have been left disappointed, and new players would have received an unfinished sequel.
For that reason Pinchbeck chose to make a sharp pivot in design: instead of an expansive open-world RPG, the team built a tighter, more focused experience in the vein of Dishonored — featuring linear levels and a strong emphasis on the World of Darkness mythology.
Source: iXBT.games