The video games based on the Vampire: The Masquerade franchise have faced a number of high-profile delays over the past year, with Bloodhunt and Swansong recently being pushed back to 2022, and Bloodlines 2 having no release date at all. This isn’t to say that the franchise hasn’t seen any video game releases at all, as there have been several well-received Vampire: The Masquerade visual novels released on multiple platforms over the past few years. If the greater World of Darkness franchise (which Vampire: The Masquerade is part of) is considered, then there has also been two Werewolf: The Apocalypse games and one Wraith: The Oblivion game released.

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There are several classic video games that are based on tabletop RPGs, with the Baldur’s Gate games, the Neverwinter Nights games, and Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines counted among the best. Interest in making video games based on tabletop RPGs dried up for a long time, but they have come back in a big way. Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous is a game that launched in 2021, which evokes the spirit of the Baldur’s Gate series like no title before it. The Baldur’s Gate series itself is also making a comeback, with Baldur’s Gate 3 by Larian Studios currently in Early Access, and looking very promising indeed. Vampire: The Masquerade hasn’t been left out, as the visual novels (like Coteries of New York and Shadows of New York) perfectly capture the spirit of the tabletop game.

There have been a number of high-profile video game delays over the past year and fans have been more accepting than usual. These include titles like Ghostwire: Tokyo, God of War: Ragnarok, Gotham Knights, Gran Turismo 7, Rainbow Six Extraction, and Resident Evil Re:Verse. The pandemic slowed down production on lots of games and developers are still trying to catch up on work. The Vampire: The Masquerade franchise has been hit hard with delays, and three major titles have all been pushed back.

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Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong Needs More Polish (& To Escape The Busy Months)

The most recent game to be delayed was Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong, which is an upcoming RPG by Big Bad Wolf, the same studio that made The Council. Swansong follows three different kindred in modern-day Boston, during a power struggle over the rulership of the city. Swansong was delayed to 2022 back in July and its launch has slipped a little further. Big Bad Wolf revealed on the official Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong Twitter page that the game’s release date has been pushed from February 2022 to May 19, 2022. The developers have said that the game needs more polish, as they want to make the best experience possible. This is a relatively short delay and there’s no reason to think that the game is suffering any major production issues.

The delay might also have something to do with the fact that Swansong was being sent out to die with its original release window. February 2022 will have Elden Ring, Horizon Forbidden West, King of Fighters XV, Total War: Warhammer III, Destiny 2: The Witch Queen, and Dying Light 2 Stay Human. March 2022 isn’t much better, as it will have Gran Turismo 7, Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin, and the PS5/Xbox Series X versions of Grand Theft Auto V. The start of 2022 is packed with highly-anticipated games, and their combined presence would have diablerized Swansong. The summer months are usually slower when it comes to video game launches, so Swansong has more of a chance to find an audience than it would if it were fighting Elden Ring at the market.

Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodhunt Needs To Apply Feedback From Early Access

Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodhunt is a battle royale game by Sharkmob. The game pits kindred against each other on the streets of Prague, with their vampiric powers allowing them to scale walls with ease, and damage foes with the mystical abilities granted by their blood. The intention is for Bloodhunt to be a free-to-play game, with the monetization coming from cosmetics. Bloodhunt was originally in Early Access on Steam, with a planned release on PC and PS5 at the end of 2021.

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The developers announced on Steam that Bloodhunt will now launch in early 2022 and it was taken out of Early Access. They want to spend more time working on the aspects of the game that were mentioned in feedback from the players, most notably the cheating issues, the game’s performance, and a more fluid experience for jumping back into after a match has ended. These improvements will be hugely beneficial to the game, as cheating was a huge issue with the PC version of Bloodhunt, and if it remains unchecked, then it could tank the game when it leaves Early Access.

Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 Is Mired In Drama

Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 is an upcoming RPG about a new kindred who is turned on the streets of Seattle. They are soon thrust into a fight for their unlife, as different factions try to coerce them into joining them, as part of the endless war that happens at night. Bloodlines 2 will feature all kinds of political schemes, but they won’t be half as interesting as the behind-the-scenes drama surrounding the game. Bloodlines 2 was originally set to launch in Q1 2020 but was delayed several times, and now has no release window at all. The creative leads of Bloodlines 2 were fired, and developer Hardsuit Labs was taken off the game, with a mystery studio taking over its production.

The future of Bloodlines 2 is unclear. It’s strange that publisher Paradox Interactive hasn’t confirmed the identity of the studio that is finishing Bloodlines 2, but there is speculation that it is Harebrained Schemes, which is wholly owned by Paradox. Why this fact should remain a secret is anyone’s guess. There is a lot of strange things going on with the development of Bloodlines 2, to the point where the reveal of actual vampires messing with production to stop it from unveiling their identity to the world wouldn’t be too shocking. Paradox Interactive has said that Bloodlines 2 was almost canceled at one point, suggesting that the game was in pretty bad shape, especially in an era when developers push games out the door before they are ready, and fix it with post-launch patches. The lack of development updates for Bloodlines 2 is also concerning. Still, even if Bloodlines 2 is canceled, there will at least be Swansong and Bloodhunt to entertain Vampire: The Masquerade fans in 2022.

Source: Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong/Twitter

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Scott Baird
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Scott has been writing for Screen Rant since 2016 and regularly contributes to The Gamer. He has previously written articles and video scripts for websites like Cracked, Dorkly, Topless Robot, and TopTenz.
A graduate of Edge Hill University in the UK, Scott started out as a film student before moving into journalism. It turned out that wasting a childhood playing video games, reading comic books, and watching movies could be used for finding employment, regardless of what any career advisor might tell you. Scott specializes in gaming and has loved the medium since the early ‘90s when his first console was a ZX Spectrum that used to take 40 minutes to load a game from a tape cassette player to a black and white TV set. Scott now writes game reviews for Screen Rant and The Gamer, as well as news reports, opinion pieces, and game guides. He can be contacted on LinkedIn.

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