author: Bart Woldanski
Writer of ME Andromeda Now Works on Story of Vampire Bloodlines 2
We have learned the names of new people who, after the recent layoffs, will take up the script of Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2. They are co-writers of Mass Effect: Andromeda, Ghost of Tsushima and Assassin's Creed: Odyssey.
Black clouds gathered over Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 created by Hardsuit Labs. First the devs cut themselves from Chris Avellone, considered to be the father of Planescape: Torment, due to sexual harassment accusations, and then Paradox Interactive, the publisher of the vampire RPG, laid off the main scriptwriters - Brian Mitsoda and Ka'ai Cluney. As if that wasn't enough, Cara Ellison, who was also one of the main designers of Bloodlines 2, recently left Hardsuit Labs. Now we've learned the names of the people who will take over. These are Samantha Wallschlaeger and Jordan Mychal Lemos, who are now Hardsuit Labs' main story designers.
These are people who have previously worked in studios such as Monolith Productions, ArenaNet, BioWare, Ubisoft and Sucker Punch. Samantha Wallschlaeger is best known for the script of Mass Effect: Andromeda, the most fan-criticised installment of the action RPG space opera series, and Star Wars: The Old Republic. Jordan Lemos, on the other hand, was involved in the plot and characters of this year's PS4 exclusive Ghost of Tsushima and Assassin's Creed: Odyssey, nominated for the American Writers Guild Awards. Although the stories in these titles were more or less decent, they were far from the level that fans would expect from a continuation of Bloodlines.
The key issue is whether hiring new scriptwriters will involve greater changes in the plot of Bloodlines 2, or just corrections to what has already been made, or possibly rewriting selected, qualitatively outdated quests, dialogues or characters. It would seem that since the work on the game was already - at least theoretically - on the last stretch, the latter option is more likely, but we don't really know the reasons for Mitsoda's or Cluney's layoff and the nature of the problems that the upcoming RPG is facing. The fears of the gaming community are most certainly founded. Let's hope that this story will live to see a good end.
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 was originally scheduled to be released in March 2020, but the game has experienced some delays. The new release date has been set for an unspecified period of 2021, and worrying reports from recent weeks suggest that the delay could be bigger than originally expected. The title will launch on PC, PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.
