The Chinese Room’s next Dev Diary on the final game pillar, “Exploring the World of Darkness”, will also arrive around February 7th.

After detailing the three gameplay styles in Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2, The Chinese Room confirmed that a new gameplay trailer and deep dive would go live on January 31st. The next Dev Diary will arrive in two weeks and delve into the game’s final pillar, “Exploring the World of Darkness.”

In the meantime, project creative director Alex Skidmore talked about the controls and how the developer opts for “immersion over complexity” with a “streamlined control scheme with actions that are easy for all three playstyles to pick up and play.”

Players can use four abilities at a time, mapped to the face buttons on the gamepad, and dodge. One higher-skill mechanic is counter, performed by dodging into enemies using melee attacks, thus staggering them. “It is fine for players to never do this move, but for those that want a higher skill ceiling, it is there.”

Though the number of available abilities seems limited, Skidmore says the team would “rather players were thinking about what cool thing they want to do next, rather than how they do it.” Visceral Combat is also a “stylistic choice” as the developer wants to “give you a cool reason to tear out throats in the middle of a fight.” Long story short, expect lots of blood and gore.

Developed on Unreal Engine 5, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 launches in Fall 2024 for Xbox Series X/S, PS5 and PC.