A modern remake or remaster of Troika Games’ brilliant-but-busted 2004 RPG Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines is reportedly in the works.
Released exclusively on PC, the World of Darkness-themed RPG is a beloved part of early-2000s PC gaming culture. While beloved by gamers, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines has never been remastered or re-released. However, the game is still kept alive by modding, including a fantastic community patch that saw its latest update just weeks ago.
At a recent concert, the band Genitorturers, who performed the music for the original game’s release, told fans that a remake of the game is in development. While fans have taken this with a grain of salt, with some claiming they must be referencing the game’s unofficial sequel that launched last year, others believe a fill remake is in development.
While a full remake would be interesting, video game leaker Daimler_KKnD, who previously leaked Forza Horizon 6 prior to its official announcement, took to social media to explain the game’s existence. According to the leaker, a revival for Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines is in development, but it is not a remake.
“I can confirm that it is in the works,” the leaker said. “NOT a remake, but a remaster, with some caveats. That’s all I can say.” They also pointed out that, due to the state of the games industry right now, there is a chance that this remaster could be scrapped, which might hint that it’s only in early development.
At the time of writing, the leaker has not revealed much about the upcoming remaster. It’s not known if the re-release will incorporate the decades of community bug fixes, combat improvements, or cut content. Additionally, it’s not known if the remaster will be helmed by a renowned remaster studio, such as Nightdive, or if the project will be in the hands of a studio such as Aspyr.
Nevertheless, it is fantastic that the game is primed for a comeback. While incredibly buggy and unfinished in places, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines is a games that survives on potential, fantastic worldbuilding, and stellar writing. While there’s also some incredible art direction and world design, the game’s brilliant free-ing systems and dense writing to back those systems up means it’s still one of the greatest RPGs to this day.
Built on Valve’s incredibly flexible source engine, there’s likely a lot that can be done to make Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines more playable on modern hardware. If the remaster is designed by Nightdive, the studio’s fantastic KEX Engine would also be primed to bring the game to modern-day consoles as well with features such as weapon wheels and more.
There’s no proposed release date for when this remaster will, or may, release. Considering the fact that remaster work typically takes far less time than normal development, we could hopefully see the game’s return as early as next year, if it is just a remaster, of course. If it’s a remake? Well, let’s just hope it doesn’t take as long as KOTOR… still waiting, Saber!
