I am far too excited for Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines 2, and my Kindred heart skipped a beat during today’s VTM Seattle By Night livestream. Welcome Phyre, the 17th-century Elder that we’ll be thrust into the bloodstained shoes of.
Revealed during the premier of Seattle By Night Season 2, a VTM tabletop adventure chaired by the absolutely wonderful Jason Carl, the player character in Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines 2 is called Phyre, a 17th-century Elder who has been reawakened for reasons currently unknown.
Throughout the vampire game we’ll see them interact with a plethora of other Kindred, and in the sneak preview shown we see them ask the mysterious Lou for help, a character that, if you know about vampire politics in Seattle, you may recognize as the city’s former Prince.
Conversations will rely on choices, no doubt influenced by which clan you choose for your Phyre. You’ll be able to choose from four different clans (please let one of those be Malkavian), and you can fully customize your Phyre to fit your vampiric fantasy. Gender, outfits, and even the blood they feed on can all be tailored to your vision – and they all affect how the other denizens of the night will react to you, too.
“There are huge consequences to dropping an Elder into a Kindred city,” narrative director Ian Thomas says. “[In] most games we play a newbie – Phyre is different. Phyre is old, experienced; she’s a hunter, she’s a stalker. She knows how to be a vampire, but she doesn’t know the current-day situation and how her actions are going to affect the world. The player journey is about regaining, and possibly exceeding, what she once was.”
But there’s one more character in the mix too – well, kind of. Lurking inside Phyre’s head is Fabien, a mysterious omnipresent voice that appears to be intrinsically linked to our protagonist.
“Fabien is a modern thin-blood vampire from Seattle,” Thomas says. “He is trapped inside her, she is trapped with him, the two together have to navigate this world. They may hate each other, they may grow to like each other, they may carry on hating each other all the way through – but they are bound together. Really this is a story about the two of them.”
With the Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines 2 release date set for next year, I’m already contemplating how my iteration of Phyre will look. Will she go full Toreador, or (hopefully) shout at street signs as a Malkavian? The possibilities are, indeed, endless.
Until then, we have a whole list of horror games to keep you entertained – especially now that it’s spooky season. If you fancy a more traditional, less frightening story, though, we have a rundown of all the best RPG games, too.