VtM: Bloodlines 2 - Hunting and Feeding

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Learn more about hunting and feeding in VtM: Bloodlines 2:

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Hunting and Feeding

Developer Diary #19

Welcome, Kindred, to this Bloodlines 2 Dev Diary from the team at The Chinese Room. Tonight's diary is about hunting and feeding, both in combat scenarios and the more social setting of Seattle. Feeding is at the heart of the game loop and fantasy of being a vampire so if you faint at the sight of blood, read no further.
- Project Creative Director, Alex Skidmore

Feeding is a really important part of the vampire fantasy, and so from a gameplay perspective, we were set on making it a fundamental part of the player's actions and strategies. You'll be doing a lot of it - Phyre's a little-and-often kinda drinker; that helps keep the beast in check- plus it's your main source of healing, and critical to using your powerful discipline abilities. A lot of incentive for us to make it feel good!

Your main concern will be your surroundings - getting spotted feeding on the streets is a blatant Masquerade violation, and more violent types won't be content to let you feed on their friends unscathed, so you'll want to isolate your targets. Feeding in the swing of combat is risky, but not impossible - if you're mindful of which direction you start a feed from, for example, your victim can help soak up a lot of gunfire for you!

One aspect that was really challenging was presentation, from a first-person perspective. Feeding in first person doesn't really show you much at best, and looks silly at worst, but a simple cut in and out of third-person can also be disorienting and feels a bit disconnected. What we settled on uses a bit of both, with some basic cinematic action cutting techniques to maintain continuity of motion, and enough first-person action at the end to get you settled into your next move. It's subtle, but I think it goes a long way in helping the flow of the game in hectic situations!
- Senior Game Designer, Max Bottomley

As a vampire, Phyre has access to senses that are much more powerful than that of a human. Whilst exploring Seattle, Phyre will be able to tap into these Heightened Senses, enhancing her ability to smell, see and hear her enemies. By concentrating on these senses, Phyre will detect the beating hearts of nearby prey even through walls, allowing her to choose just the right strategy to pounce on them.

When it came to visualising this, we wanted our concepts to reflect the vampiric nature of homing in on your next meal, sensing and smelling blood through the air. We wanted Phyre to feel like a predator stalking her enemies using all her vampiric gifts. To do this we wanted to tap into a striking art style for this part of the gameplay, something that highlighted Phyre's vampiric lust for blood while also being very clear for the player experience.

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