“Get me somebody who’s played The Chinese Room’s Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 STAT,” I yelled, barging through the double doors of our seedy news saloon. “I need 300 or more tasty words on these leaked videos of the older, unreleased Hardsuit Labs version.” A grim silence fell across the chamber. Mark furtively donned a pod-racing helmet. James hid himself behind his latest tower of graphics cards, with an apologetic murmur that while he had played a few hours of Bloodlines 2, he was very busy right now building towers of graphics cards.

“If you want something done, do it yourself, STAT,” I bellowed, swivelling on my heel while looking up the origins of the term “stat” on my phone. It turns out it’s something medical doctors say to convey urgency, and comes from the Latin “statim”, meaning “immediately”. “What a perfect way to introduce this video showing a hospital level from the aforesaid leaked Hardsuit Labs version of Bloodlines 2,” I roared to myself. “Why, I’ve accidentally written 177 words of the news post already.”

The freshly disclosed Hardsuit Labs Bloodlines 2 footage comes care of Youtuber wesp5, author of this necessarily enormous unofficial patch for the beloved first Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines, also known as Jank-pires: The Masqu-error-rade: Buglines. It’s the most we’ve seen of the Hardsuit Labs draft of the sequel since publishers Paradox took Hardsuit off Bloodlines 2 in 2021, kicking original Bloodlines head designer Brian Mitsoda to the curb, and transferring development to The Chinese Room.

Released last year, the Chinese Room’s take on Bloodlines 2 has its charms – RPS reviewer Dominic Tarason called it “an entertaining but flawed vampire brawler wrapped in a compelling mystery story” – but many World of Darkness enthusiasts pine nonetheless for what might have been. Now’s your chance to explore some direct comparisons, with the heavy caveat that this is footage of a work-in-progress game.

wesp5 has posted a few more videos of Hardsuit-era Bloodlines 2, including this one of some locations and this one of some people. Let me know what you think of them all. Belated disclosure that Cara Ellison, formerly of this parish, was Bloodlines 2’s senior writer before the change of development team.