Brian Mitsoda is lead writer (just like the original) alongside Avellone and Cara Ellison (who in particular wrote most of the side quests)
Set in Seattle
Seamless hub world
Takes place 15 years after Bloodlines
Game starts off with a Mass Embrace at Pioneer Square where player is among the new vampires born from the event, brought upon a court of prominent vampires like the first game to recount the events of the mass embrace before being sentenced to death, court is firebombed and you escape, thrust into Seattle to find out who's responsible
Player is a thinblood at first, later on you can choose a clan
No quest markers
First-person with contextual third-person actions just like Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Mankind Divided.
Fan-favourite characters from Bloodlines returning
You can use telekenesis, turn into mist to go through vents and glide
You can scale buildings, there's an emphasis on verticality
Way more dialogue than Bloodlines
Huge emphasis on character creation. You can choose your background, gender pronoun, employment history, body type and fashion
“We’re interested in providing a very robust roleplaying experience for the player with something were they can really identify with their character by fine tuning and providing lots of options for them to do that,” says Rachel Leiker, UX/UI designer at Hardsuit Labs.
Loads of secrets and hidden pathways to find
Seattle as a hub world is described as "very active", crowds gather outside clubs and muggers prey on victims in side allies, all seamlessly done.
Main side-questline involves hunting down and finding all the other thinblood created from the Mass Embrace, each will have their own story about entering into their new life e.g you might find a married thinblood struggling to deal with their newfound powers
Blood resonance from VtM 5th edition will appear in this game. Using your enhanced vampire senses, you can see when NPCs are experiencing an intense emotion like fear, desire, pain, joy and anger. Humans give off a bright aura. Drinking a person with a strong resonance will give you an immediate bonus to things like melee power or seduction. If you drink a particular resonance constantly, you will acquire a taste for it and this will give you permanent buffs called "merits".
“You might determine as a player that you want to focus on this resonance, or these two. That’s going to drive your hunting experience in the hub, and what types of people you’re looking for,” he said. “It’s important for us to make sure that the player can express themselves in a way that is consistent with who they are as a player, both in gameplay and in customisation.”
If you continuously suck on people's blood in full view of the public, they'll be less wary of going to those areas and you'll see less citizens wandering the streets (!!)
Game has modding support
Emphasis on fluid combat, using vampiric speed to slide in and out of melee range and slash people and execute them with melee weapons. You can get special cinematic finishers in combat when you execute people a la Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Counters are in. Guns exist and are treated as temporary opportunities, you pick em up, use it, then discard it and move on.