Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 Can Last Up to 40 Hours, Developers Confirm; Fabien Became Playable Only Two Years Ago

Insights from Gamescom 2025: Vampire: The Masquerade—Bloodlines 2

During my recent interview at Gamescom 2025 with the creators of Vampire: The Masquerade—Bloodlines 2, I gained valuable insights regarding the game’s expected duration. Jey Hicks, the Design Director, shared that players can anticipate a considerable amount of side content that enriches the experience.

Jey Hicks: I can’t say the exact numbers because right now we’re trying to figure out exactly how long it is, because we’ve been adding in a bunch of new content recently, but currently our estimates are between people who are a fast player who doesn’t do any of the additional content, maybe 20-25 odd hours and then up to potentially around 40 hours for more sort of completionists.

My conversation with the team at The Chinese Room unveiled a fascinating development regarding Fabien, the Malkavian vampire who resides in Phyre’s mind. According to Hicks and Narrative Director Ian Thomas, Fabien’s role evolved significantly over a couple of years, enhancing the game’s narrative depth.

Ian Thomas: We did quite a big change later on, we had a lot of extra story we wanted to tell and we also wanted to introduce the Malkavian clan. Suddenly we went, what if the Malkavian was the character in Phyre’s head? Suddenly, it really started to work, and we found that having the old vampire who has maybe lost their humanity to quite a big extent and doesn’t connect to the humans, along with Fabien, who’s fascinated by humans and is really interested in how the world works, it was a really nice pairing, and that just worked for us, along with a really good voice actor. Suddenly, Fabien was brought to life and they went okay, this is the right way to go. It’s quite a late change and also a brave change, I think, from Paradox’s case, because they said, yes, you’re right. We do need to make this change, let’s take the time to do it. We are very happy with that.

Jey Hicks also emphasized the importance of character development, highlighting the thoughtful decision to delay the game to enhance player connection and enjoyment.

Jey Hicks: I think it was definitely a worthwhile decision to delay the game and make sure that people actually relate and enjoy the characters. We didn’t want Fabien to be just another voice in your head sort of character.

Vampire: The Masquerade—Bloodlines 2 is set to release on October 21 for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series S|X. For an in-depth look, check out my recent hands-on experience here.