Whenever the possibility of a new game set in the universe of Vampire the Masquerade is teased, fans of the franchise listen with bated breath. And can you really blame them? With its excellent writing, engaging questlines and memorable characters, 2004’s Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines remains a true classic of the genre and is frankly one of the best games featuring undead bloodsuckers. But is a new title really being teased right now? Well… possibly. Tender, a mysterious ARG (alternate reality game) disguised as a dating app, had already caused fans to suspect that something was going on. For starters, it’s tied to Paradox Interactive, the current holders of the Vampire the Masquerade license, and contains plenty of references to dark and disturbing themes and imagery, including words like “kindred” and “bite”. Things had only gotten more exciting since then: in a recent livestream related to Tender, an internal memo was displayed that points to March 21 as a date for an important announcement. The memo also uses words like “thrall”, “hunter” and “regent” – all words that very much fit into the Vampire the Masquerade universe. Additionally, the stream showed a few still images along with the phrase “Project Chimera”, as well as a very brief video of a beach that looks an awful lot like the Santa Monica Pier, one of the more iconic locations in – you guessed it – Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines. You can see this bit on the archived footage if you fast-forward to the 17 hours and 39 minutes mark.
March 21 happens to coincide with this year’s Game Developers Conference, so chances are we might get some sort of an official announcement then.
