Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 is an upcoming sequel to the widely-acclaimed Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines. The game will be published by Paradox Interactive, a studio that published many great games like Surviving the Aftermath. Similarly to the first Bloodlines game, Bloodlines 2’s protagonist will be a human revived as a vampire. This means that the players will likely have a high degree of freedom when customizing their character, compared to, say, Swansong. The downside is that the converted human’s vampiric abilities are less powerful – but this can be seen as beneficial from a design perspective, as it will allow for better character progression. Not much is known about the game’s story just yet. It will begin with several vampires going rogue and converting humans en masse – our character being one of them. The story will explore how the life of the protagonist will be impacted by their sudden conversion, and how they will integrate into the vampiric world. The player character will be able to join one out of five vampiric clans – Brujah, Tremere, Toreador, Ventrue, and Malkavian. The original Bloodlines featured seven clans – but the developers promise to add more to Bloodlines 2 post-release. The developers have stated that they plan to release Bloodlines 2 on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 & 5, and Xbox One & Series X/S. Mac support is not planned – but with this guide, you will learn how to play Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 on Mac without any official support.
Play Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 on Mac with Parallels
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 requires lots of PC resources, but if you have a powerful Mac computer (iMac, iMac Pro, or Mac Pro) Parallels Desktop can be a solution. This is an application that allows for Windows virtualization on Mac with the full support of DirectX and GPUs. In simpler terms, what this means is that it allows you to install Windows 10 on Mac with just a couple of clicks and switch between MacOS and Windows instantly. So you will be able to run Windows, install Steam, and enjoy the Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 game on Mac just like on a regular PC.
Note: Recommended devices to run resource-demanding games: MacBook Pro (models with an Intel processor, discrete graphics cards, and 16 GB of RAM or more), iMac (models with Intel processor, discrete graphics cards, and 16 GB of RAM or more), iMac Pro (all models are suitable), Mac Pro (all models are suitable). Parallels on Mac computers with M1 (M1 Pro, M1 Max) chips may not support recent games. Games that require DirectX 12 and later are currently not supported by Parallels. AppsOnMac recommends using Parallels’ free trial feature to determine whether you can run the game or not if you’re uncertain.
Play Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 on Mac with cloud gaming services
If you have an old Mac or it cannot satisfy the Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 game system requirements, there is an easy solution. Cloud gaming services will be happy to provide you with sufficient computing power – though not for free, of course. All you need is a browser or a small client program and a good internet connection starting from 15 MBit/s. There are several great platforms that provide these services, among the best are Boosteroid, Xbox Cloud Gaming, and Nvidia GeForce Now.
Play Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 on Mac with BootCamp
Note: Mac computers with new Apple Silicon (M1, M2, M3 Pro, or M1, M2, M3 Max) currently do not support BootCamp. In this case, please, use the options above to run Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 on Mac
This method is simple but time-consuming. If your Mac meets all the system requirements above, you can play Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 on Mac by installing Windows. You need to set up a dual boot of Windows and Mac via BootCamp. This is an application that allows users to choose the system to work in on startup, however, you won’t be able to switch between systems like in Parallels. You will need to reboot your machine every time you want to switch from Mac to Windows and vice versa. Remember that Mac is just a computer, in the end. And while newer Macs have their own special Apple Silicon chips that cannot run Windows, older Macs are very much similar to computers that run Windows, they have Intel processors, compatible RAM, disks, and other components. So you can install Windows on an older Mac by allocating no less than 64 GB of disk space (to be able to run Windows and a couple of games) and following these steps:
For OS X El Capitan 10.11 and older
For MacOS versions prior to OS X El Capitan 10.11 you will need to create a bootable Windows USB.
- Download this Windows ISO file.
- Open Boot Camp Assistant (Go to Applications > Utilities).
- Define the Windows partition size and choose the Windows ISO file you’ve downloaded.
- Format the Windows partition and go through all Windows installation steps.
- When Windows boots for the first time, follow on-screen instructions to install Boot Camp and Windows support software (drivers)