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
Direct (yes, you heard that right) sequel to 2004's Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
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, you're captured and 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
Level design is very reminiscent of the original Deus Ex in the sense that you're offered many different pathways to approach a particular scenario
Way more dialogue than Bloodlines
Huge emphasis on character creation. You can choose your background, gender pronoun, employment history, body type and fashion
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".
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, available Day 1
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.
NPCs can react to you depending on what background you chose for your character in character creation