[This ended up being long enough that I broke it into three posts for easier reading so, don't feel obligated to read through if you don't especially feel inclined to. ^.^;]

I really loved the trailers [for VtMB2]

Eh, really? Everyone among us who enjoyed the first game were super dubious, given the increased focus on action play, and diminished focus on interactions.Add in that it came across a bit clunky.. Again, that could have just been a facet of the trailer itself, so we did hold out some hope for it. But everyone I know stopped playing around with the idea of preordering the game simply because the trailer wasn't a sure-fire thing [as far as convincingly carrying the spirit of the first game].

After all, if we wanted a more action oriented version of the game, we've already got the BloodLust Shadowhunter series to play around with (as most of said friends already have). Besides, we were already disappointed enough when the last narrative-focused WoD game got cancelled, a couple of years back [I forget the name now]..

[and I really loved] the marketing

You may very well be the only one who did. Everyone I know found it completely disappointing, and a quick google search just now finds that to not only be the dominant opinion, but the only sentiment I could find on the topic at all. There are even jokes going around [eg, Reddit] that the firing of the development leads was the most noteworthy marketing the game has had... well, ever.

VtMB is hands-down my favorite single player game of all time, and that from someone who basically doesn't do "favorites" as a concept. It's basically everything I ever wanted out of a single player game. I'm as frothing-at-the-mouth at the concept of a VtMB2 as anyone but, from the start, I've never once had any hopes for the current game.

Again, given that it sunk into obscurity quickly, without meaningful marketing following the trailer/steam page reveal, and that the game has now been benched with the creative leads fired.. seems as though our early concerns have been validated. Not that I'm putting this on the creative leads of the game.. to the contrary, the fact that they've been fired at this point actually firmly reinforces the idea that Paradox [and/or upper management of Hardsuit] is the one who has been bungling the management (including marketing) of the game from the start (rather than the development team of the game).

In other words, it was less an issue of poor designing or commitment to the spirit of the IP from the start, and more an issue of bad management and marketing. Since those responsible for the latter are now apparently all we have left with.. it really, really doesn't bode well for the game. In fact, the only reassuring thing at all are the comments Mitsoda made when he left, which indicated that narrative development had not only been on-track, but had included "some of his best work ever". That's basically all that' sholding my interest in the game, at this point..

So hey, maybe those jokes about the firing being good marketing weren't so insincere after all, huh? :S

I remember Dead Island and it's incredibly controversial and "brutally beautiful and tragic" trailer

Yeah, well, not like Techland's most recent Dying Light 2 release is going great either. I'm more surprised Dying Light itself turned out so [puportedly, as I don't own it myself yet] well. On a related note, I think people being able to mod underlying Watch_Dogs settings so that the graphics ended up mostly matching to the trailer for that one was actually the single weirdest trailer fakeout incident ever, since it ended up.. un-faking it out? :P

The real pity there was that Watch_Dogs 2 ended up releasing doing everything right graphically/mechanically, seemingly making up for the previous game.. just before everyone and their dog started chiming in on how disappointing and underdeveloped the characters and narrative were. Whoops.

I mean to mention Cyberpunk too, I was SO HYPED for that with the original teaser trailer years ago with the cyborg woman beign chased and the Anarchy Bullets song, but then they changed it completely and I lost interest entirely. The sheer disaster it has turned out to be says a lot too.

Definitely doesn't feel near as robust as early promises (or its basis on a tabletop RPG and the indication it was going to fully utilize that background) made it out to be. I was similarlydisappointed with the Deus Ex: Mankind Divided trailers, given how they related to the final game. Not that the end game wasn't worth getting but, it really didn't live up to what the trailers promised.

Honestly Id' say we've been waiting for BGAE2 since 2003 when it released as the 1st game ended on such a brutal cliffhanger.

Sure, but don't forget the game was a commercial failure [I got my own copy for like $5, because stores were liquidating it fairly quickly after release], and we'd pretty much given up on a sequel by 2007.. when they then started hinting at one. So it hurt all the more when that never went anywhere, despite teasers popping up just a couple of years after that. And then it started again a few years back.. and now it's going the same way. This time it may actually get released but, y'know.. kinda drained on it, by this point. It'd have to be fairly darn good to warrant an early buy-in..

pretender/fraud/imposter of a sequel/prequel

Unless they changed it, it's supposed to be a direct narrative sequel. And BG&E2 was always set in a spacefaring-based setting, it was just originally based on a backwater (frontier?) planet. It going that direction wasn't inherently off-IP or bad.. but the trailers clearly had nothing to do with the spirit or gameplay of the original game, whatsoever. Add in all the other concerns floating around the game (starting with how many years it'd been since it was first promised), and "it isn't even the same game" wasn't the best impression to throw out. Later tidbits definitely seemed to reinforce the idea that it was an "imposter" of a game, as well.

The original was a fantastically beautiful, emotional, carefully crafted story and character focused linear experience with a fantastic art style, atmosphere, soundtrack, voice acting, world to explore and so on.

BG&E was interesting in that it had calculated, deliberate, somewhat slow-paced combat, and a sort of puzzle-oriented gameplay. It really played more into being a dedicated adventure game, than ever really dipping into being an action game. A lot of the game was hokey and goofy, by modern sensibilities, but it worked well for the sentiments of the time the game released and, moreover, the underlying characters were deep and the narrative was meaningful, dark, and involved.

A lot of the game hasn't aged well- not surprising for a 2002 release- but the general design concepts certainly could have been reproduced into an appealing modern iteration of the IP. Going off the trailers, though, the new game.. well, at best, maybe plays out like a space based Sleeping Dogs? A lot of pretty scenework and an emphasis on appealing action play, but.. not much narrative or character or setting depth to work with.

Again, we're just working mostly off the trailers for these games, so it's hard to be overly firm in our judgements.. but, really..
I remember once, I saw a preview trailer (for a film or game, I forget which) in a movie theater pre-film and I immediately knew what IP it was, just off the atmosphere, well before any overly identifying elements popped out. You get things like that, which strongly evoke their IP, even just off the trailers. BG&E2.. just, doesn't, regardless of how much it is or isn't actually based in the preceding game. And, to a lesser degree, the same holds true for the VtMB2 trailer.

Unfortunately, without good marketing to reassure us (and even that's a bust now, thanks to CD Projekt ruining our trust in such) there's just no way to reassure us the games will be what we expect them to be. Not that IP off-shoots will necessarily be inherently bad, even if they end up not scratching the same itch as their adored but, again, the overall atmosphere.. hasn't been good. And, even if it was, not like we'd rush out to get a game that just casually shares a setting concept. If that was our underlying desire, we could just collect Assassin's Creed games or something. :P