Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines Review

I will start the review with a series of warnings. First, this game is not Half-Life 2. I repeat, it is not Half-Life 2 (this will be made clear later). Second, I have played Vampire the Masquerade through various outlets, including the tabletop pen and paper RPG, the Live Action RPG, the collectible card game, read nearly all of the wonderful novels written in this setting and, of course, the much maligned and somewhat painful game released by Activision called Vampire the Masquerade: Redemption.

The World of Darkness (WOD) setting, White Wolf’s bread and butter, is a dark parallel of our society. Well, our society with vampires, werewolves (garou), mages, wraiths and all sorts of other things that goes bump in the night. For such a setting with such a strong, rabid following it’s no surprise that there are very high expectations for any game taking place in this setting. In 2000, Nihilistic Studios (Starcraft Ghost) released an RPG in this setting, the much maligned Redemption. While it had promise, a series of bugs and failure to properly translate the game to the PC made it a very big letdown for WOD fans such as myself.

Now jump forward to E3 2003, when Troika employee T.J. Perillo demoed this game to me for well over a half-hour and I was instantly smitten by what appeared to be the most amazing First Person RPG I had ever seen.

Well, one year and seven months later, we shall take an in-depth look at RPG prodigy Troika’s newest RPG. A side note for those not in the loop, Troika was responsible for such classics as Fallout 1 and 2 as well as the much underrated game from Sierra entitled Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura.

You are a newborn vampire, a childe if you will, sired illegally and abandoned after your sire is executed for the crime of making you. You find yourself thrust into a war torn Los Angeles, among the forces of the Camarilla (think the Vampire US Government), the Sabbat (insert your evil empire of choice here) and of course the Anarchs of other factions. You find yourself presented with choices as you make your way in this World of Darkness, struggling to learn enough about your powers while staying alive to use them. Amidst rumors of Gehenna (Vampire Armageddon) and a bizarre series of murders, you’ll find yourself forced to choose a side in the coming battles with nothing but your wits and blood to help you. See that you choose wisely…..

Gameplay
This game has an awful lot in common with various first person shooters on the market, with a healthy dose of third person melee combat included. As a pure shooter, many will find this game a tad askew. Firearms in this setting tend to do very little damage in comparison to your vampire’s blood abilities and superhuman strength. Due to this fact, and a less than stellar damaging model, I found myself straying away from firearms in this game. That’s not to say that there aren’t plenty of great weapons to be had in this game; sniper rifles and submachine guns and even a flamethrower can be found if you look for it. However, I still found melee combat to be the more entertaining approach.

Melee combat occurs in third person perspective and makes use of your keypad directions for different moves. You actually have a surprising number of different moves available, some causing your enemies to fall to the ground while others cause more damage. The right mouse button executes attacks and the left mouse button is used to activate your Vampire blood abilities.

You’re given a choice of being a vampire in one of the seven clans of the Camarilla. Each clan has specific abilities with advantages and disadvantages. For instance, I mainly prefer the rebellious Brujah clan which tends to be a very violent combat oriented clan. Other clans include the Tremere (blood magicians), the Toreador (artists with very charismatic abilities), the Ventrue (natural rulers with strong willpower and somewhat tough to kill), the Malkavians (a clan cursed with madness that also allows them insights into objects and locations as well as the motives for those they deal with), Nosferatu (cursed with freakish appearances, the Nosferatu are masters of stealth) and finally Clan Gangrel (this clan of animals are closest to the beast within them and are furiously frenzied fighters).

Regardless of which clan you play, you will find a different gameplay experience waiting for you. You will find various items throughout the game which can help change the appearance of your character, as well as items which increase your stats and abilities from instruction manuals to mystical totems. Much like Ion Storm’s Deus Ex games, you have the opportunity to create a very customizable character to play. You can be stealthy, using lock picks and hacking into computers for valuable information. Or you can take the path of social skills, using intimidation, seduction, or persuasion to talk your way through many of the encounters. You can also go the path more traveled: that of violence. You are a killer and it only makes sense that you should destroy everything in your path. You can also spread your abilities, creating a character with many open paths. Be careful not to spread yourself to thin, however, or you will be too weak to make it through the game.

For the most part the controls of the game are very intuitive and feature a variety of easy to use menus and a selection of conversation choices ranging from weak to aggressive responses depending upon how you like to play your Vamp.

There are two elements of gameplay that also bear noting, the Masquerade and Humanity. The Masquerade is a series of laws (traditions) that govern the vampires within the Camarilla. Essentially these involve using your powers where mortals can see, like feeding or killing in a public area. Not only will you get a Masquerade violation (get too many and its bye bye vamp), but you will also have the local police after you doing their best to kill you. These Masquerade violations accumulate throughout the game, but can be removed by doing tasks for the Prince of Los Angeles. When the police begin hunting for you, it’s similar to the Metal Gear concept where you need to stay hidden for a set period of time in order for the hunters to give up. This adds an interesting element to the game, particularly in stealth-excessive areas where staying hidden is the only way to stay alive. Stealth is accomplished using your powers or constructive use of your stealth meter which tells you the chance of you being seen.



The second element is humanity. Your humanity is what keeps the beast inside at bay. The more vile acts you commit, the less human you become, in turn making you more prone to frenzy, a condition where you become very powerful and destructive but lose control of your character until you regain composure.

As this game is an RPG, a discussion of your skills and feats is required. For starters, you have your character attributes broken up into physical, mental and social categories. Physical attributes include strength, dexterity, and stamina, and are necessary for creating the perfect melee fighter. Mental attributes include perception, intelligence and wits and are important for developing various abilities including computers. Finally your social attributes, which include charisma, manipulation and appearance, are necessary for those looking to find ways around violent encounters.

Your abilities in this game will range from brawling to stealth to computers. Putting experience points into various attributes and abilities will increase you effectiveness in this game.

Your disciplines are the blood powers that your vampire has available to them. In this game you will have access to three different disciplines which will vary from clan to clan. From celerity (super speed and reflexes) to Obfuscation (essentially the ability to not be seen) you will find powers which will be crucial in getting you through this game. Often a combination of the three available to you will help you be a more complete vampire.

All of these attributes, disciplines, and abilities will feed points into your feats, the meat and potatoes of the game. You will decide here how much lock picking, computer hacking, seduction, persuasion and even melee and unarmed combat ability you have. A thorough understanding of the various feats, disciplines, and abilities is crucial to gaining a clear understanding of how to make the most out of your vampire.

You gain levels in this game through the accumulation of experience points; however, it will be an ongoing process, whereby whenever you have enough points ready, you can increase your character’s stats.

Graphics
This game utilizes the very powerful and much acclaimed Source engine featured in Half-Life 2, as well as the Havok physics engine. Having said that, the similarities between this game and Half-life 2 end. Had this game been released two years ago when I first saw it, there would have been little to no mention regarding the graphics and perhaps we would be sitting here praising the game’s graphical achievements.

This game features a somewhat shaky graphics setup, and you’ll find yourself dropping framerates throughout the major battles regardless of your specs. The character models are somewhat uninspired and odd looking, and the lack of a customizable character model is simply unacceptable for a modern age RPG. The water effects are somewhat disappointing and the RPG problem of recycled NPC character models is alive and well here.

Now for the good news, the graphics for this game are essentially dead on in creating a truly memorable experience. Your character abilities are very pretty to see and use, especially your Jedi Outcast-like Celerity which speeds you up but on the screen is shown by slowing your enemies down. The non-human/vampire models in this game are simply outstanding, especially that of the Gargoyle seen later in the game which is just a joy to look at.

One mission in this game takes place in a haunted mansion and I must say it was by far one of the creepiest levels I have played through since Clive Barker’s Undying. This level even used such small touches as flickering lights and writing appearing on the walls, apparently in blood. From there to a level which brings to mind American McGee’s Alice, where you infiltrate the insane Malkavian Primogen’s haven, this game creates some of the most amazing settings chock full of atmosphere ranging from horror to psychologically chilling. The Haven club is a visual masterpiece full of raving and scantily clad girls and guys (including a strange guy in a black leather gimp mask which frightened me a bit).

While certainly not the best looking game on the market, Troika has taken the graphics of this game and used them to perfectly tell a story and perfectly capture the atmosphere of the World of Darkness stetting. This created a certain love or hate relationship with the visuals; however, in the end I was mostly pleased with them.

Sound

The sound effects in this game are absolutely stellar. Troika hired the perfect voice actors for the in-game characters who use profanity and humor to tell a compelling and engaging dark story. The sound effects are also, for lack of a better word, perfect, from the chilling sounds in the haunted house, to the soundtracks which tend to capture the proper mood regardless of what mission you are on. The clubs scenes in this game are reminiscent of Deus Ex Invisible War, using modern techno beats from actual bands including a favorite of mine, Lacuna Coil. This is the type of game where you need to play with a decent sound card and stereo speakers or you are simply wasting your time. This game easily features some of the best sound effects and voice acting of any game I have played this year.

Multiplayer This game was originally supposed to contain a multiplayer mode where you basically had a team of Vampire Hunters fighting a team of Vampires. However, as the game got closer to completion, they cut out the multiplayer component causing the game to suffer. A Co-op play mode or even a standard deathmatch mode would have added a lot to both the deathmatch genre and this game in particular.

Replay Value
This game is huge, and you should have no trouble using up at least 30 hours of your life playing through the game. The sheer number of different ways you can play this game are staggering and will likely keep you occupied for long hours. If you play this game, expect to play through the game as a whole at least twice and spend a lot of time just exploring the Los Angeles area looking for quests.

Conclusion This game will likely miss out on the acclaim that it deserves and ultimately it’s a mixed bag for gamers. It’s easily the best single player PC RPG this year with one of the most engaging atmospheres you will find in any game. White Wolf WOD purists will find less to complain about than you would expect for a computer game version of their game, except of course for the Gangrel (so not in the Camarilla!). Ultimately, as this game uses the same engine as Half-Life 2, the graphical comparisons ill plague it always. But, if you are a gamer capable of seeing the forest for the trees, then you will discover that the folks at Troika truly are RPG Geniuses and have crafted a very fun game.

Key High Points
- A very large game; 25+ hours
- Deep storyline featuring multiple ways to play
- High level of character customization
- Easily some of the best sounds in any game this year

Key Low Points
- A very poor translation of what we have seen the Source engine do
- Occasional clipping issues and frame rate drops
- No multiplayer component

Further Reading White Wolf Website http://www.white-wolf.com