Summary
An underrated milestone in adventure gaming.
The Good
The creators are a sort of moodsetting genius. It's amazing what they can bring out of the dedicated player with just a bunch of rendered and handdrawn futuristic stills and peculiar midi music to match. The game world's distinctive cyber-atmosphere conquers our soul and lingers above us even when we're not actually playing. An audiovisual feast, but not nearly in the sense of today's beautiful bores; Bloodnet's look, sound and feel are functional, thus not hollow at their core. I sometimes play this game almost a decade after its release just to relive its atmosphere. Most later adventure games should have taken a second look at this one--there's plenty to learn.
It's a game of alloys: alloying classic adventure with RPG, distant future with Medieval vampire myths, a bright and loud metropolis with a dark and silent mystery, a detailed and possible future with implausible supernatural goings-on, and so forth. All in all, it is a masterpiece.
Besides, after all those comic adventure games (mostly from Sierra and LucasArts), finally here came one that dared to take itself more seriously.
The Bad
It tries a bit too hard to be an innovative crossover between point-and-click adventure and futuristic RPG, resulting in some awkward solutions, including a draggy turn-based fight system and a heavy reliance on many NPC's. It's all still tolerable and playable.
I don't like the pre-scripted, absolutely non-interactive dialogs, either. These conversations are masterful and better than in many big-time movies, but leaving them non-interactive is a missed chance for an additional layer of depth and player involvement.
The Bottom Line
We almost forgive all the gameplay issues of this game thanks to its unparalleled atmosphere and storytelling. Almost?..
