Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
Description official descriptions
One morning, a seemingly ordinary inhabitant of modern-day Los Angeles wakes up and discovers that he (or she) is dead. Well, not exactly dead, but turned into a vampire - "sired", as the vampires themselves call it. Before the protagonist is able to reflect upon this new and unexpected form of existence, he is taken to a courtroom, where he gets acquainted with the Camarilla - an organization that preserves order among vampires. Apparently, the protagonist's sire turned him into a vampire without permission, so Prince LaCroix, the head of the Los Angeles Camarilla branch, decides to execute both. The hero's short vampire life would have come to an abrupt end if a mysterious person hadn't stepped in and convinced the Prince to spare it. The Prince takes responsibility for the protagonist from now on and decides to test his abilities, sending him to Santa Monica. Before long the new vampire becomes involved in a net of intrigues between powerful organizations and vampire clans and must choose his own place in this terrifying new world.
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines is based on the pen-and-paper RPG Vampire: The Masquerade. In the beginning, the player creates the protagonist, choosing between vampire clans, each with its own unique abilities and disciplines: Brujah vampires are suitable for melee fighting, Tremeres can cast spells, etc. In some cases the choice of a clan greatly changes subsequent gameplay: for example, Malkavians are insane and will therefore have completely different surreal dialogue choices; Nosferatu are so ugly that they can't pass for humans and will have to travel through underground paths throughout the game, etc.
The main character gains experience points only for completing quests, not for killing enemies. Many side quests are available during the course of the game. Experience points can be manually allocated to raise the protagonist's attributes, as well as improve various vampire feats. The player can make the main character stronger in combat, proficient in computer hacking or stealth, more powerful in vampire disciplines, more attractive, more intimidating, and so on.
Combat in the game is action-based. The protagonist can fight unarmed, use melee weapons and firearms, or employ special vampire abilities. Melee combat is viewed from the third-person perspective, but the view switches to first-person if the main character is using a gun. Blood is used to activate the vampire disciplines, working similarly to magic points in other games. It can be replenished by feeding on certain types of enemies.
The protagonist can also feed on innocent humans, though there are repercussions for that. The rules of the Masquerade forbid vampires to reveal their true nature to humans. Openly feeding on humans violates the Masquerade; five Masquerade violations lead to an instant Game Over. Feeding on humans with no witnesses present does not violate the Masquerade; however, killing an innocent human in the process alerts the authorities and causes the player character to lose some of his or her humanity. Losing too much humanity results in the protagonist becoming more and more susceptible to frenzy, eventually turning into an uncontrolled beast.
Many quests can be completed in different ways - brute force, stealth, diplomacy, intimidation, etc., depending on the preferred style of play and the main character's attributes. The player will also have to decide which faction the protagonist should side with throughout the game. Eventually, the player's choices will branch the storyline, leading it to one of the five possible endings.
Spellings
- 吸血鬼：避世之血族 - Chinese spelling (simplified)
Groups +
- 3D Engine: Source
- Gameplay feature: Character development - Skill distribution
- Gameplay feature: House ownership
- Gameplay feature: Multiple endings
- Green Pepper releases
- Middleware: Bink Video
- Physics Engine: Havok
- Protagonist: Female (option)
- Protagonist: Vampire
- Setting: City - Los Angeles
- Setting: Hotel
- Software Pyramide releases
- Sound engine: AIL/Miles Sound System
- Theme: Haunted house
- Theme: Vampires
- Vampire: The Masquerade licensees
- World of Darkness
Screenshots
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Credits (Windows version)
316 People (275 developers, 41 thanks) · View all
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| [ full credits ] | |
Reviews
Critics
Average score: 81% (based on 48 ratings)
Players
Average score: 4.2 out of 5 (based on 162 ratings with 14 reviews)
The Good
Graphics: The graphics in the game were pretty good, and I especially liked the facial expressions when you talk to the NPC's. For the most part, the graphics were top-notch, aside from a few minor things.
Sound: While the music and sound-effects were very good, I would have to say that my favorite would have to be the many, many lines of dialogue, and the various things that can be said. The best dialogue lines are the Malkavian's crazed ramblings and the reactions you get when someone see's a Nosferatu for the first time.
Gameplay: Over-all, the game ran very well, aside from the aggravating number of loading screens. The combat was simple, yet it didn't seem like the same fight every time I fought someone. Dialogue is simply chosen, but what you say can have an effect on the game and what happens later on. The game also has a high replay value, as you can chose any of the 7 clans to play as (although the clans that have the most different gameplay would be the Malkavians and the Nosferatu).
Story: This is were the game really shines. I love the story and the vivid background they paint for the entire vampire culture, although not much is ever known about your character. They give you a mission that seems random (like sending you to find a very important vampire, instead of sending a more experienced vamp), but by the end, you see the true reason for everything. Friends are hard to find, as just about everyone will lie, cheat, and backstab to try and get to the top.
The Bad
Limitations: While there is a number of places to go throughout the game, most places are blocked off and you can never go there, which is a dissapointment. Another is character creation. While there are 14 possible characters (7 clans, 2 genders each), I really wanted a vampire that would look more unique than the basic bandana-wearing Brujah.
Bugs: I never really encountered any bugs...
Loading Screens: Way too many loading screens...it gets annoying.
The Bottom Line
If you need a new RPG, and are tired of the old hack n' slash fantasy game, go pick up a copy of Bloodlines.
Windows · by Boris Stovich (26) · 2005
To Troika: Learn from past programming mistakes or find a new line of work! (From pissed fan)
The Good
Note: 2nd update. Maybe a game I've played more than a week needs a little better review than just 100% trashing it cough
The sacrifices I made just to fulfill the tech requirements of this game (sigh). Anyway...
Oooh, another Vampire: The Masquerade game...boy have I been waiting a long time for this one. Got quite upset with the previous version due to bugs and hardware conflicts, hoping this one would make it up...
Wow, nice graphics...very nice...takes forever to load, but very nice. Oooh, it's an RPG too, from screenshots I dreaded it was just an adventure game, thankfully for RPG diehards like myself it had the very unique "clan" character creation. Too bad I never played the actual board game.
<hr />Graphics
Yeah, baby. Graphics were to my opinion, "ahead of its time" or at least very much appeasing. I must again note the great use of color in this game. I hate horror games with gloomy colors...this isn't one of them. Although still in dark blend atmosphere, Bloodlines has no problem in using bright colors to brighten up the mood...especially the color red.
Story
Though I didn't play the game long enough to actually experience all the story (due to technical conflicts)... I do recall the "sick and twisted" plot of the "underground" of urban cities. Especially at downtown Hollywood I thinks. Most of the missions are essentially one cult or horror movie after another. The effort put in the story is extremely well received at my end anyway.
Music
I must admit, I've never been exposed to Gothic music before. And after playing this game, I was hooked with one of the music tracks you can hear at a local club. Probably also the only RPG in existence where your hero can dance...and really good too! (Final Fantasy X-2, for a dancing-mood-plot game you should be ashamed!) Even the NPC (Non-player-characters) can dance equally as good. I literally, usually just let my hero dance at the club and watch for minutes and minutes...(sad to think that he can dance better than me...oh well)
Combat
Combat was pretty much straight forward. The controlling system was alright, not the best that I've experienced for these types of games (the best is still Fable), but still enjoyable...though shooting was somewhat tricky.
I do remember something else very well (excuse the ladies). This is the first game I know that has woman's breasts bouncing up and down (again, 'scuse the ladies). At the beach there's this Maldovian? vampire, during the dialog I couldn't take my eyes of those things going boing, boing, boing. Egad, I thought I was old and experienced enough to get past these stupid teenage ideas. But nooo, the only dialogs I got from her was boing, boing, boing. Some wrong with my brain man, something seriously wrong....:p
The Bad
Sigh. I don't think I've ever personally badmouthed a whole developer group. But Troika really has gone to far. I'm still pissed about the truck load of bugs they did with Arcanum...and that was still AFTER I downloaded 2 freakin patches.
But before I get ahead of myself, I was seriously disappointed with the previous Vampire the Masquerade game, since the game went way slow and buggy in several scenes. I thought they would gain wisdom from past mistakes....only to find out they also developed Temple of Elemental Evil, which by the way, the demo was better than the game.
Sorry, back to the main issue. Loading game....still loading game...egad it's still loading? Don't remember the last time a game took this long to load? Oh, wait, there NEVER WAS a game that took this long to load. What the hell are they doing with the programming, trying to get a World Record on pissing gamers by long loading hours? Considering installing the game was long enough....sheeesh.
The one major thing that totally wrecked my gaming experience was, guess what? Loading....(again). Can you imagine that E V E R Y single time you go to a different room it takes nearly 5 yes 5 minutes to load. You go to a small store just to see the inventory and it takes 5 minutues to load. I got the minimum spec requirements, probably not the recommended, but hey, does anyone really HAVE to upgrade their PC everytime some idiot developer thinks they should be innovative with the latest tech equipment. The developers of DOOM had the decency of warning players. I think I've wasted more time waiting for the dang game to load than actually playing the dang game.
And there's this final bug that was quite amusing. Everytime I went to the beach (yes, the vampire girl...I'm hooked), suddenly the game gets into "slow motion". The graphics turn in "matrix coding" and you move 1 frame every several minutes. Probably because the dang game hasn't finished
L O A D I N G the last time and was still trying to make up for it during gameplay...
The Bottom Line
I don't know about you but none of the people I knew actually finished the game due to several bug or technical related issues that seriously lead to major anger issues.
Another possibly great game ruined by Troika. Way to go fella's! Won't be playing any future games from you guys!
To think, some of these dudes actually were from the Fallout team....sigh.
(Oooh, Troika recently shutdown! Hope it was because of my review! Hah!)
Windows · by Indra was here (20756) · 2006
Ann Rice + Brian Lumley + John Carpenter = This Game
The Good
I bought this game from Gametap for 20 dollars. That was 5 months ago. I've been playing it every day since I purchased it. Its incredible.
You find yourself left in a City with little idea what is going on. You wander around and explore the city. You learn as you go by talking to characters who give you dialogue options. The choices you make impact the game play by giving you a benefit in one way or another.
If you were nice, you get cooperation from many characters. If you are mean, you'll make them angry and you may avoid getting interesting quests.
The biggest difference in play is the character you chose. A Noseferatu will send people running away screaming. A Toreador will seduce anyone and everyone. So you can play with the strengths of the characters to accomplish a multitude of things. Most of the choices impact how your character will do in future quests. You can intimidate or or seduce.
The Graphics are fine. The city areas are gritty and covered in graffiti. The characters are fully animated and responsive, courtesy of the Source Engine that powers it. Voice acting was consistently top notch, and added a lot to the game.
The sound is excellent. Many ambient sounds match the feel of their environment. Gunshots, sirens, People yelling.
The game levels were done with great care. Special notice should be given to the very spooky Haunted house and Chinatown.
But one of the star elements of the game was the music. It combined songs scored for the game and licensed songs from bands. Great stuff. Does a job setting the mood.
The fights are challenging because you need switch disciplines to win. Otherwise, you can't just shoot it out. Great story, and good characters make it a unique game.
The jokes and cultural references are everywhere. Cussing and swear words are the norm. This isn't a game for kids. The violence is over the top and very satisfying.
The Bad
Well, its more of a limitation of my hardware then anything else, but every time you load a game, the sound and video stutter for a good few seconds before it catches up. I found the load times to be fairly long and sometimes, the game would fail on on load.
The bugs were plentiful, but hardly a real problem. The physics engine was nice, but hardly necessary for the game play. I'm sure some would appreciate that the physics engine was applied in modelling the breasts of the women in this game. I found it a bit cheesy.
The Bottom Line
Great story B-Movie Vampire story wrapped up in a game. You can play it again and again to discover what different ways you can do things. Its easily one of my favorites.
Windows · by Scott Monster (986) · 2009
Discussion
| Subject | By | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Sequel? | Scott Monster (986) | Sep 7, 2015 |
| Can't Stop playing this game! | Scott Monster (986) | Jan 4, 2009 |
| What kind of bloodsucker do you think you are? | Slug Camargo (583) | Oct 26, 2008 |
| Odd Vampire at Cafe? | Indra was here (20756) | Jul 31, 2007 |
| Werewolf part | Donatello (466) | Jun 20, 2007 |
Trivia
Bugs and patches
Troika did not learn its lesson from The Temple of Elemental Evil (see the trivia section). Once again, serious problems and bugs have been left unattended for too long, until a fan, dan_upright, jumped in with his own fixes in an unofficial patch. The releases of unofficial patches were then continued by Werner Spahl until most bugs were fixed. In the final two weeks of Troika's existence, several employees volunteered to help finish with patch 1.2.
Because of the "beta" state this game was left in even after patch 1.2. Several unofficial patches have been released for Bloodlines. There were two lines of fanpatches, the original "unofficial" patch by Wesp which does not only fix bugs, but also adds adds new weapons, disciplines, occult items, quest items, and action sequences, based on content left over from development hidden in the installed game files.
Another fanpatch, the "true patch" was started by Acrimonious and Tessera, previously known for creating nude patches for various games, on the Tessmage.com forums with assistance by several forum members. It is intended to be a true patch to the official 1.2 version, only fixing bugs found in the original game or the official 1.2 patch. There was a huge flamewar between the Tessera and Wesp, eventually leading into Tessera shutting down his website.
Character creation
The game was supposed to have a fourth character creation mode which would enable you to add a history to your character rather than setting the various attributes by hand. It's still in the final version of the game although it's disabled by default. The choice of history has a large impact on the game, as it basically gives players a bonus effect in certain areas and a negative effect in others. Visit the "Tips & Tricks" section where the actual unlocking process is explained.
Development
Bloodlines is the second game to use Valve's Source engine, after Half-Life 2. Valve did not want another game to display the new source engine prior to Half-Life 2, so when Bloodlines went gold on October 4, 2004, Troika worked on a patch that was integrated into the duplication master prior to shipping on November 16th. Work on the multiplayer was halted for some time during development, with the intention of picking it up later, which is what happened. However, the multiplayer gameplay never really came together and it was dropped a couple of months before shipping.
German version
In the German version, the decapitation during the intro was removed. The rest of the game is completely uncut.
Misc
- In the beginning of the game, when you need to get the astrolite, look around the house on the beach. There is a game paused on the TV that shows one of the large monsters from in the sewers later on in the game along with a vampire who is re-loading an Anaconda.
- When you use a pass card to open a hatch that leads to Nosferatu hide-out (after the long sewer dungeon), take a close look at the computer. On the right side, there is a message that looks very similar to the common Windows' "Fatal Error" screens. It says the following:
SLOW
A fatal error has occurred. You should be panicking now. Your system will now explode. It is now safe to go to your happy place. Press any key to help others learn to read. Press Ctrl+Ctrl+Ctrl to donate money to me, you know the computers will soon take over, why fight it? * If you visit Mercurio just before the final showdown you will learn what exactly Camarilla (one of the factions in the game) thinks of Troika Games' leading developers. * After you find the man beheaded in the building across the Last Round bar you might want to take his head and try to score in a nearby basketball ring. If you do so the applause will be heard. * The song that briefly plays near the end of the quest "The Ghost Haunts at Midnight" at the Ocean House Hotel is "Pilots" by Goldfrapp from their debut album Felt Mountain.
References
- There are a number of references to find throughout the game; many to movies. One is the book "the art of the quickdraw by Ned Nederlander". Ned Nederlander is the character played by Martin Short in the movie The Three Amigos, who is said to be the fastest draw in the world.
- One reference in the game is when you talk to the food critic in Hollywood. If you are Malkavian, you can convince him that he is eating maggots. This is a reference to the movie The Lost Boys, in which a group of teenage vampires convinces a man that the rice he is eating is actually maggots. When you speak to the food critic and convince him, there is even a line of dialogue saying how that "happened in a movie once".
- In Hollywood, look at the commercial above Isaac Abram's jewelry store. It says: "Play Troika Games!". Troika is the developer of this game.
- During your computer-hacking side-quest (received from the computer geek at Nosferatu hideout), you'll come across the password Gil Bates. Gil Bates is one of the central characters of Arcanum, another RPG by Troika. On the other side, Gil Bates himself is a parody on... well, you figure out that one.
- The NPC Romero, whom you meet at the cemetery in Hollywood, is named after George A. Romero, the father of the Zombie movie genre. Why? You'll have to accept Romero's quest in order to find out.
- Another NPC, the Nosferatu hacker Mitnick, is named after Kevin Mitnick who in the early to mid 90s was one of the most notorious and wanted hackers in the US.
- The news broadcast that can be heard when switching on the TV in the the player's haven contains a reference to famous horror author H. P. Lovecraft. The anchorman speaks of a squid-like creature found at the shore of Providence, Rhode Island. This is an obvious nod to Lovecraft's birthplace and his Cthulhu myth.
- Some time later in the game you might learn from the TV a shocking news of EU collapse. Quite interesting is that the end of EU was one of the reasons behind the nuclear war in Fallout, game developed by Black Isle, the former employees of which constituted the major part of Troika Games.
- If you hack in to one of the computers in the Internet Cafe, you'll find a reference to the "Chocula" clan. For those that don't know, "Count Chocula" was a cartoon vampire spokesman for Chocolate cereal.
- In most of the dance bars, you'll see a dance icon. The symbol is pointing gesture made famous by John Travolta in the movie Saturday Night Fever.
- This game is highly infested with all sorts of allusions to all kinds of movies. Clan Nosferatu's network system "Schrecknet", for instance, hints to German actor Max Schreck who played the original Nosferatu in the ground breaking German silent movie Nosferatu - Eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922) by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau . This is even more interesting because Clan Nosferatu's whole look is heavily influenced by Max Schreck's outfit. Could he have been the first Nosferatu? Check out Merhige's Shadow of the Vampire (2000) and judge for yourself...
- An easier one of many literary half-quotes to be found in Vampire: Bloodlines: The quest received right at the game's beginning "Wherefore art thou Mercurio" is obviously derived from the more famous original "O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?" (Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Act II., scene 2). Note that one of Romeo and Juliet's main characters is appropriately named Mercutio.
- Look for this pop culture reference during Phat Larry's side quest. In the parking garage, you overhear two thugs talking. "Do you like John Woo? Bullet in the head, son!" The other thug responds, "I don't get it." John Woo, is arguably Hong Kong's most famous director. With films such as, The Killer, Hard-Boiled, and Bullet in the Head.
- In the arcade over at the beach, there are three games: Pitfall, River Raid, and Call of Duty. They were all released by
Activision as is this game. In fact, an emulator was in the works so you could play River Raid and Pitfall, but it was eventually dropped due to time constraints
Soundtrack
A release exclusive to Best Buy included the following soundtrack: 1. Bloodlines - Ministry - Come Alive - Daniel Ash - Cain - Tiamat - Swamped - Lacuna Coil - Isolated - Chiasm - Needle's Eye - Die My Darling - Pound - Aerial2012 - Lecher Bitch - Genitorturers - Smaller God - Darling Violetta - Swamped (Video) - Lacuna Coil
Awards
- 4Players
- 2004 – Best PC Role-Playing Game of the Year
- 2004 – Best PC Story of the Year
- Computer Gaming World
- March 2005 (Issue #249) – RPG of the Year
- GameSpy
- 2004 – Best Level of the Year (PC) (for the Ocean House Hotel)
Information also contributed by Apogee IV, Boris Stovich, Little Yoda, MasterMegid, Scott Monster, SimonG, St. Martyne, tata_lu_stefan_cel_mare, Terrence Bosky, Unicorn Lynx, worldwideweird
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Related Sites +
-
Bloodlines
Official website -
The Bloodlines Wikipedia article
A very detailed article with in-depth information about the game. -
UHS File for Bloodlines
Question and answer type strategy guide. Viewable online or can be downloaded for use with the UHS software. -
Unofficial patch at The Patches Scrolls
Here you can get the latest unofficial Bloodlines Patch. Highly recommended! It fixes a lot of problems and offers a far better experience.
Identifiers +
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by HandofShadow.
Additional contributors: Unicorn Lynx, Jeanne, Sciere, SGruber, Patrick Bregger, Infernos, BlaringCoder.
Game added November 27, 2004. Last modified February 13, 2024.