Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines

Moby ID: 15663
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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)

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Credits (Windows version)

316 People (275 developers, 41 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 81% (based on 48 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.2 out of 5 (based on 162 ratings with 14 reviews)

See beyond the bugs.

The Good
Welcome to the city of fallen angels. The place of eternal darkness, where children of the night fight for survival. Welcome to the world where “good” doesn’t exist and “evil” is painted with thousands different shades of black and red. Embrace your newfound gift and enter the world of intrigue, treachery and every kind of sin you can think of. Welcome to the Masquerade.

Please excuse my overdramatic intro that looks like it belongs on the disc’s back cover. The reason I started the review in this way lies inside the game itself. Bloodlines is not an ordinary game, it belongs to the type of games that must be judged on different grounds and with different criteria than any other game of usual type. It must be approached differently because it transcends all the requirements gaming community sets to it. It goes beyond expectations and sets new standards, which won’t be broken, unless other game developers will change their mindset about what exactly constitutes a game as form of art. It may sound confusing, so I’ll try to explain it in detail. Read on.

Let’s discuss visuals of Bloodlines. What can be said here? Source engine? Bump mapping? Dynamic shadows? No. The first thing that catches my eye is the exceptional artistic quality of the locations you visit and the environments you see. I don’t give a damn about the pixel shader version the game uses. I couldn’t care less about the amount of polygons rendered in real-time by game’s engine. I don’t want to know whether it’s next-gen, cur-gen or past-gen. However I do care when I see a mysterious abandoned Chinese theatre where the old stone gargoyle had taken a residence or the sick sets of the underground porn studios or the luxurious interior of Prince LaCroix tower. Every location (with minor exception) of Bloodlines feels unique, original and helps to create an amazing sense of immediate presence.

The environments of the Bloodlines are not merely sets for the story to unfold in. They are also a continuation of characters’ portraits. It’s impossible to think about the sisters running the Asylum club without imagining a complete layout of the room they live in. This room is a manifestation of their mindsets, the fruitful addition to their storyline. The character designers and environmental designers must have been working really hard to achieve such an astounding level of collaboration.

As for the characters themselves I will simply say that Bloodlines features one of the most charismatic cast of characters ever to be encountered in a video game. The irony is that the undead characters of Bloodlines feel more real and human-like than many of living characters in other games. There are no good or bad characters in the game. Each one is a representation of certain ideas relevant to the rules of the vampiric society. And when those ideas clash you will have to decide what side is your character on and more importantly what ideals YOU personally uphold.

Really, I can go on and on praising the exceptional voice-work, perfect lip-sync and unparalleled range of face emotions Bloodlines characters are capable of. But truth is that you don’t think about any of that while meeting these characters, you simply like them, hate them, trust them or despise them. All in all, you feel a wide array of emotions that are usually applied to real people rather than to those at the other side of the screen.

As you see I deliberately missed out all the gameplay related issues. I did so not because I saved them for a Bad part, but because it’s really strange to think of Bloodlines while trying to establish how balanced RPG skills were or how responsive weapon controls were. It’s like trying to remember a picture frame for a painting you saw in a gallery. It feels secondary to the painting itself. And by no means is the frame bad, it’s just not that important when it comes to the magnificent artwork the painting itself represents.

The Bad
Much has been said about how bug-ridden this game is. Well, it’s true. The game was left unfinished, rushed by greedy publisher to the release date with only one or two bugs fixed. But is it Troika’s fault? Do you really believe that the game that received so much love and care from its creators would be simply abandoned and treated lightly when the time for QA came? I don’t think so. The same applies to the last quarter of the game which was surprisingly turned into a pure hack-and-slash non-fun, as if one of Troika’s executives had gone for a smoke, while a Diablo developer sneaked into a computer room and did his evil deeds.

If you allow me to carry a picture gallery analogy here as well I will ask you this. Would you think of Mona Lisa to be any less of an art if it was to be admired behind the iron bars? Or if you listened to Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” in a crowded room on a lame stereo, would it lose its masterpiece status as well?

The Bottom Line
Don’t let people who answer yes to those questions fool you. True art lies not in perfection but in sacrifice, love and honesty multiplied by a considerable amount of talent. And I am safe to say that Bloodlines has plenty of this mixture in it.

Windows · by St. Martyne (3648) · 2007

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

Spooky!

The Good
I absolutely love the graphics in this game. Even though I've never been in Los Angeles, it just looks so beautiful in the game. Like Shanghai in the night. Come to visit!

The animations are fantastic, the characters look and make gestures like real people, their lips are moving just together with the words, how did they do it so perfectly?

The atmosphere in the game is amazing. Just like things happening in real life, in front of your face. There is one place in the game where you enter a hotel with ghosts, it was so scary! I am more afraid of things you cannot see, not of monsters. It is psychological horror, not physical one.

I think the story of the game is like a reflections of today's society... People are using each other, there are no true friends. "A friend in need is a friend indeed"... that's what I think, but there is no such thing in the game. Very realistic.

The story is very complicated, there are so many organizations and groups, you should learn their backgrounds and relationships, you should pay attention to what you say. You'll have to decide with whom to be together. But maybe it's best you trust no one?

The English language in the game is so fine, lots of complicated words, my husband told me people speak with different styles, use humor, things like that. But my English is not good enough...

I loved the fighting in the game. In boss battles, you often have to think which strategy to use, at the same time it is a test for your reaction. Using brain and having good reaction at the same time is important.

What I like most about the game is the variety. There are many races, and they are all different - some are more powerful, more quick, more beautiful, more like animals, more sexy... They all have different abilities and magics. In the same dungeon, there might be many different solutions, depending on your race.

You have a lot of choice in how you develop your character. You can make him use weapons like swords, or guns, make him more attractive, persuade people, sneaking better, hacking computers, lockpicking... it's so complicated! The game seduces you to play it again...

And there are different endings, depending on which organization you support.

In this game there are too many combinations: different races, different ways to spend your experience points, different organizations... this all brings different results. After I finished the game, I just wanted to play it again, in a different way!

The Bad
Sometimes it's just too choppy, especially in the middle of battle it is annoying. The loading times are sometimes too long. There are some bugs, in some cases you cannot even finish a quest. But if you reload, it solves the problem, there are no bugs that really stop the game.

And my English is too bad!! I couldn't understand those dialogues! Every time I had to have my husband near me, so that he will explain to me what the people are talking about!!

The Bottom Line
Scary, atmospheric, great graphics, so much variety, amazing endings... Highly recommended, just play it on a good computer.

Windows · by Melody (48) · 2007

[ View all 14 player reviews ]

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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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.