Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines

The Good
Troika's "Vampire: Bloodlines" is a wonderful game, set in a present day city environment in Los Angeles. Within this quite realistically presented city exists a vast sub-culture of Vampires and all sorts of other, super-natural creatures entangled in a complex society of their own. The game's focus lies heavily on describing this vampiric society and culture. However, since Vampires have hardly more regard for humans than humans have for cattle, the two depicted societies ("real", "human" L.A. and "vampiric" L.A.) hardly ever mix, except when a "new" human gets in some way or another introduced into said vampiric sub-culture, which is exactly what happens to the player right at the beginning of the game.

With its approach of assuming two entirely different cultures sharing one physical space, this game succeeds splendidly at simulating the player's "newborn" feel - in a world he/she knows quite well ("Vampire"s L.A. is, after all, the L.A. from the movies) an alternate culture exists and has always existed - behind back doors, in shady bars or in secluded towers. Since this is the only culture the player is really allowed to deal with during the game, he/she will quickly get accustomed to it, accepting it as the actual "reality" - which quickly renders the regular "human" reality he/she knows of to appear less real than the fictitious one.

This is truly an elegant way to begin a game: "Vampire: Bloodlines" starts out with a world the player knows, only to have him/her then concentrate more and more on a world he/she doesn't know (yet) - a world entirely new. Apart from this intriguing starting point there are many things which are great about this game. This review shall now separately address technical, gameplay and content aspects.

1. Technical

"Vampire"s graphics are impressive, probably not so much in themselves but because of the how and why of their usage. Graphics in "Vampire: Bloodlines" always serve one or more of three distinct purposes: their design reflects the personalities of people (e.g. Jeannette's room, the Nosferatu city, LaCroix' tower etc.), they build up a distinct genre background complete with an appropriate atmosphere (hotel, graveyard, Giovanni mansion etc.) and they are used as elements of contrast and conflict within the game world (the player's shabby apartment vs. LaCroix' salon, the Anarchs' "punk-bar" vs. the Tremere's hide-out etc.). This form of contrast is additionally used to violently shock the player as he/she penetrates harmlessly looking suburban homes just to find them filled with unbelievable horrors - a clever device considering the Vampires' own reliance on the "Masquerade", i.e. on hiding away from human perception. Moreover, all places in this game are superior in design and colouring. Together with the extremely detailed facial expression animations of characters they brilliantly succeed in bringing the game's world to life and tying the game's widely differing elements together.

"Vampire"s musical score goes hand in hand with this. Just as the actual game, it covers a wide variety of genre terrain (ambient, ethnic, orchestral, trip-hop, punk, industrial, gothic...) while still remaining "in tone" with the game's main conception of exploring an alien society.

Voice acting can only be described as excellent. It is not only very professionally executed, but serves the same three purposes attributed to graphics: characterization, setting a genre and depicting contrast. On the streets, people talk Al Pacino-like L.A. slang, LaCroix talks elaborately high-brow, Jack hilariously low-brow...these are not only voices meant to spare the player the abominable task of reading, they are actually well-acted and always "in character".

1. Gameplay

As noted in other reviews, "Vampire: Bloodlines" is a real-time based 3D-Action-RPG similar to classics such as "System Shock 2" or "Deus Ex". It employs a number of RPG features such as different player characters, stats, experience points and numerous side-quests while offering the player a choice between shooting and sneaking during combat.

However, although this game boasts quite a few exhilarating fights (especially during the endgame), its focus lies clearly elsewhere. With its many intricate multiple-choice dialogues and its vast amount of side-quests designed to lead the player around its various, colourful settings, "Vampire: Bloodlines" is really a game of "social exploration" - its main aim is rather to find out about vampiric society than to follow its main plot, which is but a large "MacGuffin"-hunt anyway, largely created to make said society's innate conflicts escalate.

Moreover, the player is offered quite a lot of choices during gameplay. Interestingly though, these are not only limited to "moral choices" defining how the story will proceed (although these are present, too): in this game, a different playing style may unlock whole new aspects of gameplay including new characters, dialogue and quests. If one plays the game with a Nosferatu or a Malkavian character the entire game will appear to be completely different, however, even with one of the more "usual" characters gameplay may adapt drastically to a players choice of approach.

One example: when one chooses the talkative route to tackle the Giovanni mansion, one will get to know a number of characters to exercise one's social talents upon, one will be entangled in a very "Godfather"-like mafia intrigue game with the opportunity to make NPCs turn against each other. If, however, the player chooses to kindly inform the mansion's front door guard that he/she intends to kill everybody within the house, the game's transmitted genre will drastically change: the player will now have to face a plain white marble villa jam-packed with approx. 500 black-suited, heavily armed baddies all waiting to be killed - and these are simply not there if one picks the peaceful approach! Female NPCs which are of vital importance during the peaceful version of this scene will simply be omitted (probably fled through the windows) and the whole tone will be that of a John Woo action flick (seen "A Better Tomorrow II."?).

Thus, in "Vampire: Bloodlines" the player's choice may not only effect the outcome of a set situation like for instance in "Deus Ex", it may at times also decide whether certain plot elements or NPCs will "start to exist" in the first place. This is an interesting way to assign more meaning to the player: instead of always making NPCs boast at the player character's importance to make the player feel better, "Vampire: Bloodlines" does not only allow the player to cut through whole sections in whatever way he/she wishes - it even adapts itself to these wishes at times.

1. Content

As already hinted at, this has to be one of the most postmodern games ever created - for a number of reasons. Due to its heavy reliance on quests rather than on a linear plot it's structure appears to be largely episodic. It's dialogue is not only extremely well written, but it's continuously tongue-in cheek, witty and ironic, even when dealing with the most brutal events and outcomes. Most important, however, is this game's playful approach to genre, "art culture" and to notions of reality vs. different kinds of fantasy.

"Vampire: Bloodlines" is highly infested with all sorts of allusions to all kinds of literature, movies, cultural phenomena and even present-day politics. These are not only extremely numerous - in fact, they're all over the place - but they also seamlessly range from their "lowest" (i.e. porn, splatter, snuff films etc.) to their "highest" respective forms (Scorsese, Hitchcock, Shakespeare etc.). Almost every genre is hinted at and played with in "Vampire: Bloodlines", shifting from witty screwball comedy to hentai in a split-second.

Most fun, however, is naturally had with the horror genre. Allusions, places and story elements include the classic "haunted hotel" setting, Cronenbergian visions of mutilation and "Body Horror", Hieronymus Bosch's apocalyptic vistas, George Romero's zombie slaughter-fests, Murnau's early German expressionism, mad scientists, serial killers, Victorian mad-houses, etc. etc. - it would be impossible to mention even a fracture of this department.

"Vampire: Bloodlines" gets successfully away with all this genre switching just because it fully dedicates itself to its own playful postmodernism - this game really declares constant, more or less radical changes of place, dialogue, style and atmosphere to be its main point of "unity".

However, apart from being playful, witty and ironic while dealing with its own, "fractured" design "Vampire: Bloodlines" effectively keeps itself from becoming a mere "guessing game" of popular/high culture simply because everything is executed so extremely well. The "horror house", for instance, is quite an obvious allusion to a whole set of movies - and yet it's still a frightfully effective horror level because of its intelligent build-up and some positively spooky graphics and eerie sounds. That's where this game really strikes a fine balance: while everything is presented quite ironically and with a lot of tongue-in-cheek humour, it's places are still seriously threatening, it's NPCs are still seriously interesting characters and it's plot-lines are still seriously engaging. Combined with all the allusions to various examples of the horror genre, it impressively shows that even the most corny and well known mechanics (flying books, bursting doors, howling wolves etc.) continue to be frightful if they're well executed - and, as already mentioned, this game features a masterful execution across the board.

Last but not least: this game almost academically addresses the elusive relationship between reality and fiction/fantasy - and in this context its postmodern means of quotation and allusion actually make real sense.

The motif of the Vampire already sets this game's main topic: since the late Victorian times of "Dracula", Vampires have always been regarded as an embodiment of exciting (and erotic) fantasy lurking behind an outwardly "normal" appearance. This employed contrast between a respectable, more or less reality-based "outside" and a fictitious "inside" which may be both frightening and fascinating at the same time has already been hinted at in this review and is used throughout the whole game.

!!! WARNING !!! SEVERAL SPOILERS AHEAD !!!

Even the game's title implies the notion of masquerade, i.e. the veiling of one's true nature, and thus a dissent between "inside" and "outside". As already mentioned, the game begins with a reality shift in which a natural "outside" reality is more or less replaced by a super-natural "inside" one which also physically exists "inside": behind locked doors or in secluded apartments. This "vampiric" reality is, however, further fractured in itself and contains several additional divisions between "inside" and "outside": the different clans hide away from each other, different political fractions live in significantly different locations and outwardly "normal" NPCs may reveal their true, "monstrous" nature any minute.

The whole game, its plot as well as its settings, is filled with notions the treachery and unreliability of what's supposedly "real". Both the Camarilla and Prince LaCroix hide their true motivations. The Kuei-jin are actually shape-shifters with a more than elusive "outside", as is the game's final enemy. Jeannette has a split personality including a respectable, controllable "outside" part as well as an outlandish, exciting, but menacingly crazy "inside" part (both of which are in constant conflict and very hard to reconcile). A strip dancer turns out to be a Vampire killer, a church hosts a gothic club, a gothic club hosts the mafia, a snuff-film containing "real" killings is made with "unreal" (or "surreal") monsters which are hopping around various movie-sets...the list of "inside"-"outside" contrasts and uncertain realities to be found in "Vampire: Bloodlines" is just too long to be coincidental. In the end (at least in the ending I got) the "inside" of the main plot's "outside" sarcophagus everyone is rambling about (though its opening might actually end all life - again, the fascinating goes hand in hand with the threatening) is not revealed: in fact, it may be rather the players' and the various NPCs' shady fantasies than anything "real" which fills the sarcophagus' "inside".

By now it can easily be seen that "Vampire: Bloodlines" does in fact not only challenge the player's perception of "reality", but also his/her perception of the nature of the "fictitious", of "fantasy" - which can be both exciting and dangerous, even (or especially) at the same time. This is certainly one reason why this game contains so many allusions to both present-day reality and all kinds of different fantasies (i.e. all kinds of novels, movies etc.) from all imaginable "quality levels": it offers the player a kaleidoscope of our own world's immense chaos of varying and uncertain realities and of the often enough dubious nature of our fantasies (which aren't any less chaotic).

The city of Los Angeles is a somewhat final expression of that notion: it's just as much a real city as it is a "dream factory", and as a "dream factory" it does not only offer a vent for our pleasant, glossy "Hollywood" fantasies, but for all the uncomfortable and dark ones, too.

The Bad
Many minor negative issues have already been addressed in other reviews, so there is no need to address them again. It has to be noted, though, that most of the bug and loading-time related problems have been largely eliminated by now due to the numerous existing fan-patches and the more advanced hardware which is accessible today (reminds one of Origin-days, doesn't it?).

However, one can apply the same piece of criticism to "Vampire: Bloodlines" which one can apply to most postmodern art in general: for some people, it may well be too witty, too ironic, too varying in its atmospheres and places and, well, probably a bit too cold. "Vampire: Bloodlines" is often enough quite the contrary of a heart-quenching experience. No sir, in a game where one can play basketball with a severed human head and slap enemies silly with a severed human arm, emotional qualities are indeed bound to suffer.

All in all, "Vampire: Bloodlines" is extremely well-done, literally glows with style and intellectuality - and is probably more aimed at one's head than at one's heart.

The Bottom Line
Apart from some minor negative points, "Vampire: Bloodlines" is a great game in all respects. It features stellar production values across the board, it's gameplay is innovative and fresh and it's content is extremely witty, intelligent, "up-to-date" and - in the end - even thought-provoking.

It is a must-play for everyone who is interested in a 3D-RPG which is in the best possible way modern, moreover, it's simply a treat for postmodern blokes trying to find out just how many horror movies they've seen, as well as for anyone interested to find out more about the relationship between respectable "outside" realities and the ambiguous aspects of (wanted? feared?) "inside" fantasies. In this respect, it is not only a worthy contribution to the motif of the Vampire but also, in the original meaning of the world, perverse (lat. "perversio": a twist, a reversal).

The Good
Troika proved with its first game that it really knew how to create depth in a game world when handling role playing. This game proves to continue that tradition, as role-playing really shines in this game.

You start by selecting a vampire type, each with its own strengths, weaknesses and a special power only allowed to the particular vampire family. And each character type is an experience in itself: The ugly Nosferatu who must hides its visage from humans or risk revealing the masquerade; the beautiful Toreador who easily moves through humanity, seducing their victims; the Brujah who viciously use their muscle to get what they want; the insane malkovians who can’t seem to communicate to others without creating and uncomfortable situation, yet have better insight for it. As you see, there are many paths to follow allowing some replayability as you try various vampires.

From this you will go into the dark under belly of LA, feeling your way through intrigues, lies, and plots. In the process you will get various quests you can solve to ingratiate yourself with the denizens of the everlasting night. On resolving each quest, you gain experience and levels, which allow you to pour points into various skills and abilities. You may do so as you wish, though your choice of vampire type will make some skills more expensive than others. This allows even more customizability by choosing individualized skills for your vampire.

When you do go into the world, you will need to work within the rule of the Masquerade. You must avoid human understanding of what you are, or you could be punished. This is a great gameplay obstacle, and can be used to change how you are looked at. On top of this is the bloodlust you must satisfy. All major skills use blood and damage taken can only be healed by blood. So, you will need to find ways to sate the lust or risk permanent death. These limits of the game world do add to the gameplay and keep it fresh and risky.

As you move through the various areas of LA, such as Hollywood, Santa Barbara, and China town, you will meet quite a few great and personable NPCs. Each has memorable dialogue and are generally well voiced. Main NPCS are well rendered as well, making them feel more real. I always enjoyed interacting with them, as the menu driven conversations have many paths and allow many reactions. Even your powers will add more reactions, depending on ability. The best are the Malkovian responses, creating quite humorous reactions.

Various quests these NPCs will give you will keep you interested and are rarely repetitive. You will get to try your hand at fighting monsters, sneaking into various companies, hacking computers and many other actions. You will even get to try various skills in missions to accomplish your tasks, such as either talking or fighting your way in the Chinese theater. But this is not always the case as I mention in the bad.

Various locations are generally well done, and a few are pretty darned exceptional. The hotel is one of the best scary places I’ve seen in gaming in a long time. It oozes a kind of fun house atmosphere that is really enjoyable. I also found the psychiatrist’s mansion a weird but interesting area, reminiscent of Thief’s Balfor mansion.

This leads to the area of graphics. My first error was to play this alongside Half Life 2, which truly is an unfair comparison. Though there are bugs (mentioned below) many of the scenes are well detailed and nicely designed. Some are better than others, such as Chinatown and the Nosferatu town. For an RPG, the look of the graphics are well done. But there are some issues with performance, and some areas leave much to be desired.

Finally the story is very good. It is rather linear, but has its own twists and turns, mostly depending on you. Much of the best story is in the sidequests where you learn more about the politics of being a vampire. And you do get to determine the ending, and I suggest you try them all for they do have some surprises and nice cinematics. I felt the ending was well done, though there are some other opinions. And though you never really get to know your character, you do get a taste of White Wolf’s vampiric world.

The Bad
When it comes to role playing and characterization, Vampire gets a gold star. But battling enemies is another story. Despite multiple skills, battles devolve mostly in to clicking on the enemy to defeat them. Magic allows for some strategy, but the speed of battles can undermine thoughts of strategizing. And some of the tougher battles will use up your blood skills quickly before you can finish off the enemy. Enemies have a tendency to run up and attack without much thought to their actions. Many times you will use your powerful skills to kill enemies quickly without much more action.

For all the intricate character customizability, some of this gets lost in many actual quests one can undertake. Many of the actions emphasize only one or two skills, such as the zombie hunt requiring good gunplay. This would not be so bad if it were only the sidequests, but many of the main quests demand use of few skills, such as the need to sneak through the museum to get some of the best experience. If you leveled in the personality orders, you’ll find they get lost through many of the missions. There are some spells that will allow you to buff up your weaker skills, but it would still be nice to play through each as you have developed your character, not force your character into unnatural actions.

The final levels are the worst. Be prepared to use the last of your experience to beef up fighting skills and battle magic. You will be doing a lot of fighting and will have a hell of a time if you only poured your skills in other areas. This undermines the role playing strength of the game.

Another issue is the bugs. Many of the worst were fixed in the patch, but there are plenty of others. The graphics are choppy on the best of machines (I figure my ATI Radieon on 2.5 GHz machine is no slouch) and moving areas such as elevators skip around. I don’t blame Troika as much on this because Valve made a patch for the same issues in Half Life 2, but did not distribute it to Troika, leaving many problems in.

Load areas feel much like another bug, but they are a weakness a graphics heavy engine. Going in and out of buildings lead to all sorts of load times, and it can be frustrating to move around. On top of this, the places you go are both limited to a few areas and the areas feel artificially closed. There are many times I was confronted with strange barriers that shout “You are in an artificial room created by game developers!” Plus, it appears more areas were promised than delivered. Take a look at the box, I never saw that cowgirl anywhere.

Along with this are the graphical issues that can undermine believability. There are a lot of twins in the game at various places. Many of the body models can be so simple compared the the NPCs that it feels shoddy. And some areas are rather bland and repetitive (welcome to the sewers). Of course, much of this comes from the Half Life 2 comparison, and for an RPG, its not too bad.

The Bottom Line
Troika’s third and final game takes them to unfamiliar territory in creating Deus Ex style shooter. What they add is a deeper role playing system and in-depth character interactions. But, there are problems standard to Troika’s fare: bugs, a less then satisfying breadth of area, a linear finale with minor, though intriguing, choices in the end. They overreach at expansive gameplay and world but come up somewhat short, concentrating their efforts in a few areas leaving the game unbalanced, as if there could be so much more.

Despite the flaws, Troika does excel at what they concentrate on. This leads to a game that is well worth playing for to see how well they can do some things and leaves one wondering how well they could have made games had they found balance. So, if you want a fine example of idealistic zeal for creating great role-playing, characterization, and story, you can’t go wrong with this gem.

The Good
My review's may be rather short but get's straight to the point without any spoilers:

Plot/Dialog: One of its strength are thankfully the plot and the dialog's with the NPC's you encounter. The main story start's out slow, but it get's more and more interesting also simultaneously more mysterious. The longer you play, the more unsure you are what's really going on. Later on your final point of confusion you had to decide which clan you will follow to continue your last mission.

Graphics: Okay, its the Half-Life 2 engine, but I don't think its on the level of Half Life 2, but it's still rather good. They put the world of bloodlines in a dark, dirty, gothic like atmosphere which fits very well in this game. While some graphics are bit too blurry others are really eye candy. Especially during conversations the facial expression are very well done, you can clearly see if their are pissed off, bored, interested or even naughty.

Music & Sound effects: A real pusher for the atmosphere are the selection of punk/metal music in the clubs or the dark moody ambient music while you wandering through the streets. The sound effects are also quiet good, but sometime you hear more than you actual see (like you hear a car is passing you, but you actually don't see any driving cars in the streets.)

Replay value: Since you can play different types of vampires with also different specialization its makes fun to take play it again and solve the quests in a other way (which gives you additional experience points). It also doesen't matter that you know the main story already, even more interesting is the second view on it.

The Bad
Code flaws/Bugs: Since Ive heard about some bad bugs in the final version, i've waited until a patch was out to play the game. Still there are minor glitches, which didn't make it unplayable but gets angry at times. Sometimes the game/script seems to halt without any reason or buttons suddenly don't work. While you run through small side streets you often cant pass an NPC while two NPC can pass each other without any problems.

Loading times: While in Half Life 2 you followed a one way path, you didn't encounter much loading breaks within 10 minutes. In Bloodlines you can go wherever you want, so every time you leave or enter a building/city its breaks to load for 5-15 seconds. And boy that happens more than often, so thats gets very annoying very soon. Also quick save deserve the name only in its first 15 hours.

Hardware requirement: If you want to get the full experience in 1024x768 and above, you need at least 2,5 Ghz, a good graphic card (especially for the quality shadows), 1 GB memory (to reduce loading times)and a fast hard drive (same as on memory).

Design decisions: For my taste its a bit too action oriented (especially near the end), therefore its a bit sad that there are no other permanent party members which help you out in a battle or on quests. Don't misunderstand me, its not so heavy action oriented like Troikas predecessor Temple of elemental evil but unlike in TOEE the combat system in Bloodlines had its flaws (again sprite collision isn't Bloodlines strength). Also there are few interactions with objects and NPC's. Its minor, but I liked the reactions of NPC's in Half Life 2 when you throw a empty can to them, they start to complain or even hit you. Such small things you will not find in Bloodlines.

The Bottom Line
You like role playing games, but you get sick playing the 287's fantasy version of paladin against trolls and skeletons? Then try Bloodlines, you will like it. I hope this one is the big break for Troika Games, since they produced rather unknown gems like Arcanum or even Temple of Elemental Evil which is good when you take it for what it is.