Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines

The Good
As every fan of role-playing games should know, the guys from Troika Games played a major role (no pun intended) in the creation of the landmark title Fallout. As they established themselves as an independent game-developing company, they delivered Arcanum, one of the most interesting and flexible RPGs known to mankind. Bloodlines is their most original work; based on a pen-and-paper rule set used, to my knowledge, only once before in a video game, it is gorgeous, deeply satisfying, and impossible to put down for all the reasons you love RPGs for.

Bloodlines draws inspiration not only from classic "pure": RPGs, but also from hybrid games, most notably Deus Ex. A more traditional RPG than that seminal game at heart, it nevertheless has elements of a third-person action game and first-person shooter. Its action is clever, it depends on the way you have customized your character, and most problems can be solved in two or more different ways. In fact, Bloodlines belongs to en exceedingly rare breed of role-playing games that retain much of their genre's depth but are no strangers to inspiration coming from other styles.

Already the character creation gives you an idea about what a wonderful role-playing experience you are treated to. Different vampire clans are defined in a uniquely appealing way: instead of the usual fighters and clerics you'll have a choice between beast-like Gangrels who can summon ferocious animals; insane Malkavians who have unique dialogue lines seemingly taken from a surrealist book; ugly Nosferatu who must hide from humans during the entire game, and so on. The differences in the playing styles of all those creatures are sometimes so big that the game begins to shift genres depending on your choices: it can become a hack-and-slash melee game, a shooter, a stealth game, and more.

Unlike most other RPGs, you don't gain experience points from battles in this game, but only from completing quests. This encourages speech-related approaches and also makes it possible to run away from some difficult battles without fear of losing valuable experience. When you gain experience points, you distribute them to raise various attributes of your character. The role-playing system of Bloodlines is varied and flexible. Besides just making your character stronger and tougher, you can upgrade such skills as lockpicking and stealth, as well as feats such as persuasion or seduction. In a true role-playing fashion, the game allows you to do whatever you like. Feel like hacking computer terminals, picking locks and silently creeping past unsuspecting guards? You can do that. More inclined towards diplomacy? Raise your charisma and persuasion, and you'll be able to complete many quests which can't be solved with stealth or brutal force. And maybe you'll spare yourself a fight or two. Or just make yourself sexy and seduce people in bars and discos. You can do all that. Welcome to real role-playing.

There is also plenty of vampire-exclusive stuff in this game. After all, you are playing an immortal creature, you can't be killed in conventional ways, and you can drink blood, right? Of course! All those vampire aspects are beautifully integrated into the gameplay. First of all, there is the Masquerade. It means that you are not allowed to reveal to humans your true nature. So, if you are playing as a Nosferatu (who don't look human), you can't even allow yourself to be seen. If you violate the Masquerade, be it through reckless mentioning of vampires in conversation, public blood-drinking, or usage of your special disciplines in front of human witnesses, you get a warning. Five such warnings, and the game is over. You should also pay attention to your Humanity: you are constantly reminded that even as a vampire, you needn't be evil. Yes, you are a dark creature, a predator, a blood-sucker, but that doesn't mean that you should go on a rampage killing innocent people. If you do anything of the kind, you'll lose Humanity. The less Humanity you have, the more you will be inclined to uncontrolled frenzy.

The "meat" of this game are the quests. Of course, theoretically you can just follow the main story quests and be done with the game, but first, you'll really need the experience, and second, those quests are for the most part quite exciting and original, sometimes even more so than the main storyline. You'll get various simple bad guy-killing or item-retrieving assignments, but also such interesting material as preventing a book from being published, criticizing food in a restaurant, or convincing a girl her boyfriend is really not interested in her. Many quests can be completed in various ways - persuasion skill plays a particularly important role. Will you kill a person, lockpick his office, or convince him to do what you want? The choice is yours.

When you fight, you do it either by punching your enemies, using melee weapons, or shooting. To use your vampire disciplines (some of which are unique to certain clans, so you'll never see all of them unless you play the game several times), you need blood. Blood points is another excellent vampire-related twist to the traditional usage of MP. Each discipline requires a certain amount of blood. Those disciplines range from increasing your attack power to driving your opponent insane. Blood points can be replenished by drinking blood packs, but of course a much cooler way is to feed on your enemies, if they are human. High unarmed combat rating increases your chances of successfully feeding on an armed enemy. This way you can replenish your blood points and health as well. The fights are exciting, there are different melee weapons and guns to try out, and overall combat is nearly as satisfying as are the quests.

Bloodlines is set in one of the most unforgettable worlds ever seen in a video game. The atmosphere in this game is, quite simply, amazing. The visual design is absolutely fabulous. Never mind the technical quality of the graphics - it's their artistic touch that makes them shine; the incredibly stylish set-up, with all kinds of weird and grotesque ideas, full of imagination - gothic horror, immense sensuality, and decadent glamour are mixed together to create something really special. This is one of those games where extensive usage of adult-oriented imagery - sex and gore - has a true artistic value. There are many bloody locations in the game; suffering and physical pain literally surrounds you. At the same time, the game feels erotic - in a dangerous, menacing way. There are reasons for all that: these stylistic elements are there because they help to create a believable, convincing, seductive world. Bloodlines is a masterpiece of dark beauty.

Some locations and setpieces in this game stay in your memory long after you've finished it. When I was running around the haunted mansion early in the game I felt as if I were having an unsettling dream. And when I descended into the sewers to investigate the video tape murders, I was genuinely scared by those terrifying demons. I nearly jumped on my seat when the first of those creatures suddenly attacked me in the internet cafe. And the werewolf chase? Undeniably, that was one of the most nerve-tickling, scariest moments in my game-playing career. I remember how I ran away from that beast and crouched helplessly in a dark corner of that tram shack. The werewolf was madly running about, crushing the door of the shack. It didn't notice me and continued howling and hitting the walls. It was terrifying. The only thought I had was: "Don't move! Just... don't move". And then the tram finally arrived, and I jumped into it at the same moment as the werewolf's claws hit me... I escaped alive, gazing at the spectacular panorama of nocturnal Los Angeles spread in front of me, sensing deep relief and still trembling at the thought of what I have just experienced.

Yes, this game is very intense - poetically, artistically intense. But the more "normal" locations, those you visit all the time, and where scripted events rarely occur, are visually as appealing as those unique sequences I described above. There are four main "hubs" in the game - Santa Monica, Downtown LA, Hollywood, and Chinatown. Each one of those big locations is depicted with great care and enormous attention to detail. I often found myself simply stopping and staring at the dark skies, with all those neon signs cluttered on top of the skyscrapers. Character graphics are excellent as well: conversations are shown up close, with remarkable variety of facial expressions. You won't forget those faces even if you try to. Not to mention the technical side of the whole thing - shadows, reflections, lights, and so on: everything just looks fantastic in this game.

Bloodlines also has an intriguing plot rooted in rich lore. The story mostly revolves around politics and power struggle in the vampire world. The various vampire organizations of Los Angeles are believable and well thought-out. There is the leading party of Camarilla, a conservative movement, corrupted from within, but with clear inclination to order-preserving; the Anarchs, sort of radical leftists who don't recognize any authority and believe in a "free world"; the vicious Sabbat, who exploit the beastly, cruel part of the vampires, and whose goal is utter destruction; and finally, the mysterious Kuei-Jin, Chinese vampires with different traditions and ideas about spirituality. The best part of all this is that before the endgame begins you'll have to decide which side you are on. Some decisions won't be possible, because during the game you were too rude to representatives of certain organizations, or did something to offend them. In the end, it is you, the player, who has to find his own ideology and believe in it. You get different endings depending on which side you choose. You'll also skip one of the two final areas if you side with certain people.

Most of the characters in the game are memorable and interesting. It's a pleasure just to hear those characters talk - first, because the voice acting is of surprisingly high quality, and second, because the dialogues themselves are wonderfully lively and often quite witty and humorous. The humor plays an important role in the game - there are hilarious dialogue lines, messages, and Eastern eggs spread around it.

The main plot itself is just the tip of an iceberg. One of the most impressive aspects of Bloodlines is the whole background information you receive about the game world. I never played the pen-and-paper RPG, but I enjoyed reading all this info on the loading screens (I had more than enough time to read them...), or grilling various NPCs for news coming from the World of Darkness and its inhabitants. It was great to read about the history of vampires, their clans and societies, their nature, Caine, Antediluvians, all kinds of prophecies, blood relations, social rules, etc. It is a fascinating world, and the game makes you believe it exists alongside the real one.

The Bad
The problems of Bloodlines are mostly technical. Every location in the game loads separately, and the loading times are too long even on a powerful machine, resulting in poor performance. Clunky, choppy movement is not uncommon on a system exceeding the minimum requirements, making you physically connect to the pain of the computer trying to load so many things at once. On top of that, the original release was plagued by bugs, which were later corrected by several patches. Downloading a patch is pretty much a must.

Everything else is nitpicking. Perhaps firearms should have been made more rewarding - playing as a melee-oriented character is too tempting, since close combat weapons are generally more convenient to use. I wish certain areas were more interconnected - there are a few quests taking place in seemingly open, rural locations, but all you can do there is just go inside and complete your mission, unable to physically walk back to the city. Some may argue that combat is overused and only buffed-up characters can survive towards the end; however, investing points into speech skills results in additional quests leading to more experience you could easily apply to combat attributes later.

The Bottom Line
Bloodlines is a triumph of RPG design: it has both style and substance, and the wonderful flexibility of its gameplay doesn't detract in the least from its uniquely strong personality. It is an ultra-stylish, refined gourmet role-playing experience tailor-made for lovers of the genre.

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.

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
I have a friend who keeps bugging me to play Werewolf: the Apoplectic, which I’m sure is a fine game, but whenever he describes the workings of the world, my eyes glaze over like I’m watching The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen again. It’s much better to jump into the game world and attempt to figure it out, which is what Vampire: the Masquerade—Bloodlines does. Vampire: the Masquerade has an equally complicated mythology with political factions and rivalries extending back to Cain, but once you’ve picked your vampire clan, all you need to know is that the head of the Camarilla was ready to kill you, but the “head” of the Anarchs called him on it, none of which matters right now because Sabbat forces are hunting you.

As mentioned above, players begin by selecting which type of vampire they are. Other than the hideous Nosferatu, whose blighted appearance confines them to the shadows and sewers, vampires of any clan can blend in with human society. Bloodlines has seven playable vampire clans (open to both genders). The biggest difference between clans, other than aesthetics and role-playing potential, involves core abilities and Disciplines. Disciplines are akin to spells and, this time around, their implementation makes sense for a CRPG. Some vampires can turn invisible, others can transform into wolves, while others still can cause an enemy’s blood to boil.

Bulking up the rest of Bloodlines’s formidable character sheet are physical, social, and mental attributes and talents, skills, and knowledges. These varied traits influence everything from a character’s appearance to their computer skills. Combined with the variety of vampire clans, Bloodlines has an amazingly deep character creation system. Nosferatu hackers, mad Malkavian mercenaries, Gangrel brawlers are all here.

Bloodlines is an RPG and, while technically a sequel to 2000’s Redemption, it plays completely differently. The original game resembled a standard dungeon crawler, where the player led a coterie (party) through a series of vampire-laden chantries (dungeons). Bloodlines, on the other hand, resembles Deus Ex. Gone are coteries; in their place is a single character game played from either a first or third-person perspective.

Instead of sprawling continents and centuries like its predecessor, the world of Bloodlines is confined to four huge maps spread around modern day Los Angeles. Players begin in Santa Monica, and travel to Downtown LA, Hollywood, and Chinatown on a series of missions. I doubt Hollywood has a zombie problem, but overall the areas have a realistic feel. Rather than having NPCs standing about, pedestrians bustle, homeless people gather around burning barrels, young toughs wait for cops to pass by before tagging buildings, and people enter clubs to drink and dance.

Bloodlines has a solid set of story-based missions, but some of the most fun comes from stumbling onto side quests. What is the connection between a tattoo artist and a prosthetic limb designer? Does a walk-in clinic hold a vial of Werewolf blood? Sure the main quests with its serial killer, ancient sarcophagus, and Asian vampires are interesting, but so are the ones involving escalating levels of brinkmanship between two retired hitmen, a one-armed swordswoman and her quest for vengeance, and a Cemetery Man who’s caught between his duty and his urges.

An extra bonus to completing Bloodlines’s quests is seeing how their resolution plays out. Everything your character does impacts the game. Good acts (as good as vampires get) restore your character’s Humanity, keeping the vampire’s bestial nature at bay. Throughout the game, you can act on behalf of different factions, which influences the game’s events, most heavily during the ending sequence.

The Bad
Bloodlines is a good RPG. If it weren’t buggy to the point of instability, it would be a great game. Superb, even. The first problem I had occurred during the opening animation, or lack of animation. Characters that should have moved around on the screen did so without the usual running or walking, instead they moved around like Colorform characters.

Shortly after that I entered into combat. I didn’t mention combat above. Bloodlines has tons of combat. Hordes of combat. Plenty of weapons. Piles of cool offensive spells. But severe framerate problems, loose controls, and an annoying feature where, when reloading a game saved during combat, your character’s gun empties its clip, made combat frustrating. This may sound a bit harsh, but I am astonished at how clunky combat is considering how important combat is to the game. Shocked even, to discover that we’re talking about the Source engine here.

Other interesting quirks I ran into involved event triggers which failed to trigger. Hours after I rescued her, I saw a cutscene of a girl being kidnapped. I fumbled with stuck doors which were mission critical. There was an epic bar fight in which the patrons took no notice. Probably my favorite element of badness involves the Quick Save. Press F9 and in as little as one minute, your game will be saved. And for a game with long saving times, the loading times don’t disappoint either.

Apparently some of my problems were caused by my having the wrong sort of video card. The NVIDIA slogan, “The Way It's Meant To Be Played,” should be accompanied with an image a boot stamping on a human face—for this game. I also patched this game several times (and edited in Python to fix one bug).

The Bottom Line
For all the annoyances that come with it, Bloodlines is still a great game and one of the better CRPGs to come along. Only one of the problems I ran into was a game stopper. Bloodlines has a satisfying character creation system and, having tested a few characters and checked a few FAQs, Bloodlines has a very high replay value.

The biggest drawback I see to Bloodlines is its over emphasis on combat. While players have a free hand in creating their characters, I’m pretty sure that players who don’t invest in combat skills will get creamed. This is a shame for a game that has so many other options more suited towards actual role playing.

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.

The Good
Ahh, the feeling of being a vampire in a modern city… the freedom to take the life of your enemies with firearms or melee weapons, your fists, or maybe just your teeth. Free to roam about the city, staring up at the skyscrapers rendered spectacularly in 3D, or the freedom to take to the sewers and ogle the shiny water, away from accusing eyes of the mortals. This is an RPG where you dictate your role while following a storyline, experiencing the game on your own terms. The game brings to mind the greatness of games such as Deus Ex and Fallout, yet also brings to mind their faults. More on that last bit in a moment, but for now, the greatness.

The feeling is what is pulled off best in this game, the raw sensations generated by an expertly crafted world. Though this is Los Angeles by the terms of an overburdened video game engine, this is still the closest that a game has gotten to the actual feel of a city. Bump mapped surfaces, well-placed lighting, and pedestrians and cops to keep from feeling lonely. While the hubs (the four main open areas that the game branches out from) are in perpetual night, due to your vampiric condition and all, each has its own flavor of the night. From run-down Santa Monica to seedy Hollywood, to surreal Chinatown to booming Downtown, the four hubs all do their jobs admirably, and never seem to get old. Part of that is simply because of the scale – each segment of the city feels alive, and makes the player feel small. The buildings of Downtown pen you in, but also provide a sense of awe while wandering around underneath them. The interiors can get detailed to the point of where you can spend five minutes just looking at the satirized products on a convenience store’s shelves, or the horrifying ‘decoration’ of a particularly evil vampire lord. The Source engine is capable of much, and being impressed by the simulated world is just as matter of course while playing this game. There are points in this game where you’ll be scared or amused or angry, but each time it happens, the feel of the game comes through and you’ll appreciate the skill with which the game designers have manipulated the Source engine. Words aren’t enough to describe the exceptional feeling of the game, however, so I’ll move on.

The visuals in the game are also capable of impressing. While not the most pristine graphics ever, the slightly gritty feeling of the game pervades the look of everything in the game. The environments are easily the best thing in this category, as described in the previous paragraph. There is also the unique look for each of four armor levels for each of the 14 possible player characters in the game (Male/Female for 7 clans), each providing an interesting look for your character. Then there are the high quality character models, something of critical importance in a role-playing game. From the unbelievably ugly characters to the clean beauty of others, the faces that you will come up against in conflict, and ‘friends’ that you talk with, are varied and outstanding. The talking heads of Fallout are finally matched in an RPG by these faces, and I have to say that it’s about time. You can see the emotion in the faces of those you’re negotiating with, and a frown and a lowered brow can spell caution. Your dialog choices will influence this, sometimes chaotically.

Dialog, arguably the most important part of any RPG, is given the number one position in this game. Visuals, sound, atmosphere, none of it can touch the character interactions. Much like Fallout, you have no voice beyond the lines of text that you see on the screen, but fortunately the actual dialog has evolved in the time since that admittedly classic game. The multitudes of characters that you will encounter all talk, and in most cases outstandingly. One of the most memorable characters, Jack, whom you meet right off the bat and see several times over the course of the game, is voiced by none other than John Di Maggio, of Futurama’s Bender fame. Your responses are dependent frequently on your stats, which add another element of role-playing. Color coding for persuasion, intimidation, or seduction lines are the most obvious feature of dialog in this game, and those coded dialog options are all dependent on the amount of XP you’ve pumped into various social skills. You’re free to extort, con, inspire, seduce, frighten - basically, you’re free to treat an NPC however you like in order to get what you want. And you’ll get what you want plenty, which is what makes the dialog so rewarding. The words in this paragraph come up far short of the words in the game, so again, you’ll have to experience it to believe it.

And finally, the gameplay is just plain fun. You’re free to play the game however you feel, and even tackle the main story arc with the attitude that you want, eventually ending up with one hell of a character, and in one of several endings. From the start to the end, your choices influence how the game plays, and the repercussions of actions are sometimes more fun than the actions themselves. If you’ve played a great RPG, you know what it’s like. This is a great RPG, and that’s all I can say.

The Bad
For all the goodness in this game, there’s unfortunately a heavy burden of bad things that can detract from the game. This game, released the same day as Half-Life 2 (Nov. 16), and powered by the same engine, should not have been released in the state it’s in as of this writing. A patch is rumored to be forthcoming, and all I can say is, it better not be a rumor. I’ve had remarkably few problems, but even on my beefy system, performance starts to drag after a while. Load times are somewhat aggravating, especially after several hours in the game (time that seems to simply disappear, since the gameplay is so engrossing). Activision dropped the ball big time on this one, considering how publishers work, and I hope they can clean up their mess. I have faith that Troika can salvage this game, provided they receive the support to do it. Similarly, there’s faith that Activision knows that keeping this license as pristine as possible is in their best interests.

Aside from the performance problems, there are also the plain old software bugs. From gamestoppers (at least one that nearly everyone gets, I got, and is fortunately easily fixed through the console), to slightly broken quests, to untested features (character histories), the list is just too long to put across appreciably. Needless to say, I’m one of the very lucky ones, and many people have had nothing but bad technical experiences with this game. I feel for them, since this is such an outstanding game. Troika came close to perfection with this one, and it’s unfortunate that technical problems plague what would have otherwise been an unarguably great RPG. The two to three minutes it can take to exit out of the game is slightly aggravating on a system with a gig of RAM, however, and the hard drive thrashing that this game has put my aging IBM HD (with the OS & pagefile on it) through now makes me wonder whether I should back up all the files on it. Yeah, the performance is that bad.

The Bottom Line
The game is inexcusably buggy at release, the load times are horrendous even with a gig of RAM, and even that much physical RAM, a 1.5 gig pagefile is recommended for the game. The bugs, the load times, and the decreasing performance problems over time, are the only bad things I can say about this game, although both of those things eat at me. Besides that?

Simply, this is as close to a perfect RPG as I’ve played. I enjoyed Vampire TM: Redemption enormously, simply because of the story, but this game is great not only because of the story. From the intricately branching dialog paths, to the satisfying and varied combat, to the atmosphere experienced during every second while playing, this game doesn’t quit giving the gift of good gameplay. With all of the these words, I still haven’t been able to put across everything I feel that’s good and bad about this game. Fallout and Deus Ex were my tied as my favorite RPGs until this month, but after many years, they’ve both been displaced by the game that is Bloodlines.

Troika has created a world that I’m sad to leave, in spite of the immense satisfaction that I took out of completing the game with a character that had a ton of momentum going into the final months. Dozens of hours of gameplay later, I’m holding my breath for a patch that will make this game become the game it should have been at release, and when (if) that patch hits, I will be playing through this game again.

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.

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
Vampire Bloodlines is, without a doubt, a huge improvement over its predecessor. Vampire: The Masquerade: Redemption was perhaps more polished to some degree, but it had its share of awful bugs and game design decisions, and a less satisfying story. Vampire Bloodlines turns the game into an FPS RPG, and for the most part, this is a good move. It retains the dark and gritty feel of the first game, and puts it to good use, creating a garish, sin-filled version of Los Angeles.

I am normally amused and disappointed by games that are formulaically “mature.” The use of the word mature often means three things: cursing, lots of violence, and overt sexuality. Bloodlines has these in spades, buts it’s a testament to the game’s good writing and plot that these elements were only a minor deterrent. Most characters have interesting stories and dialogue to impart, and the Source engine brings their faces to life, as does some surprisingly good voice acting. Just brace yourself for some very vulgar and sexually explicit dialogue. This is supposed to be an L.A. filled with vice-ridden, hedonistic, super-violent immortals, after all.

In the world of Bloodlines, there are 7 clans of vampires. You can play any of them, and all have their own strengths and weaknesses. Some, like the Nosferatu are hideously deformed near-animals. They may be powerful, quiet and deadly stalkers, but they can’t blend in with humans. The Toreador, on the other hand, are powerful, suave aristocrats. They can’t feed on “impure” (re: rats, poor humans, “low blood”) victims, but they have political clout and old-money class.

Regardless of what class you pick, you’ll be able to level up your combat, magic (various “blood” spells) and more intellectual skills. These affect the gameworld noticeably. Try picking a lock, sneaking past a guard, or firing a shotgun at first level, and then do it again when you’ve spent 3 or 4 points on the skill. You will notice a huge difference. Bloodlines is an RPG to its core. Don’t make the mistake of letting its FPS perspective fool you. This is the natural evolution of its third-person predecessor, stat points, imaginary dice-rolls and all.

Bloodlines offers some surprisingly scary and well-designed levels. When you aren’t wandering around Hollywood or Santa Monica, looking for quests and blood, you’ll be sent on individual missions, which take place in separate levels. Some levels, like the abandoned (and possibly haunted?) hotel, the insane asylum, and a graveyard practically drip with fear and tension. One quest that has you investigating a series of increasingly sadistic snuff films is one of the scariest encounters I’ve ever had in a video game.

The combat is fun, if a bit awkward, and all of your abilities are useful, in one way or another. The persuasion and intimidation options are fun, but the best conversation technique of all is saved for one particular clan of vampires. The Malkavians are all half insane, and thus your responses to conversations are all in bizarre Cheshire cat speech. Even better, you can use some blood to make other people just a little crazy, winning them over to your point of view.

The game allows you to really customize your world, with different apartments to move into, different clothes and armor, and different ways of completing almost every mission. You’ll realize that you can complete each mission a number of different ways: sneaking, fighting, magic, charming, intimidating, and ultimately a combination of several of these. This free-form gameplay reminded me a lot of Deus Ex, but in a much more interesting world, to be honest. That is actually on of the highest complements I can give this game, actually. It is the spiritual successor (in gameplay if not in style or construction) of one of my favorite FPS RPGs of all time.

The Bad
Sadly, Bloodlines is absolutely chock-full of mistakes. The animations are for the most part awkward and badly implemented. Likewise, the interface for combat is clunky and hard to use. The Source game engine, used so masterfully by Valve, looks close to ugly here. While the graphics may muster up some truly frightening set pieces, they can also break you out of the game entirely, textures popping in and out and people sticking their arms through walls.

There is evidence of missing or cut quests all over the place: pointless items, broken dialogue, etc. It’s obvious that Troika had some grand plans for this game, and couldn’t or didn’t have the time to implement them. Some of the weapons are overpowered, and some of the classes aren’t balanced properly. The game takes forever to load in many cases, despite being run on a computer that easily destroys its recommended requirements. Finally, the game is incredibly unstable, glitching and crashing frequently.

The Bottom Line
Despite that seemingly insurmountable list of problems, I would still recommend this game to fans of RPGs, FPS RPGs, and White Wolf’s Masquerade universe. This game is one of the deepest and most interesting RPGs I have ever played. It actually puts its gritty urban setting to use (unlike so many games), crafting a bizarre nightmare version of our own dangerous cities. It provides a truly interesting story, great character development, and a terrifically tense and atmospheric experience. However, the number of bugs, glitches and imbalances in the game threaten to ruin it.

The only way to get this great game to be even barely playable is to download the latest fan-made patch, unfortunately. The community patch provides all of the fixes that Troika should have put into the game before it went gold. Modern resolutions are added to the game’s options (this makes a huge difference), broken quests are fixed, missing quests are added, powers and weapons that got cut are added in, character creation is fleshed out, and most importantly, the game is stabilized.

So, if you want a deep, scary and engrossing RPG, get Vampire Bloodlines. You’ll have to a masochist or an extremely odd brand of gamer to appreciate it though, even with the patches.

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.

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.

The Good
Amazing story, a sweet twist at the end, just goes to show why you shouldn't mess with the centuries old vampire pirate, right? Another great aspect of the game is, that depending on which class you choose, the story and allover game experience shifts a bit. These changes appear in dialog options, extra quests, etc. The voice acting is very good, especially Jack's.

The Bad
aside from the bugs, the game has some other deficiencies, that I consider minor, but wouldn't have hurt to be included into the game, for example the character's appearance can't be modified, only thing you can change is the armor it wears, which means four armors throughout the whole game. I find, that a good RPG [like Morrowind] has to have a rich appearance alteration. many times i fantasized about how cool my vamp would have looked with a few tattoos and piercings, wearing a black hood and some chains \m/. Other than this, the game is unique [even though it was built on the source engine, and has fallout-ish leveling]

The Bottom Line
A fresh breath of air for a change, with a good storyline, with an ending depending on the player [this part is very cool actually, because you can't really say , that the ending you've chosen is good or bad, unlike MANY other games]. Gameplay is also good aside from the bugs, because the story is so good, and the quests are so unconventional, that it keeps people playing.

The Good
Atmosphere, storyline, gameplay, immersion. WOW!!!

-I have a 1,4 GHZ with 512+128 mb ram and a Geforce card of 64 mb.
Worked fluently and was terribly beautiful!

• the finishing of mode (creeping up behind someone to deliver an annihilating blow)

-the inventory description for the fireaxe item which goes along the lines of:

"A fireaxe, truely a tool of a madman. Who else would fight fire with a blade?"

The Bad
Some bugs, crashing to desktop, some other minor glitches. Do not think though this game is severely bugged. Not true.

Long loading times.Though they are worth it considering the environments it creates.

The Bottom Line
Slightly buggy, Graphics are absurdly slick for low requirements.
An RPG fan WILL at least 'like' this.
Fantastic immersion.
One of the better RPG's/ shooter/ whatnot.
100% worth its money (especially now it's bargain bin material)

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.

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!)