PC Review: Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines

Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines
Year: 2004
Platform: PC
Genre: Vampire RPG
Developed by: Troika Games
Published by: Activision

A ways back (2004) I had just gotten a new computer for my room. One of the first games I played to “test” out my new computer was Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines. I played through it back then had a lot of fun and quickly forgot it as I soon found myself addicted to Wolf ET. I recently remembered the game and went back to play it, quickly I found out that the game was quite more awesome than I remember. I couldn’t quite grasp why the game wasn’t on my list of favorites maybe it was the effects of the unofficial patch, but nevertheless this game is great if you want a vampire RPG. I’m not well acquainted with the Vampire the Masquerade world but a little research tells me this is one of two unrelated licensed titles from Activision based on White Wolf’s table-top RPG game set in the “World of Darkness”. The world is perhaps in my opinion the most realistic Vampire setting I have seen and has the most depth with different vampire clans, history and mythological tie-ins, and a good take on how vampires can live in society going unnoticed, The Masquerade. I’ve played the game with the Unofficial Patch 6.9 Plus version. This fixes a number of the game’s many bugs along with adding in some content the game developer left out due to a rushed release. I am considering the changes that this patch gives as part of the game’s score since there really isn’t any reason not to play it (especially since you can install the patch without the added content). Audio: The game has decent sound, everything sounds as it should and most of the sound effects do not cause pain to your ears, the sword slashing can be a bit much at times though especially at high volumes. The game’s music isn’t particularly to my liking with it being mostly a sort of dark electronic type of thing. I have no interest in these types of music so I can’t really describe it better. I should say that it does seem to fit the game setting perfectly and although it’s not to my tastes I should say it wasn’t one of the games where I just turned the music off and listened to my own. The game also has complete voiceovers for all the dialogue and these in general I found to be better than in comparable PC RPGs like Fallout 3/Oblivion and I didn’t notice any the reuse of the same actors that you see rampant in Fallout 3/Oblivion, but on the other hand the game isn’t nearly as huge as those are so it’s less likely to run into that issue. The one thing with the audio that I should mention is that most enemies will (probably due to a bug) use the same “Hey Stop Right There!” line when they see you. This does have an impact on the impression the game gives as it seems silly for all sorts of enemies to use the same voice. Still the complete voiceovers are definitely a plus for the game. Graphics: At the time the game came out the game had what could be considered excellent graphics and today even the game doesn’t look too bad. It was the first game to be completed using the Half-Life 2 engine (according to Wikipedia) but the game’s release was pushed back so it would not be released before Half-Life 2 was. All around the graphics give a good impression of the world and can get you into the setting. There are a few notable objects/enemies that stand out as being cartoony and ridiculous though. There is one monster in particular that is a perfect example of this, the HengeYokai shark-monster shape-shifter that the panty shot Japanese Demon Hunter girl is after. The monster looks so ridiculous and out of place I couldn’t help but burst out laughing at it. The other issues with the graphics are the effect of the game being rushed or at least that’s what it seems to me. Almost all of the game’s cutscenes just plain look unpolished and unnaturally animated. The transitions, animations, and sometimes even the voice overs in the cutscenes just seem jumpy and abrupt. For me this doesn’t hurt the gameplay; but for other’s it might lower their impressions. Additionally the animations of characters in the distance will use lower framerates and are really jumpy when you get a good look at them. This is one of those game engine optimizations that you might see here and there but in this game the distance for this effect isn’t nearly long enough for it to go unnoticed. Additionally as in the cutscenes there are a few character animations that just don’t look right. The game also has a number of physics powered objects but around the time you can tell it wasn’t really perfected. There a number of times where you see boobs jiggle unnecessarily (although that might be on purpose), and times where skirts, dresses, or capes get caught out of position in bizarre ways. Although I should note that the physics objects work excellently when the Japanese Demon Hunter girl gets knocked down. The setting of the game is in some ways unique, a modern city setting isn’t exactly common among RPGs. It’s nice to see something that isn’t the same old stuff and actually works. It has a dark feeling overall and can really have a good effect on the way the game plays out. Overall the graphics are decent but there are a number of noticeable problems with them that hold back the graphics rating. Gameplay: I should start by saying that I am very fond of the gameplay. I should also say that along with any RPG this game has a lot of stuff to cover. The RPG/skill system is rather unique and well tailored to the game’s Vampire theme. You get health and blood points and must try to keep your blood points up by sucking blood to use your vampire abilities. There are 7 vampire clans (essentially your character class) you can choose play when you create your character and each has a set of abilities and primary attributes that make the gameplay unique. Some share gameplay more than others, but most of them have some really noticeable effects on gameplay. For instance the Malkavians have better “insight” and this leads to them being quite insane and playing as one will result in all of your dialog options being weird twisted sayings that are often amusing. The Nosferatu on the other hand are hideously ugly and look like zombies and as such you have to avoid being seen by ordinary people. This also has an effect on the game mechanic seen in the game’s name, The Masquerade. The Masquerade is basically a set of vampire rules that keep ordinary humans from noticing the existence of vampires. Using certain vampire powers around on the streets or if you’re a Nosferatu getting too close to someone will give you a Masquerade violation. The game states if you lose all you’re Masquerade points you lose the game. There are also humanity points that represent how well you control the “beast” inside of you and if you are low on humanity points you are more likely to “frenzy” or lose control when you are low on blood. Both of these game components don’t factor in well enough as they should though and if you play wary of them you shouldn’t have any problems or have to point XP into them; especially since you can redeem them doing certain quests. There are a number of gameplay styles you can take to the game and you can mix and match to a degree, but too much will result in a weak character. You can be sneaky type character and effectively sneak through almost the entire game without fighting much. You can be a gun wielding character or a melee type character that fights their way through the game. You can also use you’re clan’s powers to strengthen one of these styles of play or with some clan’s, use vampire “magic” for combat (the Tremere are blood mages). There are also skills that have dialogue effects such as seduction, persuasion, and intimidation these can often result in very different outcomes to quests or may be required to effectively complete a quest. The other gameplay components you’re skills add are the abilities to hack and lockpick. In the game you can use computers to find information that very often are essential to completing quests. It’s a neat although a bit clumsy system where you type in the keyboard commands on the computers. Some things are password protected and this is where if your hacking skill is high enough you will find the password. The lock picking on the other hand is pretty much the same old stuff. You just watch a progress bar, but you can use your vampire ability to temporarily increase your lockpicking skill. As I’ve stated you need to maintain a number of blood points to use your vampire abilities and also to keep away from the risk of frenzying (which usually leads to Final Death). There are a number of ways you can use to get blood from drinking from hospital blood packs, sucking on rats, to seducing people into letting you bite their necks. Or you can just plain force yourself on someone, but you don’t want to get caught in Masquerade areas with this method as they’ll call for the police and you’ll usually get a Masquerade violation. The other thing about sucking blood is too not completely drain your victims and kill them. You lose humanity points when they are innocents and also sometimes lose a good repeat target. If you are able to feed from dialog usually you can do it without worrying about being seen. The challenge of acquiring blood is definitely a fun game mechanic and definitely adds to the idea that you are a vampire. The one thing that makes all the diverse ways to play work is how the XP is awarded. You get all the XP from quest completion and don’t get any from stuff like killing enemies/innocents. This means that very often you will get the same XP no matter how you complete the quest and this gives plenty of room for experimentation. At the same time it limits how you can upgrade your character and this definitely adds to the gameplay as you need to plan out how you want to use your xp to get a stronger character. The quests are in general unique and well thought out. Usually you have to figure out what to do for a quest by talking to someone or following clues in an almost detective style type of play. I’m a big fan of this since there are sadly no real detective games out there so the fact this game alludes to it makes me happy. The quests never really feel like busy work either and you can usually expect something new from each quest. There’s no brainless kill x number of monsters quests (sorry MMO fans). The play and story is laid out by “hubs” or sections of L.A. where you can roam around finding quests from the people you can talk to or work on the main storyline quest. As you follow the storyline you will move on to a new hub where you find more stuff to do. The story quests will also often take you to locations outside of the main hubs to places like mansions, a museum, old sections of sewer, and a ship in the harbor. The game’s setting is well thought out and intriguing as I have mentioned, the main storyline of the game on the other hand is not nearly as good as everything around it. It isn’t bad but I can’t help but feel that the main storyline lets you down when you compare it the remarkable depth of the game world the game is set in. There are some unexpected turns but the lacking cutscenes might be part of what makes the story not entirely too engrossing. It might also be that the world was essentially created by White Wolf, while the main storyline was created by the game developer. The gameplay does have a few flaws though. The number of items in the game is a bit lacking, you really only get one set of armor per hub which results in 5 sets of armor for the game. There is also not a vast selection of weapons; but enough to still mostly satisfy. Additionally since there isn’t much to buy the “haggle” skill is essentially useless especially when later in the game you will amass large sums of money. I also found that early on ranged characters (gun users) had a bit of trouble difficulty wise when compared to melee characters. In addition the ranged characters sometimes need to waste money on ammunition where the melee characters have no problem. There are also a number of bugs still left in the game. I mentioned that I am using the Unofficial Patch, but I can’t imagine the number of bugs in the base game. I found a handful of times where quest events simply didn’t activate properly causing me to reload a previous game. There was nothing as persistent and annoying as the Fallout 3 crashes though. The biggest problem I had with the game though, was how short it was. The game isn’t too short, but I completed it with a few days of play and desperately craved more. The world just begs a bigger exploration that this game doesn’t offer. To sum up the gameplay I would highlight the diverse ways you can play the game, and the vampire based blood sucking mechanics that give it some extra life. There are some flaws but I found that the gameplay overall had so much charm they I was able to put up with them/not notice them. The controls and interface are pretty standard and not very problematic. The one problem I did have a bit while playing the Tremere class had to do with getting the right blood power selected and cast when I wanted. If you don’t setup the hotkeys well enough you find yourself mouse scrolling through your vampire powers looking for the one you want. This was the only iffy part of the controls I encountered. Conclusion: I think I made it pretty clear that this is definitely one of my favorite games. I’m not a huge fan of vampire related games or other content and my interests with them go as far as the Castlevania games and the unending cycle of Dracula slaying. But with this game I was able to get into it fairly well and I had fun with it. The game has unique style to it that is a mix between a shooter, hack n’ slash, and RPG. I’ll give the game a 15% bonus for the um… “interesting” skirt physics and I’ll add a new badge for the blood sucking gameplay. Oh yeah! I forgot to mention that if you’re the female Malkavian you get to dress like a whore which shall merit another new badge for slutty player characters. To close I’ll mention how sad it is that this was the last game that the developer, Troika Games, put out before shutting down so I can’t expect another game like this. Hopefully the upcoming World of Darkness MMO can do something awesome with this same world, although MMOs are always disappointing (how many ways can you say “kill x number of monsters”, really?)