Silicon Fusion >> Reviews >> Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines

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Review:

20th December 2004:
Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines
Become a creature of the darkness and take the three dollar tour of LA by Night. Hold on though as the damned always call in their due.
Posted by Chris Snook - PC - UK and Europe

There are a few games that generate their own buzz, games that I done correctly are going to satisfy their core players immensely and spread out into the night to new gamers. On the other hand if they get it wrong then there will be many disappointed people saying that it could have been so much better. One of those games a few years ago was Vampire the Masquerade: Redemption, which was one of the most ambitious titles to come out and ultimately left people a little flat in their reaction, now Activision have released the sequel, Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines onto the world.

You find yourself thrust into the dark and dismal world of Los Angeles, confused and slightly uneasy by your abrupt introduction into the world of Vampires. After the destruction of your sire, you are in the protection of the 'Prince' of LA, an ambitious Kindred who will use any form of leverage and tactic he can devise to retain his precarious hold on the section of the City of Angels he has his fangs sunk into. Welcome the night fledgling and welcome to the war of ages. A war in which you may be a pawn or a queen.

Based on the third edition rules of one of the most popular table-top role-playing games, Bloodlines is a third and first person RPG, very much in the mould of Knights of the Old Republic, with quest elements that gain you experience to improve your character, an open ended but connected story line where you are free to choose your own path by interacting with Non Player Characters and multiple endings based upon those decisions. As an added level of depth, your appearance, gender and the way you respond all affect the outcomes of your decisions. Sometimes more than the effect of a well placed bullet or sword strike. This is a game of social combat as well as that of mental acuity and physical prowess.

Creation is a cut down version of that used for the-table-top version and is familiar to anyone who has played that version and yet is simplified enough that complete newbies to the game will find it nice and simple to get into the flow. Two creation systems are presented - twenty questions and an expert mode where you assign points, both arrive at the same place and do offer opportunities to literally pick up and go. A rarity in these days of �ber-customisation and multiple choice, it also means that new players are not overly bewildered by the choices offered. After all if they do not like the first pickr they can go back and answer differently.

The tutorial, more a survival guide is swift and follows on from a lengthy cinematic introduction. With the guidance of 'Jack', your newly created neophyte Vampire is shown the ropes and given enough information to survive their first night. Information is provided in small but neatly packaged chunks and covers everything from feeding through to picking locks, hacking and the crucial use of vampiric disciplines. Information on the nature of kindred and two major groups is introduced as well and leads onto further expansions later - often asking you where your loyalties lie. Everything learned here is useful and presents you with an idea of what things in the twilight world of the Kindred (the Vampires own sobriquet for themselves) must be like.

From here you are sucked into the machinations of the Prince, his underlings, other powerful and shadowy Kindred and even into the ultimate den of death itself.

Within there are touches that remind you of the books. The fonts used reflect the clans that you belong to and slip another layer of 'oh!' into the mix for those who are familiar with the world already whilst giving an important distinction to those who are not as au fait with the clans themselves as does the way replies are given and constructed. Other references are woven through the game in the guise of enemies and personalities and the chronology seems to adhere to recent published events to a degree but with the focus of another strand, weaving in through the warp and weft of a larger storyline.

Everything is geared towards atmosphere. The graphics reflect you are working at night, combat is gritty and deadly but reflects you are superior to any human that exists. There are many possible moves, dependant on how you direct your on screen character, a jink to the left will deliver a different manoeuvre to one where you dart back and then forwards, swinging a variety of lethal implements. Yet at no time do you get the sense of easiness, there is always an edge behind the darkness and whilst everything looks nice and polished until you peek further and notice the grime. Animation is smooth and languid, distinguishing yourself from humans and providing a visible cue that you are different.

Further blended into the mix are the audio and music tracks. Things crunch, crash, hum rattle and make sounds that you would expect. Radios play music and phone ins, TV's play news articles and so on. The music again conveys atmosphere and blends haunting tunes with thumping dance and industrial tracks - there is even a set of vocal tracks and one with just a guitar solo. Those with their ear closer to the pulse of modern music may well recognise them.

The area to move through is very large and comprises of four districts of LA, each distinct and complete and laden with tasks and paths and choices to make. Occasionally drifting across districts as things unfold. Certainly there is a lot to learn and absorb and tasks to be done and deeds to be completed that a lot of time will be spent on things and completion is by no means a certainty. Remember the quick save is your friend.

Not everything is smooth and there are some seriously jarring rough hewn edges. There is the occasional graphical glitch in some of the cinematic elements and there would appear to be a persistent memory leak that degrades performance over time. The solution offered is apparently a massive swap file requirement, 1.4GB in fact. Which for a system with the normal 512MB is more than windows will automatically allocate, certainly for Windows 2000 and earlier. There is currently no patch available and the general response is either to check that your drivers are up to date or increase that swap area. In addition a graphical error on the title screen occurred when started with less than then the recommended memory available, solved by a restart. All these are a shame as they do remove some shine from a title that is at its still heart, very good, backed as it is by the Half-Life 2 Valve Source engine (rumoured to have delayed the release by a few months so as not to reveal too much until HL2 did come out) there is a sense of potential ready to be unleashed. It is this engine that delivers the punch that powers the game and rises it over the problems and flaws that are inherent. Making Bloodlines a good game as opposed to an average game.

Chris Snook

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Review Summary:

Vampire the Masquerade is an RPG that delivers a credible feeling of the back streets and underbelly of a Los Angeles that is familiar yet frightening as moves in a game that has been played since before the biblical flood continues to grind on and on.

Let down by technical issues and glitches that can suck away the vitae of the experience to some extent. Bolstered by the rock solid game engine based on the Valve Source, VtM:B manages to struggle above itself.

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Vampire the Masquerade - Bloodlines
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