So good, that it almost makes you forget the crappiness of the original.
Many of you will be able to remember White Wolf's last foray into PC gaming with the underwhelming release of Redemption years ago. While it had its moments, there were far too many problems & glitches with the game to be able to call it a quality product. Troika Games (makers of Temple of Elemental Evil) decided to take on the task of doing something worthwhile, and I can't believe just how close they were to perfectly nailing it. It almost makes you forget the crappiness of the original.
"Bloodlines" is easily one of the most entertaining releases of the past year, even if you aren't a fan of the original table-top roleplaying game that it is based upon. But make no mistake that while it is incredibly entertaining, it could have been much better. On the positive side it has an amazing soundtrack, intriguing storyline, and a replayability factor. On the negative this game was released with a horrid amount of bugs & glitches, as well as a combat system that is noticebably flawed.
So you want to be a bloodsucker?
In "Bloodlines" you get to choose between the standard 7 camarilla vampire clans (kind of like classes in D&D only a little less limiting). So you can pick what style of game suits you the best. Do you want to talk your way through the game, rather than fighting? Then best bet is to pick the Toreador, Tremere or the Ventrue. Do you want something more akin to a hack & slash style game? Then you are going to enjoy the Brujah or Gangrel clans. And if your favourite games always rely on stealth to get you through...then the Nosferatu are right up your alley. Lastly, you have the Malkavians who are completely **** loco. They also have the most interesting and humourous dialogue options among the different clans.
No matter what you end up picking you can develop a character that is more to your liking with any of them. The clans just give you a boost in certain directions from the beginning. There isn't a large storyline twist if you play certain types of clans unfortunately, which is one of the biggest drawbacks of the game itself. The Vampire RPG is built off of political intrigue between these vampire clans and "Bloodlines" doesn't fully explore that with your own clan choice. There are only two exceptions with this, if you choose the Nosferatu and the Malkavians. The Malkavians simply have an entirely different dialogue than any of the other clan choices, while with the Nosferatu you are forced to roam the sewers since you look like something that fit the 1922 version of what a vampire should look like...only uglier.
The basic storyline of the game doesn't differ too much for each clan. You start off as a person who has been embraced (translation: turned into a vampire) without consent by the Prince of the city, who is the person who supposedly enforces vampire law within the city. The person who made you a vampire is killed for this wrongdoing but you are surprisingly spared from the same fate. From then on you are sent on quests by the local prince of Los Angeles to prove that you can exist in vampire society. From then on you are on your own. You get offered new quests by just about every vampire (or human) that you meet in the game. You can do all of these optional quests, or just forget them and follow the main storyline.
The games engine is adequate but incredibly frustrating at times. You can choose between either 3rd or 1st person perspective. But certain modes don't work well in certain areas. When you are crawling through sewer ducts the last thing you want is to have 3rd person perspective on, because you get a lot of graphical glitches and control problems. The combat system is a bit clunky as well. And you'll get a lot of those graphic glitches once again when the combat gets ultra-heavy. It definitely seems that they did more work on the environment and feel of the game, rather than how you physically move or fight your way through it. All in all, it is bug-heavy (even with the latest patch) but you can swallow the problems since the storyline and decent graphics make up for it.
Play that funky music lick boy!
One of the most impressive qualities of the game is the soundtrack used within it. Aerial, Chiasm, Daniel Ash, Darling Violetta, Die My Darling, Genitorturers, Lacuna Coil, Ministry, and Tiamat are all featured in the soundtrack which gives the clubs you enter a more realistic feel. When you enter a club that has a bunch of goths milling around you shouldn't hear annoying hip-hop music. Troika did a great job at selecting the perfect music to go with the game. If you look closely at club walls you'll also see a series of flyers for these bands and many more the weren't included (including bands like Collide and Bella Morte).
Note: Props to Troika on making goth clubs more realistic for another reason. There is hardly anyone in the clubs, and they all dance like complete dorks.
Where Troika missed the mark again is that there are no unlockable features when you beat the game. With White Wolf's World of Darkness there is almost an endless amount of possiblities that they could have chosen from to enhance the replayability factor, but they didn't bother at all. They could've made it an option to play the game with one of the other lesser-used vampire clans like the Giovanni or the Samedi. Or even gave you the option of playing as a clanless Caitiff vampire. At least they you would be able to tailor make a character that completely suits you, including the disciplines (since you don't get anything other than your standard clan disciplines in the game). There isn't even additional different character looks or anything. Even something as small as that would have been appreciated and made the replayability factor a bit better.
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines is a great game that could have been much better. But in ways of an enjoyable cross-genre game (RPG, first person shooter, adventure) it is easily the best pick so far this year. It far surpasses its incredibly limited predecessor.