Developer: Troika Games
Publisher: Activision
Platform: PC
Released: 16/11/04
You start of where all good RPGs start you, the character creation screen. Here you get to pick whether you went a man or a woman and, most importantly, what type of vampire you wanted to be. The selection was pretty impressive, each type having traits that made them distinctive enough to want to try a few before you really got into the game. You get to choose from seven delicious flavours of vampire clan. Each clan comes with their own wee quirks and each have a set of Disciplines that grant you special abilities. (And yes, I'm about to nerd about all of them)
- Brujah - These are the brawlers. If you're wanting to "tank" your way through the game, smashing villains in the face with your undead fists then this is the character for you. The downside, of course, being that you aren't too smart. Lock picking and hacking aren't your thing and forget about talking your way out of an argument.
- Gangrel - A bit more of the same with these guys, but with a bit of added magic. The Gangrel have impressive physical strength and are also capable of summoning swarms of birds, bugs, bats and wolves with Animalism to attack their enemies. (No, not a "swarm" of wolves. It was just a poorly structured sentence)
- Malkavian - Possibly my favourite clan. If you start as these guys then your character is technically insane. That's a bit unfair. You see the world in a different way. All of your dialogue options are like bizarre snippets from a 13-year-olds emo poetry book. Characters you interact with acknowledge this and tend to either make fun of you or give you a wide berth. For me, it enhanced an already interesting story. They get the Dementation Discipline. This ranges from making people run in fear from you to causing everyone go berserk and attack one another. You know, fun times.
- Nosferatu - Very much like the 1922 film of the same name, the Nosferatu are disfigured and are masters of creeping around in the shadows. They actually have to. The game punishes you if you perform too many supernatural acts in front of "normal" people. There's nothing more supernatural than a Nosferatu rocking up the street with his hunchback and 3" claws. Luckily, there is a sewer system in the game that has an exit close to or inside most of the buildings you need to get to. These guys are for a proper stealth run.
- Toreador - These are the exact opposite of the Nosferatu. Go one of these guys if you enjoy talking and manipulating people to do your bidding. Like the Malkavian they get a few bonus dialogue options. For being beautiful and charismatic, not coocoo for coco pops. To be honest, they're the closest to playing as a regular human as you can get. (Except with increased strength and issues with sunburn) Still fun though.
- Tremere - Mages! They're mages that use blood magic and to be honest I would pick them anytime I wanted to do an offensive run because the blood magic, Thaumaturgy, is the fucking tits when you level it up. You make guys explode. With your mind. Like some sort of meat tornado! I don't have to sell you on it more, I had you at "Meat Tornado".
- Ventrue - Essentially vampire aristocrats, they are treated with both great respect and resentment wherever they go. Though again, you're gifted with high charisma and knowledge so talking and hacking will be your path through the game. Physically complete crap so firearms are the way forward if you do find yourself in a fight.
Before I get into it, I should probably explain that this game was released unfinished for various reasons. Luckily it gained such a cult following that the modding community went to town on it. If you feel like grabbing a copy of the game, a very quick look online will net you a heap of patches that range from improving how the game runs and fixing the unfinished content to changing the clans you can go with different powers. (I haven't looked into the latter)
The game gets is basis from a popular role-playing game series of the same name. I've been told that unlike you're standard "Dungeons & Dragons" style of game, VTM takes a more "political intrigue" route. (Like Game of Thrones with slightly more fangs. Possibly less death)
Starting off, you're in the process of being sired. (Becoming a vampire) Just after the deed is done, various vampires burst in and take you to a hastily thrown together "court". You are on trail for becoming a vampire without permission. It is against vampire law, known as the Masquerade, to increase the ranks of the vampires for fear of revealing their existence to humans. Your sire gets executed right there and then, without a word in defence. You're about to get the same treatment when a few in the crowd start protesting. The vampire in charge of the trail, Prince LaCroix, give you a stay of execution to save face literally seconds before the place comes under attack from enemy vampires. You then have to play through a tutorial that is slightly tweaked towards each of the different clans but ultimately the same overall.
This is you now out in the main game. I'm not going to give you a blow-by-blow, just felt like giving a brief intro to events that set you off on your adventure. There are four main hubs; Santa Monica, Downtown, Hollywood and Chinatown. These aren't massive by any means but each have enough side missions and extra places to explore that it can make for a fun distraction from all the serious vampiring you'll be expected to do for the main story. There are also areas that could be compared closely to a dungeon from Zelda, where you go and solve puzzles, then fight a boss at the end. (Well, most of the time. The rules aren't so strict here)
The game operates with a standard experience system. For every mission you do you get more xp and other various rewards. Playing through the game, those are the second reason I try to do everything. VTMB is really quite well written. Every character you meet has a story to tell and a distinct personality. You aren't dealing with Elder Scrolls levels of reusing voice actors for all the same lines.
As I said earlier, the game was released unfinished. This results in a few cases of crashing or items going missing. Not ideal. Some textures can get a little choppy and character models seem to think that their coding is more of a suggestion rather than what they should follow. Super easy to fix, and I say this as someone who's pretty computer illiterate at best. You can find the majority of the patches and mods here: http://www.moddb.com/games/vampire-the-masquerade-bloodlines/mods
Of course, with all downloads, scan them, you never know.
I realise I'm recommending a PC game that didn't sell well (at all) over 10 years ago. But I now have a platform to shout about these things which I didn't have then. If you like the first-person, action RPG a 'la Deus Ex then this is definitely one to look out for. It's currently £3.74 on the Steam Hallowe'en sale until November 1st. (Normally £14.99) Thank you for letting me ramble, have a safe Hallowe'en. Spooky kisses. ;}) <--- (My Hallowe'en emoji)
The game gets is basis from a popular role-playing game series of the same name. I've been told that unlike you're standard "Dungeons & Dragons" style of game, VTM takes a more "political intrigue" route. (Like Game of Thrones with slightly more fangs. Possibly less death)
Starting off, you're in the process of being sired. (Becoming a vampire) Just after the deed is done, various vampires burst in and take you to a hastily thrown together "court". You are on trail for becoming a vampire without permission. It is against vampire law, known as the Masquerade, to increase the ranks of the vampires for fear of revealing their existence to humans. Your sire gets executed right there and then, without a word in defence. You're about to get the same treatment when a few in the crowd start protesting. The vampire in charge of the trail, Prince LaCroix, give you a stay of execution to save face literally seconds before the place comes under attack from enemy vampires. You then have to play through a tutorial that is slightly tweaked towards each of the different clans but ultimately the same overall.
This is you now out in the main game. I'm not going to give you a blow-by-blow, just felt like giving a brief intro to events that set you off on your adventure. There are four main hubs; Santa Monica, Downtown, Hollywood and Chinatown. These aren't massive by any means but each have enough side missions and extra places to explore that it can make for a fun distraction from all the serious vampiring you'll be expected to do for the main story. There are also areas that could be compared closely to a dungeon from Zelda, where you go and solve puzzles, then fight a boss at the end. (Well, most of the time. The rules aren't so strict here)
The game operates with a standard experience system. For every mission you do you get more xp and other various rewards. Playing through the game, those are the second reason I try to do everything. VTMB is really quite well written. Every character you meet has a story to tell and a distinct personality. You aren't dealing with Elder Scrolls levels of reusing voice actors for all the same lines.
As I said earlier, the game was released unfinished. This results in a few cases of crashing or items going missing. Not ideal. Some textures can get a little choppy and character models seem to think that their coding is more of a suggestion rather than what they should follow. Super easy to fix, and I say this as someone who's pretty computer illiterate at best. You can find the majority of the patches and mods here: http://www.moddb.com/games/vampire-the-masquerade-bloodlines/mods
Of course, with all downloads, scan them, you never know.
I realise I'm recommending a PC game that didn't sell well (at all) over 10 years ago. But I now have a platform to shout about these things which I didn't have then. If you like the first-person, action RPG a 'la Deus Ex then this is definitely one to look out for. It's currently £3.74 on the Steam Hallowe'en sale until November 1st. (Normally £14.99) Thank you for letting me ramble, have a safe Hallowe'en. Spooky kisses. ;}) <--- (My Hallowe'en emoji)
No comments:
Post a Comment