Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines

Now, this may not be something you would expect from the likes of me, but I have been a player of games in the World of Darkness series for quite a while. While I was never a large fan of Vampire: The Masquerade, I was quite familiar with the series. This gives me an ability to come at this game from two perspectives, one from the game reviewer, and another from the series fan.

One of the things you notice when playing this game is the similarities between this game and a previous game I have enjoyed, called Deus Ex. In fact, this game seems a much better successor, gameplay wise, to the series than the more recent Deus Ex 2, released last year. Just like Deus Ex, every problem has multiple solutions, from the physical approach, to using persuasion, or your vampire powers.

As in Deus Ex, you have the ability to design your character however you see fit. Included are seven playable vampire clans, each with their own set of strengths and weaknesses, and their own selections of powers. Each clan gets access to three different vampire powers, and each can spend their experience points differently either in character creation, or to advance their character after completing quests. This will allow you to create a character who is really good with picking locks and doors, and who's very stealthy, but not great at combat, or a character who can go toe-to-toe with any of the baddies in the game, but lacks that subtle approach, or a character who convinces others to do his/her work for them, etc.

The game, itself, stays very faithful to the World of Darkness setting, with goth clubs down every street, plenty of homeless people, dark streets, etc. Everything you'd expect from a game set in this world. The game itself also includes several other World of Darkness games, such as Wraith and Werewolf. Sadly missing, however, is my favorite game, Mage, but I'm sure that a game such as that is difficult to work into any game. This game also works very well at incorporating all of the various Vampire games into it. So you will see not just the Camarilla, but also the Anarchs, and the Kindred of the East, and Sabbat as well. Every major clan of vampires are represented in some form or another.

The game allows a lot of personal freedom in the way you choose to play the game. There are tons of side-quests, and most of them are optional, so you don't have to do them, or pass them, if you don't want to. Often times missions will allow you to change sides if you want, and often let you be a greedy bastard, at the cost of respect, or you can do missions for people just out of the good of your cold heart. The choices you will have in the game are great, and many, so the game doesn't just feel like it's always pushing you to go down the same levels the same way each time. You can play through the various missions however you like.

As for the look of the game, it does justice to the World of Darkness very well. Built using Valve's Steam engine, it allows characters with expressive emotions, as well as some pretty good special effects from the characters. Everything from the invisibility of Obfuscate to the glowing eyes of Protean is handled very well by the engine. The characters aren't photo-realistic, like the characters from Half-Life 2, but they do display a system of realism which is enough, but still has a slightly unrealistic look to it. Characters often look like caricatures of real people, and it works very well for the game.

One of the other highlights of the game for me was the music. Each of the separate goth clubs in the game has it's own song, licensed by some fairly well-known goth/industrial bands. They really help set the mood for the world, and the characters you meet in the clubs range from your typical vampire-loving blood dolls, to ghouls, to just standard dancers. Another interesting thing about the clubs is that anywhere there is a dance floor, your character can go and spend some time dancing. This may not seem like a big deal, but again, it helps to set the mood and feeling of the entire game world.

Also, in the way of sound, all of the various characters have full voice acting, so all characters you meet will actually talk to you. This means you don't have to just read off what they're saying on the screen, but can actually feel whatever point they're trying to get across to you. This helps with the immersion factor immensely, and makes it feel like you're far more connected to the events happening around you. It's one thing to have the Prince of the city bitch at you in text for screwing up a mission, but it's an entirely other thing to have to hear him bitching and moaning because you didn't do something right, or to listen to one of the Anarchs growl at you and call you the Prince's lap dog.

Sadly, however, the game does have some bugs. While I was playing the game, there were times when the game was choppy, and at times unresponsive for several seconds. This is a known issue with the Source engine, which the game was developed on, but it still becomes difficult to play the game at times. In addition, in it's standard form, the game has some bugs which can make parts of it very difficult, if not impossible to finish. Most of these issues have been patched at this point, however there are still various major bugs in the game, which require serious attention from the developers.

Despite these various bugs and difficulties playing the game, I seriously enjoyed playing this, and have already played through it several times using different characters, and different ways of passing each section. I highly recommend this game to anyone who likes the various World of Darkness games, or who has been searching for a good PC-based action RPG, especially after being disappointed by Deus Ex 2. The game may not be perfect, but it is a highly enjoyable experience, and hopefully after a few patches it will become a highly polished and enjoyable experience.