244: The Last Masquerade

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

Its available for $20 on Steam.

Doesnt support WinXP 64, curse my 6gb of RAM! I always wanted to try this game, sigh.

 

[veloper]

Bloodlines was Troika's third game. KotOR2 was Obsidian's first game.

and unfortunately K2 is also their BEST game to date and made from Bioware's leftovers to make things even less impressive. That's a decline.

Obsidian still need to prove themselves.

When Alpha Protocol is released, lets compare it to Bloodlines.

Let's do that. I would like to play a decent RPG again. I don't have anything against Obs, but sofar I haven't been impressed yet.

 

[Killian Kalthorne]

They are still in business and that is enough for me. If they make a game I like I will buy it and play it. If not, I won't. I didn't like Arcanum or ToEE so I waited til Bloodlines was cheap. Bloodlines was Troika's best game.

 

[Nesrie]

A nice read but the thing is, it's the same old story over and over again. Publisher's rush games out, make a quick buck, destroy the IP, the series, or whatever it might be, a developer folds and rinse and repeat. The industry doesn't seem capable, on its own, to stop sending out half-finished products.

 

[tomvw]

Part of an interesting interview over at Rock, Paper, Shotgun, worth a read:

A lot of this is due to designers (including myself) shooting too high within the scope. Sometimes overpromising features to the publisher causes it. Adapting one type of gameplay for a different interface - like sneaking and melee, for instance, which pose a lot different animation, design, and AI challenges in an FPS - and not realizing how long it takes to prototype and refine those systems, can cause problems. A simple refusal to cut or lock content generation is also a culprit in bloated scope. I think Bloodlines suffered from all of these, but despite its flaws, I think we managed to do some things exceedingly well.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/04/06/interview-without-a-vampire-bloodlines-b-mitsoda/

 

[khululy]

This game turned me on...
Well it came close, I loved the music in the Asylum nightclub (Isolated by Chiasm) And the part where you investigate the video tape. (I never dare to go to an internet cafe again)

I wonder if the game was "rebuild" using the latest version of the source engine. It truly was one of the greatest games I've played simply because it has vampires, great characters and a kick ass story.

 

[Scrythe]

Spoiler: Only press this button if the fairies talk to you too...

"NO, YOU STOP!"

"You have made a powerful enemy, tonight."

"Did you hear the one about the tuna and the chef?"

The game itself was brilliant, but going back to play as a Malk put the game on a whole new level of awesome.

 

[ilion]

Tremere for me... amazing atmosphere, played it almost 3 times to the end. GAMES NEED more monologues like the Alistair grout mansion...

 

[JC175]

Excellent article, although you took the time to mostly focus on the game's shortcomings. In response to that, I'm not joking when I say that Bloodlines holds the top spot in my list of favourite games, and here's why.

Obviously for me to say this I have to rely on fan made patches to make the game 99% playable and reliable; that comes as a necessary thing with a game featuring so many game breaking bugs. And sure, as pointed out, the game is indeed rushed - as you progress through the four main level hubs the amount of available side quests drastically diminishes each time, the lengthy sewer section midway seems mainly like a cut and paste job, and the last quarter of the game is heavily combat oriented and inferior to the game's beginning. But all of this is mostly irrelevant in my eyes, as what this game offers that so few others do is a vivid and compelling atmosphere.

Bloodlines not only allows you to play as a Vampire, you become one while playing the game. The soundtrack, the storyline, the characters, the setting and the art direction all come together to form an in-game world that is not overwhelmingly huge to the point of Morrowind-esque sandbox, but large enough to invoke awe while still remaining strongly focused to the plot. While the game has many obvious flaws, it gets everything that matters completely and utterly correct - there has not been another game that has drawn me into its game world as effectively and enjoyably as Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines.

If only the team had have been able to polish this diamond further, perhaps more people would have been aware of it and game may have been even better. Thankyou for the article, I hope that somebody reads it and is compelled to find and play the game as a result.

 

[TarkXT]

I love this entire issue. I've never played bloodlines and considering my upcoming video series reviewing tabletops I really ought to.

It's not a surprise to me that combat was unbalanced if they based it off the tabletop. That shit was unbalanced to all hell. Pcik the right discipplines and you could render someoenn to ash with a toothpick, fuck the knife. Celerity and Potence4lyfe yo.

 

[Slinker07]

Despite all it's flaws... I absolutly looooooooved Vampire Bloodlines. It luckliy didn't crash on my computer at the time. (Althoug it was very slow in loading times.) But this game had so much atmosphere and so much charactrism that you could that I was so into the game. The combat isn't the best in the world. But I found it really enjoyable when my vampires became strong enough with their blood powers.

I can easily say that the second time I played the game throw as a female malkavian is one of the best game experiance I had. The dialogs are clever and extremly hilarious, and you get a nice combo blood powers that works well in diffrent situations. In the end, I had this really good looking character that in combat switched between auto-shutgun, magnum and katana. And could make herself invisible for gruesome sneak kills. With that, the end level became so awesome that I feelt like I was in the action scenes in matrix 1. But with the dull Neo removed by a crazied malkavian.

I really would have wanted Troika to survive. Bloodlines is one of my favorit games. But there is certainlly room for making things better. And World of Darkness really has a lot of more room for new games.

 

[bobknowsall]

I never actually played this game for more than 3 hours. I expected something completely different from a VTM game. More freedom maybe or a more faithful translation of the rules... I don't really know.

And I expect people to act with respect towards each other on the Internet. All three of these expectations are rather unrealistic.

The amount of freedom in VTM:B is quite stunning for a six-year-old game. Actually, it's pretty impressive for a game of any age. Deus Ex might well surpass it, but name one modern (by which I mean non-isometric and real-time or thereabouts) RPG that gives you more freedom.

If you want totally accurate rules, play the P&P game. The VTM rules would have been too cumbersome, and they wouldn't have suited the medium.

I just felt it was too buggy and unfinished, combat was awful and the city was just 3 deserted blocks with one street. Sure, I didn't get to other cities and I didn't have time to get into the story, but the first impression is very important, and they screwed that up.

I'm afraid I must agree with you there. While I never experienced any bugs during my playthroughs, I've heard some horror stories about corrupted data and collision glitches. And yes, the combat sucked like a turbocharged vacuum cleaner. But as for the first impression...
I'm not so sure. The game's actually pretty good by the time you get to Santa Monica, and you've got a lot of options to start with. But hey, that's just my opinion, right?

 

[Darks63]

Bloodlines is one of my all time fav computer games. i wish that another of its like would come out for the pc or consoles, but it seems like sequels are the only thing in the devolpment cycle atm.

To the ppl complaining about the bugs u should really try some of the mods and unofficial patches they really fix alot of stuff, made the game playing through as a Malkavain a real trip.

 

[muffincakes]

Soo, I loved this game. It, along with games like Baldur's Gate and Goldeneye/Perfect Dark are what made me start to love games in the first place, so it will always have a place on my shelf. However, it always makes me sad when I can find no good sequels or similar titles to ones such as these. Sure, I loved VTMB, but I want more. I just hope that one day a developer will come along and improve on the fantastic formula already laid out for them. It may just be wishful thinking, but that's good enough for me.

Also, would someone be kind enough to point me in the direction of these game-improving patches? Back when I was playing, my computer was not connected to the net, so I think I missed out on some stuff, or at least that's how it sounds from previous posts. Thanks in advance.

 

[Doc Cannon]

And I expect people to act with respect towards each other on the Internet. All three of these expectations are rather unrealistic.

The amount of freedom in VTM:B is quite stunning for a six-year-old game. Actually, it's pretty impressive for a game of any age. Deus Ex might well surpass it, but name one modern (by which I mean non-isometric and real-time or thereabouts) RPG that gives you more freedom.

If you want totally accurate rules, play the P&P game. The VTM rules would have been too cumbersome, and they wouldn't have suited the medium.

I must name Borderlands then for the minimal amount of freedom I expected back then. I mean, there was a lot of hype when I found out about the game, so I was kind of imagined some serious free roaming (to be honest I wanted a smaller GTA-like city, but what I wanted isn't relevant), a lot of buildings with innocent families to feed from and being able to break down wooden doors. Hell, I would have been horribly happy with Haloesque repeating-buildings as long as you could go in and suck the lifeforce out of a dude watching his TV at 10pm. You know, the kind of thing you could do in Oblivion if you were transformed into a vampire. That's pretty much what I expected: a Morrowind-like/Oblivion-like game.

And about the rules... it's mostly that I hated what they did with the disciplines. I mean, dementation makes people shoot themselves? Seriously? Not cool, man.

 

[daishonato]

still have fond memories of the radio broadcasts... Political campaigns where your opponent kills children (probably), and the world renowned friggin chicken

'man, that's some good f***ing chicken'

Still not sure if I believe the whole 'Caine's the taxi driver' thing.

 

[Aurora219]

I sincerely loved the game. I only got hold of it about 6 months ago.

 

[The Random One]

It's available on GoG, ain't it? I might pick it up. Then again, my computer complains at ten-year-old games (Deus Ex). I'm afraid a six-year-old game might push it over the edge.

I need a real video card...