Now, I'm not usually a game fanatic, which brings into question why I am even on this site, but whatever. On occasion, there are things that flick my fandom switch to max power, though these things are rare, especially if they were a game.
I actually didn't first start playing Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines (or, as many people shorten it, Vee tee em bee) I had watched my brother play this game about three or so years ago, and now that we re-downloaded it, I am addicted to the game.
Anyhow, the game is pretty much straightforward. Your character wake up one night after having wild sex with someone, who turns you into a vampire for no fucking reason, as he/she is one him/herself. the two are about to talk, but then are stabbed in the heart by people who burst in, and then you get dragged to some theater, where some pompous asshole, by the name of LaCroix, kills your bedmate and tries to do the same to you; but wait, theres some random guy who stops him, and now you have to do pointless quests for the guy who tried to kill you, and hate the one who saved your ass, mainly because LaCroix claims the other way around. He sends you off to blow shit up, which is fun and all, but you only get to do so once or twice in the game. Then you got to be a messenger boy, and travel around to get some random thing for that crazy frenchie, but you have to obey him anyways, or there would be no storyline progression.
Now the good parts of this game. First on our list would be the characters, the choices, and the soundtrack. You get to create your character by either a) answering a series of questions, or b) just picking it straight out. There are seven vampire clans in which you can be part of, and the two clans I ended up getting for my games were the Gangrel and Malkavian clans. Gangrel are pretty much shapeshifting vaampires who are in touch with animals, and Malkavians are just fucked up in the head, but in a way thats fun. And the best part of it is, if you play as a girl, then you don't ALWAYS look like a whore!!! Yes, there are modestly dressed characters in this game, which makes most of us female gamers jump for joy.
Anyhow, there is a variety of characters in the game, with multiple sprites...of about twenty. Most of the generic people look the same; gothic male, gothic female, punk male, punk female, hobo male, hobo female... and only the NPC's seem to look different. You can distinguish important characters between each other, but everyone else, well, they can go fuck themselves.
Now comes the choice. When it comes to dialog, there are mutliple things for your character to say, depending on it's sanity or humanity. Malkavians, for example, say things which would either make you laugh or ask "what the fuck?" Then there comes your choices on the storyline work, which don't even come into account until the end. You get to choose an ending between the good rebels, the good government, the evil vampires of the east(or the Kuei-Jin, as they call it in the game) the asshole who bosses you around, or being all alone, all of with ends with you being fucked over, or getting a good ending, the latter of which is very rare.
On a note, while there are different voices for everyone, there is none for your character. You never actually get any voice, save for a scream at the beginning. But don't think that your character is flat, nope, you get to learn a small bit of his/her past, even running into someone of your past.
Now comes the soundtrack. The music is so wonderfully addictive if you're into vampire games anyways. The music could range from hardcore industrial music(or at least, I think thats what it's called) to instrumentals. The music in the clubs is fantastic. You don't get bored with the place too soon, because of the energy in the songs, that seem to fit the atmosphere. My particular favorites are the musics in the clubs Asp Hole (the songs Cain and Swamped) and The Last Round(Leacher *****). City music is nice and long, which is pretty cool, and gives off a dark, somewhat depressing, vibe to remind you that you're playing a vampire game. The only thing I have to pick at it is the battle music. You hear it every time you even cut a random object, which gets rather annoying if you're in a fight area. Once your fight ends, the music goes on for about a minute before it fades, eager to start up again. Mission areas get rather annoying when you have to hear the same music for half an hour, broken at random intervals when you enter combat.
The next point I have is the graphics. The graphics are, simply put, beautiful. There are mostly clear details in the game, though there are occasional blurs, but there is no realism aspect to it, which is good for me, because I play fantasy games just for that, to lose myself in a new world.
Of course, with all good games, there are multiple faults in Bloodlines. The biggest one is the glitches, load times, and all that bullshit. When you saved your game, it would take a long while to save, even if you had done a string of saving, the game seems to enjoy a nice relaxing pace in which you have to sit on your ass and stare blankly at the screen. Then there are the times when the game just shuts down randomly on you, which causes you to want to toss your computer in the trash. When you're deeply emmersed in a game, you just want to keep playing it no matter what, and when it is forcibly taken away from you, you wanna break something. So I regret to admit that my computer had suffered much damage when I played this game. Loading takes a while, which should be given, but even when the loading bar is full, you have to wait a bit before you can actually move, which is annoying for places with timers.
Then comes the actual gameplay, which I am split up about. On the one hand, hacking, slashing and chopping up everyone in your way, before shooting them in the head, is all fun and games, I don't mind that. But switching between weapons requires for you to duck behind cover, press a few buttons, and wait for you to load, by then, you could be dead. Then when it comes to melee, you are automatically switched to third person, which I don't really enjoy; I like my fighting angles to stay the same, so I don't get a migraine while trying to focus. Then there are the Disiplines, which are vampire powers, which can be buffed up by spending experience points on them. As I said before, I've only played the game with two clans, so I wouldn't know about the rest, but the disiples are fun, you just have to wait for a bit to use them, so you can't rely on them too much. Malkavians even have an insta-kill attack, which only works on humans, but its still funny as hell.
Another thing that I particularly dislike about the game is the less than modest characters. Hookers are seen on almost every street corner and under all important buildings. Even the game box shows a person in a school girl uniform. Theres far too many v-necks in the game, which makes it rather annoying, as most of the dialog options have a "I wanna tap that" option, even if you're a girl, but for most people, this is hot, and they would give a thumbs up to that. Good for you guys, this game is for you.
Pretty much, here are my ratings.
Graphics: 9/10. I wasn't too fond of the bit of blurs, but I loved how the backgrounds and characters were well defined.
Voices: 9/10. Each important NPC had a clear voice which was easily told apart from others
Soundtrack: 9.5/10. I love the music in the game, though some parts can be just a smidge repetative.
Gameplay: 7.5/10. Scrolling between weapons is a pain in the ass, but burning your enemies gets very satisfying.
Replayability: 10/10. Theres always things that you miss when you run through the game, new quests, traits, bloodlines, its all so fun.
Overall: 9/10. This is a great game overall, its fun, exciting, and draws you in almost instantly.All in all, V:tM Bloodlines, is a great game, which makes me rather disappointed that there is no sequel to this particular story.
Reccomendation: Buy the game, and play it NOW, it'll be one of the best games you spend sixty or so bucks on.
Edit: I played the game through with the Tremere clan, or the Blood mages. They also have insta-kill attacks, and very fun. I apologize for not adding in any bits about the Humanity, mainly because I was the goody two shoes and barely noticed it in all my runthroughs of the game.
Edit again: The only computer which can play VtMB in my house has just crashed permenantly, so I can't as I intended, add tibits in new stuff that I can find.
I actually didn't first start playing Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines (or, as many people shorten it, Vee tee em bee) I had watched my brother play this game about three or so years ago, and now that we re-downloaded it, I am addicted to the game.
Anyhow, the game is pretty much straightforward. Your character wake up one night after having wild sex with someone, who turns you into a vampire for no fucking reason, as he/she is one him/herself. the two are about to talk, but then are stabbed in the heart by people who burst in, and then you get dragged to some theater, where some pompous asshole, by the name of LaCroix, kills your bedmate and tries to do the same to you; but wait, theres some random guy who stops him, and now you have to do pointless quests for the guy who tried to kill you, and hate the one who saved your ass, mainly because LaCroix claims the other way around. He sends you off to blow shit up, which is fun and all, but you only get to do so once or twice in the game. Then you got to be a messenger boy, and travel around to get some random thing for that crazy frenchie, but you have to obey him anyways, or there would be no storyline progression.
Now the good parts of this game. First on our list would be the characters, the choices, and the soundtrack. You get to create your character by either a) answering a series of questions, or b) just picking it straight out. There are seven vampire clans in which you can be part of, and the two clans I ended up getting for my games were the Gangrel and Malkavian clans. Gangrel are pretty much shapeshifting vaampires who are in touch with animals, and Malkavians are just fucked up in the head, but in a way thats fun. And the best part of it is, if you play as a girl, then you don't ALWAYS look like a whore!!! Yes, there are modestly dressed characters in this game, which makes most of us female gamers jump for joy.
Anyhow, there is a variety of characters in the game, with multiple sprites...of about twenty. Most of the generic people look the same; gothic male, gothic female, punk male, punk female, hobo male, hobo female... and only the NPC's seem to look different. You can distinguish important characters between each other, but everyone else, well, they can go fuck themselves.
Now comes the choice. When it comes to dialog, there are mutliple things for your character to say, depending on it's sanity or humanity. Malkavians, for example, say things which would either make you laugh or ask "what the fuck?" Then there comes your choices on the storyline work, which don't even come into account until the end. You get to choose an ending between the good rebels, the good government, the evil vampires of the east(or the Kuei-Jin, as they call it in the game) the asshole who bosses you around, or being all alone, all of with ends with you being fucked over, or getting a good ending, the latter of which is very rare.
On a note, while there are different voices for everyone, there is none for your character. You never actually get any voice, save for a scream at the beginning. But don't think that your character is flat, nope, you get to learn a small bit of his/her past, even running into someone of your past.
Now comes the soundtrack. The music is so wonderfully addictive if you're into vampire games anyways. The music could range from hardcore industrial music(or at least, I think thats what it's called) to instrumentals. The music in the clubs is fantastic. You don't get bored with the place too soon, because of the energy in the songs, that seem to fit the atmosphere. My particular favorites are the musics in the clubs Asp Hole (the songs Cain and Swamped) and The Last Round(Leacher *****). City music is nice and long, which is pretty cool, and gives off a dark, somewhat depressing, vibe to remind you that you're playing a vampire game. The only thing I have to pick at it is the battle music. You hear it every time you even cut a random object, which gets rather annoying if you're in a fight area. Once your fight ends, the music goes on for about a minute before it fades, eager to start up again. Mission areas get rather annoying when you have to hear the same music for half an hour, broken at random intervals when you enter combat.
The next point I have is the graphics. The graphics are, simply put, beautiful. There are mostly clear details in the game, though there are occasional blurs, but there is no realism aspect to it, which is good for me, because I play fantasy games just for that, to lose myself in a new world.
Of course, with all good games, there are multiple faults in Bloodlines. The biggest one is the glitches, load times, and all that bullshit. When you saved your game, it would take a long while to save, even if you had done a string of saving, the game seems to enjoy a nice relaxing pace in which you have to sit on your ass and stare blankly at the screen. Then there are the times when the game just shuts down randomly on you, which causes you to want to toss your computer in the trash. When you're deeply emmersed in a game, you just want to keep playing it no matter what, and when it is forcibly taken away from you, you wanna break something. So I regret to admit that my computer had suffered much damage when I played this game. Loading takes a while, which should be given, but even when the loading bar is full, you have to wait a bit before you can actually move, which is annoying for places with timers.
Then comes the actual gameplay, which I am split up about. On the one hand, hacking, slashing and chopping up everyone in your way, before shooting them in the head, is all fun and games, I don't mind that. But switching between weapons requires for you to duck behind cover, press a few buttons, and wait for you to load, by then, you could be dead. Then when it comes to melee, you are automatically switched to third person, which I don't really enjoy; I like my fighting angles to stay the same, so I don't get a migraine while trying to focus. Then there are the Disiplines, which are vampire powers, which can be buffed up by spending experience points on them. As I said before, I've only played the game with two clans, so I wouldn't know about the rest, but the disiples are fun, you just have to wait for a bit to use them, so you can't rely on them too much. Malkavians even have an insta-kill attack, which only works on humans, but its still funny as hell.
Another thing that I particularly dislike about the game is the less than modest characters. Hookers are seen on almost every street corner and under all important buildings. Even the game box shows a person in a school girl uniform. Theres far too many v-necks in the game, which makes it rather annoying, as most of the dialog options have a "I wanna tap that" option, even if you're a girl, but for most people, this is hot, and they would give a thumbs up to that. Good for you guys, this game is for you.
Pretty much, here are my ratings.
Graphics: 9/10. I wasn't too fond of the bit of blurs, but I loved how the backgrounds and characters were well defined.
Voices: 9/10. Each important NPC had a clear voice which was easily told apart from others
Soundtrack: 9.5/10. I love the music in the game, though some parts can be just a smidge repetative.
Gameplay: 7.5/10. Scrolling between weapons is a pain in the ass, but burning your enemies gets very satisfying.
Replayability: 10/10. Theres always things that you miss when you run through the game, new quests, traits, bloodlines, its all so fun.
Overall: 9/10. This is a great game overall, its fun, exciting, and draws you in almost instantly.All in all, V:tM Bloodlines, is a great game, which makes me rather disappointed that there is no sequel to this particular story.
Reccomendation: Buy the game, and play it NOW, it'll be one of the best games you spend sixty or so bucks on.
Edit: I played the game through with the Tremere clan, or the Blood mages. They also have insta-kill attacks, and very fun. I apologize for not adding in any bits about the Humanity, mainly because I was the goody two shoes and barely noticed it in all my runthroughs of the game.
Edit again: The only computer which can play VtMB in my house has just crashed permenantly, so I can't as I intended, add tibits in new stuff that I can find.
