Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines

[Shipyard Locked]

Decided to try Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines for the first time.

Having just made it past the tutorial and into the first few minutes of the Santa Monica zone, my first impressions are (in no particular order):

- Man, it's hard to get some of these middle era video games to work on modern systems. Even after downloading this from Steam I had to use an unofficial patch to get it to work. Video game history is so fragile.

- It's always good to hear John DiMaggio voicing a character.

- Listening to the in-game radio got a few chuckles out of me.

- Huh, you don't get to customize your character's appearance. As a gangrel male I'm forced into dreadlocks and a moronic faux-football shirt. Oh well.

- But hey, at least you get to pick a clan at all, and it's a decent selection. Maybe I shouldn't be impressed, but I am.

- Natural looking character animation was so difficult circa 2004. The seriousness of the opening scenes is hilariously undercut by the wobbly walk cycles and such.

- Hehe, there's a Jack Chick tract on the floor of the car repair office. I like these programmers already.

- Sabbat suck.

- First 50 square feet of the first zone already contain five homeless people and two prostitutes. Yep, definitely World of Darkness.

- Oh dear, melee combat's going to be real clunky isn't it? At least I have sweet frickin' claws.

- I like the plywood boards in my character's apartment, implicitly used to cover the windows and block out the sun, but is that really the most secure sleeping location they could come up with?

More thoughts later.

 

[Shipyard Locked]

Quick question for anyone who has played this game, does the animalism discipline only work in combat or does it have problem-solving functions as well?

 

[Necrozius]

A great game. I genuinely love it and would be so happy if we got a new version with the same design philosophies, just more open world like newer games.

I can't answer your question re; Animalism 'cause I've only played the game as a Toreador and a Malkavian. The Malkavian run through is AWESOME because of the Dementation discipline.

Word of advice: make sure that you're very competent in at least ONE form of combat, whether by weapons, fists or disciplines. Christ there are a few parts that you have to battle it out to proceed.

 

[Shipyard Locked]

Word of advice: make sure that you're very competent in at least ONE form of combat, whether by weapons, fists or disciplines. Christ there are a few parts that you have to battle it out to proceed.

Thanks for the warning. Fortunately, gangrel has that covered if nothing else.

 

[Shipyard Locked]

Ok, I have to sheepishly admit the great twist at the end of the Therese and Jeanette feud plotline took me by complete surprise. Fucking Malkavians. :rolleyes:

I can't believe that was never spoiled for me over more than a decade. Jeanette's pretty much the face of that game in public consciousness.

Spoiler

I chose Therese though. To hell with the vampire stereotype Jeanette represents. :p

 

[Doc Sammy]

I LOVE Bloodlines, but I don't have Steam. I bought the original discs from Goodwill for $5.00 USD and I agree it is a bitch to run on a modern computer.

I played as a female Tremere I named Raye (a reference to the Sailor Moon 90's Dub) but I did not get past Santa Monica.

 

[Shipyard Locked]

I LOVE Bloodlines, but I don't have Steam. I bought the original discs from Goodwill for $5.00 USD and I agree it is a bitch to run on a modern computer.

The unofficial fan patch is pretty much mandatory for running the game now. Steam only made the coding issues worse.

Anyway, further thoughts now that I'm almost done with Hollywood (chapter 3 of 4 I guess)

- This game really nails how creepy, awkward, and even dangerous having a ghoul at your beck and call could be.

- The game clearly wants me to take the Anarchs' side, enough that I feel a perverse desire to stand by the Camarilla. I'll probably get fucked over for it in the end, but whatever.

- The conversations with the Tzimisce and Gary Golden were great encapsulations of their clans.

- The bit where a woman from your human life spots you and tries to rescue you from whatever you're mixed up in was exactly the sort of interaction I think tabletop vampire should feature more of.

- I like the gradual accumulation of XP that you can spend when you need to on whatever you require at that moment. Very unusual in a sea of level-based RPGs, and feels more natural in a one-character RPG.

- God the combat is getting kinda dull. Long segments of crawling around ugly tenements or sewers punctuated by combat against jittery targets is even worse.

 

[Llew ap Hywel]

I remember playing this when it came out, glitches like mad so I didn't bother.

Glad to hear there were some patches later.

 

[Shipyard Locked]

Damn, the 5th dot in Protean gives you the power to turn into a full blown werewolf! ... In a game that already has actual werewolves. Really, this is just a reminder that werewolves are kind of redundant in any game that has multi-faceted vampires.

Also, the sidequest with the two elderly Chinese hit men trying to get you to kill the other by constantly offering you more money and badmouthing the other is hilarious.

 

[Shipyard Locked]

Just finished it. This is a good example of how to do multiple endings right. I sided with Strauss, but watched the other outcomes on youtube and had a good laugh at some of the ways you can fuck yourself over. Pro-tip: don't side with Ming Xiao!

Other thoughts, no particular order:

- This game made pretty good use of the Kuei-Jin (Kindred of the East), enough that it almost redeemed the concept. Almost.

- The last few hours of gameplay really tested my patience. Too much "dungeoneering" against enemies that are way too tough. Ming Xiao's temple is the worst offender here, and I groaned out loud when the elevator got stuck on the way up Venture Tower and I realized I was going to have to crawl some more. I have no idea how a character who focused on non-combat problem solving skills was supposed to get through all that, and the game doesn't signpost this fact after so many early missions could be solved without fighting. It's a testament to the strength of the writing that I was willing to tough it all out to get to the next character interaction.

- This game really helped me appreciate the Giovanni clan as a clever blend of secretive mortal and vampire interests. The Giovanni mansion section is very atmospheric until it turns into a goddamn zombie catacombs crawl.

- The Chinese scientist who puts you through a series of tests to try and determine your weaknesses is a moron and that section of the game doesn't make much sense.

- Werewolves are scary man! Seriously, the observatory chase is the scariest part of a game that goes out of its way to frighten or disconcert you. I thought my gangrel being able to turn into a wolf man was badass until I saw a real werewolf towering over my puny puppy. :oops:

- Beckett is a goofy character. I though he was fine in a supporting role here, but was this really the posterboy of VTM fiction?

Anyway, I may post more later, but overall this was a great experience and I wish Troika studios had had the time to properly finish it.

 

[Necrozius]

Yeah that werewolf chase! ARGH!

I loved the game, but I hated how slowly doors opened while using Celerity. Defeated the entire purpose of moving quickly.

I could swear that Smiling Jack (the Rob Zombie Brujah) sounds like Bender somehow.

 

[Shipyard Locked]

I loved the game, but I hated how slowly doors opened while using Celerity. Defeated the entire purpose of moving quickly.

I didn't get the opportunity to use Celerity myself, but it sure was obnoxious when the Sabbat brujah used it to kite me with shotguns. :mad:

I could swear that Smiling Jack (the Rob Zombie Brujah) sounds like Bender somehow.

Same voice actor, John DiMaggio. He's also voiced dozens of other popular characters in games and television. Behold:

https://www.google.com/search?biw=1....0...1.1.64.psy-ab..0.0.0.tM_jLlvWS7I#imgrc=_

 

[Ladybird]

The unofficial fan patch is pretty much mandatory for running the game now. Steam only made the coding issues worse.

Steam's not the problem as such, more that Troika were the first team outside of Valve to use the Source engine (iirc, Bloodlines came out the same day as HL2) and... well, it shows, they didn't have the technological skills for it. Sadly Troika also closed up pretty soon afterwards, so the game never officially got the patching it really needed.

 

[Imperator]

It is an absolutely brilliant game, and I agree with Shipyard Locked , it shows many things that should be the basis of any good VTM game.

 

[Shipyard Locked]

It is an absolutely brilliant game, and I agree with Shipyard Locked , it shows many things that should be the basis of any good VTM game.

It's very inspiring, it really makes me want to run a "Unnatural you against the world", but I'm not sure I can commit to Vampire itself and all its baggage. If only Beast: The Primordial didn't apparently suck, it would have been well suited to some of what this game models.

 

[The Butcher]

It's very inspiring, it really makes me want to run a "Unnatural you against the world", but I'm not sure I can commit to Vampire itself and all its baggage. If only Beast: The Primordial didn't apparently suck, it would have been well suited to some of what this game models.

Masquerade - baggage = Requiem

 

[Shipyard Locked]

Masquerade - baggage = Requiem

I was really close to pulling the trigger on Requiem, really close. But then I read this:

[Requiem 2nd edition] is written loud, with a raw, in-your-face tone. Compare, for example, the origins of the Clan Daeva [from Requiem 1st edition];
...Among Kindred historians, the Daeva are suspected of being one of the oldest clans of the Damned. Their moniker suggests a Persian mythological origin, and their abilities suggest that they could be related to the demons from which they take their name. A few ancient writings suggest that the progenitor of the line was a Kindred known as Aesma Daeva, but vampiric scholars debate whether this individual was actually undead or the writings merely draw comparisons to the Persian demon of lust and anger...

And from [Requiem 2nd edition];

...The Serpents arose from the sticky musk of the ancient world. River tides teased the gaping valleys to frothing fertility. The elder nights throbbed with temple music. Priests and priestesses practiced their love arts for coin — communion of the cunt and the cock. There was no difference between god and demon or sex and worship. In that space between, the Daeva curse gestated. They reveled in that time and place where deities cared enough to do horrible things to you directly. But the world turned. The capital “G” God changed the paradigm. When they could no longer be gods, the Daeva became succubi and incubi. The world turned again. Tonight, when it is no longer practical to be a demon, the Daeva become zeitgeists...

Get the picture? [Requiem 2nd edition] gets what Masquerade knew; tone matters. [Requiem 2nd edition] then comes dripping with attitude.

Yeah, that's not the only thing it's dripping with...:confused:

I mean, that's enough insufferable trustafarian hipster twattery to last me a month, and even if I tried to only focus on the mechanics, I'd still have to plow through paragraph after paragraph of that sort of thing. Maybe Doc's right, the rules might be better but Onyx Path's department of purple prose might also be too far gone down the path of purple-dyed armpit hair to deserve my money.

I remain open to persuasion of course, ever the fickle weathervane that I am when it comes to system commitment.

 

[The Butcher]

"Trustafarian hipster twattery" is the sort of idiom I've wanted my entire adult life. Thank you for this.

I was immediately sold on Requiem (1st edition) because I felt the game, by reducing all splats to 5 clans and 5 big covenants, gave me the keys to the setting — I had a lot of latitude to decide what the Daeva or the Ordo Dracul or any other splat were like in any given chronicle.

I understand how 2nd edition brought back a dash of oWoD/VtM-y pretension but I'm OK with this; I am a oWoD/VtM fan too, despite the pretension.

 

[Imperator]

I remain open to persuasion of course, ever the fickle weathervane that I am when it comes to system commitment.

I feel you would be doing yourself a disservice by missing the game. I love Masquerade to bits, but Requiem is mechanically superior in each and every aspect (and the two editions are quite different between one another, so you can mix and match) and, paradoxically, I find Requiem to be more thematically true to the game's original spirit and roots than any of the editions of Masquerade after the first. Seriously, it's great. Purple prose is still a hindrance, I can understand you, but the game underneath is badass.

And Requiem for Rome, foreworded by Kenneth Hite and written by Wood Ingham, is absolutely fantastic.

 

[Belle Sorciere]

It's very inspiring, it really makes me want to run a "Unnatural you against the world", but I'm not sure I can commit to Vampire itself and all its baggage. If only Beast: The Primordial didn't apparently suck, it would have been well suited to some of what this game models.

What do you mean by "apparently suck"?

 

[Shipyard Locked]

What do you mean by "apparently suck"?

These two detailed reviews reflect a lot of the commentary I've seen around it:

http://projects.inklesspen.com/fatal-and-friends/kurieg/beast-the-primordial/

http://podcast.darker-days.org/e/darker-days-radio-episode-72/

 

[Belle Sorciere]

Fair enough.