Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines

There is something special about VALVe. For almost 10 years, they have done nothing but produce quality games, and in noticeable amount, excellent modifications of said games. Yes, readers, I am talking about Half Life and Half Life 2, two of the best shooters that have ever graced gaming. But, with the advent of Half Life 2 and the extremely powerful Source engine, I wondered- was the Source engine the driving factor that made Half Life 2 great, or was it the story, or even the gameplay? The big question to me was simple- do good engines beget good games?

Say hello to the game that says "No". Vampire the Masquerade is a Table Top RPG-esque game that is similar to Dungeons and Dragons in gameplay- create a character, get friends around and make a story. Sounds like a fun, geeky time, right? The few times I played with people I knew, I ended up getting beat because I kept trying to remember the Konami Code and cheat. Needless to say, though, that the game is actually enjoyable. But, unfortunately, that doesn't mean that any game from it will be enjoyable.

Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines is a Vampire the Masquerade game made off of the Half Life 2 engine. Generally constructed obviously off the First Person mode of the game (Though featuring a rudiamentary form of third person), the game leads you through the setup started by the original Vampire the Masquerade tabletop games by White Wolf. Simply put, it's a Vampire game (Though, if you haven't figured that out, this will come as quite a shock). The game takes you through broken down cities and the dark of night as you go along your way as a new Vampire, attempting to understand your odd transformation into a creature of the night, and the struggle between Vampries... and, well, Vampires.


So, I want you, as the reader, to understand my point in this review. I have seen and played the Half Life 2 engine. In that, that means that not only do I know it quite well, but enough to spot when a game deliberately steals engine code and script and when it was created by the developers. So, with that in mind, I am going to ignore everything in this game that was pioneered by the Source engine, and focus on the game itself. Don't complain.

Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines is absolutely horrible. First of all, let me go on about the story. I am usually a very patient gamer when it comes to stories. Hell, I could play Xenogears with no problem, which had to have one of the most outright confusing yet interesting stories ever, and ended up being generally too hardcore for general gamers. But when I start playing a game and feel like I just walked into a Goth convention and everyone is crying and talking about drinking blood, I feel like I want to shoot myself. I'm not kidding. Through the entire course of this game, I felt like it was the most self-sufficing, stereotypical, stupid, self-serving game I have ever played. That's one hell of lot of S-es, and the game absolutely deserves it.


Let me simply explain the story to you this way. Think of yourself as a game developer. Now, think of yourself as a game developer giving Vampires and generally anything goth a proverbial blowjob. That is the exact attitude this game carries through the entire game. This game makes Vampires look deep, mysterious, pondering, and generally everything your cookie cutter goth wants in a Vampire, and most importantly, wants to be. The Vampires here are cool, rich, and powerful. God forbid there be Vampires who don't have long hair and wear silk, only in the stylish colors of Red and Black. Everyone who annoys you is obviously potrayed as an "Inferior", and you basically are supposed to get some sort of heightened ego by going around biting into random Hobos.

This just duplicates itself in the fighting engine and generally anything that the game considers original. Vampires, obviously being powerful and arcane and whatnot, naturally not only have the ability to speed-hack computers, but they can also jump high, run for endless spans of time, sustain bullet wounds and just about anything thrown at them, and still have time to primp their perfectly raven black hair. Of course, this only applies to everyone else- because for the majority of the first game, you will find yourself stuck in the game, running around completing what could be easily considered mindless tasks. "Go kill the enemy and get back this drug because we're dark and stuff". That essentially happens through the entire span of Vampire: The Masquerade.

This game also features a RPG-esque system, which means you will level up as needed. The EXP is assigned and then "Points" are added to your character sheet (Referencing back to the White Wolf game, literally looking like a character sheet from the paper game), except for the part where the game isn't hard enough to justify spending so much time leveling up or whatever you feel like doing.


And, believe it or not, however the hell developer Troika managed to do this, they actually went and screwed up the graphics. There is no such thing as Anti-Aliasing in this game, nor generally any other kind of general graphic control other than resolution. This may be to come up with some excuse of why all the character models look absolutely horrible. They look blurry, jagged, and generally look like the type of thing you would expect out of a low end PS2 game. Nothing like what one would want- and this is quite sad, considering that I was just playing a PS1 game, and in comparison, these graphics are supposed to be BETTER.

One plus to this game is the sound. Thankfully, Troika actually managed to get decent voice actors involved, but just because the cover of the book is pretty doesn't make it a good read. Regardless, the acting is top notch from the voice actors, and hopefully one day they might be able to get a job for a game that doesn't, you know, suck.

Don't get me wrong, adament Vampire: The Masquerade fans. I enjoyed the tabletop game for the little part I played it. The issue here is that this game does not carry the enjoyment I got out of the tabletop game, much like Dungeons and Dragons PC games do not carry the fun of the tabletop game. The issue here is that the game is limited and presents only one perspective on the world of White Wolf's creation, and that all the fun time you spent coming up with issues and stories and whatnot is pissed away when you suddenly discover that the creators of this game decided what The Masquerade was, from the looks to the characters. It was inevitable. If this game was to be done right, further control should have been given to you to decide what happens and how the world is, not a scripted run-through of a mediocre story. Actually, the Vampire: The Masquerade series would have excelled as a MMORPG... but like hell that's coming from Activision, who seems to be content publishing mediocre games.

At the end of the day, Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines is only for the hardcore fans. If you're just interested in a romp through a Goth world, go find yourself another game- this game only leads to long discussions with wannabe vampires. I could get that by going to Hot Topic.

2.5 star(s) out of 5

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