Reviewed by: BobiRoka
Developer: Troika
Publisher: Activision

Invisible War? Pah. This is Deus Ex 2.

Of course, I mean this in a purely metaphorical sense - for you won’t find any biomod canisters or amusingly titled plagues in this particular First Person RPG. Developed by Troika and based on White Wolf’s highly alternative (and really quite adult) pen & paper game, ‘Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines’ is without doubt the closest a game has come to the original magnificence of a certain Ion Storm title…

…only this time it’s with Vampires.

And by that I don’t just mean tall stiff Nosferatu types (although they are included), thuggish Lost Boys (although they are included) or charismatic Dracula types (although these too are included). I’m talking about an extensively realised alternative real-world setting, in which Vampires blend into modern society by adhering to an elaborate set of rules designed to keep Mortals none the wiser. To keep things as brief as possible… In the millennia that Vampires have walked the Earth, the blood of Caine (the original vampire) has separated into various strands. Seven of these ‘Bloodlines’ are united under the Camarilla flag, the Camarilla being an organisation devoted to the upholding of the Masquerade, with each state in this fictional USA governed by an appointed ‘Prince’. Let it be said now that the Camarilla is more concerned with Order than any notion of Good over Evil. From a roleplaying perspective, this sets things up brilliantly…

Bloodlines then, or Clans if you prefer… Seven there are, each representing a particular interpretation of generic Vampire Lore, fleshed out with different quotas of skills, disciplines and other miscellaneous qualities. Choosing which clan to play for the duration of this somewhat epic game could be a torturous one, but Troika have thoughtfully included a multiple choice quiz (a la Morrowind) to help you decide which kind of vampire you want to play. There’s the sneaky Nosferatu whose very appearance is a violation of the masquerade, making progress through each city ‘hub’ an exercise in sewer navigation. Then there’s the Malkavians, who talk in riddles and use madness as a weapon. I took the quiz and came out with Clan Toreador. These chaps are highly persuasive folk who eventually gain the ability to detect NPCs through walls, move with lightning speed and even daze foes with their presence. In addition to these clan specific benefits, all Vampires are capable of boosting their physical attributes for a short period of time to increase their chances of success at a particular task. Notice there how I didn’t use the term ‘Combat Bonus’. (Yeah I was gonna say!! - Ed)

Indeed, as with the pen & paper game, the emphasis here is on plot, objectives and NPC interaction. You’ll spend the first 10 hours of the game indulging in very little combat, though the way in which you solve problems is down to player choice as much as it is about playing to the strengths of your vampiric archetype. Initial quests are more about investigation, getting in and out without being seen or simply speaking to NPCs to gain a further insight into the world you’re playing in (furthermore, XP is awarded for completing objectives rather than individual kills). Thankfully, it’s the NPC interaction that really makes the game shine. While the environments don’t showcase the source engine in quite the same jaw-dropping sense as HL2, the NPCs easily balance out the scales. Taking it a step further than KotOR, dialogue is not just voiced-over; each member of the NPC cast visually acts it out. It’s worth mentioning that when engaging in conversation with NPCs, the camera moves to frame the NPCs face. I found this a bit disorientating at first, but you can see why the developer’s have done it this way – not only does it showcase their hard work on appropriate muscular contortions of the face, but it totally draws you into the conversation. Vampires with social skills such as persuasion and seduction will find conversations all the more rewarding, since additional dialogue responses are made available, often allowing one to bypass combat entirely. Social skills make up a large percentage of all character progression, so you could say it’s a rather large part of the game. Your Humanity score also factors into this – queue inevitable breakdown of game mechanics…

Your Vampiric avatar is largely defined by his proficiency at various feats. These feats are split into Combat, Covert, Mental and Soak groups respectively. Each feat is actually the sum of a specific skill and the physical/mental/social ability tied to it. So for example, if you have a perception score of 2 and a firearms score of 3, your ranged combat feat is actually 5. Disciplines - such as Auspex - can be used to raise your perception ability even higher and therefore your ability to deal damage with a ranged weapon. The really interesting thing though – and the reason I love this system so much – is that some skills and abilities effect more than one feat. To continue the example, perception is also tied to the inspection feat. So you might find yourself infiltrating an office and find a computer switched on. If you fail at hacking the computer, switching on Auspex and surveying your surroundings could highlight a note, which contains the password you need. However, using disciplines costs blood…

No RPG would be complete without some kind of resource to fuel your powers and in the case of Vampire it’s the inevitable need to feed. Its here where the game transcends its quest based core and the Masquerade styled GTA-isms are thrust to the forefront. Blood is needed for a number of reasons in addition to the main factor mentioned above. First of all, the more you have of it, the quicker your health will replenish and secondly, if you don’t have any of it, you’ll frenzy. Your humanity score represents how much of your, erm… humanity is retained from your former life on a scale of 1 to 10. The lower this score gets, the deeper you descend into your inner beast until you finally lose it, game over, the end. Humanity is lost through killing innocents - and this includes forgetting to release those fangs in time. You can gain it back through completion of certain quests or can buy it back in the same way you increase your myriad of abilities, skills and disciplines. But anyway, frenzying is generally not good, since you lose control of your character as he/she goes off on an insane blood rampage and sinks their teeth into the nearest mortal – even if it happens to be a police officer. This normally triggers a police hunting notice and/or a Masquerade Violation. 5 violations and the Prince will initiate a blood hunt, where every Vampire in LA comes to find and end you. Great.

Further adding to that ‘immersive sim’ quality is your Haven. After an optional training level, you begin the game proper in your own murky apartment suite, which contains a computer (for checking your own in-game email account), a fridge (to dump excess inventory items), a radio and a TV (for checking out the amusing in-game TV and Radio programs). You also have your own mailbox, which is regularly used as a drop off point for mission-specific items or payment for certain jobs etc. You’ll find yourself coming back to your haven for various reasons, but I shan’t go into too much detail about that…

I used the term ‘hub’ quite early on. To elaborate on the game’s structure somewhat, there are four of these ‘hub’ locations which act as launch pads for the various quests you’ll undertake. Some quests take place across multiple locations however, with additional zones highlighted on the ‘world map’ when necessary. Inter-world map travel is sensibly achieved via Taxi-fare, and you’ll find yourself hopping from hub to hub in a ‘day-in-the-life-of-a-vampire’ type way. In terms of faithfulness to the source material and overall immersion is concerned, Bloodlines is at the top of it’s class…

BUT…

While a die hard RPGer and Deus Ex advocate like myself can overlook certain issues, those expecting combat on a par with more genre specific titles will be disappointed. Melee combat is OK, with different slashes and thrusts executed with various directional key/left mouse combinations. You can also block and manoeuvre in real time, which lends the game a greater level of accessibly than more traditional turn-based RPGs. Apparently, the more varied your attacks, the less chance your foe has of successfully blocking, but in practise, combat often turns into a Daley Thompson’s Decathlon style hammering of the left mouse button whilst swinging the camera around to catch enemies behind you with a well-timed left/right wide arc sweep. Arming a melee weapon switches the game to a third person perspective, which feels well judged from a gameplay point of view – you quite often find yourself surrounded.

It’s the ranged combat that I think will irritate the most, at least if you can’t accept that even though movement and aiming is in real time, weapon damage and accuracy is defined by the scores on your character sheet. Moving behind cover will stop the enemy hitting you, but if you have a high enough defence, it’s perfectly acceptable to just stand there, firing, reloading, firing, reloading, until either you or your opponent fall over. It’s not so much a problem of the game, more an issue that more action orientated gamers need to be made aware of. Do not be deceived by the Source Visuals – this is an RPG and therefore a primarily numbers driven game! By way of consolation, the range of weaponry available is quite extensive. Katanas, Axes, Sledgehammers, Magnums, Steyr-Augs, Flamethrowers… Enough to make the most hardened guns-game enthusiast moist. Then there are the disciplines to spice things up…

And finally, the biggest BUT of them all… For all the praise I’ve gushed out in the last 1000+ words, only the most forgiving gamer could overlook the huge number of bugs still infesting what is supposed to be a finished game: Enemies that stop reacting, quests that don’t work, graphical glitches, spelling mistakes… the list goes on. Thankfully, the one quest, which apparently needed to have a file in the game directory manually updated, has been fixed in the latest patch, but the game still maintains a rough, unfinished feel that drops the game from true greatness. Personally, I didn’t experience anything that a reload and/or occasion reference to an online walkthrough couldn’t solve, but this really shouldn’t have to be the case.

Conceptually at least, Bloodlines is one of the greatest RPGs I’ve ever played and is a strong candidate for my game of the year. There’s enough open-ended-ness here to warrant another run-through – the game has a myriad of different endings dependent on your actions throughout the entirety of the game and many of the quests can be solved in different – not necessarily good or evil – ways. There are a few wasted opportunities here and there, but it’s hard to tell whether these are shortcoming of the game or down to character restrictions. At the very least there’s reason enough to try the game as a different clan. Some have said there’s an emphasis towards combat in the later stages of the game, but again, this probably depends on how you’ve approached the game. I guarantee my experience will not be exactly the same as yours…

My last memories of the game (which are assuredly spoiler free) involve surveying the vicinity with my maxed-out Auspex discipline, using blood buff to improve my stealth feat and brutally forcing my Katana through the hearts of my prey, one by one. I remember the satisfaction of creeping up to a supposedly elite warrior and draining them of every last drop of blood. I recall the epic fights… Just me against 8 or more opponents, frantically turning on Celerity and going bullet time with a magnum… I remember thinking I found a safe place to hide from the Werewolf, only for it to crash through the wall, sending the cubicles flying. I remember so much…

…and I think that counts for a lot.

Presentation	7
Distinctly rough around the edges, but NPCs are truly brought to life with the Source engine’s funky facial expression tech. Environments are immersive, though a bit drab at times.
Gameplay	7
Bugs, bugs and more bugs, but you can’t ignore the level of drama this game serves up, nor the level of player freedom or integrated ‘character’ development available.
Value	9
A nice long length for any RPG (two and a half weeks of quite dedicated gaming) and you still won’t see it all the first time through.
Benchmark	8
So very nearly the definitive PC RPG experience, let down by bugs and a general feeling of unfinished-ness. Give it 6 months and you could probably raise the final score to a 9.
Score	8
A game to really get your teeth stuck into, but beware of the bugs…

Buy 'Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines' from GAME!

Minimum Spec	Reviewed on
Pentium 1.2 GHz or Equivalent 384Mb RAM 3.3GB hard disk space	2.53ghz P4 1gb RAM ATI Radeon 9600 Pro (128mb)