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| Reviewed by: David Rudy 27 Dec 2004 Vampire: The Masquerade-Bloodlines (PC)
| |  White Wolf entertainment’s notebook style roleplaying game gets an overhaul onto the PC for some live in depth fun as you start off creating your own vampire. Rumor has it that Valve loaned the developers the Half Life 2 engine for this title also, so does this make this a Half Life 2 clone…hardly. The game is set in a rich environment, thanks to this engine which helps put you right into the role of the character you develop. However will this usurp the pen and paper, or will the old fashioned way be slightly better?
There are seven different vampires found in White Wolf’s pen and paper version, so you will start there for your model for character. This is very tailored to how you want to play, if you want a vampire that can beat the crap out of someone you can, if you want a grotesque looking one, there is a vampire for you. No matter what type of character you want to player there is a class of vampire that will suit your needs. Now one thing I didn’t like was you could not alter your character’s physical appearance only their clothes. This was pretty lame, what’s the point of going through all this customization if you don’t get to do it 100 percent. The story is set in modern day Los Angeles, and the story is quite extensive and will suck you in, as you deal with different factions of vampires, where you need to decide which one you will eventually align with. With so many options in the storyline, there is a possibility of four different endings, which helps add to the replayability. Not to mention the first time through took me 24 hours to complete, so you will definitely have a long lasting game on your hands here. You will move through the story completing quests and side quests, all to help play out the story and earning experience for your character. The quests can range from fetch quests, to battle quests, to stealth and/or investigation type missions. So you will have a wide variety of missions to keep you entertained. The combat system is a little backwards though as when using a gun you can only attack one opponent at a time, and the weapons seem underpowered as well, then again you are going against vampires.
Graphically since this game uses the Half Life 2 engine, it looks pretty good, not as good as Half Life 2, but pretty darn good. Facial expressions look phenomenal which help bring characters to life throughout. I was a bit disappointed in the cut scenes as they seemed a bit rushed. I also noticed some flickering of player models in animation during gameplay. There were plenty of environmental surroundings helping to bring to life a gothic Los Angeles to put you right in the middle of the action. One thing I did notice though in the streets, there are no cars, I have been to LA, and one thing they are most certainly not lacking is cars. Overall the graphics are pretty good, not as good as similar games of this type, but good enough for this title to bring the environment and characters to life, despite a few small glitches.
Audibly the voice acting is absolutely superb. This was a great job in truly bringing the game to life. I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of spoken content, and how well it was done. Many licensed tracks were used to produce a rock soundtrack for the title which fits in very well with the game. Sound affects also are quite nice and bring to life certain environments, especially the mission where you are investigating a haunted mansion. Very nicely done in the sound department, especially the music you are presented with when you enter late night hangouts in game.
Vampire is a classic roleplaying game in every sense of the word, with open ended missions and four different endings you get to control the outcome of the story. With all the interesting characters you will run into in a sprawling cityscape environment, you will be more than pleasantly surprised with this title if you are a fan of the White Wolf pen and paper game. Though having some issues with combat, and the game crashing out occasionally, and a few graphical glitches here and there, this is one of the best PC roleplaying games I have played. With tons of replayability and a long interesting storyline, this will be a quality game four times over.
Rating: 8/10 |
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Copyright (c) 2007 Rock Star Media Works, Inc. All rights reserved.
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