Good Bloodlines review
Good Bloodlines review
Review - posted by Vault Dweller on Wed 14 December 2005, 01:50:30
Tags: Troika Games; Vampire: The Masquerade - BloodlinesAfter posting that KOTOR 2 review, I had to restore the balance in the universe by posting Richard Cobbett's Bloodlines review. Why? It's nice to read an intelligent opinion every now and then, even if it was written awhile ago.
Importantly, however, doing all this evil stuff is entirely your own decision. You /could. have bought a bag of blood to sup on; you could have persuaded that vampire groupie to leave town rather than snapping her head back for elevenses. Moral choices are always yours to make, but not necessarily as clear-cut. You can try to play the saint or you can go rampaging until your mouth smells like an abattoir and your humanity is a tortured stub of charcoal evil; but like it or not, you’re in for some tough decisions.
...
The characters play a huge part in making Vampire so good. Much more than simple mission terminals, each and every one features some of the best, most realistic, and damn-funny writing ever heard in an RPG - superbly acted by many familiar voices, and brought to life with Half-Life 2’s soon-to-be-standard character engine. From bickering twins Therese and Jeanette to your hard-as-nails mentor Jack and the whining of Steve Buscemi-esque fixer ghoul Mercurio ("Is that my rib? Oh god, it IS my rib!"), almost every single one is worth talking to. True, they’re not quite up to the visual quality of Half-Life 2 - you can’t count skin-pores, like you can with the G-Man, but make no mistake - there are many, many, many of them to meet up with, all excellent, and amongst the best characters ever created for an RPG.
...
More pressingly, as with Troika’s last two games - and please don’t blame the publishers again, guys, you’ve had three of them and every single one of your games has needed an urgent patch - it clearly needed more time in the QA labs. While superbly written, the in-game text is riddled with typos, while the scripting contains several showstopper bugs that you have to open up a cheat console to get past - including, on occasion, the tutorial! Unacceptable. This isn’t just the best RPG of the year, it’s one of the few capable of reaching Planescape and Fallout levels - and jaw-droppingly sloppy glitches like this smack of an ill-advised rush to make an end of the year deadline.I disagree with certain things, but overall, it's a damn good review. At least, there is no doubt that he played the entire game.
Importantly, however, doing all this evil stuff is entirely your own decision. You /could. have bought a bag of blood to sup on; you could have persuaded that vampire groupie to leave town rather than snapping her head back for elevenses. Moral choices are always yours to make, but not necessarily as clear-cut. You can try to play the saint or you can go rampaging until your mouth smells like an abattoir and your humanity is a tortured stub of charcoal evil; but like it or not, you’re in for some tough decisions.
...
The characters play a huge part in making Vampire so good. Much more than simple mission terminals, each and every one features some of the best, most realistic, and damn-funny writing ever heard in an RPG - superbly acted by many familiar voices, and brought to life with Half-Life 2’s soon-to-be-standard character engine. From bickering twins Therese and Jeanette to your hard-as-nails mentor Jack and the whining of Steve Buscemi-esque fixer ghoul Mercurio ("Is that my rib? Oh god, it IS my rib!"), almost every single one is worth talking to. True, they’re not quite up to the visual quality of Half-Life 2 - you can’t count skin-pores, like you can with the G-Man, but make no mistake - there are many, many, many of them to meet up with, all excellent, and amongst the best characters ever created for an RPG.
...
More pressingly, as with Troika’s last two games - and please don’t blame the publishers again, guys, you’ve had three of them and every single one of your games has needed an urgent patch - it clearly needed more time in the QA labs. While superbly written, the in-game text is riddled with typos, while the scripting contains several showstopper bugs that you have to open up a cheat console to get past - including, on occasion, the tutorial! Unacceptable. This isn’t just the best RPG of the year, it’s one of the few capable of reaching Planescape and Fallout levels - and jaw-droppingly sloppy glitches like this smack of an ill-advised rush to make an end of the year deadline.
