Editorial Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines Retrospective

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Tags: Troika Games; Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines

<p>Games On Net came up with a <a href="http://games.on.net/article/10671/Retro_Roadtest_-_Vampire_The_Masquerade__Bloodlines_PC" target="_blank">rather brief retrospective</a> on Troika's <strong>Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines.</strong></p>
<blockquote>
<p>But as anyone who has played Bloodlines will tell you, cramped and unconvincing levels are the least of its problems. In its native state, sans patches, this game is a broken unfinished mess. For the first 20 hours or so, it&rsquo;s not a huge deal: the performance isn&rsquo;t great and there are a few wonky quests here and there, but by and large things are pretty excellent. In a lot of ways, this part of the game feels very much like the original Deus Ex &ndash; there&rsquo;s the same sense of depth, the same multiplicity in problem solving.<br /><br />After the 20 hour mark, things take a turn for the worse. The much, much worse. Creative quests and thoughtful level design (the Ocean House Hotel remains a paragon of both) are gradually replaced by tedious combat slogs through endless corridors of respawning supernatural goons. There are boss fights. Stupid, awful, frustrating boss fights that are totally out of keeping with the rest of the game. Bugs become more frequent, and more serious. Some are game-breaking. In fact, there is one bug that is both game-breaking AND nearly unavoidable.<br /><br />The official patches fix a few of these issues, but if you&rsquo;re gonna play Bloodlines, you really need to install the unofficial patches as well. Of course, even they don&rsquo;t fix every problem. The game won&rsquo;t crash as much, but you&rsquo;ll still have to do those sewer crawls and boss fights I mentioned. So my advice is to cheat. Noclip your way through the sewers and godmode the bosses. That way you can effectively skip all the terrible bits and concentrate on enjoying the story, which is the only part of the game that doesn&rsquo;t get worse as it goes along.<br /><br />Oh what? You think cheating is wrong? Well, alright then. Enjoy your tedium!</p>
</blockquote>
<p>My advice is to use your brian. Sneak by enemies you don't want to fight. Use powerful disciplines (dementation, celerity, animalism,domination) on those you can't avoid. Max out those disciplines asap.Take care that you have maxed out ranged combat skills by the time you fight Gr&uuml;nfeld Bach.</p>
<p>Spotted at: <a href="http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/100306-vampire-the-masquerade-bloodlines-retrospective.html">GB</a></p>

 

[DriacKin]

That way you can effectively skip all the terrible bits and concentrate on enjoying the story, which is the only part of the game that doesn ’ t get worse as it goes along.

Bullshit.

 

[SCO]

Generation retarded

 

[Excommunicator]

I really enjoyed Bloodlines for the most part, but I pretty much agree about all the issues. It was still fun in spite of these flaws, but it could have been a lot better especially if it had kept with the design ideas of the early game rather than go all-out tedious and badly optimised combat.

Would have been very interested in a sequel if it had focused around keeping the strengths and fixing the bugs and problems

 

[bonescraper]

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The only really annoying part was that fucking hotel filled with Sabbat goons, because it was unavoidable. Obfuscation didn't work there either for the most part. The rest of the game was uber easy with my stealthy, meele Malkavian build. Stealth kills ftw.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

The only really annoying part was that fucking hotel filled with Sabbat goons, because it was unavoidable. Obfuscation didn't work there either for the most part.

Obfuscation works. It's just that there are a number of sabbat using Auspex constantly. Headshot them from afar to get rid of the problem.

 

[laclongquan]

The most fucking annoying thing is that if we dont let go the delectable piece of ass, aka Heather, she got her ass killed in that hotel and no way we can save her. That bug me. i always have to let her go if I dont want to watch that gorgeous bust got pierced. Sheeesssh!

 

[Phelot]

I'd say it's pretty accurate though I wouldn't recommend cheating (except for "money")

It's not that bad to push through the sewers and the boss fights. Yes they suck, but I never once considered stopping because of them.

 

[laclongquan]

Actually no. The writer is a one horrible gamer who spout back well worn argument.

The bugs are guilty as charged. I wont argue about bugs.

Jeannette? Multipersonalities is nice but boyo, if he doesnt know about VV's greatness he's one blind SOB. Or just be afraid of admitting to ogle her scantily-cladded body. Jeannette pay you through the nose for doing her jobs but V.V? V.V pay you shit all. No money no nothing. Some poems, and one pic. I really admire her manipulating nature/skill, I really do. I mean, we are talking about badass main vamp being manipulated into doing her errants for illusions. heh.

Ocean Hotel? Overrated. It's one scary motherfucker of a dungeon, well designed, but nothing worth wow over. If you talk about atmostphere the Hollywood graveyard got it all. or the mansion of that Malk elder. Or fighting the golem in CHinese theatre. or being an obfuscated Malk ghost through any ghostly area. Lots of memorable areas.

The sewer lead to the Nosferatu's hideout is one long piece of frustrating tunnel, I give you that. Mind you, at 3rd playthrough it's recognizable enough. But it's a most frustrating area of the game, true.

Combat? easy as pie even for me who is NOT an action player. Maybe you play melee then? And rushing straight in without checking out the area? I dont know, I use knife/claws/guns and nothing gave me troubles. Oh sure, bosses are hard but that's just bosses. Ah, dont forget to use sneak. I cant say for non-sneak gamers since I found non-sneak is idiotic way to play combat.

If the comment is not reg-require I would give those fuckers a piece of my mind. Since I cant bother with reg, Codex got that benefit instead.

 

[Hobo Elf]

That's right, keep on bitching about the last great RPG ever made.

 

[hoochimama]

SMA pretty much ruined VV for me.

 

[Stakhanov]

I can agree with the problems they mentioned, but cheating to get past? Wow, total noobery. The only problem I had with making it through the game was a bug, not the bosses.

 

[Radisshu]

Bloodlines becomes ridiculously easy if you've got celerity and good melee skills, because you can avoid anything and feed on pretty much any humanoid enemy if you get too hurt.

 

[Murk]

Bloodlines combat is always easy save for a boss fight if you go in unprepared.

I played the game without the unofficial patch and had only 2 bugs, 1 was inconsequential and the other was easily fixed. Aw yeah.

Also, the combat is bad but not unbearable. Morrowind combat was insanely worse.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Shitty article from a retarded moron.

 

[Multidirectional]

Shitty article from a retarded moron.

 

[MicoSelva]

Bloodlines combat mechanics may be flawed, but one of the shoot-outs I experienced in that game (my weak-ass Toreador vs some gangsters, in an underground garrage) will forever remain in my top 5 most memorable combat moments in any RPG. Pure awesome