Review IGN approves of Bloodlines

[Spazmo]

Tags: Troika Games; Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines

After GameSpy's review, <a href=http://www.ign.com>IGN</a> now chimes in with their <a href=http://pc.ign.com/articles/567/567009p1.html>evaluation</a> of the new Vampire RPG from Troika. They come to much the same conclusion: kickass RPG, but some bugginess holds it back. The numerical score is <b>8.4 out of 10</b>.<blockquote>And what's great about having all of these options is that it can become a very different game depending on what you choose. You'll have separate abilities for intimidation, seduction, haggling, and so forth, allowing additional dialogue options. Just outside your apartment in Santa Monica, for example, is a well-dressed guy who has no quests to give you or things to sell you. If you didn't have high enough intimidation, you'd never know that you could shake him down for cash and even convince him to give you his fancy watch. You won't be able to talk your way through the game, but you'll get plenty of amusement from the imaginative threats and cheesy come-ons.</blockquote>"Hey, baby... do you put on excessive amounts of mascara, dress up like a schoolgirl and hang out in this gothy dive often?"
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Thanks to <b>butsomuch</b> for the heads up.

 

[kumquatq3]

The review seems to indicate you can't pull a fallout and get through the game with out firing a shot.

And I thought they axed this bit:

If you do this five times, you lose the game.

I just thought a group of hunters came after you now[/quote]

 

[dipdipdip]

The review seems to indicate you can't pull a fallout and get through the game with out firing a shot.

Unfortunately, it's true. I've already been forced (and literally locked) into two combat situations. What stinks is my Toreador, having seduced his way through the game up to that point, was totally unprepared.

And I thought they axed this bit:

If you do this five times, you lose the game.

I just thought a group of hunters came after you now

Well, you're both right. The game warns you that hunters may come after you, but you do indeed have "five lives," so to speak.

 

[kumquatq3]

Thanks

 

[Whipporowill]

Make sure to use blood buffs - it helps, and while most combat is unavoidable, all isn't. All clans have some sort of discipline useful in combat, the Torrie for one has celerity for crying out loud...

There's also a lot of Masquerade Redemption points to be gotten in the game, so it's not as simple as "5 lives", you can basically breach it a lot of times, as long as you don't go up to 5 and keep getting the redemption point quests.

 

[dipdipdip]

All right. That's good to know.

...And yes, Celerity was how I survived my first fight -- me and my butter knife wouldn't have made it out alive otherwise.

 

[dojoteef]

I find it interesting that IGN gave the game an 8.4 and their readers gave it a 7.7, while Gamespot gave the game a 7.7 and their readers gave it a 9.3. I guess people can't seem to make their minds up about the game. At least there aren't any truly abismal scores for the game (at least not yet, but who knows).

 

[space captain]

its got some problems (the damn doors come to mind), but overall its a pretty good RPG... a good bit more lite than Fallout, but this is all we got to work with at the moment

BTW, ranged combat is utterly useless - but thankfully I intuited this quite early on.... go melee ALL THE WAY

my Tremere (blood wizard) guy is actually fairly good at whupping ass, and I havent spent hardly any points on that stuff

 

[undead dolphin hacker]

I find it interesting that IGN gave the game an 8.4 and their readers gave it a 7.7, while Gamespot gave the game a 7.7 and their readers gave it a 9.3. I guess people can't seem to make their minds up about the game. At least there aren't any truly abismal scores for the game (at least not yet, but who knows).

It's due to the differing readerbases:

IGN = children who's definition of a good game is the letters "O, A, H, and L" in some organization on a box.

Gamespot = adults, as long as you stay out of the forums.

 

[Sol Invictus]

Jason Ocampo is an idiot. I don't see how he qualifies as an adult.

 

[Michael_Wolf]

I don't get it why they let this guy (who also reviewed HL2) review Bloodlines. He obviously expected some FPS while playing Bloodlines.

 

[Sol Invictus]

GameSpot consists of what I would refer to as "unqualified professionals". GameSpy and IGN have better staff, by far. For starters, they don't let the FPS-enthusiasts review wargames. GameSpot on the other hand let Ocampo review Dominions and look what score he gave it.

 

[Michael_Wolf]

Too bad I am still waiting for my copy of Bloodlines... I really would like to write a review of my own. Ok, I am probably biased, too, but I know what to expect from a CRPG. Most "professional" reviewers are obviously not willing to review a third/first-person RPG differntly from a FPS. The GameSpot guy even disapproved the fact that the combat was relying on the character's stats instead of the player's reflexes...

 

[Otaku_Hanzo]

And people wonder why I despise Gamespot.

 

[trystero]

Bugginess...

Not sure if this has been said in other Bloodlines threads, but I see so many complaints about bugs in the finished game... Didn't Troika have months to polish this? And then several more months after that, since they couldn't release before Half Life 2? Or am I mistaken? Haven't been following this game very much, although it sounds great as an rpg.

 

[miserychick]

They've gone over this before, but basically: While Troika may have had a month or two extra while waiting for Valve to release HL2, Activision may not have been willing to shell out the extra money. *Or* they could have been using any extra time to fix more serious bugs, and left less important ones for a patch.

But at this point, it's really all speculation anyway.

 

[Spazmo]

And in any case, there's no real excuse for bugs in a game. At the end of the day, someone messed up and that's a bad thing.

 

[Volourn]

Hahaa. Exitium continues his fanboy ways. Anyone who likes BL is smart; those who like it but don't rate it perfect are stupid.

As for bugs; from I've gathered; the bugs while existent aren't completely off the wack like TOEE's bugs were. Anyone who expected no bugs is onc rack.

That is all.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Re: Bugginess...

Not sure if this has been said in other Bloodlines threads, but I see so many complaints about bugs in the finished game... Didn't Troika have months to polish this? And then several more months after that, since they couldn't release before Half Life 2? Or am I mistaken? Haven't been following this game very much, although it sounds great as an rpg.

Here's the bugs I've seen so far:

• Rats hanging in the air after I suck the juicy middle out of them.
• I had a pitiful human shot out from under me while I was feeding, and I hung in the air for maybe a second before the game figured out I shouldn't be in the air.
• Typos. I've noticed a few so far.
• I talked Jeanette in to killing Therese, but Therese killed Jeanette. This may or may not be a bug, I'm not sure. Might just be an outcome of doing it.

Things that really disappointed me:

• Therese mentions Jeanette was having an affair with a nosferatu. Rather than just mentioning this, a cut scene would have been nice.

 

[Whipporowill]

Saint, that's pretty spoilery... heh.

As for the cutscene... dissapointing? Wtf... a cutscene, what for?

 

[Otaku_Hanzo]

He wanted to see Jeanette getting her freak on with a Nosferatu. The pervert.

 

[trystero]

Hmm, I was going to check out Troika's site, but it appears to be down:

" This account has surpassed its bandwidth allocation at the present time."

Guess this is proving popular for Troika heh.

 

[Whipporowill]

I guess a lot of people are looking for the official forums for Bloodlines, which there currently are none - yet. I think Activision is setting something up att http://www.vampirebloodlines.com - but it's a bit late for that! http://bloodlines.dilapidation.com is about as official as it gets now. Go there if anyone has issues et c.

 

[dojoteef]

Re: Bugginess...

• I talked Jeanette in to killing Therese, but Therese killed Jeanette. This may or may not be a bug, I'm not sure. Might just be an outcome of doing it.

When I did that, Therese died. I don't think it is a bug though, because if you notice there is a struggle, and I think your previous dialog and action is taken into account as to who wins the struggle. Then again I might be wrong.

 

[Sol Invictus]

You're not wrong. What you say in the dialogue affects the outcome.

I managed to coax both of them to cooperate. How's that for awesome, eh?