Review Vampire review at Worthplaying

[Spazmo]

Tags: Troika Games; Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines

<a href=http://www.worthplaying.com>WorthPlaying</a> have also <a href=http://www.worthplaying.com/article.php?sid=21682&mode=thread&order=0>reviewed</a> Bloodlines. Their rating is <b>7.7/10</b>.<blockquote>In Bloodlines, the player can make no more than five Masquerade infractions, though points can be regained in certain quests. If the Masquerade is broken so that the player no longer has any Masquerade points left, the game's over. Masquerade points are fairly difficult to lose, as you pretty much have to intentionally lose one, since the game is broken up into three zones. The zone most often encountered is the Masquerade zone, in which attacking anybody in plain sight is forbidden, and killing a human reduces the player's humanity. Combat zones do away with those worries and make it so you can pretty much do anything without fear of breaking the Masquerade, and you can kill anybody, innocent or not, without repercussion. Finally, there are zones, such as those that contain important characters, in which you cannot even draw a weapon.</blockquote>I don't strictly understand the point of having Elysium areas in the game. There's no real good reason to make them anything more than regular Masquerade areas.
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Spotted at: <A HREF="http://www.ve3d.ign.com">Voodoo Extreme</A>

 

[Sol Invictus]

It's part of Vampire: The Masquerade.

 

[Jinxed]

Serves another nifty purpose in the game: You cannot kill key quest givers early in the game or anytime. Ala Baldurs Gate.

 

[Sol Invictus]

What do you think it's in Masquerade for? The storyteller (dungeon master) designates areas as Elysium when he doesn't want his characters killing his plot critical NPCs. It's a pivotal part of the game.

 

[dojoteef]

Yeah, which kind of sucks. There was a vampire that pissed my character off, and I said I would kill that vampire. I kept going through the dialog saying I'd kill that person, and at the last dialog option I got just one possible response: "If this wasn't Elysium... so what do I have to do." So I ended up doing a quest (for no fucking reason as far as I could tell as well).

SPOILER

Did I really have to find out that Jeanette and Therese were the same person. Why wouldn't it let me kil Therese after completeing the Ocean Hotel thing and turning down the Art Gallery slashings. It doesn't change anything, especially since she says that Tung would come out of hiding if I did kill her.

END SPOILER

Well since I haven't beaten the game yet, I guess the NPC that I wanted to kill might have an important role later on, but so far it seems to be a shitty implementation.

 

[roguefrog]

That shit is WACK!

 

[Volourn]

The longer the game is out the lower the reviews come. We've had a few 7's now... Will next week bring the 6s?...

This does not bode well. Not well at all. Espicially when the BIG DAY tm is coming up soon...

 

[Elwro]

My thoughts exactly. And each day the reviewers seem to have played a bigger portion of the game, so I think the reviews are getting more reliable.
Getting a 7.7 on a gaming site is very low nowadays, right?

 

[undead dolphin hacker]

Eh, I'm sure the bugginess/shitty performance of the game is getting to the reviewers. Plus the ending isn't really satisfying (from what I've heard), and ending on a sour note is never very good for a game's score. The soundwork is also amateurish crap, aside from the voices.

It also doesn't help that Half-Life 2, which isn't even an RPG, has a more compelling story than Bloodlines after a couple hours of play on each.

I know one thing: never again will I make a Troika game a day-one purchase.

 

[Dhruin]

Meh. It's got plenty of flaws but it's still the best new game I've played in a while. If it didn't have some flickering textures and some slowdowns but was more twitch-based with no decent dialogue trees it would have been hailed as a Deus Ex killer and given huge scores. I'll take this compromise.

 

[Otaku_Hanzo]

Meh. It's got plenty of flaws but it's still the best new game I've played in a while. If it didn't have some flickering textures and some slowdowns but was more twitch-based with no decent dialogue trees it would have been hailed as a Deus Ex killer and given huge scores. I'll take this compromise.

I hear ya, and agree. I love the game despite all the flaws. Even the respawn areas haven't bothered me much. I find it funny that alot of people are bitching about unavoidable combat when, with my 8 (now 10) sneaking, I've been able to slip past alot of combat. Even the Warrens. Of course I also found a major bug from all that though, but that's in another post. All in all, I like the game. I just hope they patch it and patch it good. It does need it.

 

[undead dolphin hacker]

Eh, the combat could afford to borrow a couple things from Deus Ex, like no forced third person melee combat and a more forgiving ranged combat system.

And I find melee combat to be very "twitchy." Much moreso than ranged combat, which feels like the first level of Rainbow Six with the utterly gigantic reticles due to having little ranged skill. So yeah, I wouldn't mind seeing the ranged combat become a little more "twitchy" if it meant I could theoretically make a kill at range, instead of using guns as melee weapons which require ammo til halfway through the game.

And the sound effects are mega-cheesy. I think I mentioned that before.

It's alright. Nowhere near as special and fun as it could be, but decent nonetheless. I'm not sure if that's because of the setting's strength or Troika's talent, though. Right now I'm leaning toward the former.

Best "new game" in awhile? Not an icecube's chance in hell. If you're only counting RPGs, then sure. If you're looking at computer gaming in general, no frickin' way. If you're looking at cross-platform gaming, Bloodlines is even worse.

 

[Seven]

Meh. It's got plenty of flaws but it's still the best new game I've played in a while. If it didn't have some flickering textures and some slowdowns but was more twitch-based with no decent dialogue trees it would have been hailed as a Deus Ex killer and given huge scores. I'll take this compromise.

I hear ya, and agree. I love the game despite all the flaws. Even the respawn areas haven't bothered me much. I find it funny that alot of people are bitching about unavoidable combat when, with my 8 (now 10) sneaking, I've been able to slip past alot of combat. Even the Warrens. Of course I also found a major bug from all that though, but that's in another post. All in all, I like the game. I just hope they patch it and patch it good. It does need it.

I find it interesting too, I was actually able to sneak past most of the major combat areas in the sewers with a sneak of 4, so a lot of the comabt isn't exactly forced nor is it unavoidable.

 

[Dhruin]

Best "new game" in awhile? Not an icecube's chance in hell. If you're only counting RPGs, then sure. If you're looking at computer gaming in general, no frickin' way. If you're looking at cross-platform gaming, Bloodlines is even worse.

Well, I did say it was the best new game I had played in a while (and I do primarily play RPGs) but I'm curious...what's been so frickin' fantastic that I've obviously missed by your reckoning?

 

[Otaku_Hanzo]

Well, I did say it was the best new game I had played in a while (and I do primarily play RPGs) but I'm curious...what's been so frickin' fantastic that I've obviously missed by your reckoning?

Well, I can't speak for undead, but I can think of some real winners. I think Bloodlines is the best RPG to come around in a long time, sure. But if we're going to break it down to other genres, I'm gonna have to go with Far Cry. I haven't really had a chance to play much else in the way of new games this year due to severe financial issues.

I went over to my friend's today and played some Halflife 2 and, while I did enjoy it, I just felt it wasn't worth a six year wait. Yes, the game is gorgeous, but it's just standard FPS fare with pretty graphics and a bit more story. Heck, I got more enjoyment out of my first couple of hours with Far Cry then I did with Halflife 2. Far Cry is definitely the best FPS I've ever played. Each level has a few different ways you could approach it, the AI is second to none and quite a challenge, and it kept me entertained all the way to the end with the exception of the last level. That was rather disappointing.

I will admit, however, that the airboat level in HL2 was insanely fun. :D

Back to the topic though, I do think Bloodlines to be the best RPG in quite awhile. I haven't gotten to the end yet, but even if it turns out to be as bad as people are saying, I don't think it's going to change my stance on this. Sure it's alot more linear than most of us would like, but the multitude of ways to approach every quest more than makes up for it in my eyes. Well, that and the superb writing and voice acting.

 

[suibhne]

Back to the topic though, I do think Bloodlines to be the best RPG in quite awhile. I haven't gotten to the end yet, but even if it turns out to be as bad as people are saying, I don't think it's going to change my stance on this. Sure it's alot more linear than most of us would like, but the multitude of ways to approach every quest more than makes up for it in my eyes. Well, that and the superb writing and voice acting.

That flexibility really vanishes near the conclusion of the game (which I'm fast approaching). I've ended up still liking the game, partly because I genuinely enjoy the melee combat with a katana and maxed Celerity, but it's seems much more like a latter-day Deus Ex set in VTM than it does a real RPG.