Review Bloodlines lapped up by ReviewGamer

[Saint_Proverbius]

Tags: Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines

There's <A href="http://www.reviewgamer.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=192&Itemid=43&limit=1&limitstart=0">a review</a> over at <A href="http://www.reviewgamer.com/">ReviewGamer</a> that spreads heaping helpings of love upon <a href="http://www.vampire-bloodlines.com">Bloodlines</a>, though it does mention the combat isn't that great. The final tally is an <b>8.8</b>, and here's part of the stuff about handling quests:
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<blockquote>While much of the gameplay revolves around a simple ‘talk and fetch' mission system, the sheer number of possibilities for solving these means they never feel old or rehashed, and instead subtly encourage us to view the game world as a real place where we can use our various abilities and powers in creative and innovative ways. It feels a bit naughty the first time you realise you can creep right around someone and break into the building they're guarding. Take into consideration that you could've seduced the guard, intimidated him into giving you the key, used invisibility to walk right past, removed bars from a neighbouring car park and then gained access - and you'll see what I'm talking about. All the missions have an extensive range of possible solutions, utilising a varied mixture of objects, surroundings and character based abilities - which is a very impressive feat in itself.</blockquote>
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Oh, if only that were true for the whole game.
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Spotted at: <A HREF="http://www.bluesnews.com">Blue's News</A>

 

[Screaming_life]

Oh, if only that were true for the whole game.

Yeah exactly! did they only play santa monica?

i'd give santa monica and most of downtown 8.8 but the rest, if i had any sense i wouldn't have bothered with!

 

[Lomer]

Yeah exactly! did they only play santa monica?

i'd give santa monica and most of downtown 8.8 but the rest, if i had any sense i wouldn't have bothered with!

First, most of the side quests in the four hubs (not only in Santa Monica) were quite good. Second, some of us did bother with the rest of the game and enjoyed it. This makes us insane, I guess.

Seriously, reading the recent complaints about BL I really wonder how could I have missed such plenty of first-class, golden-standard RPGs developed in the last few years, which make BL look like a piece of crap.

 

[suibhne]

Seriously, reading the recent complaints about BL I really wonder how could I have missed such plenty of first-class, golden-standard RPGs developed in the last few years, which make BL look like a piece of crap.

Hey, nobody said there was anything better out there at the moment.

 

[Roqua]

SPOILERS

It still holds true after DT. You can take the Graveyard zombie quest or find the guy a whore. The boat, museum, and Giovanni mansion have multiple solutions. Ect.

I have about 50 exp that I use to raise various attr or skills and do each quest in a multiple of ways, and when I finally do it I usually do it the easiiest way that grants the most, or the same xp and allows me to keep my unspend exp at around 50. So basically I cheat by saving/reloading. But it isn't as easy as it seems since it takes about 5000 hours to reload.

Like on the Metalhead mission, if a guard draws his gun he will stay in the same spot with gun drawn. If the guard next to the stairs does this you are screwed without exiting and reentering. If you kill him, mission over, but if you feed off him a little he will be pushed forward. If you do it 5 times in a row you can push him up aginst the far wall. I didn't have to waste any skill in stealth, which everyone knows is for sissy girls and Maries who wear tight shirts, drink fruity well drinks, and goes to a hair salon instead of a barber.

I think the best graphics in the game is the elevator in DT in my apartment building. It really looks like a real elevator. Every time I get in I am impressed.

My biggest complaint is the fantastically spectacular ultra craptastic combat that must have been hashed out and concieved while fondaling donkey balls and having its big cockasaurus being whacked against Leonard's head.

I wish games would devolve back to the Quest for Glory level of typing in what you want to say instead of picking from dialogue trees. I hate the weak intimidation responses. I would enjoy saying, "Give me your invitation or I will cut of your dick and rape you with it, and then jam it in your ear. Then I will beat your drunken whore wife with it until she is dead. Then I will find every friend and relative of yours and do the same. If you rat on me after I go into the mansion I swear to God I'll stab you in the face with my own dick and then sqeeze your head beatween my butt checks until it pops you sissy rich fuck."

Oh well, viva la progress.

 

[Volourn]

"Give me your invitation or I will cut of your dick and rape you with it, and then jam it in your ear. Then I will beat your drunken whore wife with it until she is dead. Then I will find every friend and relative of yours and do the same. If you rat on me after I go into the mansion I swear to God I'll stab you in the face with my own dick and then sqeeze your head beatween my butt checks until it pops you sissy rich fuck."

That wouldn't intimidate me. I'd be laughing at the blow ahrd spouting such nonsense. Somoene who needs like 5 lines to 'intimidate' someone is weak. Weak, and pathetic.

 

[Shevek]

I think criticisms of the Bloodlines late game are being way way overstated. The game is great in all the hubs. If you wanna see a game that really degenerates into a combat fest quickly, play KoTOR - which got rave reviews here btw (and which I absolutely loved as well). Bloodlines has alot more going for it past Santa Monica than other titles do. Give credit where credit is due people.

 

[protobob]

I like this game a good deal. Enought to restart with a new character after finishing it the first time.

It has it's weak spots, but most games do.

I went with the camirilla ending. My character was a female tremere gunslinger who felt the prince could do no wrong. I thought the ending I got was rather fitting.

 

[Mendoza]

I went with the camirilla ending. My character was a female tremere gunslinger who felt the prince could do no wrong. I thought the ending I got was rather fitting.

Yeah, my greedy Ventrue took the Camarilla ending and was rewarded appropriately.

 

[Screaming_life]

-=:SPOILERS:=-




What annoyed me most about the game was the story wasn't very good and the decisions i made had no impact untill the end and at which point i didn't care anyway.

Whats the point in saving Jeanette if she is never involved in the story again?
Whats the point of being able to tell Le croix to shove his mission up his ass if you have to go and do it anyway?

The "it's got 4 endings" gives the impression that you will have choices to make that will impact on the story but sadly this was only at the end, when like i already said i didn't care about it anymore.

 

[Andyman Messiah]

I think the best graphics in the game is the elevator in DT in my apartment building. It really looks like a real elevator. Every time I get in I am impressed.

Great. Now I'm afraid of getting into my own apartment. My elevator doesn't look like a REAL elevator!

 

[Volourn]

"If you wanna see a game that really degenerates into a combat fest quickly, play KoTOR - which got rave reviews here btw (and which I absolutely loved as well"

No, it doesn't. KOTOR is pretty balanced between combat and non combat through out for it. If you mean the Star Forge, sure there's a lot of combat there; but it wholly makes sense since you are on your arch nemisis' ship, dumb ass. Besdies, even there, you can avoid some direct fighting.

 

[Jinxed]

Whats the point in saving Jeanette if she is never involved in the story again?

Because you can get to screw her

Whats the point of being able to tell Le croix to shove his mission up his ass if you have to go and do it anyway?

Yup, the way the main plot progresses could described as weak at best.

 

[Whipporowill]

Whats the point in saving Jeanette if she is never involved in the story again?

Because you can get to screw her

I for one actually wanted to save her, because I actually felt like I liked her. Do we need to get actual rewards now? If a game can motivate me to like a character (and no, I'm not talking about the boob factor here)enough for me to save him/her, it's doing something right.

 

[Otaku_Hanzo]

I for one actually wanted to save her, because I actually felt like I liked her. Do we need to get actual rewards now? If a game can motivate me to like a character (and no, I'm not talking about the boob factor here)enough for me to save him/her, it's doing something right.

That's exactly how I felt about her, Whip. Alot of the NPCs in this game have had an impact on me one way or another, and that's a good thing. Jack is just fucking awesome. He actually reminds me of a friend of mine in Green Bay. Damsel just reeks of tough bitch and is definitely not someone I'd want to piss off, even if she wasn't a vampire. LaCroix gives me the willies everytime he opens his mouth. Gah. Good voice actor there. V.V. just... wow... that voice... that body.... "Marry me, VV?"

Actually, to be honest, Venus and Damsel appeal more to me than V.V. does. I just love that "Come hither" Mae West voice of hers. Whoo!

 

[Whipporowill]

It's worth mentioning that Jack is voiced by the same guy that does Bender. Awesome casting just at that. I heard Damsel is voiced by the same chick that did Juhani in Kotor, and someone said she did the beach seeress too.

 

[Roqua]

That wouldn't intimidate me. I'd be laughing at the blow ahrd spouting such nonsense. Somoene who needs like 5 lines to 'intimidate' someone is weak. Weak, and pathetic.

What I choose to have a character whose role I am playing say or not, and if it would intimidate you or not isn't relevant. Though I'm damn proud that you have the intestinal fortitude and reslolve to call a vampire with super human strength a blow arhd spouting nonsense. The world is filled with pussies, we need more men like you.

The rules governing my character's intimidation skill, and the rules governing your character's ability to be intimidated are the only relevant factors. As is the much sought after "freedom of choice" a lot of rpgers spout on about. If my choice is limited to a prefabricated line that does not fit the personality of the character I am playing, and is something he would never say, then I'm not actually playing a role, I am being forced into a role.

You aren't intimidated by a vampire ripping your penis off and shoving it in your ear or threatening to squish your head between his butt checks. I don't think it would be crazy to assume others might be. You have a less than five line cut off to your ability to be intimidated. Maybe someone else has 10, maybe someone else has 3. Maybe it isn't what the character says, but the look in his eyes as he says it. Maybe it is the set of his face. It doesn't matter when the outcome is linked to the number that comes after a "feat" called intimidate in regards to VtM:Bl.

The coders could of very well had a dialogue option called intimidate that when chosen links to a pop-up window that you could type your own intimidating line you feel your character would say into. Increasing my illusion of actually playing a character whose personality I have invented and have control over. Because if I can't play a role, and I don't feel like I am playing the role I wanted to, I find it hard to say that I am playing a role playing game.

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

Whats the point in saving Jeanette if she is never involved in the story again?

Because you can get to screw her.

:shock: Why wasn't I informed of this earlier?

::rushes out to buy game::

 

[Jinxed]

Actually, to be honest, Venus and Damsel appeal more to me than V.V. does. I just love that "Come hither" Mae West voice of hers. Whoo!

I almost fell of my chair when I got the dialog to call Venus a "The Cure groupie". From the NPCs I like Skelter and Damsel the most. Skelter has great sounding dialog. Especially about Patty. "The only time that mouth ain't babblin' is when its sucking vampire blood, she's got to dissapear" etc.

 

[Mendoza]

It's worth mentioning that Jack is voiced by the same guy that does Bender. Awesome casting just at that.

Ahhh... that's one of those 'I knew it sounded familiar' voices. I've never been convinced by the arguments for full VO, but with the facial expression system in Bloodlines I've really been won over. Jack, Jeanette, LaCroix and Gary were all great.

And I really liked the guy who did the VO for the Sheriff :wink:

 

[Volourn]

"Roqua wrote stuff..."

I like you.

 

[Otaku_Hanzo]

The coders could of very well had a dialogue option called intimidate that when chosen links to a pop-up window that you could type your own intimidating line you feel your character would say into. Increasing my illusion of actually playing a character whose personality I have invented and have control over. Because if I can't play a role, and I don't feel like I am playing the role I wanted to, I find it hard to say that I am playing a role playing game.

It's funny you mention that, because back in the days of the Zork and Leather Godesses Of Phobos text adventures, there were plenty of moments where I wanted to be able to type what I felt the character would do or say in any given situation. Of course, back then I understood why they couldn't let you. One of the reasons it's not done today is because the average gamer just doesn't want to have to do stuff like that. They like having their decisions plotted out for them.

Now, what could be done is a combination of both. Maybe have the dialogue options as normal, but then add more choices like 5. ...use Intimidation., or something along those lines which, when chosen, does what you described above. Heck, my character is a seductress and I like to think she's a complete slut. I would love to be able to type out her seduction lines. That would be fun as hell.

 

[Shevek]

"If you wanna see a game that really degenerates into a combat fest quickly, play KoTOR - which got rave reviews here btw (and which I absolutely loved as well"

No, it doesn't. KOTOR is pretty balanced between combat and non combat through out for it. If you mean the Star Forge, sure there's a lot of combat there; but it wholly makes sense since you are on your arch nemisis' ship, dumb ass. Besdies, even there, you can avoid some direct fighting.

I disagree. I felt KoTOR started out combat heavy and ended combat heavy. There were plenty of areas in the game with respawning and zerging enemies. There were plenty of places with forced combat. They had this in every planet right from the get go. I forget the exact details because my mind is already a bit foggy with respect to KoTOR but on the first planet there were those diseased creatures, the pig men, the gang members, etc. On that other planet there were the sand people and so on. The sith planet had a good deal of fighting (you could avoid a good amount but there was still a fair degree of forced combat). Every planet had this. Perhaps the best implemented planet was the water one (manaan?) because alot of the combat there could be avoided. I played through the game with heavy repair, persuasion and computer characters, so I know that you could avoid a fair degree of combat. Still, the game is easily much more combat heavy than Bloodlines.

 

[Mendoza]

Still, the game is easily much more combat heavy than Bloodlines.

It's not like it's so much of an issue though, since you can't really make a non combat character, and therefore can't really gimp yourself. I'm not saying lots of combat is good, but at least KotOR lets you know what to expect and doesn't give you a character that potentially can't deal with it.

 

[Shevek]

Still, the game is easily much more combat heavy than Bloodlines.

It's not like it's so much of an issue though, since you can't really make a non combat character, and therefore can't really gimp yourself. I'm not saying lots of combat is good, but at least KotOR lets you know what to expect and doesn't give you a character that potentially can't deal with it.

The reason all builds in KoTOR could do so well in combat was a product of the combat in KoTOR being very very easy. I perfer rpgs that give me both a challenege and enough rope in the character development to hang myself.