Review Game Over for Bloodlines at Game Over

[Spazmo]

Tags: Troika Games; Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines

<a href=http://www.game-over.net>Game Over</a> have put up one of the more negative <a href=http://www.game-over.net/reviews.php?id=977>reviews</a> of Troika's undead RPG Vampire Bloodlines. They rate it no better than <b>65%</b>.<blockquote>What is it about really thick white make-up and too much eye liner that appeals to the undead? If only we could unlock the mystery of the walking dead’s love of gaudy, trashy apparel, then maybe we could get one step closer to understanding how to fight them. When Troika released Bloodlines, most people saw a game… but not me. I know a social experiment when I see one. Let me be the first to congratulate them on making a “live action role play” simulator. The only thing that doesn’t really fit is that all of the people in the game are basically attractive, which stands in violently stark contrast to real life LARPing.
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What I’m really trying to say here is that the sheer amount of melodrama captured in this game is akin to viewing (and smelling) a live action game. The only things really missing were the dice and the palpable loneliness. So really, the target market was recognized and officially won over, and to be fair there really isn’t a better Vampire game out there right now. So lets dig into this big pile of blood sucking.</blockquote>He spends half the review bitching about how he doesn't like having to play a World of Darkness vampire. Now, I agree that LARPing is lame and vampire LARPs in particular are just creepy, but Bloodlines does a really great job of not forcing you into that too much, not to mention its alternatingly strong and weak role playing. Essentially this guy's a moron who seemed to be expecting to play Half Life 2 again instead of a gothic horror RPG.
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Spotted at: <A HREF="http://www.bluesnews.com">Blue's News</A>

 

[Screaming_life]

Couldn't be assed reading another review for this game so i don't know the reasons for the low score but overall the rating is about right for me!

I'd give it a potential score of around 88% but i think 65% is how i felt about it in the end.

 

[Jinxed]

The only thing that doesn’t really fit is that all of the people in the game are basically attractive, which stands in violently stark contrast to real life LARPing.

Especially the Nosferatu, mmmm.

 

[mathboy]

WARNING MAYBE POSSIBLE SPOILER
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I'm just wondering, not that it has anything to do with this topic, but is it impossible to skip the Warrens (get directly to the nosferatu) by writing commands in the console? If so, youldn't it be a good, not to hard to make if you could, mod? Like you find a book explaining the secret Graveyard way to the Nosferatu and then you enter the Mausoleum and it gets you to the back of the Nosferatu place.

If you can go that way already, I didn't bother to load a game and try, just ignore my post.

 

[Jinxed]

Using these shortcuts messes up the quest log, you loose your items and so on. It only works at one time, someone would have to dig up the specific code for this and circumstance. Using noclip results in 5 minutes of pain so it's not that bad.

 

[Expresso]

The reviever was just expecting HL2/Vampire hack&slash game. That guy liked HL2 a lot, he gave it 97%.

I'm just wondering, not that it has anything to do with this topic, but is it impossible to skip the Warrens (get directly to the nosferatu) by writing commands in the console? If so, youldn't it be a good, not to hard to make if you could, mod? Like you find a book explaining the secret Graveyard way to the Nosferatu and then you enter the Mausoleum and it gets you to the back of the Nosferatu place.

I have been thinking the same thing. There are many quests that could be make more interesting for non-combat oriented characters with little modding. Also those stupid infinite respawnings enemies should be removed. Python scripts are easy to edit, but map editing requires an editor of some kind. Do you know is there map editor for the game or could HL2's editor be used? Hex-editing those bsp files is really not an option

Edit: Ok, I found some info at the PlanetVampire forums...

 

[Volourn]

"He spends half the review bitching about how he doesn't like having to play a World of Darkness vampire."

Um.. If you don't want to play a WOD Campire perhaps you shoulnd't buy and play the game.. unless he was forced to review it.

R00fles!

 

[Jed]

Not to defend LARPing, but if there's a "palpable lonlieness," how is it possible to LARP? Doesn't that require not being alone? Seems a hell of a lot more social than sitting in your bedroom playing single-player cRPGs and writing shitty reviews...

 

[Trash]

God, am I tired

Why should you? I do it all the time! Wheez...another evil mosquito of doom squished by bigby's nasty big hand of mush.

 

[Sol Invictus]

Ah well, most cRPG players (in contrast with LARPers) have a tendency to have real social lives, ones that don't involve going to OtakuCon dressed up as Siefer, and don't consist of weekends at various wilderness spots dressed up as Robin Hood or one of his Merry Men.

 

[Otaku_Hanzo]

ones that don't involve going to OtakuCon dressed up as Siefer

I have my own Con? :shock:

 

[Spazmo]

No, just a very unfortunate nick.

 

[Avin]

... i met my girlfriend on a LARP 6 years ago ...

the shame, the shame...

oh, but we just don't do that anymore.

 

[Sol Invictus]

Otaku is a Japanese derogatory term given to "anime geeks" who are almost as looked down upon in Japan as they are in the rest of the world. Literally, it means "overly obsessed fanboy/fangirl geek with no social life".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otaku

 

[Jinxed]

Way to go for adding that "no social life" into your quote. Being obsessed with something doesn't necesserily mean that you don't have a social life. A lot of the so called Otakus travel all over the fucking country to attend conventions, where they meet their other otaku friends. I've also noticed that a liking of anime, so to speak, spreads a lot faster than other things similiar; It's easy to spark an interest with other people. Although they might not become as devoted to it as you.