Review Bloodlines mixed cocktail at Eurogamer

[Volourn]

Your point being what... dummy?

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Did I mention those laser beams kill you INSTANTLY if you touch them?

Actually you can disable those lasers, so i did not need to even jump over them.

Let me guess. You have to shoot them to disable them? I made the mistake of going in to that area after I sold all the guns in my inventory to clear it out. That, of course, is a huge mistake since the majority of that lame ass area requires you to shoot things to get from one DEATH PUZZLE to the next one.

So, is the RPGCodex Bloodlines review coming up?

Perhaps, in time. If I did it, you could sum up the review with:

SIDE QUESTS = GREAT
MAIN PLOT = ABYSSMAL HORSESHIT

If the game were just side quests with mentions of the GREAT BAD THINGY COMETH that you stumble on while trying to find a purpose in the world now that you're freshly vamped, the game would have been a lot better. I'm not really sure that the main plot stuff are terrible ideas, per say, but.. The implimentation is hideously bad.

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

SIDE QUESTS = GREAT
MAIN PLOT = ABYSSMAL HORSESHIT

If the game were just side quests with mentions of the GREAT BAD THINGY COMETH that you stumble on while trying to find a purpose in the world now that you're freshly vamped, the game would have been a lot better. I'm not really sure that the main plot stuff are terrible ideas, per say, but.. The implimentation is hideously bad.

That bad?

 

[Volourn]

No comment.

 

[suibhne]

While I agree it's stupid, think what would happen if you killed those fellas. You would probably be left there to rot and no one would let you out.

Um, yeah, but no.

Do you recall how you finally escaped from that area? Yeah, that's right - a shotgun blast opened up those windows, from a Utica. And guess what I was carrying the whole time? Uh-huh, that's right - a fucking Utica. So why couldn't I blow through those windows if the commando had such a cakewalk of it?

You can go all Geordi LaForge on us and come up with great reasons why it is the way it is, but that area just plain stank.

 

[Elwro]

. If I did it, you could sum up the review with:

SIDE QUESTS = GREAT
MAIN PLOT = ABYSSMAL HORSESHIT

Thank you very much. In my small world it follows that
PAY THE POLISH EQUIVALENT OF $52 FOR THE GAME RIGHT AFTER ITS RELEASE = DUMB.
I'll wait a few months for the price to fall. And maybe buy Teudogar instead, loved the demo :D .

 

[Jinxed]

Um, yeah, but no.

Do you recall how you finally escaped from that area? Yeah, that's right - a shotgun blast opened up those windows, from a Utica. And guess what I was carrying the whole time? Uh-huh, that's right - a fucking Utica. So why couldn't I blow through those windows if the commando had such a cakewalk of it?

You can go all Geordi LaForge on us and come up with great reasons why it is the way it is, but that area just plain stank.

Double no. The way I saw it was that the glass broke because of the explosion from the fire thingies. I shot one of them and there was a big explosion that broke the glass.

I think people are jumping WAY too fast to conclusions based on simple one time observations. Examples:

Q: I didn't bring any guns since I'm pure melee and that spinning blades puzzle is TOTAL CRAP! Now I have to reload!

A: You can bash the grates with a sledgehammer

Saint P's complaint was also given away by someone else in this thread.

Conclusion: You are trying really hard to bash the game instead of thinking of other means to get through the area.

The game is nowhere near perfect and deserves some bashing, but at least try to be honest in those attempts rather than being half assed.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

I think people are jumping WAY too fast to conclusions based on simple one time observations. Examples:

Q: I didn't bring any guns since I'm pure melee and that spinning blades puzzle is TOTAL CRAP! Now I have to reload!

A: You can bash the grates with a sledgehammer

Saint P's complaint was also given away by someone else in this thread.

The spinning blades and laser bullshit are crap. Even if you can use the "smash" thing on the gratings, which I never got when I got close to them and tried to punch them, you're still left with the electricity thing where you have to shoot those things on the cieling. You might be able to jump punch them, but neither one of those options is better than if you were carrying a gun.

Even if you can smash those grates, and like I said, I never saw that thing pop up.. To do that, you have to dodge your way passed the spinning blades and take the time to smash all three of those gratings and punch all three of those boxes. Meanwhile, the whole time, those blades are behind you so you can't see them coming to time them. That's pretty crappy.

Jump punching is spurious at best, and given the height of those coils on the cieling, not sure that's even possible. You'd have to at least hop on the anodes to do that, which means you'll take even more damage. And those cathodes require a good deal of damage to take out. Jump punching both of those, assuming it's even possible, would take a long time and a lot of footwork while you're taking damage the whole time. That's also extremely crappy.

And then there's the idea of punching those flamethrowers to blow up the glass. I'm sure that's not a great idea!

Conclusion: You are trying really hard to bash the game instead of thinking of other means to get through the area.

Thinking your way through areas where you're taking constant damage and have to time spinning blades of doom, flamethrower sentries, insta-kill lasers, and so on.. Yeah.. Like I said, celerity makes all those things easy. No other discipline does. Celerity makes a good chunk of the game easier. It's the uber-discipline.

The game is nowhere near perfect and deserves some bashing, but at least try to be honest in those attempts rather than being half assed.

Most of the main plot areas are no where near GOOD.

 

[Mendoza]

The spinning blades and laser bullshit are crap. Even if you can use the "smash" thing on the gratings, which I never got when I got close to them and tried to punch them, you're still left with the electricity thing where you have to shoot those things on the cieling. You might be able to jump punch them, but neither one of those options is better than if you were carrying a gun.

Even if you can smash those grates, and like I said, I never saw that thing pop up.. To do that, you have to dodge your way passed the spinning blades and take the time to smash all three of those gratings and punch all three of those boxes. Meanwhile, the whole time, those blades are behind you so you can't see them coming to time them. That's pretty crappy.

Jump punching is spurious at best, and given the height of those coils on the cieling, not sure that's even possible. You'd have to at least hop on the anodes to do that, which means you'll take even more damage. And those cathodes require a good deal of damage to take out. Jump punching both of those, assuming it's even possible, would take a long time and a lot of footwork while you're taking damage the whole time. That's also extremely crappy.

And then there's the idea of punching those flamethrowers to blow up the glass. I'm sure that's not a great idea!

That particular section could have given plenty of chances to use other abilities too - hacking to turn things off, lockpicking fuse boxes to do the same think, or persuading/dominating people through the glass (assuming non discipline proof glass exists) to get them to turn them off or let you out. There's so many easy, better ways of doing things that they didn't have the time or put the effort into.

 

[Flink]

The Fu Syndicate was annoying, yes. But let us not forget where the game really stunk. The end boss. No talking, no reasoning just respawning SWAT, werebadgers (or what ever the hell that was) and a big fucking bat flying around atop the skyscraper. All my brawler character could do was stand there and wave his fists in the air. Did they playtest the ending at all? The sad thing is that the game is actually a lot of fun right up to the last hub despite the bugs. What an anticlimax. :/

 

[Spazmo]

Well, that's a puzzle, see. You have to turn on the big searchlights and he'll... fall... out.. of the sky. Pretty fucking goofy, really. You don't even aim the searchlights at him, he flies right into the fucking beam.

 

[Flink]

o... Well. at least that's something.

 

[Mendoza]

The other end boss didn't give any options but to fight though, although fortunately you could take half the health off with the flamethrower with max ammo.

 

[dunduks]

Let me guess. You have to shoot them to disable them?

Yup, you have to use a gun, I really wish there would be more options on how to solve quests later in the game, the beginig is so great, yet it feels like on rails in the end

 

[suibhne]

Double no. The way I saw it was that the glass broke because of the explosion from the fire thingies. I shot one of them and there was a big explosion that broke the glass.

Hey, you're doing that Geordi thing. Stop it. :D

Maybe you're right about that, but then the logical question is why all of the flamethrowers decide to explode when I hit only one of them. The second question, of course, is how the explosions (fire-based, one presumes) can take out the bulletproof, sword-proof, Discipline-proof glass without taking away any of my Vampiric health. And the third question is why the glass for the lab room at the end of the hallway - the one just past Flamethrower Room - isn't bullet- or sword-proof, unlike every other window in that hallway.

Face it - this is just crappy level design.

As for Electricity Room, I tried repeatedly to jump and slash those whatever-they-ares with my katana and was unable to do it. Maybe I just kept missing the jump, but I finally fell back on my shotgun. (The one saving grace to that stupidity is that the commandos attacking you in the previous room will always drop a shotgun and enough ammo to take out the whatever-they-ares.)