Review of Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines
This game caught my appeal, not by the cover, but by the fact that is about vampires, but the cover helps. I have often enjoyed vampire games of all sorts including Bloodrayne. It is often fun to feed on the blood of the living while doing missions for others. This game's graphics are beautiful and run on the source engine, the same one used with Half Life 2. This game is very similar to Elders Scroll 3: Morrowind due to the fact that it is an RPG that remains offline at all times. This game is huge as far as missions go. This game will keep you occupied for hours at a time up until you get frustrated and walk away for a little while. Like a vampire to human blood, this game left me wanting more and more.
The game allows you to, first off, select if you wish to answer a few profile questions and have the clan and stats of your character selected for you or if you wish to choose for yourself. There are 7 base clans in this game to choose from: Brujah, Gangrel, Malkavian, Nosferatu, Toreador, Tremere, and Ventrue. Each clan has a different appearance and, sadly, you cannot choose any different appearances except male and female. Each clan also has different Abilities, Attributes, and Disciplines. Specific stats help you in doing specific tasks like computer hacking and lock picking. As you complete missions you get experience points, which turn into stats once you have enough. There is also something called humanity, which is how much of your humanity you still have. You lose humanity when you drink all of the blood out of one of your victims. Humanity helps to keep you from rampaging, which is basically survival mode. You can gain humanity from helping humans and various other good deeds for humans. The stats may look complicated, but you will get the hang of it once you get started.
The game begins with you waking up in a motel room or an apartment, I can't figure out which it is. You are not alone in the room, though. There is another person in the room with, and just as you notice the other person, two more people break through the door and throw a knife at the other person's throat, but it doesn't kill him. Next cut screen is you and that person are captured and are on a stage surrounded by a bunch of strangers and they are vampires. You have been bitten and you are now a vampire. But when you became a vampire, the person who turned you into a vampire broke the “Masquerade.” The Masquerade is an agreement between humans that allows humans and vampires to live together in harmony. Making anyone else a vampire without the consent of a council is against the masquerade and the person who made you a vampire is then executed in front of you and turns to ashes. The council then decides to allow you to live due to pity, but under the condition that you undergo training into being a vampire by a vampire, than you will be put to a test on how you handle being a vampire by helping other vampires. The training is just a tutorial and the real test is you living in Santa Monica. This game takes place in California, modern times. This game is by far the best vampire game I have ever played due to the fact you can control so much about your future.
For the whole, this is one solid game and it will keep you entertained for hours on end. I think most people who enjoy vampires of any sort will enjoy this game to the fullest. My only gripe is the fact that you cannot customize the look of your character beyond what your clan or gender is. Other than this, this game is nearly perfect. I will give this game an 8/10 overall rating.
Pros:
• Vampires!
• Vampires!
Cons:
• Cannot customize your vampire.
8/10 Overall Rating