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From Niche Market to Broad Appeal

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 30 / 38
Date: September 18, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Like Nihilistic's Vampire the Masquerade - Redemption from four years ago, this game from Troika is loosely based on the p&p Vampire game. From the well-orchestrated previews and interviews, however, it's obviously a much slicker operation. And for fans of vampire lore, much deeper. Players will, this time, be able to choose their character from a number of the clans (including Malkavians!), and this choice will affect dialogue options and game play. The other interesting features are a decision to award xp not on the basis of killing enemies, but completing quests, so those who wish to play stealthy or peaceful (!) characters are not forced to blast everything in sight to go up levels. Plus, the unbalanced skills (feral claws and prison of ice) in the previous game have been reviewed and corrected. Expect witty storyline, and visuals that reach out to a base of players that is much wider than fans of vampire literature. It looks set to be outstanding: so bite me!

Looks to be a great game.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 27
Date: October 04, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Just to add, this game also was built using the new Half Life 2 engine. The visuals should be great.

It bites. In a good way...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 222 / 241
Date: October 26, 2004
Author: Amazon User

There's something uniquely satisfying about being evil. Evil gets to play with the best toys, listen to the best music, wear the best clothes and generally be sinister, introspective and cool. In game terms, being evil also means that you get to do all the things that make the good guys wince, like bursting people with blood-magic or biting them in the face. Vampire - The Masquerade: Bloodlines is the latest excuse to be deliciously evil. From developer Troika the game takes advantage of both the rich heritage of White Wolf's role-playing game, and Valve's spanking new Source engine, which powers Half-Life 2; an undeniably exciting concept.

In practice the game is a thrilling merger of RPG sensibilities and frenetic, brutal action...with just a dash of stealth and lateral thinking thrown in for good measure. The player takes command of a fledgling vampire in the dangerous employ of Prince Le Croix - the vampire overlord of Los Angeles. Like any good RPG, Vampire allows you to choose an avatar for your character from a number of different models, both male and female. The species of vampire you choose will, to some extent, dictate what sort of player you'll be in the game. Action fans will probably be at home with the more physically powerful vampires such as the Brujhar, whose natural instincts for combat will confer increased power and accuracy. More conservative or cerebral players may prefer to outsmart or out-magic their opponents - there's even a chance to play as the sanity-challenged Malkavians, which leads to some unique conversations and scenarios.

You can choose to play from either the first-person, like a traditional shooter, or to view your character in the third-person, which is useful for melee combat or to judge jumps. There's no great emphasis on any one aspect of play - combat or puzzle solving - and the fact that experience points are rewarded for completing missions rather than killing enemies means that players are invited to explore as they see fit, and solve problems in a manner of their choosing. Skillful players are able to sneak past sentries, or talk their way past an opponent. Or they could just choose to pull his head off. There is a huge variety of weapons, both ranged and melee to experiment with, as well as a great implementation of `Thermaturgy' - vampire blood magic.

Like other games such as Morrowind, or semi-RPG action games like Grand Theft Auto, there are central plot missions that need to be completed in order to really progress through the game. However, the giant sandbox world that Troika has crafted means that there's seldom a dull moment in between times, and sub-missions are often just as fun and rewarding to undertake.

Visually, the game is a treat, with the Source technology really shining through. There is a realistic physics engine that allows in-game objects to react to the players' (and other characters') actions - gun fire may dislodge boxes, doors and walls can be smashed apart...in a more gruesome touch blood and viscera has a tendency to splatter and stain the environment. Aurally, the effects are crisp and detailed. There is a huge amount of spoken dialogue, with multiple variations depending on who you `are' and what you say - coupled with multiple endings this game has oodles of replay value.

System-wise, you'll need a decent rig to play this game. I've recently upgraded my system to cope with Half-Life 2, and this game runs smoothly on what I would consider mid to high settings - 32bit color depth, 1280x960 resolution, mid-range sound etc. My system is a P4 2.6 with a gig of ram and a 9600 pro graphics card. If Doom 3 proved completely unplayable on your system then you'll find this over your head as well, but the game seems a little more scaleable than Doom, with more allowance for the average machine. One thing you will need is plenty of free hard drive space - a gig+ if you like to have as much as possible on the drive.

In the spirit of great games like Deus Ex, this game is going to appeal to both straight up action and RPG gamers, as well as any fans of the 'Vampire' series, who'll flip for the great attention to detail and the immersive visuals. It's difficult to suppress a smile when you're slinking through alleys, vaulting over high walls and slitting the throats of your vampire and supernatural foes, or going in gun's blazing with your Uzi and katana combo! This is certainly not a game for either kids, or the faint hearted; but for anyone who thinks having a taste for claret and no pulse sounds cool, this is the game for you.

bloodlines when?

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 12 / 59
Date: November 14, 2004
Author: Amazon User

OK great to hear how much some people like this game!
How can they rate a game that won't be out till the 16th of Nov
Nice people!How about waiting after you buy and try it before you rate it and mislead others.

the best rpg i have ever played

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: November 17, 2004
Author: Amazon User

i have so much fun with this game. i really can't get enough of it. the characters are so awesoem. the quests are neat. the haunted house is sooooo creepy. i played with the lights out in surround sound and i almost wet my pants. the story is so cool too. being jockeyed around by all the vampires with power. can't wait until i finally get some revenge on them all. i hope they do let you by the end. i finally got some cool vampire disciplines too. omg it's just so sweet! i am going to play this so much over and over on the holidays.

Vampire game fun, but only for adults with fast computers!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: November 18, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Although I have only had this game for a day, and had the opportunity to only play it a little, I have been very impressed! The graphics and audio are realistic and altogether awesome. However, as previously stated, this game is DEFINITELY not for children (too much blood, sex, and graphic language). In addition, know that you have to have a pretty fast computer to run this game smoothly. I have a Dell with a 2 ghz processor and the game occasionally skips. However, if you have a pretty good computer, and are into vampires (especially if you've ever played the RPG Vampire the Masquerade) this game is definitely for you!

Obsolescent's Ugly Mug

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: November 21, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game very hyped up about it. I'm a fan of both Half-Life and White Wolf's paper and pencil Vampire game. My computer was, what I thought, pretty fly. This changed when I tried to install the game. It crashed my computer 6 times and killed my internet connection twice. (I'm the persistant type.) Finally I got the game to go pass the splash screens onto the main menu. I tried to play it then. It works, barely. The moral of the story is this - If you don't exceed the hardware requiements by a nice margin, don't buy this game. The minimums don't cut it. The graphics are full of holes, the load times take forever, the video and sound are out of sync, and the game will sometimes freeze for no apparent reason, only to resume in a couple of minutes. I've taken to reading a book while I play, so that I can wait out the lag.
On a positive note, it seems to be a great story, the haunted house I just finished creeped me out. I enjoy the people in the game. The sisters who run the club are my favorites for now. The one or two EX point per quest kind of irk me, they are still fun to do.

Not Bad, But Not The Best

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 20 / 27
Date: November 22, 2004
Author: Amazon User

The good part of this game is you want to do the side shows and journeys.

I have an NVidia GeForce 4 Ti 4200 and a 3.2 Gig Athlon and its slow as crapola. Load times sometimes over 2 minutes. Lots of Hiccupping. But, hey, that just could be my box. Not yours.

But heres what isn't so good:
1) Sound clips run into each other
2) People pop in and out of some scenes
3) There are few objects to interact with (Wish it was more like Morrowind)
4) Few people, no moving cars, streets empty, seems like a "dead" world?
5) Weapons are less effective than your hands. What? I find spells to be better, but you run out of blood too fast, and still have to use hand-to-hand.
6) Combat sucks.
7) I expected more of vampires. Morrowind is a pretty cool example of what is lacking here. Bloodlines has no sunrise to worry about. Bullets hurt you? Come on. I don't feel like a vampire. I feel like a deranged person sucking on peoples necks, cause a gun acts like a rubber band.

Point is, for 20 bucks it would have been worth it. At 50 bucks, its a rip off.

World of Darkness

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: November 22, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I was so excited when this game was released. First off you have the Half-life 2 engine, which is a great system. This was one of two critisisms I have about the game. Despite using that engine, some of the visuals weren't quite at the same level as Half-life 2. Still gorgeous, but having both, I guess I expected the detail level to be identical.

The gameplay is excellent, and there are many choices throughout each quest, and the world as a whole. There's alot to do in every part of town, and a great level of interaction. I do kind of wish passerby's were given some sort of blow off statements, instead of just totally ignoring you. Still, there's alot of movement on the streets that helps the environments feel more organic.

I did notice a few glitches and bugs, but nothing too terrible. The cutscenes sometimes have glitches, and the worst bug was one where I had to talk to a guy to enter a room. I chose the wrong topic and left, only to find him gone when I returned. I ended up having to reload as there was no way into the office without his presence.

Overall, I'm enthralled with this title. I got it two days after Half-life 2, and I haven't been able to tear myself away from Vampire long enough to go back to it. If you're an RPG fan you will love this title. Besides being engrossing there's a ton of replay as your clan affiliation can present you with a radically different experience.

need max system to play, but great concept

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 16 / 17
Date: November 23, 2004
Author: Amazon User

First let me state that to play this game and enjoy the benefits, you must meet certain "eligibility" requirements.

First, You need premium hardware to play this game. Second, You are not expecting a fast-paced action intensive game where you go around mindlessly shooting baddies.

The environment and story line is intense. I'm about 60% through the game and have enjoyed every moment of the intricate story line, different quests, and amazingly detailed characters and personalities. The game, apparently, has four endings depending on what choices you make, and NPC's react differently to you whether you are male/female, what clan association, and how your stat pool is allocated. I can't wait to play this game again as a different character and see what new surprises await.

The most enjoyable aspect of this game is NOT combat - the combat engine, to be honest, is sub-par. You must understand that this game is about RPG and interacting with the environment. For example, as you complete different quests, you can watch the television and see the news "spin" the mass media takes on reporting your activities. It's quite hilarious.

I have read about the glitches in the audio/video in the cutscenes and other aspects of the game and would wholeheartedly agree that this game is not bug-free. Be prepared to deal with that until (hopefully) Troika/Activision release patches to address these issues.

FYI- I have a 3.2 Gig dual processor Intel Pentium 4 system with 512 megs ram and 256 mb video card and I have to play the game on lowest resolution to enjoy relatively stable game play.

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