Bloodlines

[Dante]

Well, Vampire, the Masquerade: Bloodlines has arrived here at last. Anyone other than me making the most of it?

[bryorama]

I don't know if I'm going for it. Is it good? How is the gameplay?

[Dante]

Gameplay as in what? I haven't got very far yet. So far the plot is fairly linear (I'm expecting that to improve) but there are any number of ways to deal with different situations. That probably means there are other plot directions I'm not aware of.

As far as ordinary running-around-and-staying-alive goes, the game's doing really well. The AI people hide under canopies when it rains, and the tramps cluster around their buring barrels. The police patrol, and prostitutes pout (note, the game is rated 18, in Britain at least), while the young men wander down alleys when it's not raining in order to relieve themselves. This makes for very convenient feeding, incidentally.

When violence occurs, there will be blood splatter. This blood splatter stays on the walls, which is very convenient when wandering around identical looking corridors. Brains will be needed as well as brawn, and a silver tongue is priceless.

Atmosphere so far has been almost perfect. Gritty, dirty town and hospital; incredibly spooky hotel (we're talking the works. Spontaneous fire, flying vases, chiming clocks, falling light fixtures, spooky visions, screaming ghosts, scary stories, elavators that want to kill you, small spaces, evil music... I swear, if I hadn't had to go in there I would have avoided that place like the plague...), lair of a deranged madman... The only one so far that seems off is the sewer. It's too clean. ;) Though the rats there can be very important.

The controls are pretty easy, and there's a good introduction for people unfamiliar with the concept, which can be skipped for those who already know. Graphics, provided you have the RAM and the card, are amazing, while sounds are very good too. The game is huge, so you need a lot of space on the drive. Er... I've babbled. Anything else?

[TMA_1]

IOOOH!!!

I am suprised you guys havent mentioned my name, as I have made a majority of the posts about Vampire: THe Masquerade, Redemption. I love that game, and am an oldschool player of it. I got it when it first came out. I am probably one of the biggest fans of the game.

This gamei  heard was awesome, I really want to play it, what do you guys think of it???

[Dante]

It's a great game. Heavy requirements, but it's worth it. Graphics are great, controls are good, atmosphere is excellent... Better than Redemption. ;)

[bryorama]

It sounds cool. Does it have multiplayer capabilities?

[TMA_1]

if it is anything like Redemption, and if it listened to it's fans, it must have a badass multiplayer system. I am really excited!

what is the storyline like? is it connected to Redemption? how does it work as compared to Redemption? need the info! hehe

[GUNWOUNDS]

nice review... will definately pick it up.

[thomas]

looks bitchin, I'll pick it up for sure

[TMA_1]

try the original game too. Vampire: THe Masquerade, Redemption.

also, do these specs look good enough to run bloodlines?

AMD Athelon 1800+ processor.

512 megabytes of sd Ram.

Geforce FX 5200 128 megabytes of DDR video Ram.

60 Gigabyte harddrive.

52 speed cd rom drive.

would that run Bloodlines? if not please tell me, because i dont want to get it and end up not beign able to run it.lol

[d3m0nger]

It will run, but only on low performance.

[GUNWOUNDS]

i have played the original and finished it long ago.... and your computer looks fine except for the graphics card.... try grabbing a video card with a tad more juice or i can let you in on a little performance secret.

Go into your video card options and disable Antialiasing and Anisotropic Filtering.

[thomas]

hey, thanks for the tip :)

[TMA_1]

wow, I asked my bro about taht and he said that was good advice, thanks gunwounds! :)

[Dante]

if it is anything like Redemption, and if it listened to it's fans, it must have a badass multiplayer system. I am really excited!

what is the storyline like? is it connected to Redemption? how does it work as compared to Redemption? need the info! hehe

Bloodlines has no multiplayer option. I read there were plans to have a multiplayer 'vampires vs hunters' game, but it turned out to be too much trouble to be a viable course.

So far, there is no connection to Redemption whatsoever. ...Well, one of the characters is called Mercurio, but the Mercurio in Redeption died, so...

Bloodlines has much more emphasis on speaking rather than doing. It's possible to complete many (though by no means all) missions without violence, provided you're good at sneaking and are a fast talker. Experience is gained through completing missions, not killing things.

You play only one character, which is different to Redemption, but happily you can choose your character's clan and gender, though the appearence is default and cannot be changed. In other words, there is a set appearance for a Tremere male, a Gangrel female, etc. These cannot be changed.

Also unlike Redemption, vampires are limited in their disciplines. The Ventrue, for example, have Dominate, Fortitude, and Presence; while the Tremere have Dominate, Auspex, and Thaumaturgy. It is not possible for a Ventrue to use Auspex, even at high levels.

The storyline does not leave Los Angeles, so there is none of the globetrotting of Redemption. There are side quests of course, but the main one involves a sarcophagus said to contain an ancient and extremely powering vampire (possibly an Antediluvian, I forget). There are mutterings of Gehenna, but I don't know what's going to happen. What I do know though, is that the game is said to have at least four possible endings, so it's not exactly linear. Buy buy buy!

[Dante]

Well, I've finished the game (with only one of the possible endings, and I'm thinking there's five now. I'm going to try for the others soon). It makes a refreshing (and yet also somewhat frustrating) change to have a game with an unresolved ending. For those of you that have finished: [hide]

I sided with the Fuei Jin. Ming was the only one not to betray me, after all. And then what happened after I went to all the effort of defeating the Sheriff? They kill LaCroix and send me to the bottom of the ocean, tied to the damn sarchophagus. Everyone's out to screw me over... *sniffle* Well next time I'm going to damn well do it the Tremere way. Mwa ha ha ha! [/hide]

[DukeLeto]

Go into your video card options and disable Antialiasing and Anisotropic Filtering.  And then set your performance slider to high performance

Then run the game in 1600 x 1200 .... you see most people dont realize that 1600x1200 resolution is high enough to where Antialiasing and Anisotropic Filtering are unnoticeable.  And it is much much easier for your video card to simply run in a higher resolution with those two functions disabled than in a lower resolution with both of those functions enabled.

Actually, just about anything above 1024x768 becomes extranneous drain on your resources; most games look beautiful at that setting, w/o any extra AA or AF.  (Obviously, if you have a 20" monitor or something, you may still need to go up higher.)

[Anathema]

I've been meaning to upgrade my PC for Earth 2160, so I'll probably pick this game up too as it sounds pretty good :O

[GUNWOUNDS]

Actually, just about anything above 1024x768 becomes extranneous drain on your resources; most games look beautiful at that setting, w/o any extra AA or AF.