So why haven’t I written anything in awhile? Why have I been so bad? Well partially it’s just me being lazy. But also it’s that I’m at a new base that is both more comfortable but also I’ve had less time during the week so I’ve mostly been relaxing during my free time. And speaking of free time the other thing that has been distracting me are my birthday presents which are some awesome video games including today’s topic.
My history with White Wolf’s seminal masterpiece Vampire The Masquerade and the World Darkness is a lengthy one. I actually got into the roleplaying game in high school and embarassingly enough, yes, I did LARP this game. Me and several weird goth kids wandered around University Of South Florida at night pretending to be vampires back in the early 2000s much to the concern of everyone around us. My opinion of the roleplaying game as such is the source material is wonderful, rich and incredibly detailed. The process of LARPing on the other hand is a miserable experience I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. Kids don’t do it. Stop worrying your parents. I also one Halloween a couple of years back picked up their other video game entry, Vampire The Masquerade Redemption and loved it. Fun and challenging game play, great story set in this familiar universe, hosts of cheat console cheat codes to exploit, and it stars Christopher Lambert as a badass immortal sword fighter. Never seen him do that before.
Bloodlines takes everything awesome about the roleplaying game and Redemption and makes it better. The controls are much improved from Redemption abandoning the awkward point and click option in favor of using arrow keys to move and mouse to look around. Viewpoint switches effortlessly between from 3 person over the shoulder to first person depending on whether the player is engaged in melee, shooting, or interacting with characters and environment. The game reminds me very much of both the Deus Ex series and Grand Theft Auto but with vampires….and without cars. There is more than one way to solve any given problem whether it be hacking and slashing, shooting, talking, computer hacking, sneaking, or puzzle solving. The game boasts a universe bad guys and monsters to fight from gang members to vampires, werewolves, Cthulhu monsters as well a whole city of interesting characters to interact with, befriend, or assassinate. The player can pick their vampire clan and assign their experience points as they wish to and with the add of console cheats even give their character a history that provides and benefits and drawbacks at character creation. Like any great roleplaying game, the players choices and decision in gameplay and conversation can radically alter how the story plays out providing countless hours of replayability. I’ve already beaten the game 4 or 5 times now and I’m still replaying to see all the endings and get all the stuff I missed out on in previous runs. The themes of the story center around the players choice and the roll they will play in the vampire politics and war hidden from mortal society. Whether they tow the the line of the Masquerade as a Camarilla or say fuck the man and join the Anarchs are up to the player. Swear Loyalty to the Prince or side with the mysterious Kuei-jin? The player vampire can be altruistic or a greedy scoundrel. All of these are options that the player can enjoy. The game also oozes sensuality as the vampires can seduce other vampires, ghouls, and mortals OF EITHER SEX, way before Mass Effect 3 thought of it and botched it up. Mind you this is a subtly feature as the game never goes into explicit “Hot Coffee” territory. And how about that awesome soundtrack? The game is joy to listen to from the moody gothic theme of the city, the haunting creepy melody of the Nosferatu crypts, to a pumped 70s style action track for the final showdown with the Prince’s minions. And then there are the awesome licensed songs. Ever bar the player frequents to hang with his wild and sexy vampire friends hosts the best in gothic theme music. From the Asp Hole’s Come Alive by David Ash to The Last Round’s Lecher Bitch by Genitorturers, to Heather Poe’s them A Smaller God by Darling Violetta and to the games ending theme Swamped by Lacuna Coil, every track is an audiophiles dream that sucks you further into the awesome adventure of Bloodlines. But don’t take my word for it. Explore your World Of Darkness by the playing the game yourself. I picked up my copy of Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines at Good Old Games.com (gog.com) so you can pick it up there for $19.99. The game also comes with and unoffical patch made by the fans that fixed many of the problems and glitches the game had on release and also made a great deal of the original content Troika games wanted to include in the final product but couldn’t available. Word of the net is it’s the only way to play the game. The game also has a host of console cheats you can use if your like me and you love your games so much you like to break them. They are great. Enabling the console commands and good chunk of the available cheats are listed on the fan wiki here: http://vtmb.wikia.com/wiki/Vampire:_The_Masquerade_%E2%80%93_Bloodlines/Console. Hey is there one NPC that really gripes on your nerves and you really want to shoot them in the face but you can’t because their in an Elysium? Just type in debug_area type “0” into the console command and you can change the area to an action area and blow their smug face off (I always kill Imalia.) I also recommend beating the game and then typing in give_item_w_sheriff’s sword when you make your next character to get the Sheriff’s badass blade as your own. Play this game. Love it. And paint the night red my Kindred!
Edward “Dreadpirate” Peeler
Dread Pirates Sci Fi Reviews 