Now Playing: Bloodlines

Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines is a RPG originally released back in 2004. I actually bought it on release, but the game was plagued by various technical issues and bugs and as a result, I never progressed very far before giving up on the title. Years later, however, I decided to give Bloodlines another shot, this time using an unofficial fan patch. Despite its flaws, Bloodlines developed a strong cult following and it’s not hard to see why.

You play as a fledgling – a newly ‘born’ vampire. You have the choice of belonging to one of seven vampire clans. This choice primarily determines your appearance and certain special abilities, but can also affect how you play and approach various missions in the game. For example, playing as a Nosferatu vampire offers a very different gameplay experience than playing as a Ventrue.

You can play the game in either third or first person. Although linear in terms of story (at least until towards the very end), you may progress and develop your character at your own pace. You gain access to four main hub areas (in addition to several mission specific locations) each of which contain various side quests to discover and complete for experience.

The game has rudimentary stealth and combat systems, both of which are tied to specific skills and stats which you can increase by spending experience points. You have ‘core’ stats relating to strength, dexterity and stamina, and then sub-stats relating to specific skills such as security (lock picking), firearms, computer (hacking) as well as various speech related skills – seduction, intimidation and persuasion.

The story follows your character as he or she moves through vampire society, interacting with various factions and characters both human and not. The plot revolves primarily around the discovery of an ancient sarcophagus which some believe heralds the apocalypse. As a fledgling, you’re seen as more of a tool to be used by those in power, all of whom have their own agenda. As you play through the various missions you’ll choose how you want to interact with these factions and who you want to support, if you wish to support any of them at all.

Missions can generally be completed in various ways. For example, you may use your speech skills to talk your way past a guard, or you may sneak around back and use a lock pick. Violence is always an option, of course, but there are certain rules you must adhere to as a member of vampire society. This is what they call ‘the masquerade’. The world doesn’t know about the existence of your kind (or various other supernatural creatures) and it’s your job to keep it that way.

I honestly couldn’t describe the gameplay as more than ‘serviceable’ though. Stealth and combat (whether melee or ranged), are both pretty basic, although you do get access to a decent and varied selection of weapons. That said, the melee combat feels lightweight and guns aren’t exactly satisfying to use. Enemies are mostly forgettable fodder with dumb AI.

Lock picking and hacking are also very basic. Everything does its job, but it’s really not why you want to keep playing Bloodlines. It’s important to note, however, that all of these skills are tied to the stats system, so some (such as melee combat) can feel rather useless and ineffective until you’ve pumped some experience points into them.

And although I said you can complete missions in various ways, that’s unfortunately not always true. There are times when the game forces combat upon you, which means if you’ve neglected to upgrade such skills you’ll be in for a rough time. Even though this was my third time playing, I still forgot to put any points in combat skills before a certain quest early on in which you can neither talk nor sneak your way out of a fight. I ended up using some rather cheese tactics combined with my vampire abilities to get through it.

There’s another section later on in the game where you’re trudging through sewers and you’ll really be f**ked without any combat skills. The ending missions in particular are very heavily combat focused. It’s certainly something to keep in mind as you progress.

So Bloodlines does have issues with certain missions in terms of not catering to varied approaches. It’s gameplay can also feel rather clunky and dated, especially in terms of combat. The final run of missions also feel rushed and lazily designed, relying far too much on just throwing a lot of bad guys at the player to fight. That said, Bloodlines is still a great game, and this is largely down to how it handles the story, setting and characters.

The way the game slowly introduces and builds the world around the player is fantastic. It’s a fascinating world to explore, full of intriguing and varied characters and creatures. The story holds your attention as you’re sent scurrying from one location to the next on a hunt for this mysterious sarcophagus. Along the way you’ll meet all kinds of great, memorable characters. Bloodlines has a fantastic cast with excellent VA, and it gives the player a limited degree of freedom in how you respond and interact with them.

The game is also sprinkled with a lot of humour, either through various things in the world (such as e-mails you can read, or radio shows you can listen to) but also through your dialogue options. The conversations in Bloodlines are handled brilliantly. It’s rare for conversations in RPGs to feel so ‘natural’. In the recently released Inquisition, for example, conversations can feel rather flat and monotonous as you exhaust all your options and characters just rattle off long winded monologues full of dry exposition. But in Bloodlines, dialogue is kept snappy and to the point. They feel real, like you’re interacting with real people who don’t have the time or patience for your endless questions and bullshit. There’s a flow to them that feels very natural. I really wish more RPGs would take a similar approach to dialogue and speech interactions.

I think I’ll wrap this up because I really don’t want to get into any more specifics and risk spoiling things regarding Bloodlines. It’s a great game, one which I think any fan of RPGs should play. Yes, the actual gameplay may feel a bit dated, but once you start boosting your various skills, things aren’t so bad and you soon grow accustomed to it.

The game holds up fairly well graphically, offering a nice variety of locations and environments. It has a good story, but it’s the world and characters where Bloodlines truly excels. As far as I’m concerned, it’s simply one of the best games ever made in regard to these elements. I’d actually rate it better than similar titles such as Deus Ex or System Shock 2 in those areas. It’s just a shame the ‘game’ part of Bloodlines is what lets it down a little. Recommended.

8/10