Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines

"Bloodlines: great story - poor game"

Vampire mythology has evolved in recent years, thanks in no small part to the writings of Anne Rice. Indeed the Vampire has become a cultural pop icon of sorts, imbued with seductive charm, supreme intelligence and super human qualities that have in some ways obscured the evil nature of these mythical creatures.

Vampire Bloodlines follows the trends initiated by Ms Rice. The game attempts to introduce a logical and ordered secret society of Vampires, replete with political and social tensions that are in many ways analogous to the world in which we live; a world where clan, ideology and political persuasion are the fault-lines of social harmony. Like all societies, the world of the Vampire is bound by law. Central to the law of the Undead is the obligation to uphold the Masquerade. This in effect means that in all actions you must keep your identity as Vampire secret. You cannot go around flashing your Vampiric powers with reckless abandon. If you drink the blood of a mortal make sure you are not spotted, if you use your supernatural gifts, do so in the shadows … for when your Masquerade level drops to zero the game will end.

Vampire Bloodlines is an RPG which is at its best when representing the universe of the Undead. The writing is exemplary and the voice acting is also of a high standard. You begin the game, as is the norm in most RPG's, by selecting your character. This can be done either manually or through a silly questionnaire. In Bloodlines Vampires are defined by Clan, which in turn defines his/her attributes and as the game progresses you will be able to further enhance your Vampires aptitude by distributing experience points (earned by accomplishing mission objectives) on the usual array of character stats.

Level variety is good. You will visit a haunted motel, raunchy night clubs, numerous hotel apartments and creature infested sewers - how original! There are other skills which will need to be harnessed in order to complete the game –being a vampire ain't all blood ‘n' coffins after all. You will often find yourself hacking into computers, disabling locks and using stealth. Your success at these tasks will be determined by the skills you have decided to augment.

Bloodlines allows for a great deal of player freedom. You can choose your own destiny and there are a number of alternate endings. There are also many peripheral objectives which you may choose to ignore but at the core there is an engaging story which unfolds through a set of obligatory tasks.

Most missions involve combat though the combat system feels rushed and the lack of a ‘lock on' function is problematic – particularly when fighting numerous enemies. You are also given the option to use guns but melee combat is far more effective, in fact I finished the game without ever needing to use modern weaponry.

Vampire Bloodlines is rendered in 3D and is built upon the Source engine. While this may sound appealing, the game suffers from serious technical problems. Expect long load times, frustrating frame rate problems (particularly evident when exploring the city hubs) and the occasional crash to desktop. These issues will hopefully be addressed by the developers in the form of a patch some time soon.

The graphics are a mixed bag. Facial animations are terrific, the water is extremely well drawn yet some textures lack detail and there are a large number of graphical glitches which usually involve missing textures.

For all its faults I found myself playing on. The game is saved from utter mediocrity by its interesting storyline and well scripted dialogue. If you are ready to overlook its many problems there is a satisfying game to be played here... but oh how frustrating it is to play a game that offers much but delivers little.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 12/10/04