Bloodlines

[Noceur]

First off, I have to say that the game probably is a bit immature *L* ... but I wasn't offended, just amused.

 

I found the game highly entertaining. I probably shouldn't have played through as a malkavian the first time, since now the game feels a tad boring when I play as Gangrel and stuff.

 

The game ran just fine on my computer... only game stopping bug was the Leopold one.

 

I enjoyed the hacking immensly, hehe. The combat was pretty boring, but since I played Malkavian I was more of a ninja anyway... silent kills are awesome.

 

It's a shame Troika's dead now... I was waiting for them to release something of Arcanum proportions again.

[Tanuvein]

Good:

Good story

Good roleplaying

Good atmosphere

Good voice acting

Great use of making a game actually M

 

Bad:

Buggy

The last fifth of the game - three or four hours of non stop combat

 

Middleground:

Combat system

World of Darkness rule adaptation (it was kinda shoddy)

[Azure79]

Hmm, I'm tempted to purchase this game. When I get some extra money that is.

 

Vampires don't really interest me though I am interested in how the HL2 engine performs as an RPG.

[Oerwinde]

All the furniture in my apartment is now couches. My desk is now a couch, my lamps are couches, my tables are couches. Its annoying because now I can't get to my computer.

 

In the game that is...

[Niten_Ryu]

I bought Bloodlines from bargain bin earlier this week (I've never seen so new game before in bargain bin, I guess sales were horrible in here).

 

My mini review...

 

Issues - how I generally rank issues - Impression (positive + or negative - towards final score)

 

Story - indifferent +

I generally don't care about story when I buy new game. I like to make my own story and game just gives me rought guidelines. Vampire political power struggle was an interesting story. I chose to play Male Toleador corporate asskisser (record industry PR manager in previous life) and game allowed me to do that quite well. I stayed loyal to Prince till the exploding end.

 

Writing - very important +

My own lines were horrible at the times but at least NPC had often something interesting or funny to say. Because of adult themes, even basic fedex quest were much more fun than usually. I've only started to play Malkavian female, but it seem that NPCs generally speak same lines to me as to same people. Anyway, few extra lines and better roleplay possibilities are definite plus.

 

World - vital +

I didn't expect much and since I really dislike goth scene, I was sure that I wouldn't like the setting. I was wrong. Setting works like charm and game actually makes fun of goths from time to time. It was refreshing to see mature themes in game. Adult books stores, strip joints, underground porn, hookers, nightclubs, drugs, swearing like drunken sailor... World felt alive and many ways it reminded me of DeusEx's world (actually whole game is many ways similar to DeusEx).

 

Rule system - important +

I've never played any Whitewolf PnP RPGs, so I have no idea if the rules in game are similar or not. Best part was expo system. I was so happy to see that you gained expo from doing quests rather than mindlessly killing everyone. I liked simple 5 stage skill system although some skills (ie. combat skills) should have cost more than other. I had over 40 expo points to spend in the end. I didn't use diciplines other than level 2 celerity so I don't know yet how well they work in game. Also I didn't get more than one masqurade violation and my humanity was 10 almost all the time so those systems are unknown to me. They way you created character was fun (jagged alliance style). I love question type of character creation.

 

Combat system - important +

I love hybrid RPG/FPS combat systems. It's like FPS but more difficult that I like that. 3rd person close combat worked fine too. Best feature was instant kill from behind witn bare hands or melee weapons (lol, that baseball bat hit). Only thing that was missing was the critical hits. Even head shot didn't hurt more than normal hit (except Zombies). Decent critical hit system and other combat stuff more close to Splinter Cell (sneaking, hiding bodies, hanging from various places ect ect.) Weapons were generally good. Pistols were my absolute fav, but all weapons had their uses. SMG recoil was wonderful (but still deadly if used correctly).

 

Graphics - mildly important +

It's valves engine so everything is near state of the art. Art direction wasn't as strong as it was in Half-Life 2, but still very good. Screenshots were much worse looking than moving images. Sometimes certain textures were among the best I've seen in any game. Neon lights, decayed urban environment gave nice excuse to go wild. It's not all good, since some textures were really blurry (vehicles). DX9 features were subtle and that's always positive. There were too few character models and they didn't use anykind of face generator. Dark environments are always easier to do but at least this time setting allowed that to max.

 

Engine features - very important +

Basically everything is there. Z-axis, DX9 features, ect ect. Half-Life 2 team used engine much better than Troika. Since they developed games at the same time, that was expected. Only thing that bothers me that maps are still very small. Engine allows much larger maps so I have no idea why Troika made so small maps. Also they didn't use physics as much as Valve. Maps were ok, nothing too great (expect haunted mansion). Generally too many empty rooms.

 

PoV - indifferent

First person or following camera third person. I don't care, it's all good.

 

Development house - mildly important +

Troika... Timmy, Leo... too bad that you didn't make in the rough game biz. You shouldn't design games for my taste. Hardcore gamers are almost nonexistent when you compare how many copies you need to sell just to brake even.

 

Publisher - important

Activision ? Why the hell you did chose to fund hardcore RPG/FPS hybrid about vampires... are you insane ? I'm hardcore and I still bought this game from bargain bin.

 

Single/multi/MMOG - vital +

Yay ! It's singleplayer

 

Bug free - mildly important

Hey, it's Troika game. It's by default not bug free. I played version 1.2 and I only crashed two times. Gameplay was smooth and there were suprisingly low amont of bugs (few script, some graphical, possible minor memory leak).

 

Difficulty setting - very important

Generally too easy, but there were some hard spots at least for non-combat orianted character. Zombies at the Hollywood graveyard gave me blast from the past. Damn it was difficult... it required near perfect headshots and timing between two gates. I hate respawning enemies, but this time it was positive experience. Yes, I know there's easier solution too but who can resist such challenge.

 

Game type - important +

Hybrid RPG/FPS. I like. Too bad that you couldn't steal as many items as you could in Morrowind or even in Thief series. Or hide bodies...

 

Summary

Very positive experience. It's rare that game gets zero negatives. I didn't buy this game right away because I was sure that I'd hate the setting, rules and possible huge amounts of bugs. Would I buy sequel... right away, at full price. Will there be sequel... uh huh... It was freaking amazing that they even made this game. No way there's ever going to be sequel untill games cost under million to develop (and that may be never again and there's no Troika anyway).

 

****

[Tanuvein]

You played a non-combat character like me, then, Niten. What did you think of the ending with all the boring, endless combat?

[Niten_Ryu]

You played a non-combat character like me, then, Niten. What did you think of the ending with all the boring, endless combat?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Well, at that point I did have 2 str + 2 melee = 4 unarmed and 3 per + 3 guns = 6 ranged. Anyway, I sneaked and snapped necks most of the time so while there were nothing but opponents for the last three parts of the game (Society of Leopold, Sabbat hotel, Chinatown temple), it wasn't that boring. Or I used my trustworthy magnum 44. I have strong FPS background (although I've played cRPGs much longer, since FPS are only ~15 years old) and that means the weaker my character, the more fun I have.

 

But you are right, last few hours were pure FPS (including sneaking) action and I can imagine how much pure RPG gamers hate that. I absolutely hated Ravanger and Malachor V in KotOR 2... It was pure combat, but I didn't have as much control of my character as I did in Bloodlines.

[Lcaus Scuks]

KotOR 2 unpatched is better than Bloodlines (one of the big disappointments for me along with Doom 3 and Deus Ex 2) patched. I can't recommend this game just like I can't recommend Deus Ex 2.

[aVENGER]

I sneaked and snapped necks most of the time

 

Heh, that was my general strategy as well, but IMO, obfuscate gets kind of overpowered by level 5, when you get the ability to execute stealth kills without breaking the invisibility mode. Also, it appeared to me that the enemies didn

[Noceur]

Yeah, I'm not a big fan of big bad boss endings. I think I obfuscated a lot in the end as well, but my Malk femme was totally kickass with the katana, so I didn't exactly have any problems in combat.

 

Obfuscate may be overpowered at lvl 5 yeah, but I think that's fairly good since it enables the player to play stealthy in a game with mobs of enemies. Had the enemies been fewer between at all times, and you had to use tactics (guierilla warfare ;P ) to kill of patrolling enemies as nescessary it would've been different.

 

But I have to say that obfuscate at all gives a real advantage. Since I played Malk on my first run, I can hardly play the game any more

[Dire]

KotOR 2 unpatched is better than Bloodlines (one of the big disappointments for me along with Doom 3 and Deus Ex 2) patched. I can't recommend this game just like I can't recommend Deus Ex 2.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

at least most people could play bloodlines compared to KOTOR2