VtM: Bloodlines, with spoilers

[Oner]

Vampire wielding Chinese katana

[sorophx]

making my way through the Downtown area. there are a lot of things I like about this game. first, the fact that you can finish quests in a multitude of ways (looks like there's always three options: talk your way out, sneak your way out, murder your way out), and a lot of quests can be gotten in at least two ways, so even if you miss one quest trigger, you will most likely find the other one; a nice way of making sure players don't miss out on too much content even on their first playthrough. 

 

combat sucks, of course, especially the fact that it's so melee-heavy. but I like that you don't get XP for killing, only for completing quest objectives. so combat is optional save for the few exceptions (bosses).

 

and this is where it begins to fall apart. I think, bosses should've been made a lot easier to fight, because combat was obviously an afterthought for the design team. and because the engine doesn't really make things easy on you to begin with. I'm really pissed about some quests being straight up wet jobs, with no way of avoiding fighting. the completionist in me is screaming in frustration.

 

maybe I don't have to complete all quests as I come across them, though, just focus on the ones I can tackle and slowly level up my character. this isn't Deus Ex: HR after all, where you just have to finish off a hub before progressing.

[Serrano]

Edit: Nevermind, I think I misunderstood your meaning. 

Edited May 9, 2014 by Serrano

[Agiel]

making my way through the Downtown area. there are a lot of things I like about this game. first, the fact that you can finish quests in a multitude of ways (looks like there's always three options: talk your way out, sneak your way out, murder your way out), and a lot of quests can be gotten in at least two ways, so even if you miss one quest trigger, you will most likely find the other one; a nice way of making sure players don't miss out on too much content even on their first playthrough. 

 

combat sucks, of course, especially the fact that it's so melee-heavy. but I like that you don't get XP for killing, only for completing quest objectives. so combat is optional save for the few exceptions (bosses).

 

and this is where it begins to fall apart. I think, bosses should've been made a lot easier to fight, because combat was obviously an afterthought for the design team. and because the engine doesn't really make things easy on you to begin with. I'm really pissed about some quests being straight up wet jobs, with no way of avoiding fighting. the completionist in me is screaming in frustration.

 

maybe I don't have to complete all quests as I come across them, though, just focus on the ones I can tackle and slowly level up my character. this isn't Deus Ex: HR after all, where you just have to finish off a hub before progressing.

 

I have some unfortunate news for you: Combat becomes virtually the only solution as you bear down towards the end of the game. Though on the plus side if you roll your character right (and max out Celerity) combat becomes bearable.

 

I now realise for many RPGs, the greatest champions of a particular game are generally the first to admit to its biggest flaws.

Edited May 9, 2014 by Agiel

[sorophx]

but my Malk doesn't have Celerity  I'm doomed

[aluminiumtrioxid]

but my Malk doesn't have Celerity  I'm doomed

 

Yo can stealth kill your way throughout the game with Obfuscate 5.

[sorophx]

good, I already can have it at 4 if I wish, but so far it hasn't been very useful for killing dudes. every time I press Feed while obfuscated my Malk just shoves them forward and reveals itself

[Humanoid]

Pfft, just "silently" kill them by smashing their heads full whack with a baseball bat.

[sorophx]

actually, stealth kills are as cheesy as they are in DX: HR - even if a guy stands right next to your target but is facing in another direction, you can kill someone behind him and he won't notice. 

[Orogun01]

actually, stealth kills are as cheesy as they are in DX: HR - even if a guy stands right next to your target but is facing in another direction, you can kill someone behind him and he won't notice.

Actually, IIRC those were only possible with non lethal takedowns. Killing actually alarmed nearby enemies, unless they patched that out.

[sorophx]

you could be right, I did a non-lethal playthrough of DX

[Humanoid]

Lethal takedowns were completely pointless to the extent that they were only good for the novelty of seeing the silly animations. Even ignoring the ridiculous double XP for a non-lethal takedown, I don't recall a situation where an enemy was actually had the chance to be revived by another. Between that and the XP for unnecessary hacking and good grief, that game had the most messed up XP system of anything I can remember.

[sorophx]

I don't recall a situation where an enemy was actually had the chance to be revived by another.

I think it happened to me a couple of times, because I remember hiding bodies all the time and wasting hours on my stealthy sessions

[Hurlshort]

I think I just hewed my way through the entire game with a crazy malkavian schoolgirl and a big red firefighter's axe.

[sorophx]

that's my current setup, and I can hardly take on other vampires or big groups of thugs

[Orogun01]

that's my current setup, and I can hardly take on other vampires or big groups of thugs

Combat is a little painful in the beginning, specially when you get to Downtown. Once you get past the stealth portions combat improves significantly and by the end you will be a badass vampire in a horror John Woo film. Its one of those few instances of story and gameplay married seamlessly, where your rise in power is relevant to the story.

[sorophx]

I finally figured out what purpose Research serves: it lets me read manuals that add skill points to certain skills, which is flippin' awesome, especially for higher tier skills, where instead of buying that level 4 melee with XP you can just read a manual and get that point for free! and since my build doesn't need Research higher than 5 (I'm at 4 now), I will have both melee and brawl maxed out very soon thanks to my good friend Nines Rodriguez

 

I'm beginning to appreciate the game's leveling system, it's simple and easy to follow, therefore you don't just dump stats into skills or abilities unknowingly, you know exactly what you will get out of them gameplay wise. 

 

combat is still ****, though. even after getting somewhat used to changing my directional key before every series of attacks I still can't quite get it to work, it's so hard to hit enemies with melee weapons, half of my swings just whiff by missing by an inch, so frustrating 

Edited May 10, 2014 by sorophx

[Serrano]

 it's so hard to hit enemies with melee weapons, half of my swings just whiff by missing by an inch, so frustrating 

 

If it's any conciliation, that's how it usually works in movies too. 

Edited May 10, 2014 by Serrano

[sorophx]

is there a place I can buy blood packs? I have none left after the Plaguebearer quest and I'm about to go investigate the disappearance of a Malkavian lord or somesuch, I'm more than sure it'll be combat heavy...

[Zoraptor]

Vandal under the hospital in Santa Monica certainly has some.

[sorophx]

in the blood bank, of course. I don't remember any NPCs there, but will check it out, thanks

[aluminiumtrioxid]

I finally figured out what purpose Research serves: it lets me read manuals that add skill points to certain skills, which is flippin' awesome, especially for higher tier skills, where instead of buying that level 4 melee with XP you can just read a manual and get that point for free! and since my build doesn't need Research higher than 5 (I'm at 4 now), I will have both melee and brawl maxed out very soon thanks to my good friend Nines Rodriguez

 

But they only give extra points if your skill is low enough.

[sorophx]

Yes. But some books like brawl and melee work at level 3. And since you can get a point each from nines you can have those maxed out with research alone bumping intelligence and scholarship in the process. I only wish I knew about it beforehand so I could have planned my build up to that point

[marelooke]

Yes. But some books like brawl and melee work at level 3. And since you can get a point each from nines you can have those maxed out with research alone bumping intelligence and scholarship in the process. I only wish I knew about it beforehand so I could have planned my build up to that point

 

Also worth knowing that if you sell the book to a vendor they will then stock it indefinitely, as such you can get two points out of each book. (istr reading somewhere that Tripp somehow didn't work for this, though in my expreience doing this with Tripp worked fine)

[sorophx]

too late for me now, next playthrough. thanks for teh tip!