In another episode of "pretty good western RPGs by small game studios that got royally screwed over by troubled development cycles”, we have Troika Games’ Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines. Which when it was first released was a commercial failure and killed Troika just when they were three games in.
I don’t think it goes without saying that compared to its familiar peers, like Fallout: New Vegas or Knights of the Old Republic 2, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines feels the most unfinished and incomplete as an overall package.
There are many aspects to the game, ranging from its gameplay to certain sections of the story, that feel either woefully underdeveloped or in need of just one more revision. The shooting isn’t very good and oftentimes it becomes hard to know where you’re aiming because the crosshair is nonexistent. Granted, I played as a Gangrel which seemed more specialized in the beat ‘em up combat so maybe it's a matter of me not putting my points into the proper skillset.
The first introductory hub world of Santa Monica is amazing in setting you up as a new vampire learning to traverse the dark nighttime underbelly of L.A ruled by a secret vampire society. However, the more you progress through the game the less detail there starts to be for other hub worlds you unlock. It becomes really evident in the last stretch of the game where there isn’t much decision making to make and is just a barrage of combat capped off with some boss battles. If there was anything to give away this game went through rough development this would take the cake for it.
Some sections even frustrated me with how janky and almost archaically designed they are. The two that come to mind are the Nosferatu Sewers and the Ming Xiao boss fight which I swear to god if you haven’t built your character just right for combat up to that point like I have it’s almost impossible to beat without instantly resorting to god mode.
But regardless of the technical problems or issues I found while playing the game I still find it hard to not be engrossed into the morbidly engaging world of Bloodlines. If there’s one thing the game excels at is creating an immersive atmosphere that’s so gothic, moody, and urban. From the slow and sombering music, the licensed goth punk songs, the very edgy urban aesthetic of the hub worlds. Troika adopting the Valve Source Engine was the right choice for a game like this. It not only helped deliver surprisingly well emotive facial and character animations (which puts a lot of modern games to shame) but also a masterclass in video game horror design in the form of the Ocean House Motel.
Exploring places all over L.A, whether it be Santa Monica, Hollywood, or Chinatown, feels the most rewarding if not just for the wild or incredibly fascinating characters you meet alone. They’re all incredibly well voice-acted and give you interesting insight into the politics of the vampire society and their relationship with the human world. Interacting with them feels like something straight out of the pages of a Vertigo comic book like Preacher. Which funnily enough contains a very similar tonal outlook on how darkly absurd America is and obviously the way both present vampires in modern society.
Might consider replaying this with the updated patch that restores chunks of cut content to see how it really could've been. Along with playing as a different vampire class like the Nosferatu because that looks really funny. Even so, with cracks and all that, this was still a great experience to go through.
Fuck LaCroix. But more importantly fuck Activision.
I don’t think it goes without saying that compared to its familiar peers, like Fallout: New Vegas or Knights of the Old Republic 2, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines feels the most unfinished and incomplete as an overall package.
There are many aspects to the game, ranging from its gameplay to certain sections of the story, that feel either woefully underdeveloped or in need of just one more revision. The shooting isn’t very good and oftentimes it becomes hard to know where you’re aiming because the crosshair is nonexistent. Granted, I played as a Gangrel which seemed more specialized in the beat ‘em up combat so maybe it's a matter of me not putting my points into the proper skillset.
The first introductory hub world of Santa Monica is amazing in setting you up as a new vampire learning to traverse the dark nighttime underbelly of L.A ruled by a secret vampire society. However, the more you progress through the game the less detail there starts to be for other hub worlds you unlock. It becomes really evident in the last stretch of the game where there isn’t much decision making to make and is just a barrage of combat capped off with some boss battles. If there was anything to give away this game went through rough development this would take the cake for it.
Some sections even frustrated me with how janky and almost archaically designed they are. The two that come to mind are the Nosferatu Sewers and the Ming Xiao boss fight which I swear to god if you haven’t built your character just right for combat up to that point like I have it’s almost impossible to beat without instantly resorting to god mode.
But regardless of the technical problems or issues I found while playing the game I still find it hard to not be engrossed into the morbidly engaging world of Bloodlines. If there’s one thing the game excels at is creating an immersive atmosphere that’s so gothic, moody, and urban. From the slow and sombering music, the licensed goth punk songs, the very edgy urban aesthetic of the hub worlds. Troika adopting the Valve Source Engine was the right choice for a game like this. It not only helped deliver surprisingly well emotive facial and character animations (which puts a lot of modern games to shame) but also a masterclass in video game horror design in the form of the Ocean House Motel.
Exploring places all over L.A, whether it be Santa Monica, Hollywood, or Chinatown, feels the most rewarding if not just for the wild or incredibly fascinating characters you meet alone. They’re all incredibly well voice-acted and give you interesting insight into the politics of the vampire society and their relationship with the human world. Interacting with them feels like something straight out of the pages of a Vertigo comic book like Preacher. Which funnily enough contains a very similar tonal outlook on how darkly absurd America is and obviously the way both present vampires in modern society.
Might consider replaying this with the updated patch that restores chunks of cut content to see how it really could've been. Along with playing as a different vampire class like the Nosferatu because that looks really funny. Even so, with cracks and all that, this was still a great experience to go through.
Fuck LaCroix. But more importantly fuck Activision.