As an end-of-the-school-year present to myself, I bought myself a new computer game. The game in question was Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines, a single-player vampire RPG set in California based on the pen-and-paper RPG of the same name created by White Wolf in the early 1990s. It had been sitting on my wish list for over three years - partly because I was waiting for the price to come down, partly because I wasn't sure if my graphics card could handle it - but after I saw that the price had been reduced to under $20 and checked all of the system requirements a few weeks ago, I decided not to hold back any longer.
I finished it after playing for almost five days straight. It's hard to rate it, but it's definitely one of my top five computer games and I enjoyed it more than the first Vampire: The Masquerade-based computer game - Vampire the Masquerade: Redemption - thought Redemption was by no means a bad game in itself. (You can watch the E3 trailers for both Redemption and Bloodlines here and here, respectively. The games are better than the trailers make them look, but I prefer Redemption's trailer over Bloodlines'.)
But before I go into Bloodlines, it's useful to have a basic understanding of White Wolf's original RPG. If you pick up either Redemption or Bloodlines and have no idea what Vampire: The Masquerade's about, it doesn't matter that much; both games have dialogue that will explain the world to you if you're not familiar with it and Bloodlines offers both a complete tutorial and a character creation wizard. However, since you're not playing either of those games right now . . .
( Your brief introduction to Vampire: The Masquerade and The World of Darkness. )
The very first thing you do when you play Bloodlines is go through character creation. You can play as any of the seven Camarilla clans: Brujah, Gangrel, Malkavian, Nosferatu, Toreador, Tremere, or Venture. After selecting your clan and gender, you then fill out your character sheet, which is a simplified version of the sheet used in the tabletop RPG. If you're new to Vampire: The Masquerade, you can answer a series of questions about what type of character you'd like to play and your clan and character sheet will be filled out accordingly by the computer. Detailed information about clans and their disciplines can be found both in the game and in the corresponding instructional booklet.
( More about Bloodlines gameplay. )
( Memorable moments from my own Bloodlines experience, including spoilers. )
( Screencaps! )
I finished it after playing for almost five days straight. It's hard to rate it, but it's definitely one of my top five computer games and I enjoyed it more than the first Vampire: The Masquerade-based computer game - Vampire the Masquerade: Redemption - thought Redemption was by no means a bad game in itself. (You can watch the E3 trailers for both Redemption and Bloodlines here and here, respectively. The games are better than the trailers make them look, but I prefer Redemption's trailer over Bloodlines'.)
But before I go into Bloodlines, it's useful to have a basic understanding of White Wolf's original RPG. If you pick up either Redemption or Bloodlines and have no idea what Vampire: The Masquerade's about, it doesn't matter that much; both games have dialogue that will explain the world to you if you're not familiar with it and Bloodlines offers both a complete tutorial and a character creation wizard. However, since you're not playing either of those games right now . . .
( Your brief introduction to Vampire: The Masquerade and The World of Darkness. )
The very first thing you do when you play Bloodlines is go through character creation. You can play as any of the seven Camarilla clans: Brujah, Gangrel, Malkavian, Nosferatu, Toreador, Tremere, or Venture. After selecting your clan and gender, you then fill out your character sheet, which is a simplified version of the sheet used in the tabletop RPG. If you're new to Vampire: The Masquerade, you can answer a series of questions about what type of character you'd like to play and your clan and character sheet will be filled out accordingly by the computer. Detailed information about clans and their disciplines can be found both in the game and in the corresponding instructional booklet.
( More about Bloodlines gameplay. )
( Memorable moments from my own Bloodlines experience, including spoilers. )
( Screencaps! )
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