argurotoxos | Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines screencaps!

The in-game options menu.

The character sheet. This is chock full of information and is my Malkavian character's from the very end of the game. You gain experience points as you complete quests, which you can then use to 'level up' your character. I started out with the plan that I'd be a mainly melee fighter, but prefer sneaking past enemies to combat. I accidentally increased my ranged feat too high, and made the mistake of not maxing out my Dementation. Still, I'm pretty happy with the rest. The faces under the Masquerade title are crossed out if you ever violate the Masquerade; violate it five times and the game ends.

The character info screen. Here you see clan information in addition to physical appearance. This is what the default male Malkavian looks like. The first line in the clan info is that clan's merit, the second line it's flaw.

Same as the above, except this is after I bought additional armour. While slightly ridiculous and playing off the Malkavian madness, I found myself playing more in third-person after I bought it just to see the hat and coat wiggle around as I ran. On a side note, see that picture next to 'dev'? That's a cracked mirror and is Clan Malkavian's clan symbol.

This is Jack. He's the one who teaches you how to survive in your new vampire life and is a cool guy. You may be wondering why he has no pupils or irises. The answer is that it's the way that my graphics card displays the characters, not the game engine. Still, I've come to rather like the look. Stylistically, that is; in real life, it would be rather freaky.

One of the very first thing you see after the tutorial and after you leave your haven is this street view of Santa Monica.

Your computer. Check often for new email messages; some give you side quests that you can't get otherwise. And then there's that 'friend' who keeps sending you emails couched in chess metaphors . . .

Your TV. Taken inside your second haven, Skyline Apartments floor four, in Downtown LA. Check often for updated news reports, but there's only one channel!

The Asylum, the dance club in Santa Monica.

Dancing to Chiasm's addicting song 'Isolated' at The Asylum.

Jeanette, the female Malkavian who owns The Asylum. She's also featured in most of the Bloodlines promotional artwork.

The quest log. You'll receive an on-screen notice when quests are updated or completed. New changed in your quest log will also appear in green.

. . . you'll soon have a large number of quests in your log, especially if you choose to do all of the side quests.

This is Ocean House, the location of 'The Ghost Haunts at Midnight' quest in the previous screencap. It holds the honour of being the scariest level I've ever played. You can also see the health (left) and blood (right) bars; they're there throughout gameplay, except for dialogue and cutscenes. More on them later.

This is the Camarilla Prince of Los Angeles, Sebastian LaCroix. He can usually be found here, in the penthouse of Ventrue Tower. That massive guy behind him on the left is the Camarilla Sheriff, who helps enforce vampire law. He also doesn't say a world throughout the entire game and, as far as I know, doesn't even have a name. At least not that we know of.

The Taxi Driver, who transports you from one hub to another (unless you're a Nosferatu). He also becomes extremely important in the endgame.

A bus sign in Downtown LA. These are very useful as they have maps of the city you can use to find your way around.

A look down a street in Downtown LA. The building on the close left is Skyline Apartments, the location of your second haven (unless you're Nosferatu or Tremere). More on the health and blood bars. The circle under the blood bar (right) shows you what discipline [vampiric power] you have selected. Passive disciplines work on timers, and you'll see a timer bar appear on the left side of the circle. Using disciplines always requires spending blood.

While wandering through Downtown LA . . . 'Hey, that window is glowing!' Turns out it's the Tremere Chantry. Here is where you'll meet Strauss, the Tremere primogen, who is definitely a character worth talking to.

Looking at a gargoyle on a building in Downtown LA. Nothing of note here, I just really like this screencap.

Your requisite cemetery screencap! Brings back Buffy feelings, no?

Welcome to Chinatown, the last of the four main locations!

Jumping around in the sewers under Chinatown. The sewers are essential for Nosferatu and very useful to other vampire clans. You can navigate through them instead of using the city streets and, unless you're a Ventrue, you can also feed on the rats down here for blood.

A gorgeous city view from the lift near the end of the game.

While in Chinatown, you'll get put through a series of test chambers by a man called Mandarin (he's the one running away on the right) who runs various experiments on you to see just how much pain vampire bodies can take. Eventually, enough is enough and you break the window, as seen here. The weapon I'm holding is a sledgehammer, which is a surprisingly good melee weapon; I used it until I finally tried a katana and discovered how much better it was.

The sledgehammer again, stalking through Golden Temple's halls in Chinatown.

Climbing up the stairs in Ventrue Tower with katana extended. I like the way my coat blends into the marble colours.

Lots going on in this gameplay screencap. First, the health bar (left). The round circle at the top with the gun inside it signifies that this is a combat zone, which means that no humanity points are deducted for killing humans and the Masquerade is not in effect. The circle below the health bar shows what weapon I have equipped, in this case, a katana. In this shot, I'm crouched, which triggers stealth mode. Stealth mode brings up an additional bar on the right of the health bar which displays both the amound of shadow and light (the light is represented by the grey section of the bar) and how far away I am from the nearest enemy (100 is directly on top of them). If the numerical indicator turns yellow, then enemies are becoming suspicious. If it turns red, you've been seen.

The next bar on the left is the melee inventory. There's also an inventory for firearms, armour, and general items. It's normally only shown while you're selecting a weapon, but I left it on so you can see what it looks like.

Finally, while you're in stealth mode, you can perform stealth kills. That's what the skeleton with a knife in the lower center of the screen means. The red ankh and halo show the target selected (for discipline use). Performing a stealth kill will show a short third-person scene of you dispensing the target with the appropriate weapon and is performed so that no other enemies will notice. Stealth kills can only be performed unarmed or with melee weapons.

A gameplay example of firearms combat. Here, I'm fighting the Gargoyle in the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. The gun is on the lower right, the cross hairs are red - indicating a target - on the Gargoyle's face. On the left, you can see that my health bar is low; the yellow means I've been taking aggravating damage, which takes longer to heal. Finally, the circle under the health bar shows the gun I have equipped, the ammo loaded (top number), and the amount of spare ammo I have (bottom number).

Unlike melee, which you can only perform third-person, firearms can be used in either POV. However, first-person is the default and you lose your cross hairs if you fire third-person.

Discipline combat! Here I'm using level three Dementation, Vision of Death. It kills humans instantly and does a good amount of damage to non-humans. The bloodied symbol in the lower right, normally attached to the blood bar, means that I have to wait before I use the same discipline again. Discipline use always requires blood expenditure.

Conversation time! This NPC is no one special, simply a cop from the second floor of the Santa Monica Medical Clinic. What's special about this conversation is the first dialogue option. The red colour means that it's a Dementation option and the single circle in front of the sentence means that it costs one blood point to use. (A full blood bar has 15 blood points.) It's useful for convincing people to do what you want them to. Other sentences that show up in different colours are persuasion (blue), intimidation (green), and seduction (purple) options.

Beckett! One of my favourite NPCs! This also shows some of the unique dialogue options you receive when playing a Malkavian, like number two. Pith helmets always make learning fun. (At least I think number two is a Malkavian-only option. There are better examples elsewhere, but you really need the context of the conversation to understand them . . .)

This screencap is from one of the best conversations in the game. The person you're talking to is Gary, the leader of the Nosferatu in Hollywood and another very cool NPC. He begins his introductory conversation with you by trying to convince you that he's really a voice inside your head. Also notice the skeletons and the dead rats at the dinner party. I swear Gary's got a streak of Malkavian in him, even though that's not physically possible . . .

If nothing else convinces you that Malkavians are unique, this should. After all, no other clan can get into an argument with a stop sign. (I still want a rematch . . .)

If that's still not enough for you, there's a point where you'll enter your apartment in Downtown LA and the TV will come on by itself. The newscaster will chat with you and then tell you a funny story about a tuna and a chef. Seriously. You can watch it here.

In any case, you'll have a number of loading screens throughout your Bloodlines play. This is what they look like. The information displayed rotates (randomly?) and includes both vampire information and gameplay tips. Gameplay tips have a light bulb icon instead of the stylized ankh on the left side.

This is a poster of Jeanette that Gary the Nosferatu traded me in exchange for finding a copy of a movie he preformed in when he was still mortal. Now it hangs in my haven.

The Ankaran Sarcophagus. Also known as 'that damn box'. You'll spend a good chunk of the game trying to track it down, and then, after you have it, trying to figure out how it opens and if you even want it to open. At one point, when Beckett comes to talk to you about the sarcophagus, one of the dialogue options is: 'I AM SO SICK OF THAT DAMN BOX!' or something along those lines. (That's Beckett standing behind the sarcophagus, by the way.)

Another requisite vampire screencap. Feeding.

The Society of Leopold's training center. Here we see stereotypical werewolf and vampire cutouts for use in target practise. I just had to take a screencap, if only for the werewolf's expression. (The Society of Leopold, if you haven't guessed, are vampire hunters. Well, any-supernatural-creature hunters, really. They're a remnant from the Inquisition.)

And we end our lovely tour of World of Darkness vampire California with some Nosferatu humour. Down in their burrows under the cemetery, one of them decided he was a 1337 haxor. I was rather surprised it wasn't on the door to Mitnick's room considering that he's the resident Nosferatu computer expert.