Some games transcend genres. Deus Ex, Warcraft 3 and Metroid Prime are three
names that spring instantly to mind. And it is in this heady company that Vampire: The
Masquerade - Bloodlines almost finds itself.
Yes, you read the title correctly. A
complex title (well, at least in terms of length and punctuation) for a complex game. To
start at the beginning: you are a new vampire whose sire has been put to death for creating
you without permission from the vampire elders. Cast afloat in your new life with no guide,
you must discover for yourself the murky world of vampire politics, and the disturbing
rumblings of the coming of Gehenna - the apocalypse.
In many ways, Vampire is similar
to Deus Ex. From a starting point of ignorance, the storyline unfolds around you, engulfing
you. Conversations cover subjects as diverse as politics, mythology, schizophrenia and lap
dancing, without causing a distraction. In fact Ive never played a game which tackles adult
subjects with such ease and wit, nor gets away with this amount of swearing, simply because
none of it is out of place. This immersion, just like with Deus Ex, makes Vampire a very
difficult game to put down. The RPG style stats system is also similar. Completing quests
provides you with experience points, which can then be spent to improve fighting abilities,
character attributes, and vampire powers. But comparing any game to Deus Ex is incredibly
dangerous and can only lead to disappointment, and sadly, this is the case here
too.
Vampire is current the only game other than Half Life 2 to be using the Source
engine. Unfortunately, while Half Life 2 is optimised to within an inch of its life (hell,
it even runs acceptably on my low/mid range spec), Vampire is not. It has sound jitters,
jerkiness, and some of the worst graphical glitches Ive ever seen. Of course, as this is
the Source engine, the graphics are otherwise beautiful. In fact, the game gives the engine
a more intensive workout than Half Life 2, with close-ups of faces during conversation
really showing off the range of expressions available.
Vampire is also the most
memory whoring game ever, requiring a 1400MB swap file and not even running smoothly on a
system with 1 gig of RAM. In essence, its not finished, and the recently released patch
does almost nothing to fix these problems, providing the disclaimer Your computer sucks,
get a new one. Or words to that effect.
There is one more problem - combat. To start
with it is particularly weak, following a simple you hit them, they hit you, repeat until
someone is dead model. With stat increases things start to get a little better however, and
throwing powers into the mix adds some spice to the more important battles. However the
reason I claim that Vampire doesnt manage to transcend genres is that it doesnt quite work
as a shooter. Gun wielding is a little clunky, fairly ineffective unless your stats are
good, and just a lot less fun than using melee weapons, or just sucking the life out of your
opponents.
The ideas behind Vampire are excellent, and the potential is there for
this to be a truly great game. Its just a pity it isnt properly
finished.
8/10
The point is i like it so much that i dont care.
