Vampire Bloodlines

[Bob the Insane]

Bought it and am playing it...

Basically it rocks, but...

My system is pretty happy running HL2 at a pretty high resolution with high details...

I can have the same setting in Bloodlines but the machine is definately struggling in places. Especially the city hubs which can turn into a slide show on occasion. Add to this that the quality of the textures, while very good compared to any but HL2 are simply not in the same league as HL2... Character animations can be a bit dodgy at times too... But if we had not seen HL2 yet we would be very impressed...

This is a first person RPG definately (with hints of FPS and street fighter)... It is not an FPS or an an equally weighted FPS/RPG hybrid like Deus Ex 2.... It is a lot like the original Deus Ex except more emphasis is placed of melee (hand to hand) combat and slightly less on guns... This is mostly, I believe, because firearms are of limited use against supernatural creatures in the WOD universe... But there is a fair selection of guns to get hold of and if you bump up the right stats you can get through the game as a gun bunny (and they are naturally very effective against humans)...

Think of the following: Vampires (specifically WOD style) + Deus Ex (orginal) style 3D environments and fighting + Fallout style of quest based inteactive RPG (loads of conversations with additional choices based on you skills all leading to geting quests or completeing quests) + Tecken (inspiration for hand to hand combat...)

It really feels like Fallout, in 3D, with vampires and all in and around LA...
There ithe same element of "collect all the quests" as there is in Fallout, and you can not really become uber, like in Fallout you will never be able to get remotely close to maxing out all your skills and will have to chose if you want to be good at something or average at loads of things...

Personally I think it rocks and the greater interactivity of the story has succeeded in distracting me for HL2 (for a while)...

[SwordsMaster]

Are you saying its a bit like KOTOR then?

[Bob the Insane]

Are you saying its a bit like KOTOR then?

Yes but... More conversation options and a little less action (more opportunity for less action is a better way of putting it, you can try and fight your way through if you want!! )...

If you think of KOTOR as Baldur's Gate in 3D with Jedi then, as I said, Bloodlines is Fallout in 3D with Vampires...

edit: add to that you have more direct control over the fighting than in KOTOR too....

[SwordsMaster]

cool, cheers m8, Im getting it ASAP.

[econ21]

Crumbs, anything that can be compared to Fallout is a must buy in my book.

The only thing that puts me off Vampire Bloodlines is, well - how can I put this without sounding dumb? - being a vampire. I always try to role-play the "light side" path and the idea of feeding off tramps doesn't quite mesh with that. Can you act according to a "good" alignment or is it only for roleplaying amoral, Grand Theft Auto, type characters?

[SwordsMaster]

You know Simon, life is a paradox. "Beasts we are to avoid becoming beasts"
What the game *should* represent, (for me as a former Vampire:TM table RPG) is a being that has been human and now has to feed from humans to survive.But trying to remain as human as possible.

Thats where the paradox lies. We´ll see.

[Leet Eriksson]

I bought the game, i have to say its good

The charecter creation is robust, you have 7 clans to choose from and several skills to shape your charecter the way you like. One particular vampire clan, the Ventrue, lust for power more than blood, so they have talking skills easier for them, but they suck less blood than the other vampires this game will probably last me several playthroughs to try the different charecters and clans.

[dessa14]

well i guess its a good troika game.
it is troika right...
the other thing is they have spent three years making this game, while they made temple of elemental evil in about a week.
thanks,
dessa

[frogbeastegg]

This is sounding very promising. I've read a few reviews and a topic on another forum and I see a lot of CTDs, bugs and slow down problems mentioned. Is the game really this buggy? Sounds like a case of waiting for a patch :sigh: every PC game I'm interested in just now needs patching.

I don't suppose there's a demo anywhere? I did a quick google search and I didn't find one.

[Bob the Insane]

I have not seen any CTDs but slow downs and a basically pretty poor frame rate I do see... My system is no ninja but it throws HL2 around the screen at a respectable rate so I was expecting things to be okay...

I think this is a combination of some texture loading issues spotted in HL2 and some a lack of optimisation on the levels... Optimization is a double edged sword in this case as you have such freedom to move around they can't really leave the backs off buildings and such like...

As for bug, name me a CRPG of any complexity where there were not a few quest bugs in the initial release.... Hopefully to be fixed...

The biggest issue floating around at the moment is the apparant cuts in the UK/Euro version... There is no official response and there is discussion about whether this is just dodgy animation or not, but basically people in the US are not really reporting seeing these issues. I remember that Fallout too had a dodgy cut for the euro release where they had removed the graphics for all the kids in the game (even broke some quests), so it is possible something like this was done.

But saying that I have not heard of anything I would miss from the game...

[The Tuffen]

bloodlines is pretty cool, i played it for a bit yesterday (didn't get much time playing it as I had to help my mate sort out an internet connection so that he could play HL2 - which took over an hour to set up)

I have noticed a bit of slowdown although that is usually when i enter a new area. The quests that i've played are good and one of the early ones which involves you going to a haunted hotel is quite spooky.

Character creation is quite good and you do get to choose what you want to specialize in (although melee is a good one to get upgraded as guns are less effective against the supernatual creatures).

I havn't seen any CTD's yet but admit that there are a few bugs - i was unable to complete the training as when i got to the stealth section of training the guy I was supposed to sneak passed dissapeared completly which ment i couldn't complete the next section which was to attack him

[frogbeastegg]

Oh go on then, you've talked me into it. I'll risk having a third PC game sat around waiting for a patch (joining RTW and CK. I'm also waiting for RCT3 to be patched up to playable staus before I buy). I admit I'm not too interested in the setting or the vampires but I've been wanting a good RPG since I finished KOTOR for the third time around a year ago.

[SwordsMaster]

ordered, will have it here for Friday hopefully. *crosses fingers,*

[Efrem]

Its relesed tomorrow in aus and I hope to pick it up at EB on my way home.

[The_Emperor]

You know Simon, life is a paradox. "Beasts we are to avoid becoming beasts"
What the game *should* represent, (for me as a former Vampire:TM table RPG) is a being that has been human and now has to feed from humans to survive.But trying to remain as human as possible.

Thats where the paradox lies. We´ll see.

Indeed, Vampire: Redemption had a good central character of a former Crusading knight who was turned into a vampire against his will and suffered a crisis of faith and humanity... His inner conflict between the beast within, and clinging to his last aspects of humanity was a part of the game, and killing any innocents that you fed upon strengthened the beast within causing a drop in your humanity rating.

So it is probably possible to play a moral vampire in the new game if its anything like redemption.

[SwordsMaster]

hmm... Just checked the website to quiet down the impatience and the selection of weapons is quite miserable. Actually it is quite sad that you only have, what, 4 guns and 1 yes 1 melee weapon. Is that all?

Another thing, is the story linear? I mean do you HAVE to complete the missions in a certain order, or are you allowed to have some variety as in GTA vice city and such?

[Bob the Insane]

hmm... Just checked the website to quiet down the impatience and the selection of weapons is quite miserable. Actually it is quite sad that you only have, what, 4 guns and 1 yes 1 melee weapon. Is that all?

Another thing, is the story linear? I mean do you HAVE to complete the missions in a certain order, or are you allowed to have some variety as in GTA vice city and such?

Where did you get all that from???

Check out:

http://www.gamebanshee.com/vampirebloodlines/

And this appears to be one of the most popular fan sites with a forum:

http://bloodlines.dilapidation.com

Story is quest based like Fallout and you do have quite a lot of freedom to do the quests when you want... Some quest come early and are lost if you don't complete before certain later quests.. All the normal stuff.

But saying that there is a pretty tightly written story in there too and some quests you have to do in a certain order simply because it is one guys agenda that you are working on...

As for melee weapons my character is presently carrying around a knife and a somebodies arm...

P.S. This is a 3D RPG and not a shooter... It has FPS elements but it is primarily an RPG.. Take that to heart before purchasing it..

[SwordsMaster]

check out:
www.vampirebloodlines.com

I think thats the official game page.

And, Yeah, I know its an RPG, I completed the first one, but I remember it had LOADS of different weapons that why i was asking. But if you can carry an arm around I´ll take you get enough diversity

Thanks for the links.

[The Tuffen]

i havn't come across many guns yet (about 4 of them at the moment but i am only in the second area). I have come across a couple of melee weapons though which include a baseball bat, a severed arm (as was mentioned before), a tire iron (think thats what its called), a knife and a fireaxe which is very fun hehe.

[Efrem]

This game is Awesome!!

If it wasn't for the load times I would declare it the best RPG I've ever played. (Morrowind still beats it though.)


I have to wait 1 minute for an area to load that I will spend 30 seconds in on my way to another area incuring a 2 minute load time.

On the other hand, it looks beutiful and the voice acting is astounding....


This gameplay wise is the best RPG out there, you feel you are your character, its like being stuck in a vampire movie. The haunted house mission is worth 90$ alone let alone surrounded by an amazing game.


THis game is let down by some technical [mess]ups that can be fixed no doubtatbly with some patchs and updating drivers.

If you like vampires, buy this game. If you like RPGs Buy this game. If you like both then run out now and get it by any means possible.

[frogbeastegg]

The game finally arrived this morning; I've just finished the tutorial section and so far wow! That facial animation is really incredible, and I sat around for about 10 minutes listening to the junk on the radio. Then I checked my email and found it swimming in spam. Mmmmm, detail.

I went with a female ventrue character; I'm waltzing about in a posh frock seducing the heck out of everyone.

My only grumble is that the voices are quite quiet; sometimes it's hard to hear what people are saying, the dialogue keeps gettinhg drowned out by ambiant sounds. I turned enviromental audio off and that at least got rid of the echo on speech. Subtitles are useless; they don't appear half the time. :sigh: I hate it when games only have one volume control instead of several seperate ones.

In other news dilapidation has been hacked and the forums appear to have been wiped.

[Efrem]

The only problem I've ever had with voices was trying to listen to jenette and therese through the wall. Subtitles have never been a problem either, when I feel like them I click then click againt to stop them, left mouse button btw.

[Sir Moody]

my experianbce with the game has been a joy - right up until finishing Hollywood... suddenly im stuck with a bug that means i cant fnish half the side quests... (tho i can do the main story line so...) hopefully a patch will fix this if Activision stop been a pain and let the developers realease one (apararntly its been ready for some time but Activision wont allow it to be released)

[Lechev]

Any MP for this game? Thanks.

[SwordsMaster]

Got it, finishing Downtown missions about now. Found a bug running ahead of the missions. Anyway, great game, the atmosphere is great, and that haunted mansion mission was really good. The problem is the specs. God this game needs a PC that doesnt exist yet! My PC is 2 months old and Im running it a medium specs coz otherwise its just a slideshow...

I´m running around witha Brujah (I was going to pick Ventrue, but the image of the guy was quite pityful...)

Anyway, enjoying it very much.

[The Tuffen]

It is great fun. Brujah is one of my favorite clans. Might go with Gangrel next so that i can attack people with claws.

There are some very creepy places in the game like a haunted hotel and a mansion that resembles a mental institute (complete with mad people that attack you)

[Efrem]

Malkavians are the best. They have a special name for ever character in the game.

"the man by numbers"

"The jester"

"fleet footed son of mercury"

"the daughters of janus"


THeir dialogue is simply hilarious.

I've yet to hear any "voices" yet, and I'm up to downtown on that save.

[The_Emperor]

Well I have the game and am trying to enjoy it (when it doesn't lockup)

I am currently experiencing some severe memory drain issues with this game... After playing for a while I get the windows message that the memory file is too small and is being increased, after that it tends to lockup and crash, and it requires an entire reboot of my system. (since we can't end task the program)

This is a major issue for me and I haven't exactly got a low spec machine either. (granted I only have 512 mb ram but that is the recommended spec)

I'm gonna post this on the fansite forums but it doesn't look too good.

[SwordsMaster]

Aaaaargh!! Possible spoiler follows.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Im doing that "plague mission". After I pick up the flyer i get in that "temple" and start climbing the stairs. And those zombies are everywhere!

Even After I personally shotgun every single zombie in a room (Im a methodic guy ) as soon as I get in the next room they appear behind me again.!

Any suggestions? Just run thru the whole building? But there is loads of them!

Thanks

[The Tuffen]

Don't try and take every one out as more seem to spawn behind you anyway (I ran through the whole house with the fireaxe).