Vampire The Masquerade: Redemption

From the Creators of Jedi Knight Comes a Bleeding-Edge RPG

In a humble, nondescript, darkly lit office in Marin, California, a small group of game designers is creating a horde of undead, blood-sucking ghouls. Do not be alarmed. Do not alert the authorities. When they emerge from their dark domain, work completed, they will have something for you that will make you very, very happy.

Nihilistic Software, a start-up company formed by a group of veteran designers from LucasArts and Rogue Entertainment (among other companies), is cooking up a deliciously frightening action-RPG that, when not dazzling you with its graphic and technological beauty, is going to scare the pants off you, rattle your emotions, and keep you coming back for more.

The game is called Vampire The Masquerade: Redemption, and it's based on the popular pen-and-paper RPG from White Wolf Publishing. Using the rich backdrop of White Wolf's universe, Nihilistic is fashioning an epic RPG, spanning 800 years and two continents, to tell the tale of a doomed, spiritually empty man who becomes a vampire and then learns, as a vampire, what it means to be redeemed. Sound heavy? It is. But don't plan on being bored, not by a long shot. Those fangs in your mouth are not going to be used for opening cans.

First Blood

As portrayed in White Wolf's universe (which has encompassed more than 50 game books), vampires are indeed the immortal undead who live off the blood of humans, but it's much more complicated than that. In the role-playing game, you play a vampire, and it's up to you to decide how to accept your fate, how to live for eternity and to question whether there is a need for notions of "good" and "evil," even amongst monsters.

As Ray Gresko, Redemption's project leader (and Nihilistic's CEO), put it: "White Wolf brought to the vampire universe something more mature, developed, and hard-core. These aren't mindless monsters; they're beings trying to hang on to their humanity, or who are desperately losing control of themselves to the beast - it's a constant struggle."

Along with the internal torment, there's also a constant external struggle. Without getting into it too deeply (that would require an entire issue of CGW), vampires trace their origin back to the original vampire, Caine, who, in ages past, spawned 13 "grandchilder" vampires. These 13 became known as the Antediluvians, from which descended the 13 clans of vampires in existence today. You might think that all vampires might get along, since they have that blood-sucking thing in common, but, according to White Wolf, you'd be wrong. Actually, the clans have been involved in a bitter, vicious "Jihad" for centuries, warring amongst themselves, forming political alliances, and espousing various ethical codes in a struggle for supremacy.

It's serious stuff and a far cry from the "I vant to suck your blud" kitschiness of old vampire movies. As fans of the RPG, Nihilistic is hoping to capture White Wolf's epic, adult tone in its computer game.

"What we're trying to do," said Gresko, "is let the players feel what it's like to go through the traumatic experience of the embrace [the experience of being bitten and reborn as a vampire] and losing your life as you know it and now find yourself in this world of intrigue, where you're just a pawn in a giant power struggle."

Or, as he put it a bit later: "This ain't your daddy's Dracula."