Poor graphics, a lackluster sense of the macabre and awkward level design suck the life out of the game.

User Rating: 5 | Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines PC
I just finished my first play through Vampire: The Masquerade-Bloodlines. The game is a single-player RPG based on the White Wolf dice-and-paper role playing game of the same name. Players take the role of a fledgling Vampire living in L.A. trying to survive on the streets and come to understand his place as a new acolyte of the underworld. While there is plenty of content and character creation and maintenance is very easy, substandard graphics, awkward level design, and poorly thought out missions suck the life out of this adventure.

To begin, let me acknowledge that the game designers set very high standards for themselves. By licensing a game from White Wolf™ that already exists, they are obligating themselves to stay as faithful as possible to the official rules and general spirit of the dice-and-paper version. The difficulty is that the original is a multi-player RPG but this PC version is single-player only. In my opinion, what makes for a great multi-layer RPG experience is when characters with different traits and abilities work together to surmount obstacles. By making this single-player only, there are few opportunities for players to interact with other game characters cooperatively. Other than a couple of missions where the player engages in combat alongside a partner, there are no opportunities for non-player characters to contribute to solving the missions beyond verbal exchanges of information. In addition, because all combat in the original game is melee/turn based, action can be awkward, where players sometimes exchange attacks sequentially rather than in true real time (he hits me, I shoot him, he hits me, I shoot him, etc.). As a results, remaining true to the spirit of the dice-and-paper version leaves the real-time video game experience anemic.

On a positive note, character creation and upgrade in this game is the easiest and most straightforward I've seen in a long time. Players with no experience with the dice-and-paper version will have no problem comprehending the more than 20 different character traits. The creators made a very easy to understand character sheet that is true to the original, with plenty of help messages to guide the player not only in the definition of each trait but also show how acquiring and upgrading specific attributes and abilities will affect the characters skills in the game. One surprise in the beginning of the game was that players have the option to take a short personality test that will select an appropriate vampire clan based on the responses. Also, there is an option to allow the game to distribute earned experience points automatically and this feature can be toggled at any time. Of course, the entire character creation and upgrade process can proceed manually if the player so desires and the accompanying .pdf manual is very easy to understand. The only drawback to character creation is that player avatar options are limited only to selection of the sex of the character, every other aspect of character appearance is pre-selected.

Unfortunately, while character creation and upgrade is easy, interaction with the environment is mostly dead on arrival. The graphics are definitely 1990's quality, which may be of benefit to players that do not have state of the art PC components. I played using a 2.6 GHz P-IV CPU, ATI Radeon9800Pro GPU, and 1.5 GB RAM using 1024x768 resolution the average frame rate was about 50 fps. Faces are rendered well when in 1:1 conversations with non-player characters but arm, hand, and leg motion is very stilted and low resolution. Dialog synchronization is definitely off the mark. Surfaces tend to be very plain but top layers (e.g. blood on a wall) are sometimes erratic and flickering, lighting is not very dynamic and walking past mirrors or other reflective surfaces do not show your character in reflection. Some simple things that I've taken for granted in contemporary games like Deus Ex, Chronicles of Riddick or Half-Life 2 is the ability to interact with almost any object in the environment. Faucets, light switches, even many windows appear mostly as a static part of the background rather than an actual object. When characters are killed or incapacitated they tend to disappear almost immediately rather than pile up for a guard or other NPC to encounter. On a side note, one thing I found very strange was that the creators chose to make open sardine cans one of the most common interactive objects. Having been born and raised in L.A. I've never seen so many empty cans of fish lying about, not to mention the fact that rain is unusually common in the area of Santa Monica while virtually absent from every other part of the city. Two particular peeves of mine were (1) a building that was 5 levels on the outside but clearly 6 levels on the inside and (2) cars drive on the wrong side of the freeway (this is not the only example that makes me wonder if the developers have ever really been to L.A.). Overall, the unpolished environments make immersion into the game difficult and kill and emotional sense of the macabre.

As mentioned earlier, most interaction with non-player characters is in the form of 1:1 conversations exchanging information. These conversations can sometimes be lengthy. Unfortunately, there is no way to fast-forward through the conversation if it's been encountered before and there is not always an option to end the conversation early. I found this to be the most frustrating part of the game, especially because almost every level boss feels the need to wax poetic longer than the time it takes for me to kill them. More than once I found myself saying, "Geez, I thought he'd never shut up!" Who would have thought the undead had so much to say?

Lastly, this is supposedly a role-playing game and there are plenty of primary and side mission objectives to keep players busy (expect game times to last 20-30 hours); however, I found that staying in character was not easy to do with the choices of side missions available. To illustrate, during my first play through the game, I opted to take the personality test where I am asked questions leading toward whether I want to play more as an intimidator/aggressor versus whether I am more passive, secretive or likely to negotiate solutions. At the end of the quiz, the game selected Gangrel clan for me, for vampires that like to explore their animal side. Despite many NPC conversations where I would prefer to play the tough guy and tell the other guy to take a hike, I basically had to act as everyone's doormat if I wanted to get the most experience points. This will become especially apparent later in the game where the missions.

Taken together, my overall experience with the game was not very favorable. Even at the low, low cost of $9.95 USD as downloadable version from STEAM, there are plenty of other great RPGs out there that are better and offer a much more immersive experience. In the end, perhapsonly hardcore fans of the paper-and-dice version would be interested but I'm not even sure of that. Normally, I would recommend playing the demo version before purchase but none is available. That said, consumers would be advised keep this game from the light of day.