DistinctlyBenign said:
Doc Cannon said:
But that's just how I see the game based on my experiences on the pen & paper game. (I always wanted to play a Malkavian though... too bad I moved on to nWoD now).
Wait, they removed Malk's in nWoD?
I don't pretend to follow WoD, all I really know about nWoD is now theres a source WoD book and a book for the game you want to play, but if they took out Malk's I'll stick with the Masquerade.
Actually, I'll stick with the Masquerade anyways, since that's the game my group is familiar with and we have the book for, but my point being now I'll stick to it in a 'won't even look into nWoD' sense.
In the
New World of Darkness Malkav isn't one of the first vampires who was diablerized by his children, he is just a Ventrue leader of a fanatical cult! The
nWOD is an awful angsty mess that contracts several pathogen related illnesses to players.
....
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines is one of my favorite games. "Flawed masterpiece" definitely describes the whole experience adequately. It is a great game, but it could have been
the perfect game.
Among the many stupid decisions by executives it was released on the same day as
Half-Life 2 which killed many initial sales by money conscious consumers. Upon release, many bugs aside I actually enjoyed it more than Half-Life 2. (I can't believe I just wrote that, because the Half-Life series is my favorite series.) During initial playthrough the only signs that the product was rushed and unfinished were the bugs that included cloth physics that made all fabrics shoot upwards as if characters were Marilyn Monroe in
The Seven Year Itch, everyday objects that killed characters upon standing upon them, expressionless faces during combat despite the advance Source animations, crashes, disappearing objects, and cutscenes that were clearly rough animatics. By the time I reached the last act however, it began to resort to repetitive sewers and copy/paste skyscraper mapping.
However the bugs and final act do not detract from the brilliantly presented story, proper use of a sandbox environment, best voice acting I've ever seen in a game, massive cast of characters that I cared about and will remember for years to come, and engaging gameplay that presents so many different options. It could have been the next Deus Ex. If only Activision had not pressed as hard as it could on Troika's gas pedal to predictably have them careening off the edge of a cliff, and then blame the car.
For those who have not played the game, it is definitely worth checking out. And for those wondering where to buy, a lot of people brought up its price on Steam. But I would say buy it used or pirate the game.
Whoa! Did he just suggest an illegal action? If it breaks the rules of the forum, I will retract that statement. However in this instance I feel it is not only justifiable but more more morally sound than a legal purchase.
I bought the game brand new at full price. I was later sick to my stomach when I found out that my money didn't go to pay the developers who worked hard on this, but instead went to soulless businessmen who fired all of those developers then took their hard work. I fully know
Godwin's Law and how nazi/Hitler comparison arguments potentially ruin discussions but we've already had a sucessful use of one in this thread so I'll make another. Paying Activision for Bloodlines is like making donations to the Nazi Party in order to enter a Bat Mitzvah. The purge of Troika, Kotick's sparkling personality, attempt to stop Brutal Legend's release, monetization of Battle.net, push to end dedicated servers and recent firing of Infinity Ward's heads have made me boycott Activision.