Vampire: Bloodlines Pre-E3 Impressions

Both IGN and GameSpot have put together some pre-E3 impressions of Troika’s upcoming Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines, based upon some hands-on time with the CRPG. Here’s an excerpt from IGN’s article:

The game takes place in a dark, evil Los Angeles (yes, even more dark and evil than it is now). Since the real Los Angeles is a bit large to be fully represented in an RPG, Bloodlines takes place in four major areas of the city: Santa Monica, Downtown, Hollywood and Chinatown. The demo level we saw displayed took place in a theater in Chinatown, where our hero took on a stone gargoyle guardian. We saw the action from two different perspectives, once from a straight-on, combat-oriented perspective (where we got our ass kicked by the gargoyle, by the way), and another where we used our mental manipulation abilities to talk the gargoyle out of killing us and to let us pass. Expect plenty of situations like this in Bloodlines, where conversations can either throw you into or help you avoid combat.

And a snippet from GameSpot’s:

As a newly sired vampire, you’ll be given orders from the Prince of LA, and in one of the early missions, you’ll need to track down some information about a potential threat to the vampire clans. You’re told you can get more information directly from a character named Venus, or you can get it from her laptop if you can access it. Venus is the proprietor of Confessions, a nightclub located inside a former cathedral. Inside the club are plenty of dancers and club goers, and the cathedral is dimly lit with chandeliers and candles.

You can try to find Venus’ office and pick the lock, or you can talk to her. If you choose the latter option, you can try to persuade her to give you the information. Once you have the information, you’ll learn that you need to go down into the sewers to deal with a rogue group of vampires and other creatures. If you hacked into the laptop, you’ll also discover that there’s a gargoyle that is impervious to bullets, so you’ll need a blunt weapon to deal with it.