Vampire: Bloodlines Weekly Update #6

Activision’s Shane DeFreest tossed this week’s Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines update to us via email. As with last week, Activision producer David Mullich answers the questions, with Troika’s Leonard Boyarsky back at the helm for the next update. Straight from my inbox:

1) Would it be possible to play through the entire game as a near-pacifist, one who wouldn’t raise a hand against their own kind except for self-defense? What about a true pacifist? Assuming one had sufficient Presence or other means of persuasion at their disposal, I mean.

A: As you play the game, you will meet a number of hostile opponents who will stand in the way of achieving your quest. There will be times where a fight with an unreasoning foe is unavoidable, but there will also be many times where defensive Disciplines will win out over an opponents attacks or where social skills can be used to diffuse a potentially hostile situation.

2) What about AI buddies? I saw in the HL2 demo vids some pretty good buddy AI which brings me to my main question: do you go lone wolf or will you get some help along the way?

A: Most of the time you will be acting as a lone wolf, but there are times when you will be able to get some assistance in one form or another from NPC’s.

3) Many recent previews commented on the considerable amount of adult language in this game. Can you tell me what was/is the mindset behind that?

A: To immerse players into the World of Darkness, we are striving to have an aristocrat to sound like an aristocrat, a shopkeeper to sound like a shopkeeper, and a thug to sound like a thug. So, when your travels take you through the less savory neighborhoods of LA, you will meet a few lowlifes who use crude language to express themselves.