Prepare yourself for a dirty, sexy, blood, and teeth-riddled romp through the filth laden streets of Los Angeles in the pale skin of Vampire: the Masquerade – Bloodlines. As if Los Angeles isn’t scary enough by modern standards, dare to venture a step further into the surreal equivalent of the Underdark, as L.A. is portrayed through White Wolf’s strife saturated World of Darkness. A brooding realm of your sickest desires and worst fears comes to an exceptionally realistic undeath with the help of Valve’s Half-Life 2 Source engine.
White Wolf, who owns Vampire: the Masquerade (the pen and paper based origin of Bloodlines) has sanctioned Activision (VtM: Redemption, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, and both the Quake and Doom series) and Troika (whose founding members worked on Fallout, Fallout 2, Arcanum, and Temple of Elemental Evil) to head the charge of fulfilling the breathtaking task of satiating fans’ desires. It would appear that the often disregarded inherent thirst of gamers shall finally be satiated. Oh yes brothers, I speak of the thirst for intuitive violence, role-playing, and the supernatural, all wrapped up in one easy to access and manage first person shooter/role playing hybrid bundle! For once, my ludicrously powerful player character can grant me the opportunity to witness all of the havoc it can wreak in a full-frontal assault on the senses (provided in as many frames per second as I can afford)! Finally, when I land a critical hit 30+ hours into the game and the unfortunate recipient explodes as if I had planted a grenade in their groin, I will be able to witness it from point blank range as opposed to some obscured view 20,000 leagues above the World of Darkness.
Entrails are our friends!
Kill or be killed would appear to be the premise here as the game is a first person shooter/role playing game. The idea alone makes one’s brow furrow visibly at the question of how manageable its interface will end up being. Valve’s Source engine appears more than ready to take on the task. Abandoning the expectations of a traditional conversion from pen and paper role playing to PC, turn based fights and third person views are to be a thing of the past with Troika’s coming release.
Bloodlines’ website gives the unverified impression that only the Camarilla clans will be available for alliance while the Sabbat will be available for slaughter. A damned good thing because kine (humans) just don’t spew enough of blood to whet the appetite of a traditional fan of the genre.
Both melee and projectile based combat are promised through the use of blades, guns, and inherent powers (tooth and nail). One can expect a battle situation comparable to that of a multiplayer jaunt through Alien versus Predator 2 (which is an intense melee, inherent power, and ranged weapon based 3dfps pitting humans, aliens, and predators against one another). The difference here is that a level of balance (explained in more detail below) will be present for those of us who aren’t as equipped to handle the nimble-wristed antics of the traditional first person shooter. Another intense benefit is that the environment is your weapon. With the flexibility we’ve seen thus far of Valve’s Source engine, it would not be an unreal expectation of the engine to allow one to tear doors off of cars and beat their opponents to a bloodied heap with them, or use them as shields from the fully automatic bullet sprays of Ingram Mac-10s.
Say goodbye to those lonely nights.
The game boasts both a multiplayer and single player gaming experience as is becoming the norm with every modern release. Fear not, hardcore role-players, the game is being designed so that in multiplayer there will be fair grounds of play regardless of your skill as a first person shooter or as a power playing role-player. For example, skills shall determine accuracy when shooting, not your ability to flick your Boomslang 2100 dpi mouse any faster or more accurately than I can flick my 400 dpi first generation optical mouse (which has suited most role players just fine to this point in time). This feature will be perceived by many gamers in many different lights, but let us as a community try to keep an open mind about the system until we’ve had the opportunity to get our greedy little paws on it. That goes for fans of both genres! Besides, experience is the best teacher.
From what has been seen of this engine so far in various movies, one can expect the delivery of unprecedented graphical quality with an insatiable demand for raw video processing power. By all means, get a capable video card and system if you haven’t got one already. Maim, pillage, plunder, do whatever it takes; undoubtedly the authors of such a title would approve of such fanatical actions. so long as those actions were in the name of assuring the most immersive blood-spattering, limb-rending, artery-puncturing delivery of their product. Contact your local blood bank and inform them of a coming shortage because when this title hits shelves, surely the hunger of a thousand wolverines will possess even the most featherweight of fans to the dark genre.
(Californication)
Location is everything. Were you expecting to travel through time and make your way around the world? Can’t wait to taste the world and traverse antiquity through the eyes of immortality? Then go play Redemption before this hits shelves. Downtown L.A., Chinatown, Santa Monica, and Hollywood are the blissfully turbid settings of the game, and rightfully so! Where else can you find a better mix of colorful and deviant occupations to make for the best of captivating character archetypes?
The Spice of. Unlife?
Variety is inherent as you are spawned as a lone, newly embraced member of the kindred (vampire) world. From the alley you will crawl, your first few hungry steps bringing you closer to your fate at the hands of your newfound brethren. A clan type has yet to be given to the player, thus indicating that you will begin as a Catiff or clanless vampire and choose your own alliance. For those of you familiar with the tabletop game, it is perceived that the player will be limited to the Camarilla when choosing a clan. The goal of the Camarilla alliance is to preserve the Masquerade.
The Masquerade is the code by which most all WoD (World of Darkness) based vampires live. It preserves their way of life and assures that they don’t feed themselves into extinction, or bring about an all out war between kine (humans) and kindred. It allows vampires to co-exist with humanity as little more than figments of humanity’s imagination. It is the equivalent to any self-preserving company’s mission statement. The Masquerade is the goals and tenets in place to preserve and further vampire existence while prohibiting humanity from knowing fully of their actual presence as a parasitic being using humanity as both food and entertainment. It basically says no barring fangs on national television (or public/local access), no taking bullets in the head and then grinning sadistically (learn to play dead), and absolutely no feeding on the voluptuous blonde strolling through the retail mall in the middle of the holiday shopping season. Well, you can have her, but all in good time… just use your pimp-daddy skills of presence or dominate to persuade her to meet you in a dark alley in the shady district of town in which you reside. Of course, she’ll be donning a recently purchased Victoria’s Secret leather and lace getup when doing so (In my pre-ordered copy of Bloodlines at least).
The Camarilla composes the seven most popular and influential vampire clans in one brooding political powerhouse. These clans are the Brujah, Gangrel, Malkavian, Nosferatu, Toreador, Tremere, and Ventrue. United they stand against the rest of the vampire world collectively known as the Sabbat and the Independents. Traditionally, the Sabbat have been represented by the Lasombra and the Tzimisce clans. There are also the Independents who are currently composed of the Assamites, Followers of Set, Giovanni, and Ravnos, for the intents of this preview, the following four clans will be disregarded as they are not expected to make appearances within the game.
In brief, the Sabbat rejects the tenets of the Masquerade and refuses to see humanity as anything more than cattle; a source of food. They seek to take their somewhat rightful place as antiquity’s premier species through the enslaving of humanity for use as a staple crop. It is this very ideal that sets the Camarilla on its heels as it seeks to hold the Sabbat at bay. Luckily for the Camarilla, the Sabbat possess such a degree of tunnel-vision that they rarely get far enough beyond their own differences to actually provide a truly formidable assault on the Masquerade. This may not be the case in Bloodlines, should the story pan out as one would come to expect through a thorough review of currently available information regarding the game.
We can also expect to see werewolves. This needs no explanation beyond the following: Run like hell when you encounter one. Considering the expected AI capabilities of the Source engine, I wouldn’t recommend any form of diplomacy with the Garou (the World of Darkness’ term for werewolves). Sure, Garou might befriend you now, and make for a worthy ally, but never in the eyes or bellies of any Garou has a vampire made a better companion than they made a snack.
Since you are presumably limited to the Camarilla, a little background of your potential is in order:
Brujah are a war-like sect most akin, politically speaking, to a state of nature where only the strong survive.
Gangrel strive to maintain a balance between beast and vampire as they are most at peace in an earth bound environment. They prefer free from the concrete confines we as humans have all come to know as home. They tend to do business in the city and reside in the undeveloped natural areas that typically border them.
Malkavian walk the thin line between sanity and dementia, somehow capable of a remote semblance of social interaction and a reserved regard for the Masquerade.
Nosferatu are the physical embodiment of all that humanity knows to be nauseatingly pungent, physically malformed, and in some cases crippled through the intense embrace they suffer. They’re great if you like hiding behind a mask or being a hermit. It is only through Obfuscation (see below) that these guys can spend time on the streets.
Toreador are those that spend the unlife in the pursuit of beauty, crafted at their own hands and through the hands of others. Playwrights, visionaries, directors, artists, musicians, actors, and any other form of artistic expression are commonplace amongst members of the Toreador. They harbor a substantial distaste for the Nosferatu.
Tremere are suspected to have initially become vampires through the power of mortal mages who (stole) the power/secret of the embrace. They possess the power to wield the blood magic known as Thaumaturgy (explained below).
Ventrue are the diplomats who typically find themselves wrapped up in directing mortal politics to cater to their will through the use of their vampiric powers.
The preceeding clans are definitely available to players.
So as to avoid a possible spoiling for anyone who isn’t aware of anything the Lasombra and Tzimisce are capable of, I won’t mention their backgrounds here as they are possibly expected enemies/allies. Although the Bloodlines website leaves no mention of them, I would expect substantial appearances to be made by the Sabbat. This is in light of the fact that Bloodlines takes place in California which until now had no formal political ties to the Camarilla. In the pen and paper version of the game, it has been traditionally referred to as an anarch-free state. This means that the city of Los Angeles has typically been without a prince (the political leader of vampires within a given city). In the game, a Ventrue (Prince Lacroix) is claiming princehood, and thus I can’t imagine that this will sit well with the Sabbat, thus my expectation of such prolific appearances. Well, that and the recently released concept art which has (Tzimisce creations) sketches, and (Sabbat thug) sketches. The simple fact that one of the sketches available is titled (Tzimisce creation) should give you some idea of the twisted powers they wield.
Since When is Discipline a Luxury We All Desire?
Forget what you know about Vampires thus far. The following are known as Disciplines, they are the unnatural powers that truly separate the vampires of the World of Darkness from the rest of the humanoids that inhabit the game’s environment. Those that state the requirement of the expenditure of blood may or may not require the usage of blood in the game, but they do require it in the pen and paper version and they have thus been listed here as such.
Animalism Too bad the man in the yellow hat didn’t have this. Animalism is the ability to converse with and befriend animals. Think summoning.
Auspex The best damned rainbow blood can buy. The ability to decipher the emotions of those around you, dictated through auras of different colors that emanate from the observed individual(s).
Celerity Makes Nightcrawler look like a slug. Celerity grants you the capability to move at ludicrous speed. Think haste. This is expected to require the expenditure of blood for each additional action requested of the protagonist.
Dementation American psycho in a World of Darkness. Native to the Malkavian clan, this discipline allows them to bestow a crippling portion of their insanity unto the recipient of their choosing. Don’t worry, I’m sure that most of you have more than enough to share.
Dominate Who’s your daddy? Typically Ventrue oriented, allows you to command others to do your will, and with Troika behind the wheel, I’m willing to bet we can expect some lovely Dom and Sub situations to arise out of this, heheh!
Fortitude Can you say threshold for pain? Fortitude is the masochist’s dream. It is the ability to endure a phenomenal sum of damage; even from fire or phosphorus ammunition which would normally cause (mortal) wounds to vampires.
Obfuscate Like hide and seek? It makes you a winner every time, put on a new face or meld with the dark of night.
Potence Wanna make the Hulk look like a pansy? Tear telephone poles from the concrete, throw cars, punch through 10 inch thick steel doors. If you can’t crack a rib with this behind you, then turn in your teeth now. This is expected to require the expenditure of blood.
Presence Don Juan de la Morte. The Rico Suave of the undead utilize this to snag all the hottest meals in town. Make yourself more appealing, approachable, and seemingly beautiful to whomever you choose.
Protean Ever want to run with the wolves? You can now, typically enables you to see in the dark, sprout claws for use as potentially fatal weapons, and transform into a bat, wolf, or could of mist. Native to the Gangrel, typically requires the expenditure of blood.
Thaumaturgy Ever had a best friend that turned out to be your worst enemy? Such is the practice of Thaumaturgy, the wielder commands blood. Players may suck it from their enemies or set their enemies’ blood ablaze within them and watch them roast. It is typically proprietary to the Tremere as they are the dark mages of the kindred family of the World of Darkness.
Dependent upon the usage and accessibility of the above capabilities, V: tM – Bloodlines has the potential to redefine the ideals of non-linear gaming on the whole throughout both first person shooter and role playing genres. Honestly, I cannot fathom a better company than Troika to produce a game in such a world. They are not squeamish in the least, and in typical fashion may end up offending some, but they will hold true to the doctrines set forth by role playing games. Those doctrines that allow you to do anything you damned well please, and worry about the repercussions or benefits later. I’m not expecting the blatantly repulsive autonomy based tactics inherent in Running With Scissors’ most recent release of Postal 2, (using a diseased cow head as a weapon and backwoods antics akin to those found in the climax of the film Deliverance) but I am expecting the ability to have MY way with the environment, NPCs, and non-linear storyline. Hopefully those repercussions will manifest themselves in the form of a compelling story driven epic in which I will turn the tides of urban zombie warfare to whichever side(s) I choose.
Until then, In Troika we trust.
