Vampire: The Masquerade – Redemption Retrospective

Inspired by the release of Vampire: The Masquerade – Redemption on Good Old Games, Big Download has posted one of their “boot disk” retrospectives for Nihilistic’s much-deserving RPG.

Character development for Vampire Redemption is vastly different from most RPGs. Rather than having levels that you gain, you spend experience points as a form of currency to upgrade your character’s disciplines and attributes. As the attributes get higher, the cost of raising them grows as well. The game keeps track of the total number of experience points you have gained, while the actual number you have available is right underneath that. Attributes fall into three categories, each of which has three attributes: physical (such as strength), mental (such as intelligence), and personality (such as charisma). Certain disciplines use certain attributes, and specializing is incredibly important if you want to finish the game.

One interesting aspect of Vampire Redemption is the multiplayer. The games was divided into a group of players, while one player took on the role of storyteller. In other words, it functioned much like a graphical representation of a tabletop game and pre-empted Neverwinter Nights’ Dungeon master system by a full two years. The game also supports a large modding community, thanks to the SDK being released shortly after the game hit shelves. It’s seeing a sort of unlife, much like its vampiric namesake, and will not die off thanks to the quality of the main game as well as the dedication of the modders working with the game’s engine.