Vampire The Masquerade - Bloodlines (Vampire 2 - Die Maskerade - Bloodlines (PC))

Member Name: CloudRuler

Product:	Vampire 2 - Die Maskerade - Bloodlines (PC)
Date:	15/09/08 (66 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Interesting characters, good gameplay, immersive, decent sound

Disadvantages: Buggy thus you need to download an unofficial patch

The Ankaran sarcophagus contains the body of an ancient vampire, or at least that's what you are told it contains. There are a range of factions in L.A. that want to get hold of the sarcophagus and as such must stop other factions from doing so. You may choose to side with Prince LaCroix, Regent Strauss, the Anarchs, the Kuei-Jin or stand alone. There are five different endings to the game which correspond with your stance.

You are a new vampire and like all vampires you must abide by something known as Masquerade. This means you must not expose your vampiric self to humans as vampires fear humanity would turn on them. If you reveal your vampiric self a five times the vampire society will turn on you and destroy you to save themselves but you can redeem your masquerade chances by performing certain acts.

The in-game storyline is set, regardless of your pathway the missions you undertake are the same. Although this may seem somewhat boring the missions are interesting so it's not too much of a negative though it would aid the replay value if there were a few different missions for those on different paths.

Your character can be male or female which will affect your ability to seduce. You'll also be able to put points into a range of attributes, abilities and disciplines. These then affect your feats which are under the headings combat, covert, mental and soak. Your humanity is listed with the maximum being 10. Your humanity will reduce or increase depending on how you complete certain tasks. There are also things known as disciplines which vary between clans which may be offensive or defensive and they can be upgraded. Disciplines require blood so you'll need to make sure your blood level is is adequate, you can do so by feeding on a human.

With regard to conversations, there are various options to choose from for your reply. However you cannot always ask all of the questions listed so you must choose carefully. Depending on your intimidation, persuasion and seduction levels you may have additional options. These will show up in different colours so you know which skills they relate to.

The setting for your missions will vary as you'll go through Downtown LA, Santa Monica, Hollywood and Chinatown. There are plenty of side quests and plenty of main characters to get to know.

You will need to download an unofficial patch to fix some of the bugs in the game but once that has been downloaded you shouldn't have any trouble.

Overall the sound is quite good, the graphics are fine, the characters themselves are incredibly intriguing and the gameplay is very good. Although it's not perfect I found it far too enjoyable to simply settle with giving it 4/5.

Summary: Must buy