Great Games: Vampire: The Masquerade--Bloodlines

If only real Los Angeles were more like the city in which Vampire: The Masquerade—Bloodlines is set: Dark, depressing, dangerous, with supernatural evil lurking around every corner. Well, perhaps real L.A. is a bit like that, but the world of Bloodlines is so memorable that in a lot of ways it seems more real, and sticks with you more, than the real thing. I’m writing about it now because, even four years after it came out it is still one of the most atmospheric and well designed RPGs out there. It’s a shame so many people missed out on playing it.

Jeanette Voreman, the game's unofficial mascot. She owns the Asylum club and is absolutely insane.

Bloodlines is based on the popular PnP role playing game Vampire: The Masquerade, which I have never personally played. I have been assured by people in the know that it is infinitely superior to the similar but lamer Vampire: The Requiem, which has replaced it. I think there has been a trend towards overly romanticizing vampires recently (starting with Anne Rice and right on down the line to Twilight) but the world of VTMB does a good job of representing all vampire types, from the super-emo Toreador to the bestial Brujah to the hideous Nosferatu. And here’s a quaint idea—the game is actually different depending on what kind of vampire you pick. Unlike a lot of modern RPGs (*cough* Oblivion *cough*) there are different dialogue options, abilities, and sometimes even quests available to you depending on your vampire clan. The aristocratic Ventrue, for example, can talk or influence their way out of most sticky situations, while the deformed Nosferatu must lurk in the shadows and are attacked on sight if they encounter humans. Granted, the game becomes a dull combat slog-fest towards the end (more on that later) but the first two-thirds are phenomenal in giving the player multiple character-driven ways to solve problems.

A mansion in the Hollywood Hills. I wouldn't mind living in a place like this someday. With or without the vampires.

For me, if you combine “vampires” and “RPG” you’ve already got a deal (I also enjoyed the earlier VTM PC game, 2000’s Redemption, even if it was a little rough around the edges and light on the RPG elements) but this game creates an atmosphere that makes it unforgettable. The combat and game control are actually slightly clunky, but that’s easy to overlook when you’re walking around a fully realized version of Los Angeles, meeting some of the most interesting and well written characters in computer game history, and playing through some of the creepiest and disturbing environments. The haunted Ocean House Hotel in Santa Monica or the flesh-covered mansion in the Hollywood Hills have to rank among the most frightening things I’ve experienced in any media, including books and movies.

Outside the Ocean House Hotel, one of the creepiest experiences in gaming history.

Then there’s the unforgettable moment near the end of the game where the player gets trapped in Griffith Park Observatory with a very hungry werewolf while a wildfire rages through the hills. All the while the lights of downtown L.A. are visible far below—it is the sum of moments like this that make VTMB one of the greatest games of the past several years. It has probably even earned a place in my all time top ten. With anything that really sticks with you over the years, be it a book or a movie or a game, you don’t really remember the act of reading the book or watching the movie or playing the game, you remember the experience of being there.

Inside the Ocean House. It gets worse from here.

There are only a handful of games that have ever totally succeeded in transporting the player to another world, but games like Vampire Bloodlines prove that it is certainly possible.There’s still a lot of stigma in mainstream thought with calling a computer game a “work of art”, but with a select few so much care, thought, and passion goes into their creation, and the end product is so successful, that it is difficult to call them anything else. Unfortunately the game’s development house, Troika, closed forever after the publication of this game in November of 2004, and the gaming industry has suffered for it.

Just like real Hollywood. Without the cars.

When I was younger, computer games had a certain mystique about them that regular console games just didn’t possess. They were often more complex and adult oriented, and some of my favorite games ever are PC games from around 1994-2004—hopefully I’ll get the chance to write about some of those in the future. Computer games used to come with giant boxes filled with good stuff related to the game: A giant instruction book with lots of story and lore content perhaps, or a map of the game world, or a piece of game art or some combination of the above. Ultima Online, for example, came with a beautiful cloth map of the world. By the time VTMB came out, this was mostly a thing of the past, and the game was just a small box with a case of game DVDs inside. But the content of the game easily recalled those earlier titles, when games were made in small, dingy offices by a handful of developers who cared deeply about the game’s world and characters. It’s not that games aren’t still made with this attitude (see, recently, The Witcher) but they are few and far between.

A portrait of Jeanette and Therese, owners of The Asylum, with their daddy. There was some stuff that went on.

It’s almost as if VTMB knew it was the end of the era, since the “3^rd act” of the game is unpleasantly modern in its reliance on twitch combat and action. Instead of role-playing options, the last few sections of the game are filled with room after room of repetitive combat. Storytelling and character development take a back seat. It’s disappointing, for sure, but I’ll cut the developers a bit of slack—endings are notoriously difficult to pull off, even more so when the first bits are so good. Games are a lot like books in that they take several sittings to get through. If they are good, I often spend the time I’m not reading or playing thinking about the characters, about what might happen and where the story will go next. Rarely can any conclusion live up to the expectations I set for it, but it’s enough that something can get the imagination going.

True as all that is, the game’s ending is still weak.

VV needs a script stolen. Is there something wrong with me that even beautiful computerized women can boss me around? There's probably something wrong with me.

Other than that, the game had just about everything going for it. Great graphics (even now, the character models, especially the faces, are quite attractive—just check out Jeanette and VV), memorable quests, an engaging storyline, fantastic characters, and an appropriately creepy and atmospheric soundtrack. Unlike the ever present WoW, which came out at the same time, Bloodlines is pretty hard to find anymore, but if you can get your hands on it it’s absolutely worth it. If you’re a fan of vampires, RPGs, or just great games, it’s hard to do better.

You'll be visiting the Asylum club a lot during the first part of the game. They play good music, and it's owned by a pair of hot sisters--dangerously insane hot sisters, but hot nonetheless.

In fact I just might play it again now. I can think of few better ways to pass your time than drinking blood, getting involved in Vampire politics, blasting zombies with a shotgun, sneaking through a haunted hotel, and digging through the graves of Hollywood celebrities. Seriously. Play this game.