vampire

luigi1

Senior member
Mar 26, 2005
455
0
0
;) k. Im not really into single player games. I buy them and play for 15min or so then start up my mmorpg flavor of the day. But modemps did a thread on vampire the masquerade bloodlines and it intrestend me enough to buy it. I've played this stupid game 2 times through allready and am really concidering (damn I wish I could spell) a third bout. ( I really think modemps looks like his icon... dont you??). Its a RPG with a little FPS and an intresting story in a convincing way. anyway enjoy
Hoked on fonics werked fer me
 

apoppin

Lifer
Mar 9, 2000
34,890
1
0
alienbabeltech.com
What's the "learning curve" like?

As i mentioned before, i have a real problem getting into RPGs . . . . most - including Redemption - bored the crap outta me within 2 hours . . . . plus a really (really) long game manual doesn't help.

ANYway, i am playing KotOR (it *only* took 12 hours for me to get "into it") and find the gfx acceptable and story great . . .. i'd kinda like to eXpand into RPGs . . . howz the Bloodlines story, gameplay and gfx?

edit - well, Budman answered the gfx question. :)

is fighting "turn based"?
 

Bateluer

Lifer
Jun 23, 2001
27,730
8
0
Bloodlines is a good game, its too bad that Activision killed Troika, so don't expect any more patches to fix the games numerous spelling errors and bugs. The one patch that was released did fix the game endning bug in the Society of Leopold, a plus.

Having said all that, I played through Bloodlines with 3 different characters, getting a different ending each time. I enjoyed the game very much, although there are points in the game which are very tedious and dull. The sewer levels, for instance, nothing but tedium working your way to the Nosferatu. :(

The game's combat system can be fairly lackluster, the meat of the game is in its dialogue. The characters are very memorable, particularly Jack and Jeannette. :)

And lastly, Bloodlines has one of the best quests I have ever seen. The Haunted Hotel quest is amazingly well done. Granted, its all old tricks, but they are very well done. Had me on the edge of my seat. Make sure you play it in a darkened room with the sound up for the full effect. :)
 

Bateluer

Lifer
Jun 23, 2001
27,730
8
0
Originally posted by: apoppin


is fighting "turn based"?

No.

Click to attack, essentially. F key to feed. Battling humans is easy because you can simply feed on them until they are drained and die. :) Fighting vamps and other supernatural beings gets more difficult.
 

Bateluer

Lifer
Jun 23, 2001
27,730
8
0
Originally posted by: Farmer
Too bad the developer just got canned.

Fricking Activision bastards. :(

If you look at Troika's work, you can see real talent. But every title was pushed out the door ahead of schedule by Activision, who then canned the patching when the bad press was hurting sales. :(
 

apoppin

Lifer
Mar 9, 2000
34,890
1
0
alienbabeltech.com
Originally posted by: Bateluer
Originally posted by: apoppin


is fighting "turn based"?

No.

Click to attack, essentially. F key to feed. Battling humans is easy because you can simply feed on them until they are drained and die. :) Fighting vamps and other supernatural beings gets more difficult.
Fighting in Vampire Masquerade - Redemption was awful . . . . plus the story was weak (however, the gfx was nice for a RPG). . . . i see they fixed that in Bloodlines according to the reviews (and HL2's Source Engine powers the gfx).

How is the game stability? . . . . considering there will be NO more patches :p
 
Dec 27, 2001
11,272
1
0
I'm really, really not into RPGs. At all. But what I've played so far of this game is amazing. The controls suck and fighting is awkward, but the stories and scenarios are incredible. I forgot I was even levelling while playing because I was enjoying the scenarios. The oceanside mansion hooked me on the game.....such a spooky atmospheric little mission with this whole little backstory of it's own that you just get a glimpse of.
 

datalink7

Lifer
Jan 23, 2001
16,765
6
81
Originally posted by: Bateluer
Bloodlines is a good game, its too bad that Activision killed Troika, so don't expect any more patches to fix the games numerous spelling errors and bugs. The one patch that was released did fix the game endning bug in the Society of Leopold, a plus.

Having said all that, I played through Bloodlines with 3 different characters, getting a different ending each time. I enjoyed the game very much, although there are points in the game which are very tedious and dull. The sewer levels, for instance, nothing but tedium working your way to the Nosferatu. :(

The game's combat system can be fairly lackluster, the meat of the game is in its dialogue. The characters are very memorable, particularly Jack and Jeannette. :)

And lastly, Bloodlines has one of the best quests I have ever seen. The Haunted Hotel quest is amazingly well done. Granted, its all old tricks, but they are very well done. Had me on the edge of my seat. Make sure you play it in a darkened room with the sound up for the full effect. :)

lol, yah I played that at night with the sound up. Almost couldn't play it in one sitting. Very well done. I kept having to remind myself that I was a badass vampire and I shouldn't be scared of any ghosts :p
 

deveraux

Senior member
Mar 21, 2004
284
0
71
This game is certainly true to its RPG name unlike so many games nowadays that pretend to be RPG but are mainly action based and not so much story based. The story and atmosphere of Bloodlines is just absolutely fantastic. I love the little touches especially the TV announcers reporting things that you did throughout the game (granted they are scripted but still the atmosphere created was great). I agree with Bateluer, Troika had some real talent and it's just too bad what happened to them.
 

apoppin

Lifer
Mar 9, 2000
34,890
1
0
alienbabeltech.com
Originally posted by: mhillary
Originally posted by: Farmer
Too bad the developer just got canned.

What??
Feb 24, '05

Troika closes
Following nearly two months of rumors that it was in trouble, Troika Games has apparently closed its doors for good. In an e-mail sent out this morning to numerous sites (including GameSpot), joint-CEO and founder Leon Boyarsky finally gave the announcement he had promised would come before the end of the month.

"As many of you may have already heard, Troika has laid off all of its employees and is closing its doors due to our inability to secure funding for future projects," read the e-mail. The e-mail continued on a grateful note. "We want to thank all of our fans for their support these past seven years. It has really meant a lot to us that there were people out there who enjoyed our games enough to create fan-sites and follow our progress as a company." The e-mail then concluded by further thanking Troika's now-scattered employees.

Though Boyarsky was the sender of the e-mail, it was cosigned by Tim Cain and Jason Anderson. The three designers were at the forefront of the creative team behind the now-legendary postapocalyptic role-playing game Fallout at the once-mighty developer-publisher Interplay (which, by many accounts, is on the verge of becoming defunct itself).

In 1998, Cain, Anderson, and Boyarsky broke away from Interplay before the release of Fallout 2 to form Troika, an independent, RPG-centric studio. Ironically, the company only produced a trio of games: 2001's fantasy title Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura; 2003's adaptation of the classic Dungeons and Dragon module, The Temple of Elemental Evil; and 2004's first-person shooter/RPG hybrid, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines.

Unfortunately, none of Troika's games were successful enough to keep the studio financially afloat. It had briefly developed a postapocalyptic role-playing game that it eventually pitched to Interplay as a potential Fallout 3. However, when Bethesda Softworks acquired the Fallout license last year, the game was put on hold.

Though fatalistic in tone, Boyarsky's e-mail would not rule out the possibility of a resurrected Troika in the future. "We have not yet made the decision as to whether Troika Games as an entity will regroup and pursue future projects or simply cease to exist," it read. As for Troika's employees, a recent forum post by Bloodlines lead programmer Andrew Meggs said many had joined other developers, including Day One Studios, Mythic Entertainment, Point of View, Swingin' Ape, Turtle Rock, Treyarch, and another studio created by Interplay castaways, Obsidian Entertainment.

too bad :(

Is the game "completely stable"? In other words, there will be NO FURTHER patches . . . . is it "buggy" enough to ditract from the game?

And yes, i am getting "into" RPGs
(damn KotOR)
:roll:

:D
 

Modeps

Lifer
Oct 24, 2000
17,254
44
91
Vampire is perfectly playable in it's current form. It's got it's share of issues that were not fixed, but they dont detract from the game too much.
 

apoppin

Lifer
Mar 9, 2000
34,890
1
0
alienbabeltech.com
Originally posted by: Modeps
Vampire is perfectly playable in it's current form. It's got it's share of issues that were not fixed, but they dont detract from the game too much.

You're talking grammar/spelling, and "minor" issues . . . not crashing.

How are the load times? . . . HL2 was pretty slow (reload was OK, i guess) . . . .

After KotOR, i am looking for another RPG . . . . not too complex (hopefully).
 

imported_hopeless

Senior member
Oct 29, 2004
777
0
0
Load times aren't too bad as long as your inside. When you go outside or save outside it takes a bit longer to load up. I also noticed it bogged down a bit when outside walking around, I blame that on trying to play with too much eye candy for my video card.

One problem I've heard about & seen is that it seems to keep putting info into ram & leaves it there. The manual says it needs windows to have a 1.5 gig swap file, this is probably why. I played for a few hrs and when I quite playing I ended up rebooting my pc because the whole thing was bogging down. My memory usage peaked about 1.5 gig, so it was definitely using some of the swap file.

It's a fun game though. I finished it with a gangrel, & now playing again as a malk.
 

MetalMat

Diamond Member
Jun 14, 2004
9,687
36
91
Originally posted by: apoppin
Originally posted by: MetalMat
The game was really fun, but a little too buggy.

explain, please . . . did you get the FIRST patch?
:confused:


Yes I did.

Just look at the game, the first scene in the game has a freakin audio synch problem. I got caught in doorways a few time throughout the game and had to restart the game. There was alot of clipping problems when you were running around in 3rd person mode. The ending scene where that dude is sitting in the lawn chair is lame, there are some major graphical and audio synch problems there. The A.I. was really retarted in some occasions too.

Another problem was the fact that the game pretty much went down hill as soon as you hit china town, its like they just kind of stopped trying after you save the Nosferatu from that dude (which was a cool part of the game). But like I said, the game was really fun.
 

apoppin

Lifer
Mar 9, 2000
34,890
1
0
alienbabeltech.com
Originally posted by: MetalMat
Originally posted by: apoppin
Originally posted by: MetalMat
The game was really fun, but a little too buggy.

explain, please . . . did you get the FIRST patch?
:confused:


Yes I did.

Just look at the game, the first scene in the game has a freakin audio synch problem. I got caught in doorways a few time throughout the game and had to restart the game. There was alot of clipping problems when you were running around in 3rd person mode. The ending scene where that dude is sitting in the lawn chair is lame, there are some major graphical and audio synch problems there. The A.I. was really retarted in some occasions too.

Another problem was the fact that the game pretty much went down hill as soon as you hit china town, its like they just kind of stopped trying after you save the Nosferatu from that dude (which was a cool part of the game). But like I said, the game was really fun.

thanks for the info . . . i may get this after i finish KotOR - or kotor ii - whichever is in the bargain bin first.

:thumbsup: