Vampires: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
| Vampires: The Masquerade - Bloodlines | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 | |||
| Studio |
 Troika Games
|
||
| Publisher |
Activision
|
||
| Senior Developer | Jason D. Anderson (Creative Director) Leonard Boyarsky (Creative Director) Timothy Cain (Programmer) Brian Mitsoda (Lead Writing, Designer) Chad Moore (Designer) |
||
| Erstveröffent- lichung |
 November 19, 2004 November 16, 2004 |
||
| platform | Windows | ||
| Game engine | Source Engine | ||
| genre | Action RPG | ||
| Subject | Vampires , Gothic , Dark Fantasy | ||
| Game mode | Single player | ||
| control | Keyboard , mouse | ||
| system advantages preconditions |
|
||
| medium | CD-ROM , DVD-ROM , download | ||
| language | English with German screen texts | ||
| Current version | 1.2 (December 21, 2004) 10.0 (June 14, 2018, unofficial patch ) |
||
| copy protection | SafeDisc 3 | ||
| Age rating |
|
||
| information | German version slightly censored. | ||
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines ( VTMB for short ) is an action role-playing game developed by the US studio Troika Games . After Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption , published in 2000, it is the second computer game in the role-playing world of Vampire: The Masquerade , but with an independent storyline. At the same time it was the last publication of Troika Games, as the company had to cease business operations due to a lack of follow-up projects. Bloodlines was the first game to license the Source Engine developed by Valve for Half-Life 2 , which, in addition to its generally progressive display performance, was particularly recognized for its facial animations. The game was released by Activision for Windows in November 2004 , coinciding with Half-Life 2 . With its publication, Bloodlines gained the reputation of being heavily flawed and apparently hastily brought onto the market. It received praise for its staging and narration. The vampire role-playing game with a gloomy contemporary scenario sold poorly in 2004, but is now regarded as a cult classic. Through a long-lasting fan initiative, numerous errors in the program were subsequently corrected and game content no longer integrated by Troika was restored.
In October 2015, the Swedish publisher Paradox Interactive took over the naming rights to White Wolf and the associated brands, including World of Darkness, from the Icelandic developer CCP Games . In the time that followed, Paradox thought several times aloud about a possible successor or a new edition to or from Bloodlines. Finally, the successor Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 was officially announced in March 2019 at the Game Developers Conference . Developed the game from the studio Hardsuit Labs in Seattle and is expected to appear later this year 2,021th
action
Regulatory background
The rulebook Vampire: The Masquerade uses Christian motifs to explain the origins of the vampire society. After Cain had killed his brother Abel , he emigrated to the land of Nod . God had cast him out and forbade him to ever eat of the fruits he had created. Instead, he should only be able to feed on blood. But because this was not enough, God deprived him of any opportunity to enter heavenly paradise by giving him immortality.
Cain stayed in the land of Nod for an aeon , but eventually, tired of eternal loneliness, returned to the land his brother Set had built. Here he founded and ruled a great city. But he continued to feel lonely because he was the only one of his kind. And so he decided to father offspring. But his children did not come about in the conventional way. Cain forced his curse on three people, who in turn fathered 13 children. But he feared the vengeance of God and forbade his children and grandchildren to father another generation.
Then the flood came and destroyed all life on earth. Cain considered this a punishment from God and preferred to go into exile . His children asked him to come back, but he did not want to be further involved in what was happening on earth.
Now his children began to fight one another. During this war, Cain's grandsons slew their parents and built a new city. Each of them founded their own clan by producing more offspring. However, they feared that further generations could be used to settle the quarrels between the 13 grandchildren of Cain, the "Antediluvian". Therefore, the fourth generation was forbidden to create children themselves.
In time the city and the power of the Antediluvians over their children died, whereupon these children fathered their own offspring and began to fight each other again. However, they kept to the principle of "masquerade" ( masquerade ), which has prevented people from finding out about the existence of vampires to this day.
Course of the game
The plot of Bloodlines is independent and therefore does not take up the narrative of the earlier computer game Redemption . Instead, the player takes on the role of a newly created vampire. The setting for the game is contemporary Los Angeles , which according to the rules is a Gothic-Punk version of the real city. Stylistically, the game combines features of Gothic architecture with optical elements of Gothic culture and a dark electronic soundtrack.
In the opening scene of the game, the optionally male or female player character is bitten by his sexual partner during a one night stand and turns into a vampire. However, its creator violates the strict code of rules of the vampire society, which is supposed to protect it from being discovered and persecuted by humans. In a court case before the head of all vampires from LA, the rule breaker is therefore executed, while the player character is spared and released.
Without the advice of a mentor, the young vampire is thrust into the intrigue game of the rival vampire clans. In this nightly war the player has to find his way and shed light on the actions of the various factions, which are usually very difficult to understand. Piece by piece, an overall picture is made up of the many small individual actions. In the end, the player has to choose a side - or even go a whole new way. The choice of the clan plays a major role.
Important figures
"Prince" Sebastian LaCroix: Lacroix is the leader of the vampiric sect of the local "Camarilla" in Los Angeles. This judges the creator of the game character at the beginning of the plot. He belongs to the Ventrue clan, but emphasizes that despite his noble origins and military experience in the army under Napoleon, he does not look down on other vampires or clans. Except at the beginning of the game, LaCroix can always be found at his headquarters, the 'Ventrue Tower' in Downtown, LA. He argues that he is responsible for the player character's actions because he left them alive despite the Camarilla's laws requiring him to kill the newly created vampire. As a result, he acts as the prime contractor for most of the story. As Ventrue, he traditionally attaches great importance to compliance with the masquerade, the rules for hiding vampiric nature from mortal people. Lacroix only superficially justifies his motives; in the later course of the plot the player character learns more and more about his hidden motives.
Nines Rodrigues: Nines appears as the charismatic leader of the "anarchs", a kind of counter-movement to the rigid rules of the Camarilla. The anarchs stand up for the equality of all vampires and against the "yoke" of their ancestors, that is, older vampires and their intrigues. Los Angeles is referred to as the last stronghold of the anarchs. Nines became a vampire at the time of the Great Depression in the USA, and through this experience he is highly politicized. Similar to the player character, he did not have a creator as a mentor, hence his sense of justice for the "weak" in vampire society. Like most of the Los Angeles anarchs, he belongs to the Brujah clan. He is quite eloquent, but also reacts quickly from negative to aggressive if the player character shows sympathy for the Camarilla. Nines has a kind of role model function for many younger vampires and is referred to as the last hope to unite them under the umbrella of the anarchs. Most of the time in the game, he is found at the main LA anarch hangout, The Last Round bar in Downtown, LA
'Smiling' Jack: Jack is also a member of the Anarchs and a member of the Brujah clan. Unlike many of the anarchs, however, he appears much less political and makes it clear that he mainly only destroys other vampires when they attack him. But he also clearly reveals disruptive attitudes when he says that one has to change the system by fighting the Camarilla's leadership elite instead of their simple members. Jack appears several times as a helping person and helps the player character at the beginning and at the end of the game to become independent or to make their own decisions. At the same time it becomes clear that he doesn't think much of Lacroix and that he thinks it is predictable and manipulative. Like most anarchs, Jack can be found most of the time in "The Last Round". Despite his "laissez faire" attitude, Jack is extremely well connected, has a very sharp mind and is always fairly well informed about the motives of others and the actions of the player character.
Ming Xiao: Ming Xiao is the leader of the "Kuei-jin" in Los Angeles, an East Asian race of vampires who are not of Cainite origin. According to Ming Xiao, although they share superficial similarities with the Kain children, they are very different. It also becomes clear that she considers the Kuei-jin to be superior to the Western vampires. Ming Xiao comes across as very polite and yet occasionally condescending, but in the further course of the game the character can learn a lot about her real motives. It claims to know the path for him and to lead him there if he so wishes. Ming Xiao can always be found at the Los Angeles Kuei-jin's headquarters, the Golden Temple in Chinatown. It is also learned that the Kuei-jin were competing with the Kain children for influence in Los Angeles and, after their first arrival in the city, waged a war with the anarchs that resulted in great losses on both sides.
Beckett: Beckett is a vampiric historian and "scholar," although he doesn't like the term himself. He reveals to the player character that he has been searching for the origin of the Kain children for 300 years and that he will follow this calling for another 300 years if necessary. He does not believe in the vampiric myths about her father figure Cain, but explains its origins on the basis of anthropological and cultural-historical considerations. Beckett belongs to the Gangrel clan, his shape-changing form is that of a great white wolf. In contrast to many other vampires, Beckett appears to be apolitical and shows little interest in power and intrigue - his only motivation seems to be devoted to the search for knowledge. Nevertheless, he expresses a certain antisympathy towards the "Sabbath". With a lot of persuasion, the player can get Beckett late in the game that this is not his real name. It also motivates the player to also join the path of individualism, since this is ultimately the only viable path.
Andrei: Andrei is the leader of the local "Sabbath" in Los Angeles. The Sabbath is another vampiric sect, but it is made up of fanatical and nightmarish vampires who reject all other sects to the death and regard humans as beasts. Satanism, cruelty, blood rites, and worse practices are among the instruments used by members of the Sabbath. Andrei embodies this symbolically: on the one hand, he is an extremely powerful vampire with diverse skills and great knowledge, who also expresses himself very carefully. On the other hand, for reasons of comfort, he tends to decorate his dwellings with human remains and extremities as well as blood-streaked furniture. Andrei rejects the dictation by the ancestors and at the same time claims that the Sabbath is the true descendant of the will of the vampire father Cain. Due to his origin in the clan of the Tzimisce (non-playable clan) and their discipline of "flesh-shaping", he has the ability to physically change himself and other beings. As a result, Andrei looks even more alienated in the game than, for example, the Nosferatu and hardly appears human.
Gameplay
Bloodlines simulates the nocturnal Los Angeles as a lively metropolis of the modern age. The player moves in four parts of the city - Santa Monica, Downtown, Hollywood and Chinatown - which are connected by taxi or the sewer system. The locations of the missions are facilities such as the LA History Museum, as well as the homes of important vampires. Lots of interactable NPCs liven up the streets and houses. Drawn into the eternal quarrel of different vampire parties, the player is offered a number of tasks, for the resolution of which sometimes entanglements have to be resolved. There are several possible solutions for the quests , which also have an effect on further dialogue options with the NPCs and thus roughly on the further course of the game.
In contrast to the predecessor Redemption , the player in Bloodlines only controls one single player character . As a view are first-person or third-person perspective can be selected, where dogfighting is always held in the third-person perspective. The game does not have a German voice output, only an English version with German subtitles.
In combat, combinations of hand-to-hand combat, various firearms and vampiric "disciplines", a type of magic that ranges from disguise and suggestion to shapeshifting, are used. The choice of the vampire clan at the beginning of the game and a character system typical for role-playing games result in completely different game experiences. For example, due to their disfigured appearance, Nosferatu can only use the sewers for locomotion, as their discovery means a violation of the masquerade. Malkavians, on the other hand, have more different dialogue options. Along with several different endings, this is supposed to increase the replayability of Bloodlines .
Playful (and partly atmospheric) the game has often been compared to the Ion Storm title Deus Ex .
development
The Bloodlines development process was marked by numerous problems. The Activsion game tester Jeremiah Jones, who was involved in the project, described it as "a fantastic learning experience in retrospect on how not to develop video games," which studio co-founder Leonard Boyarsky described in retrospect as extremely stressful:
“Almost the entire development put a massive strain on both our health and relationships. [...] This whole development was so painful that I cannot highlight any period as particularly bad. We were just tired. "
The work began after the completion of Troika's first work Arcanum: Von Dampfmaschinen und Magie (published in August 2001), even before the development contract for The Temple of Elemental Evil . Based on Valve's Source Engine, Troika began developing an Arcanum successor. But because there were upheavals between Sierra and Valve, the work was stopped after two months. With the help of Valves Scott Lynch and Doug Lombardi , however, the studio got in touch with Activision, through which the Bloodlines contract could be closed and the company's financial collapse averted.
Engine problem
In particular, the definition of the source engine turned out to be problematic for the entire development process. Troika was the first development studio to license Valve's game engine , which was considered to be progressive but was still under development at the time . Troika hoped for a more action-packed game principle and an opening of their games to a larger audience. Due to the ongoing development, the engine designed for the first-person shooter Half-Life 2 was poorly documented and incomplete in many areas, revisions of the source code had to be updated regularly. Communication with the support staff assigned to Troika and the Valve technicians was also slow. Troika therefore has to implement many elements such as artificial intelligence itself. A license detail also stated that Bloodlines would not be allowed to appear before Half-Life 2 . Troika was thus dependent in two respects on the development progress of its licensor Valve, which, in contrast to Troika, pursued its own high standards for Half-Life 2 with less complex game mechanics and less time and money pressure . Due to the data theft of an early, unfinished version of Half-Life 2 in October 2003, the publication of Half-Life 2 was repeatedly postponed due to security changes to the graphics engine, which also delayed the publication of Bloodlines .
Internal problems
In addition to the problems with the engine, there was a lack of project management on the part of Troikas. According to Boyarsky, too many functions were implemented or pursued for too long before they were finally discarded, including a multiplayer mode or in-game emulations of the arcade games Pitfall! and River Raid . Activision also feared that Troika would keep adding new functions until the end (so-called feature creep ), so that the game could no longer be tested sufficiently. When development lagged behind schedule in the spring of 2003, Troika was assigned a producer by Activision, David Mullich, to coordinate development on site and bring it to a close. He found the game in an early, incomplete state. Mullich brought more Activision employees, mainly quality assurance testers, into Troika's offices, which over the course of time led to tensions between Troika and Activision employees. In the middle of 2003, Troika producer Thomas R. Decker, who had previously supervised the work on The Temple of Elemental Evil , also joined the project. On the one hand, Decker and Mullich limited the range of functions, but on the other hand, they were also able to convince Activision several times to expand the schedule. The developers' working hours increased to over 80 hours per week, in isolated cases even up to 120 hours. In the last few weeks before the end of the game, the team was not allowed to make any changes to the game apart from bug fixes. In mid-September 2004, Troika finally submitted a version, which Activision released for sale. Since the game was not allowed to appear before Half-Life 2 , Troika was able to convince Activision of the financing of a further development week and subsequent quality assurance, which resulted in a second and final release candidate. This also contained some problems such as fluttering animations or disappearing objects, which Mullich estimated two more weeks of development to rectify. However, these were not approved by Activision for fear of new bugs and because the game had already lagged behind the schedule for months. The game eventually came out on the same day as Half-Life 2 , as Activision's marketing department believed that releasing it at the same time would help Bloodlines' sales .
Soundtrack
The instrumental music to accompany the game was composed by Rik Schaffer of Womb Music. In retrospect, Schaffer described his compositions for the game as his most intimate, heartfelt and therefore best work, into which he had incorporated many personal life experiences. The long-time drug addict and depressive Schaffer received the contract after completing several rehab cures and serving a four-month prison sentence in order to start a new beginning as a musician in another attempt. With a demo of the later Hollywood Theme , he was able to convince the Troika project management team and was awarded the contract. The only direction given by the developer was the song Angel by Massive Attack , which Schaffer referenced in the piece of music for the main menu. In addition, however, Schaffer was given a free hand that he wanted to use for a soundtrack that should not be reminiscent of “classic universal monster film soundtracks ” or Count Chocula (American breakfast cereal brand for children). In his compositions, he let many emotions from his experiences as a drug addict and depression sufferer flow.
“I thought of my past life as an addict who needs his fix every day, someone who has lost everything and is depressed. A vampire, it seemed to me, would be in a similar mental state. I started treating them as mentally afflicted people with an addiction. That's how everything was put together. "
In addition to Schaffer's compositions, a number of songs have been licensed. The title track Bloodlines was contributed exclusively for the game by Al Jorgensen ( Ministry ). It is a variation of the Ministry song So what with an adapted melody and new lyrics.
| List of Licensed Pieces: | |
|
|
Patches
Despite the extended development time, the game was heavily affected by errors that were not fixed even after the release of the last official patch 1.2. The impression of incomplete development resulted, among other things. a. from the problems of the developer to reduce the scope of the project to a feasible framework. Due to the dismissal of most of the employees at the same time as the game was released and the closure of the Troika development studio in February 2005, many errors were only fixed years later by unofficial fan patches .
A first fan patch, the Unofficial Patch , was started by Dan Upright and finally continued by Werner Spahl with the support of the player community. The standard basic version is based strongly on the release version of the game, the optional plus version also unlocks a lot of unused content that has not been integrated into the official game. This includes multiplayer support, expanded dialogues and new models and items. In addition, the latter modifies the balancing somewhat. A German version of this fan patch is maintained by Christoph Niestrat.
A competing patch project, called the True VTMB Patch , does not achieve a comparable level of troubleshooting, but remains even closer to the release version than the Unofficial Patch .
reception
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines received mostly positive reviews. On MobyGames the game was rated with an average of 83 out of 100 points, while on Metacritic it received an average of 80 out of 100 points. Many reviewers criticized the significant technical flaws that the game originally exhibited. Independently of this, it was often found that the game has a very immersive atmosphere and game plot, which is mostly attributed to the seemingly coherent reaction of the game world to interactions or character traits of the player character , as well as to the multitude of allusions, including the Cthulhu myth , which contribute significantly to the popularity of the game.
Despite this positive response, the sales figures remained below expectations, with 72,000 units sold in the first three months. The simultaneous release with Half-Life 2 is in retrospect a mistake. Developer Troika Games had to stop working at the time of publication. In August 2004, White Wolf had already discontinued its Vampire: The Masquerade rules in favor of the newly developed product Vampire: The Requiem .
Web links
- Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines at MobyGames (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Vampire: Bloodlines Patch Released! December 21, 2004, archived from the original on March 20, 2005 ; accessed on July 10, 2018 .
- ^ Vampires: The Masquerade - Bloodlines. In: The Patches Scrolls. Accessed July 10, 2018 .
- ↑ Come back, Vampire - The Masquerade: Time for a resurrection on giga.de (accessed on July 7, 2018)
- ↑ PC Games Meisterwerke - Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines on pcgames.de (accessed on July 7, 2018)
- ↑ Vampire: The Masquerade — Bloodlines 2 announced, coming in 2020 on pcgamer.com. Accessed March 22, 2019
- ↑ Stephanie Schlottag: Vampire: Bloodlines two postponed again, release no longer 2020. In: GameStar . August 11, 2020, accessed August 16, 2020 .
- ↑ Jon "Buck" Birnbaum: Vampires: The Masquerade - Bloodlines Interview ( English ) In: Gamebanshee . UGO. August 20, 2004. Archived from the original on October 22, 2013. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved July 25, 2011.
- ↑ White Wolf : Information ( English ) In: Blog: 20th Anniversary Edition of Vampire: The Masquerade . Archived from the original on August 24, 2011. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved July 25, 2011: “ The gothic and punk subcultures from which it drew, previously unseen in the gaming world, created an unparalleled worldwide phenomenon that spanned novels, TCG's, LARPs, video games, and television. "
- ↑ Bruce Baugh, Anne Sullivan Braidwood, Deirdre Brooks: Vampire Storytellers Handbook . White Wolf Publishing , 2000, ISBN 978-1-56504-264-3 , pp. 76 .
- ↑ Richard "Jonric" Aihoshi: Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines Interview ( English ) In: RPGVault . IGN . May 6, 2003. Archived from the original on March 25, 2011. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved July 25, 2011: “ Bloodlines takes place in a gothic punk / World of Darkness version of Los Angeles. "
- ↑ a b c d e f g Sebastian Thor: Vampire: Bloodlines & Troika - A Chronicle of Glorious Failure Part 1 . In: Eurogamer.de . October 1, 2014. Retrieved October 11, 2014.
- ↑ Tom Bramwell: Vampire: The Masquerade sequel to use Half-Life 2 engine ( English ) In: Eurogamer.net . May 6, 2003. Retrieved July 25, 2011.
- ↑ a b c d e f Sebastian Thor: Vampires and Troika Part 2 - Poisoned burgers, alienated publishers, lost time . In: Eurogamer.de . October 2, 2014. Retrieved October 11, 2014.
- ↑ Chris Morris: Half-Life 2 sets a date ( English ) In: CNNMoney . CNN . February 3, 2004. Retrieved July 25, 2011: “ That game, initially set to be released this year, had to be delayed to implement the same security fixes needed on HL2. "
- ↑ Justin Stolzenberg: Vampire 2 appears at the same time as Half-Life 2 . In: PC Games . Computec Media Group . November 10, 2004. Retrieved July 25, 2011.
- ↑ Justin Stolzenberg: Vampires: Bloodlines: The Soundtrack . In: PC Games . Computec Media Group . October 5, 2004. Retrieved July 31, 2011.
- ↑ Jim Rossignol: Interview Without a Vampire: Bloodlines' B Mitsoda. Rock Paper Shotgun, April 6, 2009, accessed on September 8, 2010 (English): “ Did the scope of the game just seem too big to you? - Yes. "
- ↑ Tor Thorsen: Troika closes - News at GameSpot ( English ) Gamespot.com. February 24, 2005. Retrieved August 1, 2009.
- ↑ Troika Games Interview ( Memento from February 27, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) - Leonard Boyarsky Interview on the closing of Troika (English, February 26, 2005)
- ↑ Sebastian Thor: Vampires and Troika Part 3 - Villa of the Malkavian, Forgotten Objects, Version 9.1 . In: Eurogamer.de . October 6, 2014. Retrieved October 11, 2014.
- ↑ Torsten Vogel: New fan patch for Vampires: Bloodlines . pcgameshardware.de. April 17, 2011. Retrieved July 14, 2011.
- ↑ Alratan: Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines Review ( English ) manapool.co.uk. December 6, 2010. Retrieved April 10, 2011: “ There are two rival patches to choose from, the True Patch and the Unofficial Patch, each with different design philosophies. Normally this would not be worth mentioning, except that the basic game is so full of bugs, that you simply must use one of the two to play the game without killing yourself. "
- ↑ mobygames.com: Collected reviews of Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines . Retrieved March 20, 2010 (English).
- ↑ Metacritic : Average rating , based on 61 ratings. Retrieved April 22, 2012 (English).
- ↑ Michael Lafferty: Vampires: The Masquerade - Bloodlines Review. (No longer available online.) GameZone Online November 19, 2004, archived from the original on April 12, 2009 ; accessed on March 12, 2010 (English): " Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines may be somewhat linear in design, but looks terrific and is immersive neck-biting fun. “ Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Craig Wilson: For the love of ... Vampires: The Masquerade - Bloodlines. SquareGo, October 27, 2008, accessed on March 12, 2010 (English): “ Vampire is one of the darkest, scariest, sexiest and immersive games ever, and costs bugger all now. "
- ↑ Marco Arboleda: Vampires: The Masquerade - Bloodlines Review. In: GameSpot . CBS Corporation , August 13, 2009, accessed March 12, 2010 : “ One of the most immersive and interesting vampire-centric RPGS ever made that (sadly) suffers from technical problems. "
- ^ Troika Games Officially Closed . In: GameDaily . Gigex Inc .. February 25, 2005. Archived from the original on April 5, 2005. Retrieved July 31, 2011.
- ↑ John Keefer: Boyarsky Discusses Troika's Closure ( English ) In: Gamespy . IGN . February 25, 2005. Retrieved July 25, 2011: “ We laid off the first group in November, and the second in December. "
