The game begins with the creation of a male or female vampire character of one from the seven Camarilla clans. Once a character has been created, the introductory sequence begins with an in-game cinematic of a vampire Sire ‘Embracing’ the player’s character; draining the character of blood, and beginning the player’s transformation into a vampire. Shortly after the Embrace, both the player and his or her Sire are captured by the Los Angeles Camarilla clan…
Vampire: The Masquerade is a story driven masterpiece that brings the dark world of vampires to life in a way that few games can. Design your vampire, choose your vampire alliance, and survive to fulfill your darkest passions in a world you do not belong to. As a vampire, you will struggle to live from one day to another, in the dirtiest backstreets of downtown Los Angeles. Players must walk a fine line between morality and self indulgence or risk turning to the dark side and losing their last bits of humanity. As you drink blood, you will gain greater control over your vampire powers, allowing you to cast curses and wield various weapons with superhuman strength.
But there is far more to this game than drinking blood and smashing heads. The game features a well made fully spoken narrative to really pull the player into this alternate reality. Through social power, you will be able to trick your enemies into turning against each other and prevent society from discovering your dark secrets.
Vampire: Bloodlines has an excellent tutorial and a very comprehensive manual. Even better, the tutorial is integrated into the story and yet completely optional. The player can choose to do the whole thing as a quick overview, or to skip it completely.
The action takes place from a first-person perspective as you walk around the streets of Los Angeles. The movement controls are immediately familiar to anyone who has played a modern first-person shooter.
The audio has received a lot of attention as well. Whether you’re wandering the streets of LA by night, creeping through a dark cave or engaged in frantic battle with a group of enemies, the music is inspired, atmospheric and appropriate.
Bloodlines presents a very interesting world to explore and memorable characters to interact with, and the open-ended nature of many of the quests allows you to tackle the game in multiple ways. You’ll find that there’s a rich world to explore in Bloodlines, a role-playing game that ultimately allows you to indulge your inner vampire.