Forums > Submission Feedback > Lewis's Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines review

Great. Now I must play this game. Something I have no time for right now.

Thanks a lot!

For us. For them. For you.

It's the sort of game you make time for.

In all honesty I think I enjoyed this more than - dare I say it? - Deus Ex at times. The narrative lacks the depth of Deus Ex and even Invisible War, but it's more intelligent, carefully crafted, and beautifully scripted.

Getting stuck in a wall and then falling out of the game is a ridiculous thing to happen, but listen to Gary the Nosferatu croak "Is this what your fear would sound like... given a voice...?" just the once and you'll forget those flaws even exist.

Oh, I love this. I really hope you can tolerate its horrible brokenness. Download the latest patch, just to be sure.

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hey Lewis, did you try either of the fan patches that are out there? I hear they both do an admirable job of cleaning the game up, though there's tons of nerds the 'net over flinging shit over which one is better and more kvlt.

cool review, I've been meaning to check this game out for a while and now I really want to. maybe once I get broadband and can nab it off Steam.

Oh no, it's a Goomba!

I'm patched up, baby, but the review is of what's in the box.

The latest patch does a respectable job of tidying up the dialogue, and some of the bigger, 'game-ending' crashes are gone as well. But the little niggles remain.

It also fails to get rid of the horrible sewer levels, which is a shame. ;)

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Well, I'd say this is one of your better reviews, though I'll admit I've only read a few. It still reads dryly, like you're writing for school or work or something. You seem to be fond of lengthy paragraphs with technical or formal writing scattered within them. And this tends to make it a bit difficult to read, sometimes. However, it is informative, and that's good. You just need to refine it more so that it's more entertaining and interesting.

But this one has a lot of the elements to make a great review. I like how your glitches paragraph - the first half, anyway, with the examples. That's the kind of change-up in writing style we need to see more often. It's entertaining.

Also, you did describe some things pretty well, and they would've resonated better if not for the way you structure your sentences around them. I think something you described about combat may fit that role... but I can't remember. Even though I just read the review. That's probably a bad thing.

I did like your conclusion. That was interesting. Makes me remember something I heard about that probably happened like a decade ago. Did you know there was some cult group or something who got a bit crazy with the tabletop version of this game and started acting the stuff out even more realistically than normal role-playing is meant to be? I can't remember if there was one person in the group doing it or the whole group themselves, but I think they either attacked people to drink their blood, or voluntarily drank each other's blood, or killed people. I don't remember. It was ages since I heard about it.

Anyway, this does seem like I game worth checking out some times. Seems kind of like Morrowind almost, with how you describe charisma.

Hm... Charisma. That'd fit that one example I was looking for earlier.

[Eating EmP's brain] probably isn't a good idea. I mean... He's British, which means his brain's wired for PAL and your eyes are NTSC. - Will

I think I tend to be overly analytical in my writing style sometimes because I'm very interested in videogame theory in a semi-academic sort of way. I try to avoid being checklisty, though, and I do try to avoid just describing the game - hopefully that's something that shines through in most of my work.

If you're expecting Morrowind... well, don't. Seriously: Invisible War with vampires, but more intelligent, and less well-crafted. It sounds like a big cliche but it honestly describes Bloodlines perfectly. The charisma / intimidation / persuasion feats are far more fantastically done than Morrowind. This isn't a matter of clicking a button to change someone's opinion of you. This is about extra conversational options that go as far as altering major plot developments, depending on your skill level in these feats.

Thanks, as usual, for reading.

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I agree with EMP... I now feel more than ever the need to play this, though without a working PC, I probably won't get the chance.

I also agree with WQ... for a game you're so emphatic about, it sure is a dry review. I generally find in your reviews that you start off with a strong central argument, and very quickly provide your reasons for having that argument. This, while a bit academic, actually works quite well. What I don't like is when you start picking at details. As fun as it can be to get into details in a conversation or forum posts, they have less of a place in reviews than you'd think (I've made the same mistake and been called on it numerous times in the past). A review is about the grander picture, and when you're focused on that, you do an admirable job.

You have a talent for using comparison and description to really get across what a game is about and what it's like to play. For instance, your last comment to WQ. Your reviews are at their best when they use this talent.

Your reviews have a lot of intelligence. They lack charisma, though. Which sounds harsher than I mean it.

Note to gamers: when someone shoots you in the face, they aren't "gay." They are "psychopathic."

This is a bloody awful review in places. One of those I'd go back and change if it made sense to.

It's also something I'd probably amend to an 8 with a note that it really, really feels like a better game than it is at times.

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If you even need edits, drop me the revisions in my HG mail and I'll do them for you.

For us. For them. For you.

It's a really good game, loses steam later on and contains bugs galore but probably a solid 8 or so. I thought it would be dumb but actually turned out great. Not quite Deus Ex but the next best thing (or maybe the next best thing to the next best thing, dunno).

I'm hoping to see Deus Ex 3 next year although it'll probably drop 2010 the earliest.

IF YOU WANT MORE BEATS FOR YOUR BUCK THERE'S NO LUCK.

I'm deeply concerned about Deus Ex 3. The project leader is most famous for the Myst games, for a start.

They seem to be really confused about why people liked Deus Ex. In one sense, they've nailed it: they're talking about the wealth of different approaches, the size of the maps, the involving plot, the amount of people to talk to etc. But then they seem to be ignoring this, claiming to be making it as "more of a straightforward action game than an RPG" - which surely is half the point. Hopefully they mean 'less stats but more things to do', which would be right up my alley, and not 'mindless gunplay', which would not.

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