Never played Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines or the table top game it was based on so figured I'd give this little Visual Novel a whirl and was pleasantly surprised by the writing, atmosphere and stunning art though it does kind of drop the ball at the end.
The first thing that struck me was how much I loved it's aesthetic. The artwork is gorgeous looking hand drawn and colored with the backgrounds having slight movement of lights and shifting colors to make it feel more alive with muted background noises. It looks gorgeous and the character designs are unique and tonally on point. It nails the atmosphere it is going for.
You get to play as a choice of three pre-set characters when the game begins. Regardless of choice you're a newly made vampire drawn into the gothic decadent vampire underworld of factions and schemes. You are taken under the wing of one of the vampire elite in New York and instructed to create your own Coterie. I had a great time finding out about the different vampire factions, the eccentric and dark characters in each (Hope especially was insanely interesting) and the general undertone of vampire society hidden in plain sight as I played. The issue is that these side events are just more interesting than the main plot which just fizzles like a deflated balloon at the end which was hugely disappointing. (Though it's sequel Shadows of New York greatly makes up for that and I recommend playing that if you enjoyed this one.)
The game itself is limited in some choices that effect some scene outcomes but not the overall story, that said you can get some bad choices and there is no manual saving, just constant auto saving forcing you to replay the entire game again if you want a different choice which is just a terrible design decision, terrible!
Fortunately the game is extremely short and feels more like a taster for something more than a full experience but I very much enjoyed my time with it, it just could have been so much better.
+ Amazing art and atmosphere.
+ Fantastic characters.
+ Interesting lore about the factions of vampire society.
- No manual saving? Really?
- Extremely short.
- The ending is terrible, feels rushed.
The first thing that struck me was how much I loved it's aesthetic. The artwork is gorgeous looking hand drawn and colored with the backgrounds having slight movement of lights and shifting colors to make it feel more alive with muted background noises. It looks gorgeous and the character designs are unique and tonally on point. It nails the atmosphere it is going for.
You get to play as a choice of three pre-set characters when the game begins. Regardless of choice you're a newly made vampire drawn into the gothic decadent vampire underworld of factions and schemes. You are taken under the wing of one of the vampire elite in New York and instructed to create your own Coterie. I had a great time finding out about the different vampire factions, the eccentric and dark characters in each (Hope especially was insanely interesting) and the general undertone of vampire society hidden in plain sight as I played. The issue is that these side events are just more interesting than the main plot which just fizzles like a deflated balloon at the end which was hugely disappointing. (Though it's sequel Shadows of New York greatly makes up for that and I recommend playing that if you enjoyed this one.)
The game itself is limited in some choices that effect some scene outcomes but not the overall story, that said you can get some bad choices and there is no manual saving, just constant auto saving forcing you to replay the entire game again if you want a different choice which is just a terrible design decision, terrible!
Fortunately the game is extremely short and feels more like a taster for something more than a full experience but I very much enjoyed my time with it, it just could have been so much better.
+ Amazing art and atmosphere.
+ Fantastic characters.
+ Interesting lore about the factions of vampire society.
- No manual saving? Really?
- Extremely short.
- The ending is terrible, feels rushed.
5 Comments
I'd love to play it but my PC is a potato XD Looking forward to Vampire Masquerade Swansong is looking really good.
Bloodlines 2 I'm concerned about, seems to be in dev hell :(
Bloodlines 2 I'm concerned about, seems to be in dev hell :(
Vampire the masquerade bloodlines is almost 20 Years old, you can prolly play it on a pocket calculator at this point.
It should be the GOG version tho.
It should be the GOG version tho.
My PC can just about run a calculator. XD Maybe one day for sure but i'm really not a PC gamer in any way, no steam account, GOG. the last PC game I played was Baldurs Gate 2 and that was at release....
Hi Great Review.
Peary
2 years ago