Most of what they say about vampires doesn't make much sense. Take the 100 per cent blood diet, for example. We all know what four beers and a tikka masala can do to your digestive system, so what the hell would a few years of only drinking blood do to your belly? It really doesn't bear thinking about. I mean there's not a lot of fibre in your average artery, is there? The idea of a bowelconscious Nosferatu tucking into a bowl of All Bran before his nightly jaunt in search of fresh virgins won't ever be particularly scary. And what about the bizarre hatred of garlic? Are zombies averse to parsley? Do werewolves come out in a nasty rash when they get close to nutmeg? It makes no sense.
This is where Vampire: The Masquerade and the White Wolf Universe of pen-and-paper gaming and its reams of stats and character classes come into play, giving a sense of order to the many and varied interpretations of vamp lore. The deal is that a few millennia ago, vampires recognised that if humans ever cottoned on to the fact there were thousands of clammy-palmed bloodsuckers in their midst their days as the undead ethnic minority would be numbered.
Released for Microsoft Windows in 2004, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines is an action role-playing game set in White Wolf's World of Darkness developed by Troika Games and released by Activision. Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines is a 2004 action role-playing game set in White Wolf's World of Darkness; it was developed by Troika Games and released by Activision for Microsoft Windows. Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines is a much stronger game than the previous one in the series. It does the genre right, with character choices that effect the world, dialogue choices that.
So it was that the Masquerade began. Enforced through the agreement of the seven vampire clans, a mandate demanded that thou shaft not reveal thy true nature to those not of the blood'. The bloodsuckers went under cover, living among the animals they fed upon and diverting human history relentlessly in their favour. The bastards.
First Blood
Vamptre: The Masquerade - Bloodlines sees you playing a newly embraced member of the kindred' in a dark, Gothicised Los Angeles, filled with seedy bars, dodgy hotels and questionable ladies of the night.
Fundamentally an RPG with the trappings of Deus Ex's open-ended gameplay, and a collection of armaments that would make Charlton Heston blush. Bloodlines is gearing up to be the first of a new breed of action-packed first-person RPGs. Powered with the same facial animation, physics engine and general jaw-dropping magnificence as Half-Life 2, Bloodlines is shaping up to be one of the most impressive releases of next year.
Before you start running around however, sneaking, seducing, baring your teeth at old ladies and working your way up through the pointy-toothed hierarchy, you've got some important decisions to make.
Choose Wisely
The character creation process and, above all, which clan you join, will have a huge effect on your game. You must first decide on your allegiance; there are seven clans available and each has its own set of physical attributes, disciplines and outlook on life. You could be a Gangrel. a vamp with shape-shifting abilities, animal instincts and a bestial lust for blood; a creature more accustomed to running free in the wilderness than stnp-joints in downtown LA. Alternatively, if you've always dreamed of being an ugly deformed monster, you could be an old-school Nosferatu with limited social skills, heightened senses, pointy ears and a talent for sneaking around and looking evil.
Taking into account the fact that you can play as either a boy or a girl vamp -an option that should provide some kinky connotations for one or two members of the team - this means there'll be a whopping 14 basic characters with which to tinker. And, as you would expect from the creators of the legendary Fallout series, there's more than enough character options with which to play.
You're given a set number of points to spend to mould your character as you wish,' explains Leonard Boyarsky, the joint CEO of Troika. 'At the bottom it's more like Fallout than a D&D game - theplayer is given points to spend in each of their Attribute and Ability categories, as well as points to spend on their disciplines. So you can play about with whatever you want your Vamp to be skilled at, though things like knitting, poultry-keeping and embroidery are unsurprisingly off the menu. Ranged combat, melee combat, sneaking, seduction and persuasion are the order of the day, as well as a variety of other roleplay stalwarts.
Paths Of Death
So far. so relatively standard RPG, right? A bunch of meaningless stats that have chuff-all effect on the game itself, right? Nope. What makes the concept of Bloodlines so fundamentally thnlhng is the way in which these attributes and skills are meshed with the FPS game and the multiple ways in which you can complete your objectives. There's this house you need to get into that's being guarded, explains Leonard, when probed about the open-ended gameplay. You can fight your way through the front, sneak your way around to the side (althouqh you'll need to pick the lock on the door) or go the easy way through the backyard, but then again you'd better have 'Animal Friendship' because there's a big pit-bull guarding the back door.
We're just taking all this in. when the man starts up again. Oh. and you could also talk your way past the guard by using your persuasion feat. Or your seduction skills if you're a female.' Anything else? You could perhaps dominate him. or dementate him. In or out of dialogue.'
Now I don't know about you, but personally I only have three ways of getting into my own house (in no particular order: keys, doorbell, bathroom window), and I've just been told about a virtual world in which there are about seven. That's pretty cool.
If you decide to go in all guns blazing, then there's a wide variety of weapons to dispose of the vamps and humans who stand in your way. Shotguns, flamethrowers, stake guns, sub-machine guns, sniper rifles and a variety of weapons like knives and katanas can all be utilised to make a member of the undead even more dead than he was before. The bad guys won't be stupid either. Enemies will dynamically adjust to certain changes in the environment,' promises Leonard. They'll take cover behind objects and change their positions if those objects are destroyed. They'll work together in combat, and know when they're outmatched to flee accordingly.' So the Al is sounding pretty hot, but then again if I was one of these poor bad-guys, faced by a vamp who potentially had a discipline like 'blood thaumatology' (the ability to make your enemy's blood boil inside his body), then I wouldn't fight at all. I'd be running over the green hills and far away. So the NPCs can't be that clever.
Arteries Akimbo
But what about the blood? Count Duckula aside, haemoglobin has always featured prominently in vamp escapades and Bloodlines is no exception. Humans are cattle,' explains Leonard, but they are also to be feared and respected as there are so many of them compared to the vampires. But you'll need to feed on NPCs to get blood to power your disciplines.'To successfully feed on an unsuspecting human you'll need enough brawl skill to overcome them. If you don't, the NPC will run away screaming or attack you, depending on their Al. Alternatively, if you're one of the more suave and sexy vamps, you could seduce your prey and convince them that it would be a great idea to open up his/her veins. Either way, a successful conquest will give you plenty of juice to let rip with your powers round the next corner.
You Beast
Unfortunately there's a price to pay for this arterial promiscuity, if you completely drain a victim of their life juice or run around gunning down innocent bystanders then you will lose humanity points. If you stray too far away from what is morally human, you are more likely to reach a point of 'frenzy' - absolute bloodlust. In this state, you lose control of your character and he/she will home in on the nearest blood source, no matter what their relation to you or how big a gun they are carrying. In contrast, because of the open nature of the game, you can go against vampiric convention and do nice things to people (bake cakes, heal sick puppies, buy fags for teens loitering outside newsagents. That kind of thing. Maybe...) and stick points back on to your humanity register.
If your humanity points start getting low then there'll be less speech options available to you and even the most sophisticated of Toreadors will start grunting, scratching their arse and gesticulating in a brutish manner. In the past. Troika bods have proved to be absolute masters of character-dependent branching dialogue, above all in the myriad of sprawling conversations found in Fallout and Fallout 2, so dialogue in Bloodlines promises to be something pretty special. NPCs will react to your clan, your reputation and if on a previous visit you caved in their cousin's head with an iron bar then the chances are they wont be hugely receptive to you. In turn, you'll respond through dialogue options dependant on your clan's attributes and skills, your humanity rating, the way in which you distributed your character points at the start of the game and, if you did jam an iron bar into someone's brain cavity earlier, the naughty things you've been up to during the game.
Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines Walkthrough
Some of your lines appear in different colours and fonts,' adds Leonard. This signifies that it's a line that uses one of your powers or feats.' So you'll be able to Dominate, Dementate, Persuade, Seduce and Intimidate should you be good enough at each skill. In most cases a quick 'please' or 'thank you' would probably suffice, but I suppose the undead aren't exactly famed for their courtesy.
Making a hugely complex genre crossover title like Vampire: The Masquerade -Bloodlines is a hard task. There is no doubt Leonard and his buddies are juggling a lot of balls (dialogue, combat, Al. story, character creation etc), and all are so enmeshed by the nature of the game that even dropping one would cause untold damage to the end product. But Troika have all the right tools; they've got the most astounding engine in PC gaming history, they've got the rich backdrop of the White Wolf universe, they've got a team of established RPG gods and, well, they've got vampires which are always cool. (Apart from when they're crowbarred into The Matrix.) Bloodlines is set to be 60 hours of gaming genius that's going to make standing in graveyards at midnight and looking pissed off a fun and trendy activity. We can't wait.
The Source Of All Evil
Gordon's Shiny Engine Used For Nefarious Deeds
Purring sweetly in the background of Bloodlines lies the Source engine, purveyor of graphical genius to Half-Life 2. With its remarkable facial animation, DirectX 9 effects and a new lighting system devised by Troika, Bloodlines looks set to be one of the most graphically stunning RPGs ever. Above and beyond this, however, is a modified Havok 2 physics engine that looks to be so good it'll make your head bleed. If your vampire is strong enough, you'll be able to interact with the environment like never before - shifting crates, lifting small cars and generally making your presence felt. Meanwhile we shouldn't forget, as Leonard Boyarsky, joint CEO of Troica, himself points out, that physics objects blow apart real neat. They sure do.
Few things bring forth our inner passion for blood-sucking creatures like Mark Rein-Hagen’s Vampire: The Masquerade.
This gothic-punk take on our modern world is filled with supernatural creatures, and of course, vampires. Calling themselves “Kindred”, these denizens of the night are locked in an eternal power struggle between clans and factions fighting for dominance and survival.
Released in 2004, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines is the second in a series of video games based in the world of the classic role-playing game. And it’s one of the most well-loved vampire-themed games ever released.
With the sequel – Vampire: The Masquerade 2 – coming out at some point, now’s a great time to delve back into this classic title. And even if you’ve already played it a fair amount already, you’ll find a way to keep yourself interested with some of these VTMB mods.
15. Subtle Female Malkavian
The clinically insane Malkavians are known for their extravagant demeanor and bizarre – and in the case of females, revealing – outfits.
If you’d rather play a more tasteful Malkavian lady, the Subtle Female Malkavian mod has you covered. No longer will the voices in your head also choose your wardrobe.
Now, you can look remarkably dissociated from reality without looking like an asylum inmate.
14. SilentMasqu Mod
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines is one of the best vampire-themed games ever created. But after over 15 years, its graphics are well past their prime.
The SilentMasqu Mod is a massive high-resolution texture pack that subtly improves the situation by sprucing up environments, NPCs, and weapons alike.
It doesn’t cover everything, but most unique NPCs such as Skleter and LaCroix have gotten a facelift, along with some of the playable races (Brujah, Gangrel, etc).
Some weapon models have been entirely replaced, and even the main menu interface was updated!
13. Vamp Among Us ENB
Another pretty unique option for improving VTMB’s look is the Vamp Among Us ENB preset, which overhauls the game’s visual effects to resemble Telltale’s fantastic The Wolf Among Us.
In practice, this means darker shadows and a lot more color saturation.
The creator also plays around with lighting to create more contrast between light and dark.
Overall, the game looks much more modern and eye-catching with this ENB. Just keep in mind that it uses some effects that didn’t exist back in the day, and it can be a bit taxing on some lower-end systems.
12. Playable NPCs
A fantastic way to change your next VTMB playthrough is the Playable NPCs mod.
As the name suggests, this mod allows you to begin the game as any of over 100 NPCs, including Nines, VV, Bertram, Damsel, and even Granny Doris.
The beloved Jeanette and Tourette are also included in this fantastic character pack.
Whether you want to use this as a tool for role-playing or to change things up after playing the game several times, this mod remains an excellent addition to your collection.
11. Bloodlines Extreme
Once you’ve understood the basics of combat in VTMB, it’s pretty easy to master. Which may make the game too easy for some veteran players.
If you’re the kind that’s always chasing the next challenge, the Bloodlines Extreme mod can revitalize VTMB for you with considerably greater difficulty.
That said, the mod doesn’t stop at some mere stat tweaks.
There are some new features, interesting (and often hilarious) tweaks to dialogue, and even improved textures in some areas.
It may be rough around the edges, but it’s an excellent way to experience VTMB in a new light.
10. Bloodlines Audio Overhaul
There are countless mods, ENBs, and ReShades attempting to change the look and feel of VTMB – but only one that addresses the game’s somewhat dated audio quality.
Bloodlines Audio Overhaul is a bit of a no-brainer here. And one of the community’s most recommended mods.
So far, it replaces the sounds of guns, melee combat, and even some disciplines for better quality soundbites that’ll do a lot for your immersion once installed.
Keep an eye on this for future updates as well.
9. Dev0lved ENB
One of the most popular ENB presets for VTMB is the cyberpunk-looking Dev0lved ENB.
It’s based on the settings applied to Half-Life 2, which is already miles better than the base VTMB settings.
It’s dark, filled with neon lights and more vivid colors that stand out from within the shadows. The smokey bloom effects also give it a very ethereal feel that works wonders with VTMB’s setting and story.
Your game will also look fantastic at long distances thanks to Anisotropic Filtering, and Lumasharpen will make the game’s base textures look crisper than before.
8. VTMB Atmospheric SweetFX
A less intense option that’ll improve VTMB’s look without straying too far from its original art direction is the Atmospheric SweetFX preset, which sharpens textures, uses HDR for more realistic lighting, and more.
With this installed, dark shadows will look colder, while well-lit places will feel warmer.
It also makes dark places actually dark, which fits the somber atmosphere of Kindred society much better than the base game’s somewhat excessive lighting.
7. VTMB Prelude
Suppose you’ve already experienced most of what vanilla VTMB has to offer in the way of story.
In that case, you’ll enjoy VTMB Prelude – a fan-made expansion taking place right before the game’s main narrative.
You’ll play as a human vampire hunter – a member of the Society of Leopold that functions as a modern-day Inquisition fighting the spawn of Satan (Kindred). There are new models, new effects, and lots of new dialogue to experience in this prequel.
It’s planned as an episodic expansion, and only the first part has been released so far – but it’s something we’ll be keeping an eye on.
6. VTM The Final Nights
If you’d rather experience something entirely new rather than a prequel, consider Vampire: The Masquerade – The Final Nights.
You’ll notice the title is missing “Bloodlines”, and it’s not an oversight on our part.
The mod developers clarify that The Final Nights is its own thing – a completely new experience with a novel story in the VTM universe.
Along with new dialogues and quests, The Final Nights also brings new music, improved graphics, and a new perspective on the idea of “freedom of exploration”.
It’s a must-play.
5. VTMB: Camarilla Edition
The Final Nights’ gameplay is heavily based on a previous mod – VTMB: Camarilla Edition, an overhaul that profoundly alters the way disciplines and other variables interact in VTMB.
Its primary focus is to rework most disciplines for a more interesting and engaging survival/combat experience.
It also changes how bloodpoints behave, making you lose them at an accelerated rate. Now, feeding is more of a necessity than a choice.
Other than that, the Camarilla Edition brings many improvements to the graphics, the character textures, and vehicles. It even makes the controls more comfortable, and the UI has never looked this good.
4. Antitribu Mod
Once you’ve already given each of the seven basic vampire clans in VTMB a go, there’s only one thing left to do – get seven new ones!
The Antitribu Mod adds seven new clans, including the Lasombra, Samedi, Tzimisce, and Nagaraja. Of course, these are all fully fleshed-out, with unique disciplines that include necromancy, animalism, and more!
Along with playing through the base game as a member of either of these clans, you’ll also have access to new main quests with creative foes to fight, maps to explore, and you’ll meet over 100 new characters.
3. Clan Quest Mod
Much like the Antitribu Mod, the Clan Quest Mod adds a ton of new content ranging from new quests to new disciplines and more.
Each of the seven base vampire clans gets their own, fully-realized questline that shines a light on their mythos and inner workings.
They’re 12 new quests in total, including an all-new Sabbat storyline where you can join forces and wage war against the Kindred of LA.
It even has new loading screens and a working achievement system. Talk about attention to detail!
2. VTM Bloodlines Unofficial Patch
Back in the day, updating your games hundreds of times after release just wasn’t a thing. Bugs were a bit more “permanent” – and VTMB has its fair share of them.
Lights that go through walls, missing textures, broken quests – you name it!
Luckily for us, the modding community has always been there to lend a hand, and dedicated fans aren’t afraid to take a look back at an older game like VTMB and get their hands dirty fixing them up.
The Bloodlines Unofficial Patch fixes so many things, it’s hard to count them all.
But believe me when I tell you that there’s no reason to play without this. Once you try it, you’ll never go back to vanilla.
1. VTM Bloodlines Unofficial Patch Plus
The Bloodlines Unofficial Patch developers could have stopped at fixing basic bugs, but they didn’t.
Instead they poured their time and effort into bringing forth the game that VTMB could have been, if given more time before release.
This Bloodlines Unofficial Patch Plus not only fixes bugs, but it restores a bunch of content that was originally cut from the game – both by digging it up from the game’s files, and by rebuilding it from the ground up.
Seriously, that’s dedication.
This restoration project includes new weapons, new items, new characters, and even new quests where you’ll meet plenty of characters with unique dialogue planned initially for the official release.
If you want to delve deeper into VTMB, this is a must.