Those of you that follow my blog around the month of October know that I'm a horror fan. To tie that into my absolutely nerdiness, I'm also a big fan of tabletop RPGs, and thus we come to Vampire: The Masquerade. A tabletop RPG system made for, instead of gearing up, hunting down monsters, and taking their treasure, has you going around dealing with your tortured existence as a creature of the damned while either giving into or trying to rise above your beastly nature.
So, basically, a very effective political simulator.
But I've mentioned my love of the game, even if I don't particularly care for the slowness of the leveling system a time or two. Even to the point of starting fanfiction on it that, rather like my Star Wars fic Minos Mayhem, I should probably get around to finishing at some point. But that's neither here nor there. What is here is what came out of that tabletop game, namely a game called Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines. And, as the meme goes, I've mentioned it, so someone is re-installing it right now.
The game was the final product of Troika Games before it was shuddered, and was a buggy and nigh-unplayable mess upon release. However, both Troika employees and later the internet at large created a series of patches and fixes for the game, which are still being made today. The modding community, too, is extensive and rivals the likes of Morrowind for how long they've been keeping the game not only relevant but playable - namely since 2003, when it was first released.
A sequel was something that fans had been clamoring for since then, seeing as it was one of the most in-depth and complex RPGs that existed. Unlike many games that would simply give you a linear path and maybe two or three ways to deal with it, Bloodlines went the extra mile by giving you a plethora of ways to handle virtually every situation you came across. All the way from using your vampiric abilities to bewitch the mind and ensnare the senses to greasing a few palms to make a problem go away to just knuckling down and sinking your fangs into the problem.
The dialogue, too, was very witty and enjoyable - particularly playing the Malkavian (if you are installing Bloodlines for the first time do not play Malkavian as your first playthrough - save it for your second). It really is a gem that hasn't been match before or since in terms of replay-ability, at least not for me. It doesn't have the mindless button mashing you might see with some games that you can just pick up and play, no, Bloodlines is a feast that one must enjoy. And enjoy we all have for quite some time.
And another feast is soon to come, I'm finally happy to say six paragraphs into this. From Paradox Interactive, we are to be receiving the long-awaited sequel to Bloodlines in the first quarter of 2020...and that's pretty much all we know. The entire trailer is not actual gameplay footage and we have no indication that anything within it will actually be in the game anyway.
That being said, the visuals are rather nice and fitting of the tone of World of Darkness, so I imagine that we'll have that to look forward to. It's also rather promising that it's cross-platform on PC, Xbox One, and PS4 from the jump, so we'll at least know for a certainty that you'll get a MadCap review of it.
...but that's it. Plot? No idea. Characters? Potentially some of the people we see in the trailer and/or the woman doing the voice-over during it, talking about how no one's hands stay clean in the city and, while we've been waiting for it, we will come to despise it like she does.
Prophetic words? We'll have to see.
Considering the hype has been building for pretty much the last sixteen years, it will be interesting to see if this can in any way meet expectations. Can it even come close? Chris Avellone being on the project gives me some hope, provided he can keep himself from pulling a Ulysses on it.
Since the trailer has given not much of anything, all I can really say is that I'm cautiously optimistic.
Not cautiously optimistic enough to pre-order, you lot. Don't even try to pull that without some footage!
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 is in development from Paradox Interactive and Hardsuit Labs for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. The release date is pending.
For the latest from the MadCapMunchkin, be sure to follow him on Twitter @MadCapMunchkin.
No comments:
Post a Comment