Blast From The Past: Bloodlines
While I am in the process of slogging through Shivering Isles, Two Worlds and a variety of other things with plenty of new releases on the horizon I thought it best to introduce a new kind of post where I talk about older titles that I simply LOVE. Vampires: Bloodlines has me frantically addicted as I slayed, sucked and seduced my way through the one of the most adult but excellent titles I have ever played. Here are some of the highlights.
Troika games did fail quite miserably at removing the bugs from Bloodlines, the game was possibly one of the most unstable I have ever played before patches, and this evidently put a lot of people off. Patched however, this game is a masterpiece, arguably finer than anything Bioware themselves have put together and thankfully one thing Troika did manage to put across well in the game is a living breathing vampire filled city with excellent quests, characters and atmosphere. For those unaware, Bloodlines begins by dumping you in bed with a guy or girl who has just decided to take a huge chunk out your neck. Throws of passion? No.. you’ve been made a vampire and seeing as in the vampire world you need permission from your leaders to do so you’ve been made a vampire illegally too. La Croix and his heavy mob rule the undead side of the city and following the swift execution of the guy or girl who “turned” you, La Croix sets you to work in your new undead body paying off your debt to him for letting you live.
Thus opens up the city and its four equally twisted and depraved areas filled with copious amounts of violence and sexual content as you pursue your destiny. Bloodlines will have you doing some pretty grim things as you hack your way through your enemies, drain the blood of innocents and (assuming your an attractive breed of vampire) flirt with everything that moves.
Bloodlines has many memorable moments and characters, and (judging by the vast amount of semi-nude wallpapers and disturbing cosplay that google image search turns up) Jeanette is probably one of the key cast members. Shes probably popular not only because there’s a fairly disturbing schizophrenic side to her which results in a brilliant plot twist, but also as she flirts with you regardless of gender repeatedly. Its worth noting that despite the fact nearly the entire cast of Bloodlines seem to have some kind of interest in your character the most you actually get in terms of sexual content is gnawing on the necks of hapless humans or some Fable-esque black screens with obligatory moans. It certainly isn’t anywhere near as edgy in terms of sexual content as it thinks it is and Mass Effect shows a damn site more flesh.
Anyway Jeanette (who owns a night club) and her sister Therese are the plot-lines responsible for dumping you in one the scariest and most memorable quests ever to grace a video game. I have yet to see a game pull off a poltergeist so convincingly, but when your running along a hall with a ghost ripping up floorboards behind you and reading about severed heads being found in washing machines just as the washing machine next to you springs to life its genuinely scary. The ghost house is one of the few scary moments in Bloodlines but alone it manages to be one of the most terrifying moments in gaming ever.
The above screenshot is from another brilliant quest, a side quest this time. Being the fairly beauteous (albeit half dead looking) Tremere breed vampire that I was I leapt at the chance to take part in a magazine photoshoot when asked too! However, you soon find out the cameraman is a serial killer and under the studio are lots of little rooms where he has dismembered people and presumably eaten bits of them. Lovely. The ultimate justice of course is beating him to death with one of the severed limbs he himself left behind. In hind-site and looking back at this quest it was probably one of the most exciting sidequests I had completed in a long time and a genuine surprise the guy was such a nutcase.
Some of the games finest moments take place towards the latter part in Chinatown. The introduction of a demonic breed of Chinese vampire more unpleasant than anything else in the game leads to some triad style gunfights mixed in with all the bloodsucking. One of the final moments of the main story has you (should you make certain decisions in the main plot) battling the tentacled queen of the Chinese vampires in a lengthy and epic battle. This boss fight sticks in my head purely as it was so damn difficult. The queen produces mini slimey versions of herself and eventually even splits in half giving you so many targets to fight. I remember frantically running around using vampire powers to slow time repeatedly and madly hacking at her with my katana. Difficult, yet at the same time epic and a stark contrast to most of the games earlier, simpler battles.
In amongst all the amazing quests there are however some flaws to the game. The shooting side of the gameplay which sometimes pits you against many enemies at once can be frustrating as its difficult to focus on both being good with weapons and guns and being a badass time bending seductress of evil. The combat for me at least felt pretty unbalanced at times and frustratingly difficult after I got dusted for an umpteenth time. That said, this is only a minor complaint for those who are more combat focused in their breed and attacks things are probably easier, and the superb narrative and interaction with the world more than make up for any flaws.
Anyway, there’s my mini rant on the awesomeness of Bloodlines! Hope you enjoyed it and I highly recommend checking it out.
