NetJak Dislikes Bloodlines
NetJak Dislikes Bloodlines
Review - posted by Exitium on Thu 17 February 2005, 20:08:16
Tags: Troika Games; Vampire: The Masquerade - BloodlinesNetJak has reviewed Bloodlines and found it wanting, giving it an overall score of 6.5. The review is harsh, and there are some stupid parts. Here's one of the non-stupid parts:
From various sources, it would appear that Activision simply refused to let Troika master the final code and get everything working smoothly. That is simply unacceptable when releasing what is otherwise a very good title.
Ultimately, Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines had a lot of potential to be of game of the year caliber. It had the best story in a game in a long time and an incredible voice acting effort. Unfortunately, the worst engine coding I’ve seen in a long time, along with simple quality control issues, bog it down. I’d suggest holding out until all these problems are patched. Otherwise, this is a game that is worth playing through three or four times consecutively. It’s just a shame it is such a technical mess.I can't disagree with any of that, however I do not think that Bloodlines will be given any new patches at anytime, ever. The fate of Bloodlines is just as sealed as that of Troika's.
Here's a bit of the dumb stuff, just for kicks:
The loading and level designs are also abysmal. The game takes a long time to load between areas. Some of them simply do not make sense. For example, in Santa Monica, there are around 11 buildings you can go into. Each of them is a small area connected to the main Santa Monica strip. The issue is the developers could have simply just tied all these areas into the main level as one large level and probably not had any further performance issues while cutting down on the lost time due to loading.I don't think this guy realizes how big Santa Monica is in the game. It's fine to bitch about the load times as they are now, but imagine how long it would take and how much memory it would require to load the entire area at once.
From various sources, it would appear that Activision simply refused to let Troika master the final code and get everything working smoothly. That is simply unacceptable when releasing what is otherwise a very good title.
Ultimately, Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines had a lot of potential to be of game of the year caliber. It had the best story in a game in a long time and an incredible voice acting effort. Unfortunately, the worst engine coding I’ve seen in a long time, along with simple quality control issues, bog it down. I’d suggest holding out until all these problems are patched. Otherwise, this is a game that is worth playing through three or four times consecutively. It’s just a shame it is such a technical mess.
Here's a bit of the dumb stuff, just for kicks:
The loading and level designs are also abysmal. The game takes a long time to load between areas. Some of them simply do not make sense. For example, in Santa Monica, there are around 11 buildings you can go into. Each of them is a small area connected to the main Santa Monica strip. The issue is the developers could have simply just tied all these areas into the main level as one large level and probably not had any further performance issues while cutting down on the lost time due to loading.
