Vault Dweller
Commissar, Red Star Studio
- Joined
- Jan 7, 2003
- Messages
- 28,035
Bloodlines recipe: Take a good RPG (The Good), add a bad FPS (The Bad), add some questionable design decisions (The Ugly), mix, and release. Since Spazmo has already written everything that could be said about the game, I'll skip the basics:
The Good:
The role-playing, where it's present, is pretty good. There are many multiple solutions to quests, and you can really play the RPG part of the game in any manner you choose.
Quests, especially (or mostly) side quests, are well developed and rather interesting. There are no FedEx quests, and the FetchMe quests are optional. Usually you can take sides, make choices, and affect quests' outcomes, but sadly there are few consequences and the choices are often cosmetic. Still, it's better then nothing (read most other games), and when you add the multiple solutions dealio, it does motivate and encorage you to replay a game with different characters.
There are a lot of dialogue options: Persuasion, Intimidation, Seduction, Domination, and Dementation (the last 2 are Blood disciplines that work like Jedi Mind Trick). While some of these options are more useful than the others, it felt really great to play a game that offers such a variety. The dialogues are well written, and no review is complete until it mentions that the Malkavian dialogues are fucking priceless. You must play as a Malkavian once (may I recommend a female character? The outfits are great, especially the 69 Precinct one).
The sneaking works great too. While it doesn't reach the complexity of sneaking in Thief, it's implemeted well. Here you are also given a choice between a skill and a blood discipline that basically does the same thing but supports different characters who don't want to invest in Dex and Sneaking.
There are many combat options as well: Unarmed, Melee, Ranged, Magick (the Tremere way), and all kinda buffs that go with each choice.
NPCs are well developed and well presented. There are many interesting personalities, and the voice over is excellent.
The Bad:
That's where that FPS part kicks in. No, I know that you know that it was supposed to be a hybrid, but I think they took the FPS thing way too far. In the best traditions of FPS', you can't have more than one weapon in your inventory. Although cash is valuable, and there is some useful stuff that you can buy, you can't collect all the knives and guns, and sell them for some profit. Instead you look for some junk like car stereos, medical supplies, rings, and watches that are stackable and could be sold so you can buy some skill books, if you are an educated man, guns also known as boom-sticks, ammo, clothes aka armor, and melee weapons.
Every now and then, that great role-playing game I've just told you about stops and some crappy FPS with bad combat mechanics starts. I haven't played HL2, so I can't compare the combat parts yet, but unarmed and melee are very chaotic. You just cast some buffs, swing wildly, and hope that you hit something. As some other review mentioned, there is no grace in this combat. Comparing with games like Jedi Academy where combat is elegant, Bloodlines loses a lot of points here. I wanted to uninstall the damn thing twice when the game switched to the FPS mode, just because it sucks so much. The ranged combat worked better for me, as there is less chaos there, and with some practice, wisely invested points, and some good hardware, the game gets less painful.
The FPS part of the game features timers, escapes from burning buildings, mazes, deadly lasers, and jump puzzles. Oh, teh fun!
The Ugly
The game is incredibly, incredibly linear. One quest follows another, and there is no way to break the sequence. To ensure your cooperation in that matter, the game features locks that no lockpick skill can handle, computers that can't be hacked (system error), doors that could be opened only after the monster responsible for that door is slain, ghost-like locations that appear on your map out of nowhere and disappear after you visited them (too bad if somebody wants something from one of those locations after you've been to one - it's gone now), and quests objectives that couldn't be completed until a quest is given (an item won't appear or be accessible until you are told to get it, you can't talk your way in, if you aren't told to go in, etc).
The game is so linear, that even when you want to switch sides, it tells you "Ah, ok, well, you do whatever you've been doing, but now you are undarcovar! like a secret agent or something." You are given a choice to pick an ending at the end, KOTOR or Deus Ex style, so like I mentioned before, while the game has choices, it doesn't have consequences.
So, on one hand, we have that great replayability foundation, on the other hand, we have exactly the same stuff to do over and over again. Considering that some quests are long and "atmospheric" like that Haunted House, it really sucks to do them several times.
Like I said before, when the game becomes an FPS, your conversation skills are useless. You can't talk your way through, you can't ask somebody to help you, etc. You *must* fight. Some people have argued that it's a vampire game, and zombies and flesh monsters aren't known for being open minded about things, but, as Saint noted, there are other way to affect the situation, like talking to other parties to deal with the sewer situation, for example. That would have added a lot to the game, and worked well with diplomatic characters.
The last but not least is the respawning thing. In some FPS areas, the monsters respawn. Sometimes even behind your back. You killed something, move on, but ..."hey, what's the fuck! Where did *you* come from?" Considering that combat sucks, and the end game guys are deadly, it's just not fun. Period.
Overall
And in conclusion, the RPG part is great despite the linearity. Very enjoyable experience. The FPS part sucks. It's not that it's that bad, but if I wanted to play a fucking FPS, I would have bought HL2. Duh!
The Good:
The role-playing, where it's present, is pretty good. There are many multiple solutions to quests, and you can really play the RPG part of the game in any manner you choose.
Quests, especially (or mostly) side quests, are well developed and rather interesting. There are no FedEx quests, and the FetchMe quests are optional. Usually you can take sides, make choices, and affect quests' outcomes, but sadly there are few consequences and the choices are often cosmetic. Still, it's better then nothing (read most other games), and when you add the multiple solutions dealio, it does motivate and encorage you to replay a game with different characters.
There are a lot of dialogue options: Persuasion, Intimidation, Seduction, Domination, and Dementation (the last 2 are Blood disciplines that work like Jedi Mind Trick). While some of these options are more useful than the others, it felt really great to play a game that offers such a variety. The dialogues are well written, and no review is complete until it mentions that the Malkavian dialogues are fucking priceless. You must play as a Malkavian once (may I recommend a female character? The outfits are great, especially the 69 Precinct one).
The sneaking works great too. While it doesn't reach the complexity of sneaking in Thief, it's implemeted well. Here you are also given a choice between a skill and a blood discipline that basically does the same thing but supports different characters who don't want to invest in Dex and Sneaking.
There are many combat options as well: Unarmed, Melee, Ranged, Magick (the Tremere way), and all kinda buffs that go with each choice.
NPCs are well developed and well presented. There are many interesting personalities, and the voice over is excellent.
The Bad:
That's where that FPS part kicks in. No, I know that you know that it was supposed to be a hybrid, but I think they took the FPS thing way too far. In the best traditions of FPS', you can't have more than one weapon in your inventory. Although cash is valuable, and there is some useful stuff that you can buy, you can't collect all the knives and guns, and sell them for some profit. Instead you look for some junk like car stereos, medical supplies, rings, and watches that are stackable and could be sold so you can buy some skill books, if you are an educated man, guns also known as boom-sticks, ammo, clothes aka armor, and melee weapons.
Every now and then, that great role-playing game I've just told you about stops and some crappy FPS with bad combat mechanics starts. I haven't played HL2, so I can't compare the combat parts yet, but unarmed and melee are very chaotic. You just cast some buffs, swing wildly, and hope that you hit something. As some other review mentioned, there is no grace in this combat. Comparing with games like Jedi Academy where combat is elegant, Bloodlines loses a lot of points here. I wanted to uninstall the damn thing twice when the game switched to the FPS mode, just because it sucks so much. The ranged combat worked better for me, as there is less chaos there, and with some practice, wisely invested points, and some good hardware, the game gets less painful.
The FPS part of the game features timers, escapes from burning buildings, mazes, deadly lasers, and jump puzzles. Oh, teh fun!
The Ugly
The game is incredibly, incredibly linear. One quest follows another, and there is no way to break the sequence. To ensure your cooperation in that matter, the game features locks that no lockpick skill can handle, computers that can't be hacked (system error), doors that could be opened only after the monster responsible for that door is slain, ghost-like locations that appear on your map out of nowhere and disappear after you visited them (too bad if somebody wants something from one of those locations after you've been to one - it's gone now), and quests objectives that couldn't be completed until a quest is given (an item won't appear or be accessible until you are told to get it, you can't talk your way in, if you aren't told to go in, etc).
The game is so linear, that even when you want to switch sides, it tells you "Ah, ok, well, you do whatever you've been doing, but now you are undarcovar! like a secret agent or something." You are given a choice to pick an ending at the end, KOTOR or Deus Ex style, so like I mentioned before, while the game has choices, it doesn't have consequences.
So, on one hand, we have that great replayability foundation, on the other hand, we have exactly the same stuff to do over and over again. Considering that some quests are long and "atmospheric" like that Haunted House, it really sucks to do them several times.
Like I said before, when the game becomes an FPS, your conversation skills are useless. You can't talk your way through, you can't ask somebody to help you, etc. You *must* fight. Some people have argued that it's a vampire game, and zombies and flesh monsters aren't known for being open minded about things, but, as Saint noted, there are other way to affect the situation, like talking to other parties to deal with the sewer situation, for example. That would have added a lot to the game, and worked well with diplomatic characters.
The last but not least is the respawning thing. In some FPS areas, the monsters respawn. Sometimes even behind your back. You killed something, move on, but ..."hey, what's the fuck! Where did *you* come from?" Considering that combat sucks, and the end game guys are deadly, it's just not fun. Period.
Overall
And in conclusion, the RPG part is great despite the linearity. Very enjoyable experience. The FPS part sucks. It's not that it's that bad, but if I wanted to play a fucking FPS, I would have bought HL2. Duh!
), I knew it was going to be a third/first person RPG (which I always causes me to have reservations as third person RPGs just don't appeal to me that much), and I knew it was being done by Troika.
I can take on the sabbat and respawning swat men any day.
