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Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines - First Impressions

Not playable yet; I instead watched a staffer demo what they did have ready. I stood by him as he explained the game and played a short mission.

As someone who has played the pencil and paper RPG before, I believe that they are pulling off this adaptation rather well. The skills and abilities are exactly as portrayed in the RPG, and they even put the character stats in the same skill sheet as a player would use. The dice rolls were actually used, and displayed on the status window, and determined the success and failure of the character. Obviously some things were left out as most people would not understand why, for example, you could fall from a height and not take damage, and then fall from the same height again and actually take damage. I was shown the different vampire clan character skins, and explained their differences. Those differences were exactly as I remember them being in the Players Handbook.

Anyway, the staffer chose a Malkovian and began playing the mission, first filling up his blood meter by propositioning a hooker in a bar and, when he got her alone, drained her of enough blood to fill his meter. He explained to me that, although I already knew this should happen, if he should kill her his humanity would drop. Next he went upstairs to talk to his contact and got his first mission, bring her back a pearl to show that he was worth her time. Leaving the bar, he went down the street until he encountered an alleyway with a porky police man guarding it. An interesting conversation ensued, which was nothing short of insane, consisting of veiled insults and a comment about the officer's blood being thick with jelly filling. After he tired of that, he backed off and found some shadows with which he was able to start his Obfuscate skill (hide in shadows or partial invisibility). Using this he snuck past the guard and picked the lock to the door at the end of the alley where the pearl was stashed. Interestingly enough, he forgot to close the door behind him and was attacked by the officer when he was discovered in the room. After he killed the officer with a couple of Uzis, he went back to the bar, where he could get on with his mission.

I'll admit, I enjoyed the demo and look forward to a playable version, as what I saw definitely portrayed the World of Darkness as I imagine it.


by James Scott    
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