First Impressions

Vampire - The Masquerade: Redemption (V-tM:R) is modeled after the familiar and well-loved pen-and-paper based White Wolf World of Darkness RPGs. The name The Masquerade comes from the World of Darkness system, which is comprised of a series of Gothic horror games in which vampires, among other creatures, live among humans and feed on them. Called the Kindred, these vampires campaign actively to convince humans that such creatures do not exist, so that they might live peacefully. Now, very few PnP RPG games have been translated successfully into a PC game, but one commendable effort that comes to mind is Baldur's Gate, and even that was quite linear.

Much anticipation surrounded the release of Vampire because of the minds behind the game: Nihilistic president and CEO Ray Gresko, formally the lead programmer and designer of Dark Forces and LucasArt's largely successful Jedi Knight, and Rob Huebner, Nihilistic's VP, whose portfolio includes work on sim-shooters Descent and Descent II. Perhaps the most intriguing (and most advertised) feature of the game is its multiplayer aspect, which sticks closest to one fundamental element of PnP RPGs: the element of unpredictability with the presence of a human overseer who controls the NPCs and manages the overall game, hence developing a relationship with the players. This module, called the Storyteller, is the reason Vampire got the amount of limelight it did. Another fascinating aspect of Vampire is that while it starts in the 12th century (Shakespearean speech and all), it ends in the 20th. That's right - you get a chance to roam (part of) the streets of London and NYC in all their polluted glory and feed off of prostitutes and hobos. If this does not sound interesting, I do not know what does.

After seeing all of the two-page-spread ads in PC Gamer and other such periodicals, not to mention so many previews and pre-previews, I must say the feeling of finally installing Vampire: The Masquerade Redemption on my PC was glorious. A week later, I find myself reminiscing and at the edge of my seat again waiting for the Multiplayer component to come out.

Storyline

Meet the handsome and zealous Christof Romuald, a valiant knight from the religious order of Swordbrethren from Christian Crusaders in the 12th century. Wounded in the Barbarian wars in Hungary, Christof finds himself in a monastery where a lovely nun, Anezka, tends to him. He promptly falls in love with her, but after a heart-wrenching confession, both realize that to act on their feelings would be fatal. And to make matters worse, the conversation is overheard by the tyrannical Archbishop who casts Christof out into the streets to guard the town by night when demonic monsters roam about freely. Unknown to Christof, his prowess in chopping up monsters and noble spirit are noticed by a mysterious lady in a veil, who turns out to be Brujah. Christof, who has always been in his religious faith, is embraced (made into a vampire) against his will by the lady Brujah .

Waking up in the presence of the Brujah (one of several vampire clans), Christof is furious upon finding that he he has become one of the monsters he used to hunt. In his narrow mind, feels believes he is a hollow creature, undeserving of God's grace and destined for hell. However, events unknown to Christof are set in motion. Anezka, in a gallant (somewhat unrealistically brave, for such a sweet, young thing) initiative, sets out in search of a way to make Christof mortal again and promptly goes missing. Guilt-ridden, Christof goes looking for her, a journey that will take him 800 years from medieval Europe to Modern Day NYC.

Gameplay

All of this sounds very exciting, I know, and it is. It is also very complicated, even at a glance. There are rules in Vampire, as in any other game, and you basically have to play the role of a valiant and stubborn man of God who is at his wit's end with his current situation. And you have to play it with balance.

With the help of comrade Wilhelm, you learn the basic traits of a vampire, but you are supposed to hate every moment of it. Without practicing the simple act of feeding off townsfolk walking about on the street, you die (vitae, which come in the form of bottles of blood, are in short supply); however, go overboard with the feeding, and you lose your humanity, and Christof becomes a raging beast who is totally unplayable.

The console is intuitive, so you will not have any problems understanding it. Spell (or discipline, rather) management using the console is simple as well. However, controlling your character may take some getting used to. Don't worry, no Tomb Raider finger acrobatics necessary here - just your mouse and a few hotkeys at your fingertips are needed. You will not fall off narrow bridges or cliffs either.

One of my favorite aspects of the game is the disciplines, which are basically traits that you have as a vampire. You start off with the fundamentals of feeding, celerity (faster walking/running), blood healing and such, but as you advance, you acquire new disciplines. These are controlled in-game, meaning you cannot choose what you want to learn, but you can learn new skills that fall under the various disciplines, which uses up points.

Every character has nine main attributes, which are broken into physical, mental and social groups. In addition, the RPG engine tracks items that are uniquely vampiric, such as your blood level, indicating how much blood you have in your system to utilize to heal yourself or to cast disciplines. Your 'frenzy' level is also tracked, indicating how out of control the vampiric 'beast' is becoming within the character. A sort of 'berserk' can occur when you are low on blood or in high stress situations.

The other important stat is humanity, which indicates how well you are holding onto the remaining strands of your humanity. This stat changes based on decisions made during conversations, game play or puzzle solving, and it determines the ultimate outcome of the story. Losing all of your humanity ends the game, as you become nothing more than a bloodthirsty, slavering beast.

Three complaints here:

1) Terrible AI: The single player mode gets quite difficult toward the end. Sure, there are a few NPCs (max four) aiding you on your quests (called a coterie) as your progress, but micro-managing all of them in the heat of a battle gets quite ridiculous. And the AI is, well, not very intelligent. For example, many a time I had to fumble around to gain control of Wilhelm, who tended to walk off gallantly into a mob of monsters before I was ready. After a while, I turned off the AI (small cheat used here) so that I could control my coterie one by one, thus avoiding any instance in which they might attack when I was half-dead. However, this affected the monsters as well. Later, I resorted to turning the AI off, walking into another room, then turning on the AI again, so the NPCs would get stuck in the other room and not follow me around. I defeated the purpose of having them around, but at that point, I could not have cared less.

2) Predictable battle sequences: A few levels down and a big boss, every time. And it is quite difficult too, as there is gross imbalance between your coterie and the number of monsters (who can also summon other monsters) in each big battle.

3) How to save? For the first two days, I could not figure out how to save my game, so I had no choice but to rely on the autosave feature, which kicks in when you load a new screen. This is frustrating because it saves over the same slot; hence, you are overwriting the last autosaved game unintentionally. Later on, I discovered that you can save by touching this fleur-de-lis-plus-cross-looking thing next to your stash chest in a 'safe house' present in each of the four towns in game. Hence, if you want to call it a day or if you think you are approaching some seriously damaging monsters that could kill your gang and you, you would have to run back to the safe house and touch the damned thing to save the game. If you have the 'Walk the Abyss' discipline, you can just zap yourself back there and save the game; otherwise, the other way to save is to simply shuttle between levels to autosave. Better still, type '~' and the console will pop out at the top; type 'ADDTHING SAVEANKH' or 'ADDTHING SAVECROSS' to spawn a save point right in front of you.

4) Too linear: There have been questions as to whether Vampire, in trying to make RPGing simple enough for those who have little or no RPG experience, will not appeal to those who are hardcore RPGers. Today, there is a lot of mix-and-match in the RPG genre of games giving rise to 'sub-genres,' such as Action-RPGs or Adventure-RPGs (Odium), which many seasoned RPGers view as blasphemy to this time-honored genre. While the premise of Vampire is excellent, and the quests are well-suited to the storyline, the progress is exceedingly linear, which takes all the fun out of role-playing. There is little, if any, control you have over how a quest is solved. Not much you can do changes the outcome of the story. I shall not spoil it by telling you how many ways you can go (and only towards the end), but I can tell you there are not many; in fact, there are disappointingly few.

Entertainment Factor

To digitize a game with a legacy as rich as The Masquerade is understandably difficult. After all, Nihilistic will be judged by thousands of the game's PnP followers.

The entertainment factor, as I like to call it, is not only in gameplay. Most games (Soldier of Fortune being a fine example) provide facile and haphazardly-produced cut scenes that make you squirm in your seat with disgust. Corny dialogue and unrealistic 3D performances will make your eyes water, either from laughter or sorrow. But not Vampire. These guys deserve a PC game Oscar for Best Cut Scenes, for performance, costume, screenplay and set design.

According to Nihilistic, the game engine was designed specifically for Vampire to provide elements essential to immersing the audience into the story, and I must say they did a fine job. You will notice excellent quality in atmospheric effects, lighting and shadows, which all work to create a generally moody feel. In addition to these elements, the engine includes a decal system for things like dirt, blood, cracks, etc.,that can be displayed on surfaces within the level. This means shadows are created on the fly and based on each lighting source available. So, as a character moves in the game, the shadow will change and move according to the available lighting sources. Eye candy is abundant in Vampire, and not only because of its engine. For the characters, Nihilistic uses a 'softskin' animation, which does away with any of the usual 'seams' on polygonal characters in other 3D games. You can also see unique faces on each character, something that must have taken the guys at Nihilistic quite a bit of time and effort. The design team has obviously put a lot of work into creating beautiful textures that are extremely detailed for the game. I spent the first 15 minutes just looking around Prague admiring the walls and textures. And all of this on my Pentium II 450. You need a good 3d card (my Riva TNT2 did fine) to experience all of this, but believe me, you must.

If I have not said it before, the dialogue in Vampire is sterling. Given that all of the 'thy's and 'thou's may be a little much at first, the voice-acting, monster sounds and ambient music (medieval and modern day) are simply marvelous.

Storyteller Mode

As I mentioned before, this is Vampire's most exciting feature. Basically, for seasoned RPGers, you no longer have to use physical character sheets and pens! Here is a game that has incorporated a 'Dungeon Master' perspective (called the Storyteller) that allows you to take control of the predefined game worlds. Your friends are at your mercy while you manipulate scenes, actors, objects, events and NPCs. As the omniscient deity, you can hop from NPC to NPC, talk through them, act through them, etc.

The Storyteller allows game management capabilities as well. As with the PnP RPGs, the ST will be able to look over character sheets before accepting players into the game and settle disputes as well as limit problems like player killing if it causes the game experience to break down. Still, the ST mode is only for experienced RPGers, as you will have to create original story lines. Those who have played Masquerade for some time now would love this module. However, you will not need to make any new levels, scripts, etc. According to Nihilistic, an ST can choose to run a game that utilizes the built-in locations or character sets to create a new story. The level editing, scripting, etc. is for people who want to go that extra mile and build whole new worlds. I have not used this feature of the game yet, mainly because I do not know where to start. The in-game help system is, well, virtually nonexistent and I do not have many friends who have the time to sit down for a 24-hour game. (I hope to change this soon.)

Nihilistic has announced it will be releasing a comprehensive patch that includes the game's SDK, or tool set used to create levels and objects. At press time, I have found three sources of SDKs, all by third-party fan sites (themasquerade.org, vampiretales.com, vampire vault), but if you read the disclaimers, they are unsupported, so proceed with caution.

Women in Vampire

For the single player mode, you can only play Christof, so there is no provision for female characters here. However, there are quite a number of female characters in the multiplayer game, but most of them are passive NPCs, i.e.. you will not be able to recruit them. The principal female passive NPC is Anezka, the sole reason and purpose of Christof's 800 year journey, who plays a pristine nun at the start of the game, and then…well, I don't want to spoil it, so I won't say anything else about her. Then there is eCaterina die Wise, head of the Brujah clan, who embraces Christof; and lastly, Lucretia, a Setit priestess Christof has to battle at one point.

There are two female NPCs that will join you as you progress: Serena, daughter of Garinol Cappadicius, head of the Cappadocian clan and Lily, a Toreadorian prostitute you will encounter on one of your quests in modern day London.

Tips, cheats, mods and more

There is quite a list of things in this area that I could go on and on about, but here are three sites you can visit to get quite a lot of stuff on Vampire:

1) http://bite.to/vampirevault - a site dedicated to the game, but has nothing to do with the vault network, mind you. Character skins, mods, tips and cheats are all there. There is a downloadable SDK here but I'm not sure if it's workable.
2) www.planetvampire.com/tutorials/mapping/beginnersguide/ - tutorials on mapping for the multiplayer mode
3) http://guides.ign.com/guides/11636/ - strat guide for the totally and not-so-totally clueless

Last Rites

Personally, I prefer this over Diablo II (which I have just started to play), even though the storyline is linear. I cannot pass an absolutely good or bad judgment on the game yet, because I am more of a multiplayer person than singleplayer, but I would give Vampire a score of 6.5 of 10 for its singleplayer mode. And I have a feeling that when the official SDK is out, the score will go up, as this module is definitely a breakthrough for RPG gamers.