Vampire The Masquerade - The Embrace

A glass of wine, a casual kiss and a short cab ride home all but the perfect prelude to find yourself embraced by a vampire sire making you their childe before being very quickly abducted by the local vampire authorities of the camarilla and sentenced to death as the act was not approved by the local vampire prince all before even having time to contemplate your new-found immortality…

Welcome to Vampire The Masquerade – Bloodlines, set in White Wolf’s world of darkness, developed by Troika Games and published by Activision in November 2004 it’s hard to think that what many in the gaming, gothic and role playing community would consider a timeless classic was actually released essentially incomplete and with rather poor reception only selling less than 80,000 units on release.

All the same, the game, of which now widely considered by most not to be a failure but rather a flawed masterpiece, throws you head first as a vampire in the world of darkness of Santa Monica, Los Angeles.

Despite its flaw’s, most of which since being long addressed by unofficial patches that make the game run flawlessly, it stand’s the test of time as a role playing game like no other and while you have probably read that a thousand times, once you have actually experienced bloodlines, you really start to realize that its something quite unique, there is literally nothing like it and its depth of lore and fiction leave you walking away thinking “was that real, what’s next?”

It Is genuinely surprising there has never been a sequel, or next iteration, certainly it may be a more niche market, however to anyone who has played it the game has all the underpinnings and depth to be the spark for something so much more, in my personal opinion I could even see a MMORPG set in White Wolfs world of darkness, it really lends itself to it.

So, what makes this game so great? Even as a “Flawed Masterpiece” …

• The Storyline
• The Graphics
• The Environment
• The Music
• The Depth of Game Lore

If you are “a gamer” no doubt you have probably played your fair share of RPG’s in your time, your familiar with excellent titles such as the Neverwinter franchise, Elder Scrolls, World of Warcraft and others of a similar nature, let me tell you, while all of those are fantastic in their own right, nothing, ever created as of yet, at the time I write this, comes close to what bloodlines achieved.

Vampire The Masquerade – Bloodlines Is gritty, dark, gothic and flawed, but it’s also very “real” the landscapes are compelling, the design is well done with the graphics holding there age even after 14 years, the soundtrack in contrast to most games is scored by some hard hitting musicians such as Ministry, Lacuna Coil and Darling Violetta which really serves to bring it that “real world” element and its depth of lore knows no bounds, with each character, group, faction and clan having its rich, detailed history and depth in White Wolfs world of darkness.

If the game released today, even in its present state on Steam (Of which you can pick it up for as little as $20.00 USD) I truly think it would be appreciated as what it really is, in saying that, I see no reason why this “flawed masterpiece” can’t endure an afterlife renaissance, just like the fledgling.