Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines Preview

Activision's E3 booth was thriving with activity this year. The section where they were showcasing the latest build of Troika's upcoming first-person RPG, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, was crammed with reporters and gaming journalists. Before the demonstration started, we took a quick sip of precious human blood. They were serving it in small chalices to visitors... err, actually it was just cranberry juice, so don't panic.

Before we move on to the details, let's set a few facts straight. Situated in the deep White Wolf pen-and-paper universe Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines is a first-person action game with an emphasis on RPG elements, it runs on Valve's Source engine and has an experienced crew behind it (people who worked on Fallout, Myth II, StarCraft, Medal of Honor, to name a few).

The demonstration opened with a few words on character creation. Before you set out on your journey as a blood-sucking creature of the night, you'll be able to choose a gender (which, apparently, has a significant influence on how the game is played) and opt for one of the seven vampire Camarilla clans. After that, the character's various physical attributes were being adjusted; this includes strength, dexterity stamina and general appearance, as well as characteristics like manipulation, charisma, intelligence, perception, etc. Clearly, there's much here to keep hardcore role-payers busy. The cool thing is that you don't have to be an expert on White Wolf pen-and-paper in order to grasp the mechanism of character creation. The clear-cut mouse-over information explains everything you need to know.

One of the best things about Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines is its share of role-playing goodness. Unlike many other standard RPG's, this game allows you to accumulate experience and improve skills and attributes through real-time first-person combat, which by the look of things, works brilliantly. But more on that later on.

In the beginning, you are a young vampire, and there's not much you can do but follow orders and complete missions, appointed to you by the Prince of LA. As it happens, something has put the clan in jeopardy and you are sent to uncover vital information about this new threat. The first task that was on our agenda was to contact and locate a character named Venus. This character won't give up information so easily, so you'll be expected to complete a few extra assignments before you find out what you need to know.

The level we saw started off in downtown LA. It was nighttime (naturally) and the main character took to the streets. Everywhere we looked, there was impressive lighting and shadow effects at work. The Source engine does a marvelous job rendering both outdoor and indoor areas. Certain indoor sections, for example, demonstrated complex geometry and detailed texture patterns, but even with all that, the game ran smoothly and was a pleasure to watch. (Yeah, considering the rig they had set up there. - Ed) An impressive level of detail was shown in a nightclub called Confessions, the best place for hanging out if you're a vampire wandering through the streets of LA. Almost every object was modeled in 3D and can be manipulated with.

The pinnacle of the Source engine came into view as soon as the first NPC interaction began. Character animation, facial expressions in particular, looked amazing. The range of emotions and reactions to your statements or actions makes the whole experience far more immersive than your average FPS. This facet was demonstrated through a dialogue sequence that went on between the main character and an NPC called Fat Larry. The behavior of this chubby character was pretty amusing. Apart from his remarks, Larry also behaves differently according to the gender he's dealing with. Larry's basically a stout and sleazy arms dealer with bad manners, so understandably he's a bit... err, too forthcoming when female characters approach him. Then again, should you be a male vampire, Larry will get right down to business. Anyhow, conversing and trading with this guy is crucial to further success in the game, given all the useful items he has on offer: pistols, rifles, shotguns, armor and other things.

The beauty of this game is that most of the puzzles and missions can be solved using a different approach each time. You can, for instance, seduce Venus (I mentioned her earlier) to find out vital information, thereby sparing yourself the aggravation of completing additional tasks for her.

Another scene in the game showed us various ways to overcome certain characters that might get in the way of your goals. The player's job was to pass through a location guarded by a huge Gargoyle. Three characters were thrown into play here: a female Toreador (an excellent conversationalist), a male Brujah (most violent) and a Malkavian (extremely seductive). Each vampire had its way of dealing with the situation. The Toreador managed to gather enough information throughout her journeys to know that the Gargoyle was in fact betrayed by the Tzimizce (the very same dudes who vowed to protect it). After mentioning this to the Gargoyle, the Toreador was allowed to explore the area freely. The Malkavian, on the other hand, has her own ways. Without using any violence she was able to dig deep into the mind of the creature and persuade it to become her friend. Pretty soon a ferocious beast turned into a helpful ally. These two characters clearly rely on their social skills and intellect more than anything else. But, if you prefer action over a pleasant conversation, the Brujah might be the right choice for you. After a very brief conversation, the Brujah resorted to the most direct approach - brutality. The duel began in a huge abandoned theatre. The Brujah quickly climbed a balcony and attempted to fight the Gargoyle from a distance with accurate ranged attacks. It wasn't long, however, until the Gargoyle started to smash the balcony bit by bit. When the entire thing was smashed, our vamp-hero fell down and had to face the creature at close range and he had to be dispatched with firearms and swords. That's where the demo ended.