Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines Hands-On

I left the small elevator and stepped into a hallway with numbered doors along either side. I was grateful to get away from the chaos in the kitchen, but the silence in the hallway was worse. I noticed one of the doors near the end of the hall was slightly ajar. As I neared the door I heard whispers. Steeling myself, I opened the door all the way and moved inside to find-nothing. The room was a simple hotel room with several small tables, a bed and a chest of drawers. I exited and headed down the hall in the other direction. Another door was open and as I entered I saw several games and toys on the floor, a clear indication that a child had been here at one time. A quick search of the room revealed nothing but as I exited back into the hallway I began to hear those whispers again from further down the hall. Moving toward the sounds I entered another typical hotel room. My search of the room this time revealed a key in one of the dressers. As soon as I picked it up the whispers raised to howl as the furniture and light fixtures began to shake, glowing with the same faint blue light I had seen before. Backing out of the room, I noticed the wallpaper behind the bed was now shredded into a warning: "Get Out!" Something was very upset that I was here disturbing its domain.

Desert Eagle vs. Vampire...

Let's have wild Vampire sex RIGHT NOW!

I moved back down the hall past the child's room I had entered earlier and when I had pasted the door I heard a small chime. Whirling around I expected an attack from the ax wielding maniac I had glimpsed in the boiler room but found only a wheeled toy with a small bell in the hallway outside the door. I was seriously freaked out now! My heart was going a mile a minute and I had realized I had actually jumped a bit as I anticipated the attack that did not come. Tension high, I moved on looking for the door that this key fit.

A short while later I found the room. Unlocking the door to a large suite, I saw that in the corner of the room, the ceiling had caved in. Wood and debris lay in piles when the ceiling had caved in. Closer inspection revealed several beams that led me to the top floor and into another suite. As soon I got upstairs, all Hell started to break loose. The room itself was missing most of the floor and outside wall. As I inched my way forward on the remaining floorboards, wisps of faint blue light began swirling around the reaming pieces of furniture and light fixtures in the room. The howling I had heard in the kitchen was back as well. This time the blue light did not stay localized to a few small patches as they had on the lower floors but were growing and seemed to engulf the remaining walls. On the other side of the room, I though I saw something on a night stand that seemed to be hanging in mid air thanks to the crumbled floor and exposed night air. As I tried to choose my path, suddenly the blue wisps swelled to a white flash and the room I was in had changed. It was day, the floor and walls were intact and the furnishings looked clean and new in the morning light. I moved towards the table, hesitantly, thinking that this might all be an illusion, but the floor remained firm beneath my feet.

When I reached the table I found the object I had spotted from across the room was a necklace. Just the kind of personal item required to exercise whatever was haunting this place. As I approached the doorway to the room, another flash of light returned me to the dark, dilapidated hotel I had first entered. I got the hell out of there as quickly as I could and headed back through the sewers to return the necklace.

When I tried to return to my contact I found she was not in, but her sister was. After I insulted her when she suggested I leave the necklace with her, I tried to smooth over her hurt feelings by taking care of something for her. There was an art gallery in another part of town. A new show was supposed to start this very evening but unbeknownst to the owner of the gallery, the proceeds were going to a rival vampire. My contact's sister wanted me to go and close the show a bit early. Handing me a knife, she suggested I destroy the artwork and help myself to the cashbox after I was done tearing things up.

Soon I was standing in front of the gallery and was about to head inside when a rent-a-cop approached me and wanted to know what I was doing there. Before leaving for the gallery, I used the experience points I had gained on my trip to the haunted hotel to boost my intimidation skill. Using my new and improved skill, I bullied Barney Fife into opening the door for me. Once inside I was presented with the painting I was to deface.

The painting told the story of Cain's fall from grace and his short but stormy romance with Lilith. Since my vampire was not much of an art lover, I took out my knife and promptly began slashing canvas. No sooner was I done when gouts of blood came shooting out of each picture, culminating in the center of the room. As I watched with horror, the blood formed a humanoid shape of red liquid with all too solid claws at the end of its arms. The thing charged me. Luckily I still had the knife in my hands and I jumped back as it swung at me. I was not fast enough as it landed a solid hit and took about 1/10th of my health with it. I engaged my fortify power so that I would not take as much damage if he hit me again and circled around it as it swung at me again. We danced and bobbed all over the room until finally I landed the killing blow.

I was so keyed up during this time I did not notice until the combat was over that I had leaned in towards the 19 inch LCD monitor until I was only about 6 inches away from it. Also, the guy on my right was looking at me with his eyebrows raised as I had been uttering cries of surprise when the creature landed blows and taunting the screen when I had scored a hit of my own. I looked at him shrugged, and gave a nervous laugh and he turned back to his game shaking his head.

I headed back to the nut job that sent me to the gallery to find out why I had been set up. Unfortunately, before I made it back I was tapped on the shoulder and told that it was time to go. Time had flown by and I had barely scratched the surface of the game! I thought about trying to smuggle the computer out of the club in my pants so that I could play some more when I got home, but after a few minutes decided that I would not be able to pull such a cunning plan off.

I (like everyone else) will have to wait a bit later this fall before I get to click on some porcelain fangs and head back into the world of Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines. The team has a little bit more to do, but since Half-Life 2 is finally making its way to stores shelves, there is nothing left to stand in its way.

After the short time I spent playing the game, I am really excited at the prospect of spending my holiday season playing Vampire. The idea of having seven different clans with unique powers, strengths and weakness, and being able to customize my vampire to suit my play style really appeals to me. That kind of game play is the reason why I loaded up Fallout and Fallout 2 on my laptop just a month ago, even though those games are over 6 years old. Now however, I have an RPG from the team responsible for those two games but built on the same cutting-edge engine that powers Half-Life 2. It's going to be one hell of a fun ride that I know will suck me in. (HA! I worked that in again! I RULE!)