| Vampire the Masquerade - Bloodlines (Patch 5.x or higher) Graphics 5/5 The graphics were more than gorgeous... along with the ladies inside the game. ;) Like the Sims 2, the expressions on the character's face as well as the lipsing were great! I never found a single avatar or piece of graphic dull or ugly (in the sense of not well made). People like good graphcis in a game as well as well made animations will be well served in this wonderful game. Play Control 8/10 Quite good control of the avatar, although close quarter combat is rather awkward a bit (-0.5). I never really had any problems moving my character, even with the version that was launched except at a certain point in the Kue-Jin palace with that infamous wooden bar that block the double doors that you needed to push to open but never really worked (-1). This along with some other minor things (-0.5) makes the rating drop to 8, but otherwise is pretty damn good. Interface 10/10 User-friently, simple, effective, quickly used, good-looking, etc. Just perfect interface for the genre of game it is. I did not find any negative points for the interface, everything is nice, even in the initial release version (v. 1.0)! Fun 13/15 This game is highly entertaining for anyone 14 years old or older. Quite lots of nice scenarios, entertaining characters... also very, very, very interesting ones (Miss Velour, VV, now that's my kind of woman! Or for the perverts like she is, Jeanette. ;) ). The only downside is that the game is that it is rather linear, even though there seems to be different endings, but no matter what you do in the game, the ending is rather the same except for the Kue-Jin's ending. The availability of all the clans of the Camarilla is fun, as well as being able to join any of the factions, Sabbat included! Depth 7/10 Many hours of game time, a bit of background, but not too little (-2). Like you have no idea what happened in the last few years in the Los Angeles area or the world itself. The initial game had just enough stuff to make it replayable one or two additional times, but the version 5.x or higher offers a lot of of new things which makes it worth replaying several times with several different characters. Story 9/10 Beside a few very minor things that I think made little sense (-1), I have nothing negative to say against the story. It is a really good story that you get in and don't want to get out, you want to know more and more all the time. If the game had several different paths to go through, that would have more than compensated for the few minor things that bugged me to give it a perfect score, but heh! Idea 5/5 Since this is the only game that has respected the Vampire role playing game system, it is unique even though there was another game that was called Vampire the Masquerade, but it was more a Dungeons & Dragons game system than something more intelligent and logical like the Vampire system. So, a game in the Vampire world is a great idea, very fun idea too for fans of the rpg. Non-Linearity 8/15 The story is rather linear, but the fact that you can join different factions and having slightly different endings make it less linear than the usual wannabe role-playing game. It is still too restrictive to be called a role-playing game, so it's more adventure and action oriented, but it is quite close to it... much closer than games like Diablo, Dungeon Siege and others liek that who claims to be "rpg", like if the people who classed the game did not know what the letters "rpg" meant. lol Interpretation 12/15 Quite well interpreted, but needs more work. Several things were either missing or wrong upon initial release of the game, but the idea and especially the voice acting was more than well interpreted. The voice acting is simply great! The actors did a really good job on this, so kudos to them and the team that selected these people. Completion 2/5 It should receive a 1 out of 5 but having no expansions gives this rating a bonus. The huge amounts of bugs and missing features is simply awful in the initial release of the game. The huge amounts of official and unofficial patches only shows how rushed the game designers were by the publishing company that really knows nothing about game designing. Good rule of thumb here, never buy anything with the Activision logo onto it, it's certain to have been rushed onto the market and full of bugs. 79/100 A must rent game, you can't go pass that game, it's a must play! If you like the Vampire role playing game, then that's the game you need to buy... although, do not forget to download and install the official and unofficial patches, that way you will get passed the stupid double doors in the Kuei-Jin place. If the Activision logo was not on the game, I would say don't download this game illegally, buy it, but since it is, do what you want, download or buy. |