Vampire: The Masquerade - Won

My small Coterie eventually came to New York. We had managed to get some Interpol ID:S for us so we were able to talk to a special agent in New York that had the Giovannis place under surveillance and that the code for it was being cracked by FBI. We where told that we would not be allowed to take part in the raid so we begun to investigate the streets to find another way.

Samuel turns out to be a loyal servant to me

Here we rescued Samuel, a vampire, that was attacked by his own coterie. He volunteered to join us and so I brought him along. He said he knew someone who could tap into FBI:s network to get the codes and brought us to an apartment to a crazy guy named dev/null. He said we should place a listener down in the sewers at a special place for him to be able to catch the network traffic from FBI.

The Sewers

We went down into the sewers and fought ghoul rats and other creatures there in the tunnels for several levels until we found the place we looked for. After having placed the item there we returned back to the hacker dev/null and he gave us access codes to get into the Giovannis place.

Giovannis place was full of fights through his factory-like complex. Most rooms contains chests and foes often leave things behind them but it was a long time ago I found anything worthwhile. The looting part of the game is broken since midgame. More of that in my coming review.

We eventually found Giovanni himself behind his desk and computer and he offered himself to make a deal with us. I threatened him to force him to reveal that the stuff he imports from the shipments goes to Orsi international. He only makes a lot of profit from it. When he was about to say more, Pink took the lead and killed him in front of our eyes. Pink revealed himself as a spy that would see that we never learned of Vukodlak (the ancient vampire that was about to be awaken) whereabouts. Pink then fled and I have never seen him in the game since. I had to reload this part only to be able to strip him of valuable equipment before he left the group. I never liked him anyway....

We looked around the city and found Orsis former apartment that now was on sale. There Lily found blood trace from her mistress that had dissappeared. Our search took us down to the storage area where we found the mistress in work of doing a painting by blood. She had to deliver it to Orsis New Year party later this night. During our conversation we where interrupted by the collectors of the painting and a small fight begun. The opponents was easily disposed of. We now took the painting to be delivered at the party with the hope of getting in ourselves.

We entered Orsis factory complex and searched for him for several levels until we found him in his office. As always he mocked us and said we where too late for the resurrection of the ancient evil. A short fight started but ended with me throwing him out of the window down to a lava pool in the factory.

A reasonable punishment for his crimes

We learned that the resurrection would take place in the Cathedral of Flesh in the city and went there to once and for all put this evil to permanent death. It was a pretty interesting complex full of War Ghouls and their greater cousins, demon hounds and other denizens of evil. We fought our way down the church....

 ...until we finally met Vukodlak himself with Anezka beside him. A fierce combat ensued but by using prison of ice on him all the time he was pretty easy to overcome. Or rather, he fled and throw us into the deeper levels by opening up a trapdoor in the floor.

Anezka is seen to the right

 Anezka was never part of the combat and we learned in these deep dungeons about her diary. Her soul was trapped and she tried to resist the evil for centuries until she decided it was hopeless and begun to embrace it. But only to gain power against Vukodlak himself.

She had to do terrible things but had no choice if she were to survive.  When we had climbed our way up to level one again. We met Vukodlak in a final fight in the big church hall. This time he transformed to a demonlike creature which was very tough to defeat. I had almost no blood reserves at all left but managed to use potence, and celerity (fast moving) and use all my blood reserves to continuously freeze him and after a long battle he died at my sword. But it took three or four attempts.

Since Anzeka was his ghould she would die without him but we had the chance for some final words and she was as beloved as I remembered her centuries ago. I took her last life sign by biting her and the she died but with a happy face.

And that was the end of the game.

I thought the game ending was pretty nice and the music that surrounded the ending scenes. I like the story but lacked any alternatives or opportunities in the few dialogues the game offered. My next post will naturally be a review of this game.

Vampire: The Masquerade - A bit repetitive

Last time I had just woken up in London in 1999. Within a few seconds I realised I was alone, without my equipment and held prisoner by Vampire Hunters in a mansion.

Even though one or two of my most powerful weapons from my vault survived, all other equipment and my cash was lost and as it will turn out it doesn´t seem I will get it back. It´s like starting out a new game again. Here I have been trying to not overspend or waste my potions, scrolls and other unique items all the time, making the game harder for me but with the knowledge that I will need them when it gets really rough. And now they are just taken from me. Argh!!...I am not too happy about it. Still I have my levels, skills and attributes preserved.

In my search I found some documents that revealed that this organisation really was digging into the history of places I had visited in Prague and Vienna.

All documents and texts are voiceread

The first levels I was exploring - or rather cleansing - was some sort of lab center or R&D center buried deep into the ground below the mansion. Computers littered the place everywhere and it was guarded by lab personal equipped with everything from stakes, revolvers, shotguns and incinerators to automatic weapons.

I tried several of those weapons but I thought most of them was worse than using my blood sucking sword. Besides, they needed a lot of ammunition which just takes valuable inventory space. My favourite discipline skill, the vitae theft, worked wonders here. I could suck the blood out of my enemies from a distance in one shot, leaving them dead on the spot. I didn´t need any other weapon.

I slowly worked my way upwards until I reached the ground floor of the mansion. The graphics was pretty nice overall in London. Many more details than I remember of the medieval indoor settings.

Looking for a way out of my imprisonment

It was obvious of the letters I found that an excavation was taking place to find the graves of the vampires and other things related to my previous experiences. The one person responsible for all this was one Leo Allatius and I was his greatest prize so far in his diggings. He just longed to tormenting such an evil creature as myself. His next goal was to hunt down the Tzimisce who had stealed artifacts Leo said was rightfully his.

The intention of my captors was slowly revealed

Right at the upper floor of the mansion - after having killed all the guards - I stumbled into the office of Leo himself. As all my adversaries before him, he mocked me and it was quite a delicate dialogue to follow. But as history repeats itself, he was also passed to the other side by my sword after my efforts to negotiate something out of this situation failed.

They appear so preeminent and superior but few have enough to back it up

I found more documents to reveal what Leo was up to. He was seeking life eternal but without the curse of Caine (that is, turning into a vampire). He was also out to destroy all competition. So to say he was a vampire hunter for the sake of goodness is really being to be out on slippery ice.

I left the Mansion, leaving hundreds of bodies, and entered the streets of London. Now I lacked directions but I had access to a map so why not just walk around for awhile ?

Map of one part of London. The green spot is the area I am currently in

At a bar I met Pink and after a lengthy discussion where he - amongst other things - revealed that the connections in my story goes all the way to gangsters in New York, he volunteered to enter my group. which I of course allowed since I was alone.

I don´t like Pink but I needed cannon fodder

His advice to find more about the shipments to New York and from where they go and who is behind that was traced back to a brothel in the city. In their store room I found a passageway leading down to a Sithe Temple.  Here I also found another ally, Lily, that I allowed into my group.

It was here I fought my way forward for three levels before getting to tire a bit of the constant slaughter and fights and the always four level complexes that had to be traversed. I was seriously thinking of quitting this revisit now, knowing that few surprises would probably reveal themselves in this game. But I kept moving. More for the sake of completing it than experiencing true enjoyment.

Deep down in the temple I met the high priestess. I quickly destroyed her but felt that she was not totally vanquished. I learned that her heart was stored in Tower of London and had to be destroyed in order to permanently defeat her. Besides, she knew information about the shipment to New York that she didn´t reveal.

My inventory in this modern world

We wen´t to the tower of London and for four levels I fought mainly spiders and other creatures before finding her heart. I was surprised I didn´t need to fight any powerful guardian and so returned back to the streets. Just outside we where overwhelmed by a huge werewolf that torned us to pieces. It was a bitterly hard fight. I think I had to try for at least half a dozen fights before I managed to destroy it with the help of my lightning spells. One of the toughest foes so far in the game.

I returned it to the temple and the priestess was brought back to life. I forced her to reveal that the ship St Magdalena was about to head for New York any time soon. After that, Pink wanted me to destroy her but as a good guy I gave her back her heart. Of course she didn´t thank me in any other way than trying to kill me by transforming into a huge snake. I managed to kill her with the help of boosting my skills and had the choice of destroying her heart of consume it for my own benefits. I choosed the former one, good as I am.

 After she was destroyed we searched for the ship in Londons harbour and boarded it. Some time later we where in New York and hopefully the next post will be my last.....

Vampire: The Masquerade - More about the game mechanism

Since the game is very linear with few - if any - options so far to affect what will happen, this post will focus more on the game mechanics, while a summary of what has happened will follow afterwards.

Each city or area has one shop for weapons and armours and one for magical items, potions and scrolls. Between the missions it is crucial to visit them to upgrade your equipment and sell your loot. You have limited space in your inventory and mine is almost always full so I can only take with me items that are worth a lot to sell.

In the beginning I thought the stock had quite a lot of different items but now in the middle of the game I don´t see much variations and it is hard to find or buy any good magical items. In the first 10 hours of the game, looting chests was fun and certain chests really hold rare items like better armours or weapons but now it seems there is a limit of what you could find and I feel I have reached the limit of what I can get. That makes looting quite unattractive for the time being.

In some missions you could backtrack the same way you came and return to the shop to replenish things but at certain missions that is not possible and if you are not well stocked up your could have a hard time to survive. To get enough blood is a constant aim for every groupmember because you need blood to heal yourself as well. Your blood pool is like a mana pool and all your disciplines draws from that. In boss fights, careful use of your disciplines could be mandatory to win them.

I remember that I in my first post said I thought the game was too easy at the start. Now it is more balanced and I have had several tough combats where I´ve had to come up with a perfect mix to use my abilities in order to win.

Disciplines

There are around a  dozen schools of Discipline groups, each with its own range of related skills. Each skill could be upgraded from one point to five, where each additional point costing much more than the previous one. But the power of the skill will be greater. 

 

In my group we have prioritised healing. So using my pool of blood we heal hitpoints and since I´ve put many points in it it we can heal more for every cost of blood. Another example is the skill Potence which adds additional damage in combat. The effect is really noticeable between two and four points invested in it. For other skills like summoning a wraith to help you, it is more difficult to say what has improved. The length of the summoning ? The power of the wraith ? Both ? Sometimes I try out investments in skills attack a nearby guard and reload to change my allocations so that I feel satisfied with my decisions. Once you´ve invested your experience points, there is no turning back.

If you are lucky you could find powerful books that teaches you a totally new discpline group. They are very rare though and you have to carefully decide which memeber should learn it. The only thing you could be sure of is that you yourself will be around all the time.

The manual for the game is very good, explaining not only game mechanics but also a long history about the different vampire clans and the gameworld. This is just another example of lengthy manual that are never included in games nowadays. 

Combat

Talking a little more about the combat system I can say that it really are a hack´n slash game. As long as you hold the left mouse button down on your selected enemy, your selected companion will attack continuously until either one is killed. If you hold down the CTRL key at the same time, the whole group will target that creature as well.

So what is affecting the outcome then ? Well, first you have the terrain. I have often lost fights or gained heavy losses by not having enough ground for all my members to move on. For example if being stuck in a stair, doorway or corridor. You could also drag out the enemies one at a time and kill them off instead of having the whole swarm of them attack at once. That is probably the most important thing to master if you are to survive later on.

What I don´t like with this system compared to true realtime 3d dungeon crawlers like Dungeon Master is that enemies will never walk around other than in very limited pre-planned routes. They don´t react to anyting happening outside of their limited activation zone. That becomes somewhat boring, predictable and repetetive after awhile. But most action-rpgs are like that.

You could set the groups offensive stance from defensive, neutral to offensive. If set to offensive each member will actively seek out the enemies and split the group. I only see a use when I know we will win the fight. Otherwhise it could be very dangerous. I never use defensive because they just stand there while their comrades are being attacked. Neutral is the best one since your team holds together but tries to thwart any attack. Still a problem is that sometimes your group members just stand there doing nothing while one of your nearby teammembers got beaten up. That is a flaw. Also the path finding is not very good. Many times your own members block you from getting through.

What affects combat is your dexterity which indicates if you will be able to hit and strike a critical hit. Your strength affect damage together with the weapon of choice. Of course your armours and stamina helps you soak enemy damage. Your use of scrolls and discipline skills are often important to determine the outcome of the harder combats.

Something I don´t really like is that the members your don´t actively control use up potions and blood mana as they see fit. They could use up valuable assets for pretty simple fights. I would have like to be able to individually tweak their behaviour.

The story continues...

In my last post we where tasked by the prince to free some slaves in order for him to reveal what he knows about Anezka. We entered a complex and managed to free some slaves in the end.

One of the prisoners was Erik, a vampire that when set free, volunteered to join us. He was very welcome and brought great combat strength. I had to try to give him what I could offer in the form of equipment. The rest would be bought when coming back to town.

In the end I found the one responsible for taking all prisoners. His name was Ardan and he had a very entertaining speech. Actually, most dialogues are excellent in this game. Especially for the bad ones. I often chuckle to their ingenious ways of expressing themselves. Before being killed off by me that is....

What I learned was that Anezka had joined the october caravan of slaves heading to Vienna since she had learned of a way for a vampire to be redeemed. She found out that master Etrius knew more about that and he lives in Vienna.

Anyway, I later convinced Ecaterina I had to follow Anezka to Vienna and she had no ways of stopping me so she let me go together with my trusty companions.

In Vienna we learned from some women in an inn that count Orsis would have a reception and we got invitation for his mansion so we went there.

We there met Orsi but he refused to reveal anything about the slave transport unless we did a job for him: To get rid of his enemy Luther Black, a priest turned into a vampire that dwelled in the church. Orsi is one of the best characters I´ve met so far in this game. His voice acting and dialogue is excellent.

In order to reach Luther Black we had to climb into the rooftops to reach a secret entrance into the church.

This was the hardest complex so far. Each complex usually consists of four levels and in this one we had tough opponents, no returning back and with daylight entering the church courtyard that burned us if crossing which made both fights and movement much harder. Besides, there was an obstacle only crossable by using a skill that gives you extremely fast movement. Fortunately a scroll was placed nearby in case you didn´t have that skill.

Eventually we found Luther Black that wished us to kill him to redeem his sins if I took them on me instead. Something which I accepted because he didn´t seem that evil after all. We killed him by opening up the rooftop and let the daylight strike him while he was laying on the floor below to accept his fate.

 

When we tried to retrace our track back to exit we where surprised to see Orsi himself stepping forward to reveal that he never intended to hold his word to us and therefore imprisoned us in a dungeon.

My female companion used one of her necromantic skills to raise a headless body to pull the lever and free us from our imprisonment. But we had to fight our way out through four levels with Teutonic knights that swarmed the place.

Eventually we escaped and was back in town. At this stage I learned of a skill called "Walk the abyss" which immediately connects me to my haven. While there I can upgrade my attributes and disciplines. It does not work at every place but often enough to be extremely useful.

In some way or another we stumbled into the Haus the Hexe, a large complex that gave us the Etrius Journal, that Orvus the magic shop owner wanted. If we gave him this we could enter the fortress.

So this led us to enter the Haus the Hexe (nice name by the way) and here I entertained myself with their reactions towards me.

Eventually I came to the last part of this complex and my opponent bewitched Erik and turned him against us, forcing me to kill him unfortunately. That was a tragic event but unavoidable. I had to reload to get hold of his good equipment before he departed. The battle with the boss was quite hard as well but after a few tries we vanquished.

We never found Anezka, she was always ahead of us but obviously alive through all here adventurous contacts. We returned back to Prague only to find out that the castle was besiged, the prince dead and now I heard Anezka could be hold hostage there so we immediately headed there.

Yet again, four levels had to be breached until I reached some abomination that tried to stop us. I was quite surprised how easy he was killed and suspected more waited for us ahead.

There in a throne room we saw Anezka and another dark figure. Anezka was not herself. She was hateful and scorned me. She had obviously been brainwashed or trapped to the other side and I tried to force her with me but then the castle trembled and a pillar of stone fell towards us. 

While our scream vanished everything went black and I awoke in 1999 in London, raising up from a crate. Now I was trapped by vampire hunters that tried to kill me using modern weapons. Fortunately a few of my own weapons was saved but I had to pick up pistols, revolvers and even machine guns that my adversaries dropped behind them. I had to flee this complex. It seemed the leader had excavated a region in Prague and gathered all these old items in search of something. Perhaps there where traces of Anezka here. I don´t know. I just know I have to flee this place....

 At this stage, the game begins to feel very repetitive. I am just barely enjoying myself. Every complex, however modern or medieval is just the same thing repeated over and over again. Enter rooms one after another and slay all therein. Pick up items along the way but as said before there are few really good items out there so looting is not interesting anymore.

I´ve had many good hours playing Vampire Redemption but I am not sure it is worth playing it to the end. I have all I need for a review anyway. Still, my stubborness tells me to not quit and left something unsolved so we´ll see what the next post turns out into.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Catches on!

I´ve continued to explore the world of Vampire: The Masquerade. Between the actionoriented RPG that this game truly is, the story unfolds slowly one piece at a time. I like that, even though it is a bit hard to grasp the overall scheme of things.

When I was running away from the nun Anezka last time, I was trapped in a dark Alley by Ecaterina, a female vampire that bit me in the neck. I awoke much later in a room in the University in Prague. Ecaterina told me that I was now taken under her clan Brujah wether I liked it or not. I was first allowed to feed blood on her just to prove that I was now also a vampire. I didn´t accept that at first, that I had lost my soul and turned into this....abomination. But I had little choice. Ecaterina told me that their enemies, the Tzimisce clan,  was looking for me to avenge my success in the silver mines and If I wanted to survive I must do as she say.

It turns out that there are several vampire clans and the Cappadocians has stolen a fragment of a book that I need to return to Ecaterina. I will accompany Wilhem - another vampire - and during this mission I will prove myself worthy of Ecaterina and her clan. I have no choice but to agree.

Now the game opens up to another mode. As a vampire I need blood to use special abilities called Disciplines. There are several schools of disciplines, each one containing specific skills. Each skill could be bought with experience points in up to five levels and becomes more and more powerful for each level but also gradually more expensive. Some skills are not available until you have bought all lesser ones first. The different Disciplines relies on different parts of your characters attribues like intelligence, perception or charm. All this is just another way of saying that your blood reserve is your mana points and the disciplines are like magical schools. 

I can get more blood by feeding on citizens during the night (I will perish if I enter daylight) but only to a certain extent. If I feed too much I run the risk of killing them which decreases my humanity level. Also the guards in town will attack me if I am not careful when doing that. The lesser blood I have the more vulnerable I am to risk enter the frenzy state when my innate beast will take command of me and attack friend or foe.

Anyway, Wilhelm is just like another NPC added to my group. I can choose which person to control and he has his own character sheet and inventory. In combat he is controlled by the A.I and he can use his own disciplines in the fight. You could set his offensive stance from defensive to offensive but other than that you have to trust the A.I unless you control him directly.

After three levels down at Pragues Monastery we found the book fragment after having to fight Mercurio, the one that stole the fragment. In this combat we died several times until I buffed up myself by using a skill in my Potence discipline (increases my attack damage).

As said before, the dungeon levels are very linear, seldom offering you more than one way ahead. Your path could be blocked by locked doors, gates or other obstacles but almost always it is visible levers nearby that manouver them. Sometimes there could be hard to see preassure plates or switches that must be found in order to continue. Most rooms are filled with enemies in different numbers and types. They can also use Disciplines if they belong to another Vampire clan.

When we returned back to the University I was instructed that I had been assigned my own haven down in the basement. It is there I can "check in" to upgrade my skills and attributes. It could not be done during my travels so I either have to do it before or after a task or return here if it is possible in the middlw of a mission.

You are assigned experience points which you could use to increase your attributes or skill levels in already known Disciplines. New Disciplines could be awarded after missions and become available during level up. I like this system because each point will become more and more expensive and you have a lot of options to increase your abilities. You don´t have to use the any or all experience points if you don´t wan´t to. You could save them for later. I have done that a lot since it is too early to know which Disciplines will turn useful. Initially I spent most points on strengths and dexterity to increase my combat abilities. Melee weapons require a certain strength to be used.

Back to the story....

I had dreams about the Nun Anezka. I cannot release her from my memory and it turns out she has fled the church and sacrificed her profession in order to find me. I don´t know where she is.....

Meanwhile I was assigned to help Ecaterinas allies in the northern district of the town where they had trouble with a Golem. Me and Wilhelm entered the district and soon found the loose golem. It was a major fight and I died at least five times until I eventually managed to destroy it. When we returned to Ecaterina she was very satisfied.  She also mentions that Anezka was seeking me out at the university but Ecaterina didn´t reveal I was amongst them. I was very upset about this but for the time being I could do nothing except take the letter Anezka left and read it.

 

My next assignment was to help the prince in the town by going to the cemetary to enter the domains of the Nosferatu and kill their lord Vaclav. To aide me, Serene, a female vampire joined my group. She has skills in areas like reviving the dead and I thought that useful even tough she wasn´t strong or had any weapons or armours. I would have to buy some equipment to her and gave her a good dagger to fight with initially.

Looking for the entrance in the graveyard

The different Disciplines

Down in the dungeons below the cemetary

I fought in several levels against quite tough opposition. I had to use a lot of blood potions and disciplines and also lure away enemies one at a time in order to reach the undead Vaclav himself which we killed after a very tough fight. First I though our weapons couldn´t harm him but after a time I did notice a slight color change of his name. In combat the name of your opponent shows in the message list and the name goes more red the more injured the opponent is.

The two really good points about the game is the character building and the story. There is a shop in town where you could buy armours and weapons. You will sell off things you have gathered during your explorations and hope to afford the best weapons or armours available. The economy balance is good since I have not much gold but still enough to at least buy one good thing for my group one at a time.

Now I´ll have another assignment from the Prince to free some slaves below the Apothecary in the Golden Lane district....