Vampire The Masquerade:Redemption.

     This is a game I'm currently playing through myself,and it's been on my mind a lot lately,so I thought it might make a good first step. It's a rather old game,but anyone looking for a good indulgent RPG should give it a try.

     Now,I'm sure some of you today have played the second game,Bloodlines,which runs on Valve's Source Engine,but this is a different game entirely. Developed by Nihilistic Software,and Published by Activision,this game brings to life the pen and paper game of the same name,and it does it's job well,it was released in June of 2000,and looks quite nice. The characters clearly have lots of time and thought put into them,each one has their own story,a variety of skills and spells,several costumes depending on the armor you equip them with,and BOOKS of dialogue,throughout which you'll have to make many decisions,some of which affect the outcome of the game heavily,whether or not you decide to go somewhere or do something can make it so something else does/doesn't happen in the future. As per gameplay,calling it Diablo-esque would be unfair,because whenever you see a game like this you immediately think of Diablo,so I'm taking it somewhere else. Now I haven't played Dragon Age:Origins yet,but I've seen some of it on Youtube,and from what i've seen,these 2 games are very similar.

     You begin the game as Christof Romuald,Frenchman,Holy Warrior,truely a man of god.

You'll recognize him by his trademark tabard,later,his leather jacket.

In the opening cinematic you'll see Sir Christof amidst a grand battle being held against what I can only describe as some odd looking vikings,as Christof is struck with an arrow and blacks out. When next he awakes he lays sleeping within a convent of nuns in the city of Prague.

     Enter Anezka,she hath nursed thee back to health after thy swordbrethren had left thee here to recover,and during his time here in Prague,Christof grows to find Anezka "The fairest of all God's creatures." In today's English,he's in love with her,but the Archbishop will do what he can to stray you from that path,for monsters hath invaded the city,and as such a noble warrior,you're given the task of venturing into the Silver Mines east of the city,and basically killing anything and everything you find,be it giant rats,these weird little monsters called Szlachta,and once you reach the end of these Silver Mines,you meet Ahzra The Unliving,a Tzimisce vampire that's the one behind all these monsters and attacks upon the town. Defeat her (Tip,you'll collect a lot of Holy Water in the mines,throw them at her! :D),and return to town.

 

     After being sent on a couple more little tasks around town by the Archbishop in an attempt to keep you separated from dear Anezka,as he wants her for himself,as you'll see him slip up once or twice in the midst of an argument with Christof,you meet a vampire by the name of Ecaterina The Wise,of the Brujah clan,who actually embraces (Turns) Christof. (Surprise!)

 

     Christof soon awakens in the University actually right next door to the Convent,and he is informed of his new unlife by Ecaterina,the Vampire who had just turned him,and her first mate Cosmas,as a Paladin of sorts,this news is devastating,as he curses himself,his fate,and his god,throwing his treasured cross away from himself,he is then left alone to rest and think about what his next course of action shall be,and how he will find a way to be one with his Anezka once more.

     He awakens the next morning and is to undergo training to learn of his vampire powers and newly found strengths,but Wilhem Striecher,your new best friend,opts to take you through a mission of his own as training,as he will need the help,and it would be a great way for you to get up on your feet,as you are a warrior,not a scholar. Wilhem's task that you're joining him with,is to storm another vampire's home and find something that had been stolen,a segment of the book of Nod,these other vampires are of the Cappadocian Clan,allies of the Brujah,they would have no reason to steal,but Ecaterina seems to think Garinol is behind it,the leader of the Cappadocians. Do yourself a favor and bring a handful of Awaken scrolls,because if you're new to this game,getting used to controlling multiple characters at once might take some getting used to. Also,new variables join the mix,such as the Blood meter,which is basically your Mana bar,you spend blood to use spells,and regain it by biting on people and sucking out their blood,as a vampire should. (: You're also given a "Frenzy" meter,I honestly don't know what makes this meter go up,but your job is to keep it down,by means of your Blood Healing spell,Quell The Beast spell,and so on,because if this meter fills up,you lose control of your character and he starts attacking your other characters! The way this generally works is one character goes into a frenzy,bites another and immobilizes them,so while this character is sucking the blood and slowly killing another,every enemy you're fighting will attack your 3rd and or 4th character,and as the game goes on,the monsters will of course grow stronger and stronger,and being 2 men down will put you at a great disadvantage. So keep that meter down!



      Well,I think this is where I'll put a stop to it. I'm not looking to do a complete walkthrough,I'm just looking to give you the basic overview and maybe a little taste. ^^ I heavily recommend this game,it's like 11 years old,so I'm sure you can find it somewhere for cheap. RPG lovers and Diablo fans won't be able to put it down. And don't worry,Christof and Wilhem are definitely not your only 2 characters,you make and lose many friends throughout the course of the story. (:

Overall Rating:8 fangs out of 10.

Story:5/5 The story is incredibly involving and keeps you killing to find out what happens next.

Gameplay:4/5 Sometimes the game acts stupid and your AI characters will get caught on things and that'll slow you down/cause you to take some unneccessary damage/so on.

Graphics:4/5 Looked amazing back then,but today might seem a little lacking to those that've played games like Crysis.

Sound:5/5 Every characters has tons of dialogue and the music is pretty good too.