8.
Vampire - the Masquerade: Bloodlines - Troika Studios (Windows, 2004)
We're sticking with Troika and the Noughties. Heck, why not? This'll be the last time Troika rears its head so enjoy it, though we'll see more of the Noughties before we're through - to my own surprise.
Word to the wise - this writeup is even more spoiler-laden than the average as I can hardly explain why I like this game so much without spoilerin'. Do not read if you haven't played it, it'll seriously mess with your experience.
So...
Bloodlines...
We're running headfirst into the "Troika Problem" again. I don't think anyone else ever specialized as much in games that are as easy to love as they are to hate. Or games as messy on release. Bloodlines, like Arcanum, is still getting patched today, and boy howdy did it need it.
Bloodlines is not really "like" Arcanum in any other way, though. It had a lot of us worried before release. A Troika RPG? Great. A Troika RPG on a shooter engine, with FPS combat? Ehhh...Besides, Vampire: the Masquerade's setting certainly isn't for everyone. I like it for its subtlety and behind-the-scene machinations, but the basic "you're a vampire gaaaaah" thing never even remotely appealed to me.
Mostly though, Bloodlines is different in not trying quite as much as Arcanum (neither did Temple of Elemental Evil) and doing what it tried to do extraordinarily well (just like Temple of Elemental Evil). We all know the complaints about Bloodlines; aside from being an unplayable mess on release, it's also marred by some incredibly boneheaded decisions, most noticeably - and frustrating - the combat-only second half of the game. Personally, I also think its portrayal of women gets pretty stale pretty quickly, and the Boob PhysX was just ridiculous.
But what it did well is a still-unequaled combination of writing, voice acting and face/body dialogue animations. Especially the last part is shocking; writing and voice acting tend to be up and down in any industry that depends on them, but the fact that the most expressive NPC models of all time can be found in a 5-year old game is not a good thing for a burgeoning game industry.
Still, Bloodlines has it all when it comes to writing. It's not as in-your-face novelesque as some games (Torment), but it shines because every NPC is noticeably "human" (ironically), with convincing performances backing up well-thought out writing. The Kuei-jin (and Chinatown whole) are really the only point at which this game falls short here. The writing makes up for a lot of things, including a flawed, consequence-less structure for most of the main plot.
Overall, this is a game that shines and fizzles, a real boom-or-bust game when it comes to how you experience it. It's no wonder this is one of those games people often talk of in "moments". I already mentioned Malkavian dialogue as one of those things, the Ocean House Hotel is another example a lot of people will cite, or Therese and Jeanette (boobs!), but let me just talk about three others...
The first is a bit predictable along with the above: Heather Poe. Now everyone, even
Kieron Gillen, loves Heather Poe, and they're probably right. Heather is Troika's style at its finest. Y'see, too often in RPGs, when you're offered a choice it is a non-choice from a power-gaming perspective. There's no balance in reward for going through door A or door B, one door is simply better. And often enough, because of that the choice becomes a false one, a non-choice of "cripple yourself...or don't".
Gameplay-wise, Heather is such a choice. Her little gifts are of no real consequence, but she is the source of the best armour in the game. If you're a bastard enough to keep her around. The lure is even doubled up because she doesn't think you're a bastard.
That's why Heather is Troika's writing at its finest. She's your ghoul, and she's slavishly devoted to you. Every time you speak to her the writers stress your absolute hold over her, showing how she is losing her free will and humanity. The power is absolutely yours and the game is doing nothing to stop you, making this a more real moral issue than most games present: are you capable of stopping yourself from stooping this low? Many are not the first time through, and the game kind of pistolwhips the message home by killing her if that's the path you choose.
The second is a bit more off center: I love the plot. Not just is it wonderfully understated (no save-the-world plot here) as you're just dragged along by events you have no control over, but it also takes you by the nose and never really lets on what's going on or who you can trust and who you can't.
As I mentioned before, I do like it when game plots aren't too predictable. And besides its small scope being lovely, no game does this as well as Bloodlines. The hints it drops to reveal the ending are way too small to pick up on your first playthrough, yet you should be able to figure out something is not right.
Still, the most "obvious" answer to what's in the sarcophagus is that the pharaoh is in there, and the one who holds his corpse has that power to himself. If you pay some attention you'll figure out before time that this is not the case, but regardless the simplicity and logic of what it does contain are incredibly well done, which is why this is probably my favourite overarching game plot of all time.
The Kuei-jin ending by comparison is weaker, but still good as it does contain a betrayal you should have seen coming. The Camarilla ending is probably the weakest, but it does bring in an element of frustration to the player as you never get to know what's in the sarcophagus.
But my favourite bit of the game is probably one of the most hated: the Werewolf sequence. I love it because I recognize the underlying pen and paper logic that makes it work; this is an ideal combination of tough gameplay and storytelling. Why? Well, the PC just went fluently through a building full of vamps and goons, slaughtering and maiming left and right. Depending on your build, it may not even have been that challenging. This is the point in a pen and paper game where the player starts getting smug. In most cRPGs, especially more recent ones, the game just lets that be and continues to masturbate the player with its "you're the one"-waffling.
Not Bloodlines. Bloodlines gets it. It sends you into an encounter with a practically (but not literally) invincible werewolf. It's the perfect punishment for arrogance: first time I got there I actually tried attacking the werewolf in hand-to-hand combat with my gangrel despite clear hints that this is probably not a good idea.
One quick death and reload later, I run like hell. Only after the whole sequence and having recovered from the blinding panic involved did I recognize the genius of it: there was my high-level, arrogant vampire, literally cowering in the bathroom of some random building. Nice way to bring the player back to earth.
And yes, I know you can kill it. But there's no way that occurred to me during those intense minutes of sheer terror.
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So that's pretty much it. Bloodlines gave me a stack of memorable moments probably unequaled by any other single game to go along with its oft-terrible combat sequences. That, and the fact that I had a beer with the lead writer, cement this game at #8.
