I really liked this game and just thought I'd share my impressions on it with my "unofficial" review.
Overall, its very well done. The atmosphere fits the game almost to well, the voice acting is top notch and is one of the most visually beautiful games out there that, at the same time, didn't have very much hype surrounding it (ala Doom 3/Halflife 2) which aids to the "Unknown but awesome game" factor. Apart from being a somewhat
buggy game, it still plays very well and you shouldn't find many of the problems rampant throughout the game a hiderance... and as much as I *do* like the game, there are some
annoyances that I do wish were looked at and possibly fixed to keep the game in high standing..
First off:
Firearms. Both sides will argue that its a useful skill to pickup and a worthless skill at the same time. I sorta agree with the latter. You can go through the entire game and not even touch a gun, not to mention that, to be any good at it, you really need to devote the effort into raising the skill and stick with it or it will just be a waste of points. For the most part, all it raises is accuracy and damage by a small percent. You'll be hard pressed to hit anything at a distance if the skill isn't maxed and most of the enemies in the game have very high resists against Firearms anyway. So, all in all, if you have to get
that close to hit something with a gun, you may as well just do Melee or Unarmed which do more damage overall. Ammo is also hard to find and it does cost money and unfortunatly, there isn't an unlimited supply of that laying around. I will give it one high point though: you can do a ton of damage with the Flame Thrower, regardless if you have that many points in it or not since it's a close-quarters weapon to begin with. All in all, I think this is the most broken skill in the game and its a shame really. The game combined both FPS and 3rd Person Melee very well, its just that the skill is so darn useless most of the time, its not even worth bothering with.
Secondly:
Powers. There are a few in the game that are just obscenely powerful and it kind of limits the game's fun-factor just a tad. VtM PnP had the potential to make almost godlike characters and I don't fault the PC game for having that, its just the game can be a little to much on the easy side. For example;
Obfuscate. Sounds very cool and *is* very cool, but just a little too
cool if you get my meaning. You can literally go through the entire game with Obfuscate and never get damaged, not to mention, kill everything in the game with little effort, excluding bosses of course. Missions also become extremely easy, especially those requiring stealth or any mission you don't want to lose Humanity or Masquerade points over. As long as you gain Obfuscate L3 (or whatever level lets you crouch and move while invisible) and pump Unarmed up, you can easily throttle and drain anyone and/or silent kill them instantly, and you aren't even hurting yourself by doing this since Unarmed is a very useful battle skill to use throughout the game, plus it raises the chance of letting you feed on an unwilling target (ala, person trying to kill you). Only two Vampires can grab this skill though, and they both have a drawback for playing them (Nosferatu, being unable to communicate with anyone short of special NPC's and it becomes difficult to walk streetside and not break the Masquerade due to their appearence; and a Malkavian, who is literally insane and possesses an "insight" that can be somewhat detrimental when conversing with special NPC's), but I had no trouble at all going through the game as a Malkavian and I even got a laugh listening to my character baffle everyone with her strange way of speaking. Its a two player swing!
Protean on the other hand can turn a Gangrel into a lethal killing machine and as long as you pump Strength, you're good to go and well on your way to punishing anything the game has to offer with ease.
Other than that, the only other problems I've found are minor. You'll find LA strangely devoid of moving cars... which I find odd, but maybe thats just me? Clipping between characters can be annoying if your the type of person that dislikes that sort of thing, and *trust* me, there is a lot of that in the game. Some in-game movies (more like sequences involving character interaction that you don't take part in, not actual video-like movies) will sometimes mess up and take to long or go to fast for the game to align properly, so you may see in some instances where a character is still talking, but then completes a motion for another part of his speech before he finishes what he was saying first. The first part I encountered this was when I met Nines for the first time and he was talking, pauses for a moment when the Vamp runs at him, shoots him and then says what he was supposed to say before he shoots the guy and also when I started a new game and the intro video was playing. You'll notice a lot of tiny details that looked like they could have been polished better, but weren't. In no way do these little bugs lower the gameplay value, though.
Now for a little praise! The games models are VERY well detailed and pretty, I'm sure the guys don't mind how well Janette or VV look.
They are really top notch and, for lack of a better word, gorgeous.
The music fits the game very well, the gothic techno music combined with some heavy metal totally fit the setting and you'll be amazed at how well the words for such songs like Lacuna Coil's "Swamped" almost totally describe your characters life throughout the game... which was wierd! I have been a fan of Lacuna Coil for years and was surprised to find my favorite song being played during the credits, not to mention fit the life of my character so well! Its the small things that make for such a great experience!
As I said before, the voice acting is well done and not in the least bit amatuer. All of the voices fit the characters well and I really like VV's voice actor, I can't even begin to describe how beautiful her voice is. Other characters throughout the game also deserve praise. Beckett is also very well done and so is Jack, though I've heard from others that they didn't like Nines' voice very well and I think they're silly. I thought he did a great job at playing the part. Your cab driver is also another very well done voice, especially for someone who doesn't have that big of a part in the game... he is a bit odd though....... an easter egg... I'm sure others probably figured it out.
As much as I like to complain about the things I find wrong and I wish were fixed (and the absence of a certain patch that should have been out a long time ago!), the game has certainly replaced a few others on my top 10 list and will remain to be one of my favorite RPG's to date! (Not better than Fallout, though. ^_^) Its very well done and worth the money you pay for it and I would recommend it to anyone that may have second thoughts about it... but I'm sure everyone else here agrees with me that its certainly not a waste of cash. Troika made a good game that I think any fan of the RPG genre will like, so go out and buy it already!
Apris
P.S. If anyone wants to discuss certain parts of this game, talk about it or if you are in need of hints, send me a PM. I'll be glad to answer any questions. I've played the game up and down and enjoyed every minute of it and I'd love to have some great big discussions about what other people thought about certain things... like that mysterious cab driver! If you don't know about it already, send me a PM and I'll fill in you... Just to keep my post from being in any way a spoiler.
