Politics can be interesting: Just add a dash of Vampirism!

 It's no surprise I have an undying love for the undead. That love isn't just limited to zombies, mind you, I adore the lot of them. Zombies, re-animated skeletons, ghosts and of course Vampires as well as the plethora of other creatures/people that come back from the dead. If I had to think back to which first got my attention it'd definitely be Vampires. I don't know if it was The Count from Sesame Street, Bela Lugosi movies (you know, REAL horror) or Monsters in my Pocket (#33) that got me started but somewhere down memory lane one or all of these inspired my love for blood-sucking stalkers of the night.

Vampires, Burial, and Death: Folklore and Reality by Paul Barber

 Something that helped solidify my love for the undead was a book I came across. The detail this tome of knowledge went into was astounding; especially when I'd discovered it on my grandfather's bookshelf as a kid. I read it cover to cover in almost one sitting when I'd came across it, absolutely awe-struck. The richness of the history within of vampires, vampyrs as well as the many other names they have been known, took me to a place of almost enlightenment. This book still makes me wonder if there is actually any truth behind Vampirism. Persons of history like Countess Bathory & Vlad the Impaler help us question the idea that their existance is merely fairytale. After well over a decade of not seeing the book I was lucky enough to attain (at a moderate price) an almost brand-new copy of the 1988 print of this book.

 So that amazing book aside, I actually came to talk about Vampires in other mediums today. I found myself with a bit of time on my hands today, my idle hands wanted to get to work or play on anything. That is "with thanks" to my University having their webmail and site down for maintenance, rendering myself incapable of retrieving absolutely anything I was hoping to do today. I went to hop on the computer and waste the day away gaming (I'm sure I'll find time for that later) but thought it was about time I got to having a proper look at Vampire: Dark Influences.

Ventrue vs. Nosferatu. If I had to pick a side I'd prefer the winner to be Nosferatu...

 Now I'm going to start of this pseudo-review with a few qualms firstly; something I honestly didn't expect to come across with this game. I sat down the other night with the manual to try to come to grips with the mechanics of the game. I'd be the last person you could say is foreign to complex rule systems, playing pen-and-paper RPGs way back when, but this guide was a little hard to swallow. It made sense at the end of the day but it could've been written alot better, especially when referring to the player as "him" in some sections and "her" in others. I figured everything would come together during actual gameplay. Also being supplied only one D10 (ten-sided dice), although appreciated, is a little sad when the game requires at least five of them to play the game without several re-rolls each turn. And there is alot of dice rolling once you get started.

 At first opening of the game box I did notice that the Kindred cards, which are technically used as the "gameboard", were quite a large size. Like the kind of card size you would expect for a matching-pairs game for a 5 year old. Not that it's such a bad thing, the artwork on them is amazing and the size certainly makes more sense when you think that the game is for up to 5 players who all place tokens upon these cards. Laying them out in the suggested layout made my dining table appear to be overly small, which the only other game I've ever had give that feeling was Monsterpocalypse.

 That's honestly all the bad I can say about it. I attempted a 2-Player test, on my own, with the game today just to work out the mechanics. As luck of the draw should have it the two player cards I drew were Nosferatu & Ventrue; a very classic rivalry in the World of Darkness/Vampire setting. Now just for those of you who care the other 3 clans that player cards come from are Gangrel, Daena & Mekhet. In other words this is the new clan systems from the Vampire: Requiem setting. Sadly none of my beloved Malkavians :(

You can see how the game dwarfs my table. Got to admit it does look amazing though!

 The game is layed out like a fancy game of Pyramid Solitaire and is rather quick to play. The aim of the game is to bid for the allegiance of the Kindred society (the pyramid) by offerings of blood or combat in order to attain the role of "Prince" of the society. The game runs for 6 rounds and then scores are tallied. Each Kindred has it's own point value on it's card, ranging from 1 to 3, as well as a point value added to it for which of the six rows they appear on, ranking from the bottom row as 1 point to the top "Prince" slot being valued at 6 points. As the bidding for allegiance continues through the game Event cards can be played and earned as well to help yourself or hinder others.

 My game left the scores rather close by the end, only thanks to Nosferatu gaining some last-round allegiances, with Ventrue winning the game 35 points to Nosferatu with 30 points. Ventrue only had great success due to their clan ability, Dominate, which allows "success" rolls for allegiance to be a minimum of 6 rather than the standard 8. I'm certainly itching to play this game with others to see how the politics play out, especially with more than one opponent. Only a few minor quirks but overall great gameplay, if it were to get a score out of 10 I'd give it a very modest 8.

 While we're traversing through the world of White Wolf's Vampire I may as well confess to a bit of an addiction I have. To date there have been two PC games based on the world of Vampire: The Masquerade (V:TM for short), with another currently in production as I've linked previously. The first game, Redemption, followed a format similar to playing Diablo or Legacy of Kain. Whilst enjoyable it left very little replay value and alot to be desired by true lovers of V:TM. Well that was until Troika got their hands on the franchise. It is this game, Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines, that it is one of my greatest gaming addictions to date, for what is now 7 years strong!


Yes, the graphics are like this in the actual gameplay too. I've always thought Nvidia made better cards myself...



 Now Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines has a very sad past as a product. Troika released the game with a few flaws in it and ended up going bankrupt thanks to poor sales of this game. Personally I think it's thanks to poor marketing on Activision's behalf. There was also no support offered (still isn't) by Activision for any problems people were/are having with the game. Some of these problems involved lack of synchronization of mouth-to-speech but the worst was a glitch that everyone encountered at a portion about three-quarters into the main plot that crashed a game and required some -console commands to skip around what was an integral dialogue portion of the game. Thanks to an unofficial patch out there (1.2 if you're wondering) all these errors have been ironed out. Contact me if you need a copy!

 I'm not going to give a full-fledged review on this game as I normally would, because I could go on about this game for several blogs & I really don't want to do that to you. The game lets you play pretty much all the major clans, aside from some of the "darker" clans which are used as your enemies throughout the game (Tzimisce & Sabbat to name a few). Playing as a Malkavian allows you completely different dialogue options & responses throughout the majority of the game thanks to your "fragile mind", which in other terms would leave you as a delusional psychotic with clouded foresight. Nosferatu have their own slant as well, being as "unfortunate looking" as they are, not being able to deal with humans directly. Ventrue get a little bit of extra help from some NPCs in some circumstances, as do the Tremere in other situations. That leaves you with Gangrel, Brujah & Toreador who all have their own quirks and special interactions. 80% of my play throughs have been as a Malkavian, simply because I just love and adore the quirkiness of dialogue, which I'd highly advise anyone to play on their 2nd or later play through so you still get a chance to enjoy the main plot for what it is.



Who said Vampires can't have a drink and a good time? They just prefer that drinking to be blood is all...

 For those not familiar with the world of Vampire I'm sure that all sounded like a bunch of jargon, but I assure you what it means is that you can play this game over and over with it feeling at least somewhat fresh each time. There is an extremely robust main plot with plenty of side quests to help get you that little bit more immersed in the game as well as gain some great items. At the very least you'll have different abilities to use/abuse to try and conquer situations in new ways each time.

 The game plays out First-Person/Third-Person by your own choice and works along the mechanics you'd expect a very rich MMORPG to work by, sadly without the MMO part. The story line is breathtaking, making sure to involve you completely into the mechanics of the Kindred society. With today's graphics card capabilities, the first game ever to be running the Source engine, the graphics are more beautiful than you can imagine. There are all too many people who couldn't look past the minor quirks to see such an amazing game behind it, but please believe your own experience I implore you. I'm currently on my umpteenth playthrough at the moment, playing a Ventrue for the first time (read: 9-to-5 business-type vampire) which is overtly interesting.

 If you do ever pick up a copy make sure you do yourself a favour and don't get any unofficial patches past 1.2. The horrible things/tweaks people have given to the game past this patch really tear away from what the original experience was intended to be. The great thing about this game, being released in 2004, is pretty much any computer can run it with maxed graphics these days. Time for me to go feed on some more "innocents" now. Which reminds me, probably should grab some lunch as well! See you next time!