mgeorge on 4/2/2010 at 22:57
Just got this in my email. It's 6 bucks. I'm sure someone here has played it. Ever since VTM Bloodlines, I've had an interest in this, and even tried the demo years ago, but never seen it in stores.
I know it's nothing like Bloodlines, but is it worth it?
Nameless Voice on 4/2/2010 at 23:03
It's a good game. Not half as good as Bloodlines, though. It's a far more traditional party-based third-person point-and-click RPG.
Lots of combat, far less dialogue, certainly not multiple ways of doing everything, but it's set in the Old World of Darkness, so it has the nice background and story going for it.
There's a lot more combat in it, and the combat is generally along the line of the "click on them and let your character(s) do the fighting", with a bit of discipline use thrown in.
You don't get a choice as to your character, your allies, or anyone's clan, but there are more discipline schools available and you can learn new ones, as opposed to being stuck with the ones you started with.
...and Celerity actually makes you go faster, instead of making everyone else go slower! (Something that always annoyed me in Bloodlines, a speed spell that doesn't let you move faster...)
gunsmoke on 4/2/2010 at 23:30
Me too. I got it in $2 in 2004 right before Bloodlines released. I was into it for a few hours, but lost interest.
Phatose on 5/2/2010 at 00:33
Sloppy game. Sloppy game design. Would've been rather hard, if not for the stupid awaken/feed xp loop.
gunsmoke on 5/2/2010 at 00:36
Quote Posted by Phatose
stupid awaken/feed xp loop.
Whassat?
Muzman on 5/2/2010 at 01:03
It's got some interesting aspects to it, but they were far outweighed by the frustrations I found.
I remember enjoying the scenery and lighting and things. Otherwise its mostly a not very good third person hack n slash RPG.
Apparently a patch fixed a lot of the terrible scenery clipping and pathfinding I had to put up with. I don't think it would have helped with the rotten combat and enemy placement.
There's some interesting potential in branching stories and character development (humanity loss for instance), but I couldn't be arsed exploring them at the time.
It might be ok for a cheapie retro fix if you can put up with that sort of thing (or like Diablo-likes more than me)
My bitching about it at length is still there I see. (contain spoilers)
(
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?p=699906)
Phatose on 5/2/2010 at 01:41
Quote Posted by gunsmoke
Whassat?
Exactly what it sounds like. You get XP per kill. The awaken ability brings someone back from the dead, with half blood. Including enemies. Thus, if you level up feed enough that it's reliable, you can find a miniboss class enemy, kill it, then awaken it. You then feed, restoring the blood you used to cast awaken and killing it for xp again. Lather, rinse, repeat.
I've seen at least one enemy where it also drops an item every single time you kill it. The item had next to no value, so it wasn't any good for an infinite money loop, but given how sloppy the rest of the game was, I pretty much expect there is at least one enemy you can do this for items, and thus cash, on to boot.
Nameless Voice on 5/2/2010 at 04:04
I never heard of that one, but just because a game has an exploit doesn't mean you have to use it. Or are you a compulsive cheater?
There's also a bug in Bloodlines that could theoretically let you create a character with every attribute, stat and discipline maxxed out...
... and then Jack gives out to you for cheating during the tutorial.
Phatose on 5/2/2010 at 05:08
Or, if you're a cleared minded thinker, you can just skip the game entirely, which is what I'd recommend.
Thing is, I don't see this as a simple exploit. Despite Troika's uselessness at bug fixing, an obviously bugged dialogue is pretty clearly a bug. This is much more fundamental. Simply put, I can't think of any other possible reason to allow a player to bring an enemy back from the dead in a Diablo clone. And limiting targeting based on whether or not the thing is an enemy or dead is very basic.
If it's a bug, it's one so fundamental that missing it in testing implies very shoddy testing practices. If it's not, it implies a designer with his head up his ass.
As for Bloodlines....are there seriously people out there who are going to argue that Bloodlines wasn't a sloppy game?
Andarthiel on 5/2/2010 at 06:53
An excellent game, of course it doesn't really compare to the greatness of Bloodlines but I really did enjoy it. The story was quite good and the gameplay reminded me of a party-base Diablo. It was nice to see more lore in it too and more clans like the Lasombra and the Setites.
It got a bit frantic by the end managing the four characters so it added a bit of a challenge to it.
Serena was awesome, probably one of the most awesome characters in a game. I managed max her out by mid-game.
This thread is making me want to give it another play.
