 Haters gonna hate. There have been far too many books and movies that have damaged the reputation of the vampire as being a fierce, elegant predator of the night. It's time for vampires to get that back. It's time to take back the night. NOTE: I would highly recommend buying this game on Steam. It's less expensive, slightly more reliable, and well worth the price.
1. Gameplay
 Why would a vampire government act differently than a human government? Bloodlines takes previous vampire lore, throws out old, outdated, and illogical elements and incorporates new elements to update the scene. Vampires have formed their own societies with their own laws to ensure their survival. As humanity has gotten better at death and destruction, the need for secrecy has increased exponentially. This game focuses on the player’s interaction within this secret society and how the player changes the society, for better or for worse. This game is a much more adult, modern view of vampires and the way that they would interact with society. They are constantly surrounded by a variety of sins and pleasures but are entirely unable to partake in any of it. Vampires are unable to drink, smoke, and are (almost) entirely unable to have sex. While they are constantly bombarded by these pleasures of society, and sometimes even work within these elements, they are not able to actually taste what they are constantly tempted with.  Exhibit A. This game blends the first person shooter and role-playing game elements flawlessly. Players can use magical powers to attack enemies, but they will have to constantly rely on firearms and melee weapons. The weapons, both melee and ranged, have a good variety and allow the player to choose what is the best method of approaching a situation. Sometimes the player will have to be stealthy, other times the player will have to rush in with guns blazing. Either way, the powers that the player gets (described in a bit more detail in the “Magic” section below) are designed to complement the “shooting” aspect of this game. While combat plays an obviously prominent role, the vast majority of the player’s time in the game world will be spent in conversations. The conversations can be as trivial as uncovering more lore about the vampire world to as critical as deciding with which side the player should ally himself. The conversations are far more frequent than the combat and the player can make his (un)life a lot easier by answering questions correctly and forming critical alliances with the right characters.  Like this one. Unfortunately, this game is not without its issues. Every game has its bugs (errors), but Bloodlines is affected by far more of these than an average game. The team that developed the game went bankrupt soon after this game’s release and was only able to fix a few of the biggest issues, but far too many went completely unchecked. The game is so bug-riddled that, had some dedicated fans not intervened, I would have been unable to play this game. Fortunately, this game has developed such a core of dedicated fans that these hardcore gamers have created a series of detailed “unofficial patches” to solve most of the game-breaking issues. There were still a few cosmetic problems that I had with the game, but the unofficial patch allowed me to run this game on my Windows 7 computer without issue. This game is third on the list of “30 PC Games to Play Before You Die” and with good reason. If you can get around the bugs, you’ll see why this is one of Carmine’s favorite games of all time.
Any gamer remotely familiar with a computer and how to apply patches will be able to fix these issues without any real problems. However, those that do not consider themselves “technologically savvy” may want to have a geeky friend help them make this game playable. 2. Parental Notices
 The number is the amount of damage of the attack. Pretty realistic. Even shotgun blasts and explosions simply sent an enemy flying without any real gore.  Boom. There are a few exceptions to this, however. Players can perform special stealth-based kills that are unique for each weapon. These vary from snapping an enemy’s neck with a tire iron to impailing an enemy through the back with a katana.  Or using a fireaxe like a baseball bat. The player can also acquire a flamethrower that can be used to light enemies on fire. Enemies will continue to act normally even when they are on fire.  WHO WANTS TOAST?! Some enemy types, especially this one weird monster, will explode into a shower of guts and body parts on death. In this case, blood goes everywhere.  This is that monster. One of the powers that the player can acquire if the player selects the “Tremere” clan is called “blood boil”. The target’s blood will literally heat up to the point of boiling. After a short time, the target will explode in a shower of blood that will damage any characters around it.  Like an exploding paint can. While these may seem extreme, keep in mind that they are only a tiny portion of the overall gameplay. The majority of the game is spent in conversations or non-combat based missions.
 Frequently. The player will have to enter establishments such as a strip club run by a female vampire in lingerie and a pornographic video store run by a creepy 40 year old guy with a pony tail.  Hey, stop staring at her chest. Jerk. Prostitutes also have a presence in the game. The player can use these “ladies of the night” as a blood supply.  Is this how they dress in massage parlors? The player can get pin-up posters of four female characters in the game if certain very well-hidden items are found and put in the player’s mail box. It’s very difficult to find these items without help from a walkthrough.  It's actually extremely difficult to find the items. There is supposedly a way to get a brief sexual encounter with one of the characters in the game. However, this is only unlockable if a series of specific actions are taken and if the player has specific stats. Even then the scene is only low-volume sounds played over a black screen. However, for all the sexuality in this game, the player is unable to develop any real romantic interests with any of the characters.
 I bars, in alleyways, in people's bedrooms... Prescription drugs also play a very prominent role. The player can find them and sell them for money. He can give morphine to one character that is badly injured. However, the player cannot use any of the drugs.  What do you need that many pills for? Some characters also smoke in the game. This is a rare occurrence and once combat begins these characters stop smoking completely.  An indoor smoke break? The opening cinematic of the game shows prescription drugs in the player’s dirty hotel room, implying that the player took some during a night of sinful debauchery.  Why are there no sheets on the bed? Again, keep in mind that the vampiric curse renders all substances of any form to be entirely unusable to the vampires (including the player), thus substance use is almost entirely nonexistent.
3. Other Factors
 God creates man, God banishes man, man has Cain and Abel, Cain slays Abel, God creates vampires. Get it? This is just a small taste of the amount of religious references in the game. The game brings in constant references to Cain and other elements of the book of Genesis as the basis for vampirism. Asian mysticism and Buddhism is also brought into the game through the mysterious Kuei-jin.  He always looks so jolly. The play even has to infiltrate a monastery of religious anti-vampire zealots and kill the entire sect, effectively eliminating their presence in the entire West Coast. The player will also have the “vampires are afraid of crosses” myth tested on him as well. While it would be possible to exclude the religious elements from this game, the core elements that make this game so amazing are so rooted in religious belief that the storyline would be almost nonexistent without religion.
 Bad boys, bad boys, whatcha gonna do? There are also vampire laws that have even more strict enforcement. The player can lose credibility with the “masquerade” by revealing his vampiric nature in public. This could be anything from feeding to using a power while humans can see the player. If the player loses five points of credibility with the “masquerade”, meaning he reveals his true nature five times, he will be put to death instantly. There are plenty of environments where the laws of the masquerade and humanity do not apply. These “combat zones” are areas where the player’s life is directly threatened and/or the secrecy of the masquerade is in jeopardy. In these areas the player can use powers and kill anyone without consequence.
 Oh and vampires don't have to breathe underwater.
 You are getting sleepy... These powers are not necessary to complete the vast majority of the game. However, they are extremely useful and can produce extremely powerful results based on when and where they are used. More powerful enemies will frequently use strong powers to improve their odds in combat against the player.  Magical wolves don't take kindly to their types. There are a couple of references to necromancy throughout the game. The Giovanni family is a mafia-like clan of vampires who, evidently out of sheer boredom, decided to learn necromancy. As a result, their hidden basement is filled with zombies and coffins.
As this is a game about vampires, it goes without saying that vampirism will play an extremely prominent role. All vampires, including the player, are required to drink blood in order to survive. Usually that blood comes from humans, but the player can drink a small amount of blood from rats as well.  It's like wine, but thicker. Diablary and Ghouls The concept of vampirism gets a bit more complicated when vampires are included. There are two prominent complications, ghouls and diablarists. Ghouls are humans who, by drinking vampire blood, gain superhuman powers and an inability to age. As long as the ghoul continues to drink the blood of a vampire, that ghoul will have all of the benefits including near immortality. Diablary is an act where a vampire drinks the blood of another vampire. The idea is that a diablarist will gain the strength and power of the vampire victim. The game never specifies whether or not this is true, but the main antagonist force, the Sabbat, commonly practice diablary.  And I'm on the menu. Cannibalism? The player encounters a humanoid creature in the game who describes herself as a “Nagaraja”. The Nagaraja are similar to vampires in that they must gain their sustenance from humans, but instead of drinking blood like vampires, the Nagaraja must consume human flesh. I consider this a form of cannibalism, since the Nagaraja that the player meets looks human.  Does someone have a napkin? Human Disfigurement Certain clans of vampires are affected by their “curse” physically. The Nosferatu in particular are significantly mutated. The precise nature of the mutation varies, but most of the time the Nosferatu develop distinctly bat-like features.  Kids, your acne could always be worse. Much worse. There is also a mission where the player must discover the source of a particularly deadly and mysterious blood-borne disease that is affecting both humans and vampires. The player eventually finds a creature known as Brother Kanker. It is unclear if he is a vampire, but he is badly mutilated as a result of something similar to the vampire curse.  You should really get that head thing checked out. Humans who are affected by the mysterious disease end up turning into some sort of zombie.  You've gotta shoot it in the head. Tzimisce The player will run into a creature that is known as a “Tzimisce”. This is some sort of crazy version of a Sabbat (a clan of vampires) that specializes in flesh-manipulation. The Tzimisce uses the flesh of humans to create horrible furniture in his home.  I don't think I'd sleep in that bed. Seriously, the amount of gore in this one house was unbelievable. Blood was dripping constantly from the walls and ceiling.  That might be the source. It also uses humans to make horribly distorted creatures. These creatures are scary, disgusting, and very difficult to beat.  Its feet are people too. Execution The opening cinematic is of the player's "sire" (the vampire that made the player into a vampire) getting executed. Vampire law states that all vampires must get permission before they can create new vampires. The player's sire violated this law and thus is punished with death.  At least vampires don't bleed when they die. Haunted House One of the early missions that the player must undertake is going into a haunted hotel. While the hotel is hardly dangerous to the player, the entire thing is filled with suspense. It is quite easy for the player to scare themselves with the classic “what if”. The first time I played the game I found the sequence to be sometimes creepy but usually outright scary.  It's a ghost! Torture / Mutilation There is a mission that will eventually have a player go through a “snuff film” studio. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, snuff film is a style of movie that depicts an actual person getting tortured and/or murdered. While the player never finds the bodies of anyone killed in the films, the “sets” of these films are often covered in blood.  Gross. Another mission has the player look for a missing bounty hunter. The hunter was captured by a man posing as a photographer for prosthetic limbs. The photographer was actually mutilating his captives by removing their body parts.  I wonder if he was also designing a prosthetic head. Multiple Personality Disorder One of the vampire clans, known as the “Malkavians”, commonly suffer from different forms of psychosis. One of the Malkavians suffers from a split personality. One personality is Jeanette, is sort of like a teenage vixen, while the other, Therese, is a much more formal business person. Their personalities are complete mirrors and clash often, yet they manage to keep their disorder out of public scrutiny because they dress according to whichever personality is dominant at that moment in time.  It's a whole left-side, right-side brain thing. Child Molestation When Jeanette and Therese are arguing in front of the player, Jeanette tells of how their father molested Therese and how Therese eventually went insane and killed her father. Therese denies these events. Language This game does not hold back with the amount of language. This is only a real issue during conversations with certain characters, but since conversations are an extremely prominent part of this game, the language is very obvious at times. Prostitution As mentioned earlier, prostitutes can be found throughout the game. However, the player is unable to have sex with the prostitutes. Instead, the player uses them as a personal supply of blood.  She probably has AIDS. Pornography / Sin Bin One of the shops that the player can enter is known as the “Sin Bin”. The proprietor claims to be able to obtain any kind of “degenerative smut” that a person may “require”. The proprietor specifically mentions (amongst other types) bondage and bestiality. However, the player is never able to obtain any such pornography since a vampire has no need of it.  Eh, looks clean to me. Kidnapping Kidnapping occurs a few times throughout the game. In Chinatown, a businessman’s daughter is kidnapped and held captive in a massage parlor. It is up to the player to rescue the girl.  Wait, massage parlor? Really? A famous historian, Dr. Johansen, is kidnapped by religious extremists who are bent on exterminating the vampire presence in Los Angeles. The player must rescue him in order to learn how to open the sarcophagus. At the same time, a famous actor who was turned into a vampire is also captured by the religious extremists and branded multiple times during his capture. While branding is an extremely painful act to humans (especially on the face), keep in mind that vampires are extremely vulnerable to fire. This makes the act of branding even more painful and deadly.  He didn't want to stand still long enough for a picture after I let him out. Experimentation In order to forward the storyline, the player must go to a building where a zealous scientist experiments on the player in order to learn more about vampires. He tries things like turning on UV light to see if the ultra-violet nature of the light is what makes vampires vulnerable to the sun. He also tests to see if the vampire is “allergic” to crosses (which turns out poorly for the one doing the testing).  Like I said, turns out poorly. Bullying
One of the vampires named Imalia is a former model. Unfortunately, her form of vampirism results in extreme disfigurement (she’s a Nosferatu) and as a result her modeling career was finished. As a result, she is extremely jealous of the woman to take her place as the next big model, Tawny Sessions. She hires the player to put cameras in Tawny’s apartment and uses those cameras to expose extremely embarrassing information about the new model. Tawny ends up killing herself after her modeling career takes a nosedive.
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