Vampire the Masquerade: redemption
 

So I was cleaning up the cellar and found these CD's that I got years ago from my Brother, but never bothered to install, because I read some bad reviews on it at the time. So I installed it, checked for reviews again, and found one that said that the gameplay is crap and there basically is no story, and one that said that the gameplay is crap, but the story is up to par with the best of fantasy and fiction. Since playtesting for a few minutes clearly showed that the combat is extremely boring: Has anyone here played it, and can offer an opinion? Is it, strictly from the story point of view, worth my time? Or should I rather shell out the couple of bucks for Bloodlines?

I haven't played Redemption, but Bloodlines is definitely worth shelling out a few bucks for.

I found Redemption to be not as bad as some reviews would have it
(for a brainless hack n slash romp that is). But Bloodlines is so much
a better game in every conceivable aspect, its not even funny how
mediocre redemption seems in comparison (imo ofcourse and all that)…

Be warned though that Bloodlines is a bit heavy on the action part
(I dont know how much of an action oriented player you are) even
with the less combat oriented clans…

Well, by the time I played it was too late for a 'review', but I did a 'game comment' form for another site … here you go. Note this is the Mac version, and since it was originally for OS 9, it had issues with Bink video in OS X so I had to watch the movies separate from the game.

Game: Vampire the Masquerade: Redemption
Genre: RPG
Sub-Genre: Single player, isometric.
System: Mac (also PC)
Rating:T (Teen)
My Score:3.5/5

General Comments:Vampire the Masquerade: Redemption was the first attempt to capture White Wolf's PnP RPG. Released in 2000, it attempts to meld first person action with role playing and party management. So how does it fare?

Graphics:It seems like many games from a given time period share a 'flavor' in how they look. That is not to say they copy each other, but the technology is similar. Such is the case with VtM: Redemption - it looks much like Rune or Blade of Darkness, all of which were released ithin several months of each other, and each of which uses a melee engine. I found the graphics not as detailed as Blade of Darkness, more in line with Rune, and quite serviceable. (8/10)

http://www.gamerankings.com/screens4/914408/6.jpg
http://www.gamerankings.com/screens4/914408/10.jpg

Story/Plot:The game starts with your character - Christof - in the 12th century as a living human. It lays out the premise of the entire game very well, and is quite engaging. Once you become a vampire (c'mon, you knew it was coming!) the plot - while still very good - becomes very linear. You basically move from main-quest item to main-quest item, with no extraneous interactions or side-quests. If this sounds somewhat unsatisfying for an RPG, that's because it is! It is a decent story thread that would be immensely satisfying for an action game or FPS, but not in a RPG.(7/10)

Character Development:VtM: Redemption offers similar character development options as Bloodlines - you gain points through experience, and can spend them on either attributes or 'feats'. The method in Redemption is fairly convoluted, where you gain thousands of experience points and each attribute you wish to raise takes hundreds or even thousands of points to raise. But in the end you can customize your heroes much in the same way as in Bloodlines.(8/10)

Gameplay/Controls/HUD: I found that the controls all made sense, the HUD was informative and intuitive … and that the gameplay was pretty mediocre. It is the feeling of trying to control the action of four characters simultaneously in a game like Rune. Sound hard - it is. It would be easier if the NPC AI was better - but it isn't. My best strategy ended up being to equip the team well, control Christof, hope for the best and carry plenty of resurrect scrolls, and then take it as a discipline as soon as I could. I do have to say that during the early sections, and in the middle of the game, you are left to fight alone, and it is actually quite fun - it is unfortunate the game could not sustain that combat enjoyment.(6/10)

Sound/Music:After enjoying the music in VtM: Bloodlines so much, Redemption's is still very good, but not up to the same level, even taking the age of the game into account. It all makes sense, and provides good atmosphere, but little else.(8/10)

Value/Replay:Classic RPG's are typically some of the most replayable games out there, due to the ability to play different character types and make different choices. Action RPG's tend to suffer as they are more about combat and less about plot and development. Yet most action RPG's offer either tons of sidequests (as in Divine Divinity or Sacred) or unique characters to play. Vtm: Redemption offers neither. There are no sidequests, no party choices, and there is only so much you can get out of the character development options due to the need to play 'team cleric' as mentioned above. (7/10)

Overall:I did enjoy this game, some times more than others, but it is not great. It suffers combat flaws, is fairly short, and fails to deliver on the promise it shows early on in terms of story and development.

Pros:
+ Good graphics
+ Very good story, setting and environment
+ Solo combat areas are actually quite fun.

Cons:
- No sidequests
- Party combat is not so much fun
- Need to micromanage NPC�s in battle
- Many things limit replayability.
- Linear plot path

Score:7/10

I liked Redemption, but only after I cheated myself a few zillion points to dump in my different abilities, so that I actually felt like my character was a vampire. They just werent giving me enough points in my opinion to do anything significant with my character, and he was physically so extremely weak, that mere humans were dropping him with ease after a few hits, while taking a ton of damage themselves. Who's the immortal here? It's expected that the lower tier weapons would be pretty weak, but I found that most all of the weapons except the big dogs were a waste of time. Just too much weakness goin on for my taste.

So i gave myself lots of blood points, a chaingun, and a rocket launcher, and the game suddenly turned fun as I was calling down lightning and throwing out ordinance left and right.

My other gripe with it is that you cannot actually choose your clan, I think youre a Toreador, and that's it. The game plays out as sort of a primer on the different clans, as you meet a member of each, and some join you or whatever.

I still thought it was fun tho, I had a good time with it. After I cheated like crazy tho

I enjoyed it quite a bit. The game is definitely too long though.
Make sure to install the latest patch. A little bit of cheating can also be helpful. They somehow didn´t get the balancing right.

There was a lot they didn't get right … there was an interesting 'postmortem' on this somewhere I remember reading that detailed all the stuff they had to cut to make their timeline - things like other clans, side-quests and more balancing.

You were a Brujah If I recall correctly.

Anyway my gripe with it was the simplistic (dungeon siege like) gameplay.
Getting from one battle to the next horde of enemies etc…

There was a pretty decent story as txa pointed out (which I quite liked) but
very little rpging happening relevant to it (bit less of what I expected from
a Vampire rpg) contrary to Bloodlines, despite the second being a far more
"purely" action oriented title…

I was once the teamleader for the largest mod for the game. I found the story to be decent but I was not fond over how the RPG that emphasised on "STORYTELLING" was reduced into a hack & slash game.

I do not know if you need any cheats. Max Celerity, Potence and Fortitude and you gib even stronger opponents in a few swings.

And yeah, the main character is a Brujah.

Thanks all for the opinions and, great info all around. Sounds like I might keep it on the HD for a while and see if I can get into the story.

i liked the game quite a bit. very epic. released before nwn and to me superior in every way. i'll trade game linearity for meaningful characters in a game any day. its very hard to tell a decent story if there are too many variables. bloodlines is surely a better game but the games are so different from one another they might as well be scrabble and tennis.

mikes pros and cons are spot on but i would definately give the game at least an 8.5 or the equivalent of an a- as they are very few modern party rpgs with interesting characters, and dialogue.

I think most people whom were disappointed with Redemption expected an RPG, but it’s clearly an Action game with RPG elements like Stats and a few in game choices that determine you’re Humanity, which is used to determine one or three endings.

If you’re a fan of Vampires and you don’t mind playing one of the best Action games made at the time, with flaws, it’s a classic hit, imo. :)

There is a very good story in Redemption, well acted and crafted, as mentioned on the box; it’s a love story that spans a thousand years.

The Official 1.1 Patch is mandatory, to be able to play as bug free and to prevent hair pulling. :p

While I agree with most of txa 1265’s review, I disagree with the graphics and sound assessment.
In 2000 when this game was released, I am not aware of a better looking Point and Click game, certainly no RPG and remember this was developed during the technology of the late 90’s, probably late 96 or early 97 as the start of development.

Not only did Nihilist (their first game as a new dev studio) develop new graphic techniques like Stretching Textures, allowing them to make very good looking In Game Movies, even with Lip-sync, with a version of the Quake engine now less.
Look at those NPCs in the In Game movies for that time, in game development; it was a brilliant and innovative move. :)

Now the Sound was equally amazing, from the haunting operatic, medieval melodies and modern rhythmic beats, this burgeoning dev studio turn to new top talent sound studio’s on the net, instead of industry giants and save massive amounts of money while getting some of the most atmospheric sounds of the time.

The game clearly was rushed out by Activision (what’s new right?), even with the Official patch the interface is still clumsy, always hit the pause button first, then try to set your attack up and once everyone is set, un-pause at least till you get a feel for the game, also F11 removes the GUI, between fights and level changes.

Personally I put fun above challenge, so I would have no qualms about using console commands if I thought I would be more fun, but all the suggestions so far seem very good.

Also one of the main strength’s and longevity was the Multiplayer element which was another amazing accomplishment, to the single player game, which hasn’t been mentioned yet, unless I missed it.
They were the first dev team to put together tools and source and the patch, on their on time and for free, iirc.

Nihilistic is a damn fine studio, too bad we lost them to m$ console crap. :(

Aye, I found this to be a very enjoyable game. It took a friend of mine quite a lot of effort to get me to play it, and it took me a while to get into it, but after I was done I was glad I had. I've even replayed it once since and probably will again someday. It is very combat oriented, but tactical enough to entertain me.

I also agree with Acleacius on the graphics. Usually, I consider graphics a pretty low priority, but I had to admit Redemption was gorgeous in its time, particularly the environments. The city at night was lovely. If I recall correctly, none of the other games I bought around the same time had anywhere near the visuals of Redemption, although that's hardly a good reason to play it in my mind, even less so today when it will look rather dated.

Nevertheless, I recommend it. But, no, it's no Bloodlines. Apples and oranges.

Found the post mortem, for any fans intrested. :)

http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20…uebner_pfv.htm

Just started the game and I have to say I'm enjoying it much more than I would have thought. Coming to it now, it really has that late-nineties feel--1997-00 when some of the best games ever were made and before graphics became the cart pulling the horse. I remember these kind of dungeons like an old friend. :)

Great review as ever Mike--and appreciated reading everyone's comments.