Vampire the Masquerade: Redemption LP

To celebrate Bloodlines 2 announcement, I decided to give a got at the first VtM game: Redemption. Like my Skyrim adventure thread (which I'm not abandoning), I'm going to chronicle my character's adventures through the game. So this is like a Let's Play and not really.

Some differences:

• Redemption has a fixed protagonist named Christof, a French crusader knight (he doesn't speak with a French accent and no French audio, I'm sad).
• I never played Redemption past the daylight section back in 2000 when it released (for a friend who's computer couldn't handle the daylight part)…so I'm pretty much going in clueless.

Disclaimer: Beware of typos, grammatical errors and badly structured sentences.

---Moravia 1141 A.D., Christof Man of God---

After falling in combat on the fields of Moravia in 1141 A.D., Christof was brought to a convent in Prague and brought back to health by the care and prayers of the very pretty Sister Anezka. The two soon spent much time together as Christof couldn't leave his bed due to his wounds.

One night, hearing screams and calls for help, Christof went out his is bed, took his nearby broadsword and went to see what was happening. Sister Anezka and another sister were being attacked by strange monstrosities. Christof chopped them into pieces and fell unconscious.

Once he regained his consciousness, he soon learned from Anezka that these things, that were certainly no creatures of God, were called szlachta and that they have been terrorizing Prague at night for months. Their lair was made in a silver mine near the city. Christof vowed to free the mine the next morning, but Anezka feared for his safety. The Bishop being nearby pushed Christof to do the deed and the discussion was closed.

The next morning, Christof put on his crusader tabbar and went to see the innkeeper to have some information about the area. The nice innkeeper learning of Christof's mission gave an elixir bottle for the journey. The crusader then went to a smith to get new armor. Once there, the smith suggested Christof went to see an alchemist gypsy for more protection against monsters. The Crusader was reluctant, was gypsy's proctection accepted by God? The smith assured him that it was and tus Christof went to the gypsy…but mostly got information from her. She said the monsters were the creatures of vampires, but having not idea what a vampire was Christof didn't really know what to make of it.

Now prepared to clean the mine, Christof made his exit of Prague. The mine wasn't very far from the city and nothing was encountered along the way. Beside the city door guards who told Christof to come back before dusk otherwise the door will be locked and he will be stuck outside. Once inside the mine, it was pitch black and no torch in sight. It was clear the monsters were not mining silver too. Some more szlachta were encountered, along monstrous putrified rats. The crusader made short works of them. He also discovered a dead miner with strange marks on his neck that Christof attributed to a dog.

Thinking it was too dark to continue into the mine, Christof went back to town to sell some of the useless tools he discovered, purchase new gloves and sword and a very needed torch.

A great game and one I have fond memories of! Enjoy

I only got a little ways then quit. It's been so long I can't remember if I quit because I wasn't enjoying it or if I was playing a demo and reached the end!

I tried Redemption, but it wasn't until years after release and after I had already played Bloodlines. It was quite clunky and dated by then.

It would be a good candidate for a remaster. I don't think it's aged very well.

I played this during my time here on the 'Watch quite a few years back. Recorded some thoughts about it; absolutely hilarious histrionic voice-acting which really adds a flavor to the moralistic christian themes at times. Atmospheric setting and a fun skill system - I'm not sure if I'd replay it, but I did enjoy my one time through it. It's like a party-based Diablo in some ways. Enjoy!

As for Bloodlines 2, it's strange, but at this point I can't really get excited about it yet.
There's simply too much which can go wrong with the large gap between games and recent sequels to classics don't particularly have a great track record for me. Still, there's plenty of time for that to potentially change.

-- The Silver Mine ---

Christof made it back to the mine, with the most precious torch. Armed with light, he could finally find the way to lower levels of the mine.

More monstrosity were found and defeated. A shield was also found, which Christof consecrated to God. Some wooden stake were also found, Christof had no idea what to do with them. Finally, the entrance to the 3rd level was reached. It reeked of evil.

Indeed, soon after reaching the bottom of the mine, the crusade discovered a mockery of an holy place. In the middle of that place stood Ahzra the Unliving. A fierce battles started, Christof had some luck finding holy water while exploring the mine and it ended up very useful against the damned creature. Once defeated and dead, the warrior found an amulet of St.Jude and kept it as a sign of God, but he was feeling uneasy from what Ahzra said. About the Tzimisce and the Methuselah of Vysehrad.

Back in Prague, he went to the Archbishop Geza to tell him of his victory and receive silver cross as a reward. Christof also asked the man of cloth about vampires , but Geza said he didn't know more than that they were evil and more knowledge corrupted the soul.

Wanting to know more about this evil enemy, Christof went to ask the old gypsy some more questions. He learned about ghouls and revenants, about there being 13 clans of vampires who seems to fight each others more than hunt humans and that the Tzimisce were the most evil of all of them.

After learning all this, Christof wanted to see Sister Anezka again. He gave her the amulet of St.Jude, incapable of telling her how he felt. Archbishop Geza, knowing what was happening and how despicable courting a church sister was, sent Christof, alone, to fight monsters in the street at night. Although, Christof had more the impression he was trying to keep the sister to himself.

After fighting a few szlachta, the crusader meet face to face with Premysl Revenants angry at the death of Ahzra. After another fierce battle, Christof rushed into the convent and discovered more of the fiends. Geza accused Christof of having damned everyone and run off like a coward.

Later that night, Christof told Sister Anezka how he felt. Unfortunately, he felt terrible once he learned she felt the same and that he corrupted her pure heart and run off into the night.

There, he was ambushed by Ecaterina the Wise, she simply hold him there without even touching him. She was a vampire, leader of the Brujah and she embraced him…

And Christof's nightmare only just started.
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I wonder if the silver mine is supposed to be Skalitz.

---The Cappadocian Monastery---

Christof first missions for his new kindred is to go into the Cappadocian hideout and find something they stole. On the way to the monastery, Wilhem, Christof's new companion, gave the ex-Crusader a few pointers about vampire life:
1. be back at the haven before dawn
2. you have to feed, which means drink blood (Christof had his first try an old drunk man)
3. Beware of the Beast and try to cling to your humanity. To do so Christof wanted to see Anezka again, but Whilmen was against it. Love is the worst of all anchors he said.

They made a stop at the old gypsy to sold things Christof will not need in his undead life. The old lady knew what happened and didn't care. She even added new things to her stocks, scrolls and blood.

Once at the monastery, Christof was angry that these vampires were living on holy grounds. Wilhem explained that the Cappadocian were studying death and the catacombs in a monastery were perfect for that. Also, the leader of the clan, Garinol, was away today which made it the perfect time to go inside and find something that was stolen from Ecaterina. The stolen object: the segment of the book of Nod.

After fighting through the defense of the Cappadocian, zombies, skeletons and a few vampires, the duo made it to Garinol's rooms but instead of finding what they were looking for, they found a journal explaining that Garinol's left he defense of the sanctuary to his untrustworthy childe Mercurio…who was nowhere to be found.

Backtracking to Mercurio's chamber, Christof used a magic item founding Garinol's chamber to open the door. After some exchanges, turns out Mercurio stole the item and not Garinol. He made a proposition to Christof: kill Wilhem and he would be returned to life….once he's done researching life and death. Christof choose to side with Wilhem, he doesn't trust that Mercurio.

Battle ensued and the duo was victorious. Mercurio's journal hold proof of his treachery and the stolen fragment was taken back. Christof was very puzzled by the writing on the fragment. Wilhem explained that it was talking about the Antidiluvians, ancient vampires, who, once they rise again from torpor, will consume all and destroy all that exist.

As a reward for helping out at the monastery, Wilhem let Christof see Anezka for one last time. The meeting didn't go too well, Christof feels he as lost everything, but Anezka gave him back the amulet of Saint Jude, patron of lost causes.

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The gameplay is kinda annoying, I feel it requires too much bloodsucking to keep your HP up and "companions" use abilities super randomly.

Originally Posted by azarhal
The gameplay is kinda annoying, I feel it requires too much bloodsucking to keep your HP up and "companions" use abilities super randomly.

Have you looked into any mods? I thought I remember there being some for this game.

Originally Posted by JDR13
Have you looked into any mods? I thought I remember there being some for this game.

I did, but the AoR mod, which add better party AI support, also changes the game content and, reading the changes, it probably makes the game harder too (better enemy AI, even more limited feeding, etc). It's an overhaul which I'm not really interested in for a first playthrough. The "fan patch" apparently fix nothing too.

Reading walkthroughs of the game, it less or more suggest to play solo by having party members on the "do nothing" stance. lol

On top of it, I had to reload twice because my characters switched from neutral to aggressive (by themselves) and started murdering Prague randomly…

-- University --

After seeing Anezka, Christof and Wilhem made it back to the University to talk to Ecaterina about the success of their mission. There was much talking. Much information about vampires, Cain, Jyhad, Tremere, Ventrue, Nosferatu, Prince. Too much for poor Christof to remember it all.

There he learned that the Tzimize are at war with the Tremere, a reviled clan of mage vampires who use humans and vampires alike into their creations. But first, because of Mercurio's treachery, the northern quarters was under attack from a golem and Wilhem wanted to stop it. So both him and Christof went there to put down a golem. All they had to do was change a letter in the scroll embedded into his head. Easier said than done.

The real reason why Wilhem wanted to defeat that golem was to give something to the Garinold, the scrolls to create the golem, so they could have some defenses. In return, Garinold gave the group one of his childe: Serena. She showed support to Christof sudden transformation, but Christof wanted no such things.

After some rest in the haven under the University, Christof after having a bad dream went to check on Anezka. She was missing! After informing his Brujah allies, he learned that many humans and vampires were now missing from the city. This lead the group to talk to Prince Brandl, the Ventrue vampire who is Prince of the city. Christof found it extremely arrogant. To get just a bit of information about what was happening, he wanted an object deep inside a cathedral protected by spells form intrusions from Vampires.

The only way to get in there was through Joseph's tunnels…or what should probably be called the Nosferatu's tunnel. He wanted elder vitae has entrance payment. At least Ecaterina wasn't angry at the request of some of her blood.

Navigating the tunnels was treacherous. Lots of ghoul rats and bad tempered Nosferatu. There was even a maze, where Christof learned the story of Cain and the first vampires. Once they reached the Cathedral, a wraith blocked the way and Christof realized there was faith worst then being a vampire.

Once they gave the Prince his trinket, they learned that the Tremere were abducting people and sending them to Vienna. Ecaterina then asked the right to purge the Prague's Tremere chantry for these actions. The Prince reluctantly accepted, because the Ventrue were in an alliance with the Tremere. Christof decided that man was not to be trusted.

Christof, Wilhem and Serena assaulted the chantry and freed some prisoners. They also found the leader of the Chantry and got some information form him. Apparently, Anekza found him and asked him about Christof. He then sent her to the Tzimize, but she came back, then he sent her to Vienna. Tus Christof now wants to go to Vienna.

That desire caused a grand argument with Ecaterina who found the idea ludicrous and a suicide. They were not ready to attack the Vienna Chantry of the Tremere, their main base. But after much argumentation, Christof got permission to go there and Wilhem decided to come along.

---Vienna---

It wasn't just Wilhelm who came along, Serena and Erick did too. The party made it to Vienna unharmed and set their sight into finding this Count Orsis. After some running around the town, they discovered a group of she-vampires in the Green Fog Inn. They extended an invitation to a little party Orsis was doing that night.

Near that Inn, was an Order of Hermes house. Christof though the place was ruled by Tremere, but it turns out it was a pre-vampire mages that was holding the place. Orsus very much wanted to get something from inside the Tremere Chantry: Haus de Hexes.

But before going there, Christof had too pay a visit to Count Orsis. Like all good things, the Count wanted something in exchange for the information. That is kill Luther Black, a vampire-priest in a nearby Church. That would help Duke Leopold and in return he would be forced to help Christof with the Tremere.

Infiltrating the church was done via the roof from a nearby building, for the best way to kill the Priest was to do so during the day while he is sleeping. The vampires had to avoid the sunlight during their advance in the building for it was burning them if exposed. The priest was a Lasombra, vampires who seems to enjoy shadows for shades attacked the party here and there, along a lots of ghouls.

Once they reached the party, Luther simply wanted to die, but Christof refused to kill him and an argument followed. In the end, he was strapped and the sunlight did the rest.

After doing their part of the deal, Christof and friends went back to leave the church but the count was there and he backstabbed them. Selling them to the Tremere while he gets credit to the Duke. The party was then jailed…with all their weapons. Serana then use some remote zombie magic to unlock the jail and the 4 of them escaped the Teutonic Knights prisons.

Christof found it most crazy that the Knights would align themselves with vampires. During their escape they came into an amulet that would let them into Haus de Hexes.

The Tremere house was full of atrocities and Tremere vampires, but the party prevailed and gained access to Etrius, their leader. Unfortunately, Etrius used his magic to finish Erik's transformation and turn him into a gargoyle. Christof, Whilelm and Serena had to kill. Then they dealt with Etrius, who run away before dying…not without mentioning that the caravan the group was seeking never reached Haus de Hexes. It was captured by the Tzimize near Prague.

Christof was much vexed over that information. There was no need to go all the way to Vienna in the end. So the race back to Prague started and once they reached the city it was in fire. Ecaterina explained that the Tzimize were not known publicly and the citizen have raise to burn down castle Vysehrad.

Fearing for Anezka, Christof and his friends rushed to the castle, despite Ecaterina's warning that it would be their tomb. The castle was falling apart when the trio go there, there was few resistance inside…outside one huge monstrosity of flesh and mouths.

Finally, Christof found Anezka again…but she was strange, corrupted, defiled. Christof wanted to leave with her but she didn't want to. Then a part of the castle fell on Christof…

Next, London 1999 A.D.

---
Vienna was full of idiot ball storytelling, lol.

--- London 1999 A.D. ---

Christof woke up in a strange place, with people wearing strange cloths and speaking a strange version of English language. He sound found out that he was in London, inside the Society of Leopold, vampire hunters. He also learned that he was in 1999, he has slept for 800 years.

The ex-crusader marveled at humans ability to create new weapons once he found a "gun". He also learned about how the Vampire society, if we can call it that, evolved. There was now a Camarilla and a Sabat sect. The leader of the Society of Leopold, a certain Father Leo Allatius, lived for over 300 years on vampire's blood as well. Christof trashed his vitae bottles…the mad man was licking it off the floor. Reading the old man journal, Christof learned that the Tzimisces of Prague were now in New York, but he had no idea where that New York was.

Once out of the Society, Christof was wordless. This London looked nothing like the London he visited in his youth as a young crusader. He also clearly wasn't fashionable. Luckily, a thief showed up and happily let Christof borrow his cloths. After changing, Christof following some strange music he was hearing. This lead him to the Club Tenebrae, where he meet a fellow Brujah named Pink.

Pink did a short version 800 history revision with Christof. About vampires and also the world. The crusader was surprised to learn that there was islands past Ireland. He wasn't surprised to learn that the Cappadocian clan was no more, taken over by criminals: the Giovanni. The very group that smuggled what Christof is running after: a Prague relics shipment from castle Vysehrad.

Pink suggested they went to the Setite to find information. They were the one who loaded the cargo sent to New York. Inside the Setite Temple, hiding inside of a brothel, the two vampires meet with Lily. She was blood-bond to the leader of the Setite, but the petite lady was a Toreador, not a follower of Set. Christof let her join the party, people asking for it deserve protection.

Unfortunately, like every time Christof wants to ask simple questions, the entire horde of Setites inside of the temple attacked the group as they went deeper into the temple simply to talk to their leader Lucretia. Once facing her, she was angry that they killed all their worshipers, Christof said it could all be avoided if people just answered his questions. At that time, Lucretia attacked and was defeated, but not killed…for she had no heart.

Lily remembered that she had a haven outside of the Temple, but all she could remember was Tower. Pink suggested "Tower of London?" and there the party went. It was the right call, the place was infested with spiders and wraith now, but at the top they found the heart. They rushed back to the Set Temple, being slightly retarded by a werewolf attack, and were granted an audience with Lucretia…who was a lot more agreeable. Well somewhat more agreeable. After answering questions and giving the name of a boat departing for New York, as well as freeing Lily, in exchange for her heart, she then transformed into a giant sneak and attacked the party again. She was once more defeated and Christof decided to drink all her power.

Once out of the temple Lily, now free, wanted to stay in the party. Pink as against it, but Christof was quite glad to have her stay. All three then went to the docks to the boat leaving soon for America.
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The game plot was improved by moving to modern time. Also better UI and awesome music. Christof still only think of one thing: Anezka… I will probably finish this tomorrow.

--- New York, 31st of December 1999---

There was a single event during the boat trip, Interpol agents were attacked by punk-Nosferatu. Christof and his party learned that they were gathering information about the Giovanni.

Once in New York, they found the FBI agent and learned where Giovanni's warehouse was, but they couldn't be allowed to join the raid. Instead they learned the FBI put information inside a "central computer". Having no idea what to do, Christof continued on his way and stumbled on a group of Nossies attacking one of their own. The Nosferatu named Samuel sounded nice enough and Christof let him join the group. He also knew a hacker would could help getting into this "central computer".

Unfortunately this hacker was a Malkavian. A raving mad Malkavian. He couldn't get into the computer because it was "off grid", so he asked Christof and friends to tap into a line of the FBI in the sewer. Turns out New York sewers are full of bad Nosferatu and alligators under the leadership of the "Underprince". He didn't last long though, he was more ugly and all talk and combat power.

Once the tap was fixed on the line, the group went back to the Malkavian. They got a code from him to open the door to the warehouse. Christof was quite pleased that for once a Kindred didn't try to use him for their own gain. It was now time to go clean the warehouse. This was done promptly. They even found the FBI agent, half-dead in a room. The leader of the Giovanni wasn't too happy though, the fighting had to stop because it was bad for his business. Christof was quite fine with this once he got his questions answered. He didn't get much though and decided to leave…but Pink went for the kill instead.

That's when Wihlem showed up telling Christof that Pink was an assassin from the Assamite clan working for Vukodlak. After a bit of an argument, Pink confessed and left. Christof was too happy to see Wihlem back to start to rage at Pink's betrayal and him running off with all the loot.

Next stop was Orsis International Shipment. The name sounded very familiar to Christof and he wondered if he could meet an old friend there. After getting some help form Lily's Sire, who they discovered was kidnapped by Orsis, they found the place and stormed it. And indeed, Orsis was good old Count Orsis. Payback was sweet and being ever the weasel, the told them where to find Vudoklak, but that they would be too late for he will raise at midnight.

The group rushed to the Cathedral of Flesh, cleaned it up until they stood in front of the monsters and Anezka. After a fierce battle, the mad ancient vampire had enough and threw the party away. They had to fight themselves in flesh corridors until they found strange walls which turned out to be Anezka's memory. She worked all these years to push back Vudoklak's resurrection.

Once out of the pit they were thrown in, the party went back to face Vudoklak, who then turned into a more monstrous creature, if that was even possible. Once defeated, Christof went to Anezka. Without the fiend's blood, she would die…so Christof proposed her internal damnation with him, which she accepted.

The end
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The modern time section was much better. I really liked all the "info dump" about the setting too.

The combat though, I can't believe people endured that back when it released the way it is. Solo is fine, but with a party…outch. Also, not enough buttons for all the cool spells.

Was a nostalgic read. I really did enjoy the game a lot when it came out. Some fun memories.

How long is the modern times part compared to the medieval section? It seems like a pretty short game (for an RPG) overall.

I remember being quite into the vampire hijinks in the first part of the game, then it started to bore me, and it lost me when it shifted to the modern era.

Originally Posted by JDR13
How long is the modern times part compared to the medieval section? It seems like a pretty short game (for an RPG) overall.

It's a 15-20 hours long game, so on the short side. The game doesn't really have side quests (outside optional stuff), but it has a few hidden treasure/puzzles and I didn't do all of them (I know I missed at least one). You can probably go faster if you don't bother selling all the crap you pick up (I didn't need all that money in the end) or ignore certain encounters (you can map transition at all time and enemies don't follow).

It's close to 50/50 in term of length between both time periods, the modern time might go a bit faster if you unlock certain abilities that makes combat much easier (summons, crowd control, etc).

Hmm, I didn't find it that short, but I do play a lot slower than most people. I only played half way so far though, didn't get to modern times.

Originally Posted by TheRealFluent
Hmm, I didn't find it that short, but I do play a lot slower than most people. I only played half way so far though, didn't get to modern times.

And I'm a fast player.

Just a little notice about a new texture pack.

Neural Redemption HD Texture Pack