Surprisingly, in the long years that have passed after the exit Vampire: The Masquarade – Bloodlines In 2004, none of the major developers and publishers really tried to make a classic RPG about the clan wars of vampires in a modern metropolis. And here William Fisher (William r. Fisher), man and ship, owner and actually the only employee WRF Studios, I tried. And him Bloodlust Shadowhunter -an attempt even in something successful. Although far from everything.

Strip stories

IN Bloodlust Shadowhunter Everything is in order with the atmosphere. You wake up in a coffin in some gloomy dungeon, hear a uterine voice and understand with horror-now you are a converted vampire (or a vampire), and you need to get to the city to find out who is to blame and what to do next.

There, in the city, you will have to work on various vampire clans (there are five of them), to earn a reputation, to then decide who you are with, and to oppose their local emperor – he spoils the life of ghouls and ordinary mortals. The charm is that in fact you are a hunter for monsters who was killed, and then resurrected in the image of a ghoul unknown “patron”. And at the end, being already a habitat ghoul, you will decide whether there is something human remained in you in order to destroy the great evil, or you are already completely on the dark side.

Versh and bottom

Like in Vampire: The Masquarade – Bloodlines, Vampires here arrange their masquerade: place secret shelters in the basements under Chinese restaurants and arms stores, conduct negotiations in cinemas and organize closed parties in night clubs for their two -hundred -year -old daughters. Dark gateways and strengthened streets, bars, restaurants, night clubs, hotels and massage salons, in which pretty girls with sharp teeth work, in Bloodlust Shadowhunter The stylistics and atmosphere characteristic of the World of Darkness universe unmistakably guesses.

But at the same time, no one stops at any time to go down to the dungeons and turn the game into a gloomy Dungeon CRAWLER. There, in the catacombs, the levels are generated by accident every time, you go deeper and deeper, meet more stronger enemies, overcome traps, look for keys to the door, trying to find secret rooms and cache, you cherish chests and painfully guess what to throw out of the inventoryto take this rare crossbow or dagger.

In the dungeons, at the same time, without a flashlight, neither ZGI is visible, and the batteries have an unpleasant property of discharge. In addition, it is very difficult to find a way out, so you have to learn the skill of teleportation and carry special teleporting crystals with you.

Kiss the vampire

However, the main thing is that you should always have at hand in catacombs and in the city – these are bottles of blood: without it, endurance will cease to regenerate (it is needed for special blows in close combat), health and mana. This is especially true precisely underground, where it is difficult to meet a living mortal soul – all the zombies, golems, snakes, spiders and another abomination are entirely.

But in the city you can always attack someone in the dark corner and fall to the delicate neck. If the corresponding skill is developed enough, the bitten will become a member of your own vampire family. He can give him orders: run near and protect the owner, collect the “loot” on the locations or look, bite and make you new “relatives”. That is, over time, it will turn out to put together your detachment.

Role games with vampires

However, your main assistants in Bloodlust Shadowhunter Not minions, but characteristics, talents and skills. The role system here is simple, but effective. At the start, choose the floor and, oddly enough, the character’s race: you can be a pure bloodsucker or a dampier – a half -man who is weaker than the first, but also less depends on the need to constantly drink blood. Plus the dampir is higher resistance to fire and light.

Then choose a character class – this is, conditionally, a warrior, a magician (Witch) or a thief (Criminal). The choice affects the starting characteristics: the warrior, of course, is initially stronger, the magician has higher charisma and the skill of belief, and the thief uses increased reserves of dexterity to successfully wrap it from long -range weapons and hack castles. The basic parameters, in turn, affect not only the level of health or mana, damage in close combat and the like, but also the efficiency of using skills.

“Skill” are active, allowing you to call for spiders or rats in battle, throw “fireballs” and lightning, “cast” protective auras and so on, and passive, determining the chance to open the lock or deactivate the trap. There are still many talents that give various pleasant bonuses like an increase in the strength or speed of your minions.

In place and some other things from the obligatory program for each self -respecting RPG: alchemy, repair of the wear of the wear of the wear, the ability to improve it with different precious pebbles, identification of objects

..

The dark past

Someone will be surprised that all this is done by a very small group of developers, but William Fisher Huge experience in such conditions has been accumulated. Your first game, “horror” The Last Half of Darkness, He made it back in the 80s, and in the zero actually he released horror, such as The Last Half of Darkness: Society of the Serpent Moon. It was really gloomy, capable of scaring games. That is why in Bloodlust Shadowhunter Everything is also very gloomy, atmospheric and generally as it should.

Another thing is that the technical performance remains at the level of past years – terrible graphics, clumsy animation and a general sense of budget. Well, it is clear that in general before Vampire: The Masquarade – Bloodlines The game, of course, does not reach: not that scale, the dialogs are not so good, the quests are much more primitive, the moral choice and the ability to somehow influence the interlocutor are very less common ..

To use some skills and even weapons, you need a certain level of reputation in a particular clan.

Freedom to die

And yet at Bloodlust Shadowhunter There is their charm and their arguments that make you return here again and again. Here, for example, there are a lot of closed doors and chests, secret rooms, secret walls and levers that open them, which can be found only using the skill of special vision. There are also packaged computer systems. Look for all this, get the keys, break, open and open really interesting. In addition, puzzles come across when, for example, you need to penetrate an inaccessible place with the help of a special controlled sphere and activate some lever.

There is freedom: you can accept the quest from any faction and immediately try to penetrate the forbidden zones of its shelters using the ability to temporarily invisibility. Funny details in the surrounding world are found. For example, a local gunsmith will give a key to steal something for him. The author of these lines decided to engage in this quest later and often visited the gunsmith just to bargain. Every time he asked how, they say, successes. And then he decided that he was inflated, and refused to deal with me.

Finally, the game challenges – here it is really difficult to survive, there is not enough money, the batteries for a flashlight and a bottle of blood quickly end, many enemies are frankly stronger than you, and when hunger begins, and even go back into the coffin.

Should you play in Bloodlust Shadowhunter, largely depends on your feeling of beautiful. Outdated graphics and terrible animation can scare away those who are used to modern spectacular hits. But those who appreciate primarily gameplay will find here things that can pass on a long time. All fans of Gothic, vampires and Vampire: The Masquarade – Bloodlines This game is required to familiarize.

Pros: gloomy Gothic atmosphere;the ability to drink mortals blood;diverse gameplay;An interesting role system.
Cons: outdated graphics;Animation curve;primitive quests.