Vampire the Masquerade: Redemption takes Christof, once a valiant knight for the church, and turns him into a Vampire, who sets out on a journey to find out who is responsible for throwing him into this darkness.
Vampire The Masquerade: Redemption is a very unique horror RPG that turns a crusader who was once a champion against evil into a blood-thirsty vampire. You play the character known as Christof, who has spent his life as a valiant knight in the service of the church. In the beginning, you are still mortal, and you must accomplish a few tasks.
The game starts off in Prague during medieval times. After taking care of some troublesome pests in the mines, you are then turned into a vampire, and that is really when the game begins, and the FUN as well. As the game goes on, you will also visit Vienna and eventually be shipped to modern day London, where you can get a hold of some really awesome weapons.
One of the best things about this game is that you don't always have to be alone in combat situations. You will come across some fellow vampires (and mortals at the beginning of the game) who are more than willing to join you in your quest to hunt down the evil that turned you into this monster. They will each have their own powers and special abilities.
One of the main things to remember once you are turned into a vampire, is that you MUST feed to survive, and that was really one of the neatest things about the game, being able to actually suck your enemies dry and of course kill them in the process. You have a blood pool meter on the game screen, and that meter needs to remain as full as possible, and sometimes it is more convenient to feed on enemies instead of trying to "blast" them to bits.
Here is a list of the general stats that will help build a character: Strength - can determine what type of armor and weapons can be used Dexterity - can affect ranged weapons, and chance to kill in one blow Stamina - determines how much damage the character can take Perception - can be required for certain disciplines (will talk about these soon) Intelligence - can allow you to use more powerful spells Wits - can also determine what spells can be used Charisma - deals with spells that can disable enemies Manipulation - can help in buying and selling items Appearance - just as it says, helps make you look better
There is also an interesting feature in this game called Disciplines. These are somewhat like magic and can quite often help turn the tide of battle. Some of these include: Fire Storm, Prison of Ice, and Plague Wind. There are also scrolls and regular magic that can be used during the game.
Gameplay was very good in this game. The interface was not too hard to figure out and most movement and other controls were done with the mouse. You could easily add armor and weapons to your character, and have several companions with you to help with tough battles. There was a wide assortment of weapons and armor to buy and find within the game, enough to keep you geared up for any situation you might come across. There is no tutorial mission, but there is a multiplayer option.
Graphics were excellent in this game. There were very detailed environments and the characters had some very cool detail to them as well. I really liked how the enemies turned to "dust" after you sucked them dry, very cool. The different locations were authentic, from Prague to modern day London.
The learning curve was very good. Although there was not any kind of tutorial mission, it was still not very hard to learn how things were done during the game. If you just experiment some on your own during the game, then you will more than likely figure out all your controls, and so forth.
Replay value was probably the lowest ranking for this game. This is mainly due to the fact that really the only reason you have to play the game again is on a harder difficulty setting, which should make the game somewhat different. But I would still say that it would be worthwhile to play this game again, it has such an interesting storyline, and it is really a very unique RPG.
Sound was very good in this game. There was plenty of ambient sound effects, and the background music was appropriate. The characters, including Christof, had some very distinctive voice tracks. Granted, you did not have any "driving" music from today's hot artists, but this was the type of game that did not need any of that.
In conclusion, I would say that this game was Very Good, and it is definitely worth a look and worth playing. I can safely say that you will probably not find too many other games that will take you on a journey through the vampire mythology like this game does, and along the way you will probably learn more about all the different vampire clans and so forth than you could ever imagine. And as you probably already know, there is a sequel to this game out called "Bloodlines", and it looks just as interesting as this one was (I am still trying to get it, LOL).
