I'll keep this short. If you were like me and grew up playing Quest for Glory, Hero-U will probably be right up your alley. After much Kickstarter turmoil, The Coles ultimately outdid themselves here, and delivered a fully realized vision that I hope will grow into a series. The game is indeed a mix of Harry Potter and Persona. The dialog, narration, and flavor text is full to the brim of the good natured Dad Joke humor they're known for. The characters have depth and charm, and I really felt I got to know them. Combat is OK, but you learn some neat tricks as the game progresses as you flesh out your build. I loved the story, and hope you will too. Please support The Coles, because their decades of game dev experience have truly brought something new to the table in the field of modern RPG/adventure games. 5/5.
but compared to Fallout 4 it's a masterpiece. Yikes.
but compared to Fallout 4 it's a masterpiece. Yikes.
Bloodlines has its roots in a pen and paper RPG system called World of Darkness. The basic premise of WoD is that it's a world much like ours, but something went wrong. The streets are a little bigger, the angles are a little more crooked, life holds a little less value, and terrible once-human beasts beyond Salvation lurk in the shadows of the fringes of society. World of Darkness has the issue where the RPG books are written in a way of goth/punk ubercoolness, but the RPG in play with a group unfortunately usually turns into horror super heroes or struggle sessions (Wraith, I am looking at you.) Bloodlines thankfully strives to remain faithful to the coolness of the core texts, but ends up leaning hard into the vampire super heroes. Troika had the issue of their reach exceeding their grasp, so much so that it's taken like 15 years? of unofficial patching to get it into a realized state. There are 7 clans. Two social clans, two combat clans, a mage clan, a stealth clan, and a comedy gimmick clan that's best for a 2nd playthrough, however, you can build your characters any way you want to. The game's plot largely plays out a certain way, but for most of the game you're given a lot of freedom to solve quests as you see fit, with a fairly decent degree of reactivity. What this game has in spades is atmosphere. The environments are fun to explore and the moody music really makes you feel a part of the urban decay dolor. The character graphics haven't aged too well, but they're done in a rather cartoony stylized way that doesn't make it as bad had they tried for full realism. The voice acting is absolutely superb. Combat stinks, which wouldn't honestly be so bad, but the last 20% of the game is just pure mindnumbing wave combat. The game has issues that can't easily be solved even with the mighty efforts of Wesp5. Troika was like a shooting star, leaving three brilliant but supremely flawed games in their wake. No game did vampire politics better than VTMB. 5/5
