Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption

Rating 8.1/10 Taking a look back at a game I first bought in 2000. I really enjoyed this game at the time, and the setting sucked me in like few games have before or since. Today when I saw this bundled with Bloodlines for $8 on GOG, I figured I would take a look at the game again and see how it has aged. I wasn't as dissapointed as I thought I might be. It's still a great game, if a little dated. Keep on gamin'!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiCJtrLExfo

That sums up my ~20 hours in Redemption. What we have is a mildly interesting story mired in a soup of mechanical and design problems. No stone is left undisturbed: from the UI to the combat, and even the plot itself. This game has a derth of reasons to play. The two main characters are pretty good and multi-dimensional. Some of the music, particularly in the second half of the game, can be surprisingly catchy. And World of Darkness is always an award-winning setting. Especially here, where you get to play in two distinct time periods. Some people have issues with the dated graphics. I personally find the early 3D models to be charming, but it probably isn't your cup of tea if you grew up with something else. Sadly, everything else sucks. Hard. The gameplay is like trying to be an ARPG ala Diablo, but it has party mechanics like Baldur's Gate, but there's no pause feature to issue commands. So you're forced to rely on the AI that gets stuck on walls half the time in real-time. The game is easy enough to solo for 90% of it, but the other 10% are enemies that can one-hit you even with max stats and the best gear. And of course: there is no quicksave OR quickload. The environments can be hit and miss. A bigger issue is just how linear the level design is. There are ZERO side-quests; ZERO non-essential zones. Yet the AI can't seem to pass a field sobriety test without getting stuck in a wall. The whole world feels like a stage. There's LESS THAN 10 CARS IN NEW YORK. I know this isn't an immersive sim but try more than not at all, please. But all of this could be forgiven if the story was good enough. It's not. Aside from the leads and the love story between them, the plot is just to stop the big bad vampire. You start out killing rats in a silver mine for some priest. The-third-to-last zone is killing GHOUL RATS for a hacker. Fill in the gaps with more rats. It's just not worth it. Play Bloodlines again. Play WoD at your hobby store. Let sleeping dogs lie.

Link to Addons that will make the replay-ability of this incredible: http://www.e-mods.net/ I bought the collectors edition back when it first came out which came with a cheap Camerilla necklace and a hardbound copy of the Book of Nod. The game had its flaws but all in all, it was really enjoyable. The main draw of the game back then and the main draw even now is the community behind it. There are so many mods out there for this. There's even a few that change the rule-set to make it more like a Pen and Paper game. The one thing this game really has over Bloodlines is the multiplayer support. If Bloodlines had been released with that, like the community was hoping for, Redemption wouldn't even be worth noting but being as that wasn't the case, Redemption is still the best choice if you're looking for a PnP styled Vampire the Masquerade CRPG. Check http://www.e-mods.net/ for some great add-ons

Love this game, it's not a very deep rpg but very well ambiented; the music, the city designs... i've remember the music of the london hub, the beautiful music in dialogs with Anezka, the dark streets of prague...a pleasure for the senses. The gameplay it's correct, a lot of hours of play, different endings, difficult in some places and some light puzzles. Very complete game, I recommend it so much.

Of course, the game itself had no special features. It's a well ok kind of action RPG. But I especially liked, that it began in medieval Prague and I liked the setting with the different families and generally was so amazed by the feeling, no bein' a Vampyre my own that I nearly lost track to RL. And because I never finished and would dearly like to finish, I am so happy, that this title is revived again here on GOG.