HomeFeaturesVampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
Have You Played… Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines?Whether you win the game matters not — it’s if you bought it.
Whether you win the game matters not — it’s if you bought it.
Image credit:Activision
Image credit:Activision
Let’s Play Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines | Part 1: Usain Bolt Isn’t A VampireWatch on YouTube
Let’s Play Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines | Part 1: Usain Bolt Isn’t A Vampire
One odd thing I adore about this game, though, is the main character. It’s strange because really, you’d be hard-pressed to find a blanker canvas. And that’s the thing: I think that to this day, the ideas I developed while filling in my Fledgling’s character sheet still play a large role in informing how I create all my avatars. There’s a certain appeal to making your wish-fulfilment character a literal monster, because they can never be perfect. No matter how many desired traits you try to push onto them, they’re still going to have to eat a person tonight if they want to survive. But in Bloodlines, you’re encouraged to counterbalance such horrific compromises in the name of self-preservation with acts of compassion that allow your character to hold onto their humanity.
Is it going too far to claim that this game helped me accept how sometimes falling short of your highest standards for yourself doesn’t need to mean you’re no good to anyone? Yeah, that’s probably laying it on a bit thick. And for the record, as an IRL pescatarian I’ve never literally eaten anyone. But I have fucked up quite a few times, and whenever I have, I’ve always been able to take a weird amount of comfort from my spiky vampire-wizard-lady. She’s still out there doing her best to be human, so I guess I can as well.
