Vampire: The Masquerade - RedemptionFirst of all, I don't know why I did this to myself, especially since I had already played it years ago. I couldn't help myself when it popped up on GOG for 50% off or something (before the Insomnia Insanity crap they're running now) so I started it up and got lulled in. I just like the way this games moves for some reason. And you go from medieval times to modern times in the otherwise completely shit story, so I'm on the hook automatically.
As for the game... It's crap. Utter shite. It's decent so long as you are alone, which is just during two brief instances in the game. At all other times you're saddled with incredibly stupid AI companions. They will gets stuck on corners constantly, stay in your way, block each other from attacking enemies, spend all of their ammunition shooting into a wall (you HAVE to turn on the "freeammo" cheat if you want them to use ranged weapons, otherwise they're a complete waste of time) and crucially, immediately blow all of their blood/mana on their strongest and most expensive Disciplines/Magic even if you turn it off in the options (they'll just do it less).
The dungeons are boring and filled with repetitive fights that later on just get frustrating if you haven't built your character to one-shot or incapacitate the enemies. It got to the point where I had to cheat to pass certain fights.
"Highlights":
- The Treme Haven. Filled with vampire mages. A lot of people stop playing at this point. The Tremere lords will freeze you, set you on fire, zap you with lightning and summon one of the most annoying enemy creatures. Small monkey-like abominations that take too many hits and block your movement. Ironically these are exactly the same tactics you will need to adopt to finish the game. I think this is where you find the book that teaches freezing magic. Do not leave without it.
- The dungeon where you have to run from shadow to shadow because you're out by day even though the sun kills vampires. Remember, the AI pathing is utter shite. Your companions WILL fry themselves. You could theoretically use the pause feature they patched in later, but you'd also have to open the console and turn off AI entirely to make it useful. Just run through and hope for the best.
- The last boss before the transition to modern times. If you're unlucky (you will be), he will do his strongest attack twice in a row, which will likely kill any of your characters. Forget revive scrolls, they resurrect you with pitiful amounts of HP and no blood. And right next to the thing. The only non-tedious solution is to use freezing magic and/or hope to kill it ASAP. Don't have freezing magic? Fuck you, have fun re-loading.
- The Tower of London. Filled with giant spiders and wraiths. The wraiths are a big problem. They hit hard and take a lot of hits. Say, do you have freezing magic yet? To top it off, as you exit the tower you'll be ambushed by a werewolf out of nowhere. You should really have freezing magic by this point. OR that one weapon from an earlier dungeon which does more damage to werewolves and only exists for this one, singular, random encounter with a werewolf.
- The infamous Giovanni Warehouse, mafia vampires essentially. Every fucking enemy there can and will spew a poison cloud and summon wraiths. Poison cloud makes you go berserk within seconds, which means loss of control for that character and any party member they decide to sink their teeth in. Wraiths are just hard to kill. And to top it off, a lot of them have rocket launchers as well. Have fun relying on autosaves for this one. This is where I gave myself a bunch of XP using the console to spec into fire magic and long distance blood-sucking. Fuck this dungeon.
- The last boss. If you got to this point without freezing magic, you're either insane or autistic. You're not finishing the game without cheating. He will rip you to shreds and even if he doesn't he'll just steal all of your blood so in the long run you're fucked anyway. Possible alternative strategy: Bring a rocketlauncher, fill your inventory with rockets and pray. Or do the sensible thing and chain-freeze him while the others attack without pause.
And to think that when it came out you coudln't save anywhere. :psyduck Only autosaves on area transition and hard saves in your "Haven", which you can at least open a portal to if you have the scroll or learned the appropriate magic. Ranged combat, outside of magic, is just broken due to the dumb AI and ammo mechanic. Thankfully they let you buy swords and maces even in modern times. And chainsaws, which for some reason DON'T need fuel. Small mercies, I suppose. Melee will just fuck you down the line if you rely on it too much. So - be a vampire mage AND pick the right spells or get fucked, basically.
And now, on to Marlow Briggs.
