Vampire — Out for Blood

I’ve played through this game/book more times than I can count. Love the different endings, the different builds you can create for your character and how it actually affects the choices you make in the game. I’d love to see more VTM stories turned to games. Absolutely amazing game.

The writing starts off reinforcing the initial sales pitch of small town horror. However, the second half turns into vampire politics, practically forcing the player to join a faction that in my case I just couldn’t care less about, especially as I had no reason to like (or dislike) either vampire side. Vampire faction politics is almost a whole different genre. Probably great for Vampire the Masquerade fans, which didn’t work for me as I’d been avoiding that game since it came out. (I did, however, check out Night Road, which set up expectations better - by then I knew more about the Masquerade world and the tone was consistent at least.) On the plus side, this game IS professionally executed and has good production values, explaining the hefty price tag. Still, never connected with any of the vampires… and also couldn’t muster enough dislike to want to off them, either. End result: no emotional connection. The only guy I actually liked was the shop assistant, who it turns out might have become a typical Asian character in American fiction: a potential red shirt. Give me a break.

I had a lot of fun playing this game as I did with Night Road (which was superb), but I felt like I was kicked in the head by the end of the game. I was rather dead set on siding with Chastain from the beginning, so I sided with her on everything, killed two of the thinbloods, informed her about *everything*, and yet but the end of the game, when I tried to negotiate peace between her and Monroe, she got killed. At this point, I realized just how much time I wasted on this game and how much everything was for naught. I’m just sorely disappointed with how badly it turned out.