BloodLust Shadowhunter: Превью

In the RPG genre, no one has so successfully and atmospherically embodied vampire themes as games from the series Vampire: The Masquarade — речь, конечно, о Redemption и Bloodlines. The latter has long become cult and even phenomenal: it came out 8 years ago, it was not too well sold, its creators were almost immediately bankrupt, but the game still has many fans who still release fan updates for the old woman. Естественно, многим хотелось бы увидеть продолжение Bloodlines. Moreover, today dreams are quite embodied in reality with the help of Kickstarter. However, so far former employees Troika Games are in no hurry to reanimate the cult game. And it may turn out that lovers of drinking virtual blood will have to be content not hypothetical Bloodlines 2, and her clone called Bloodlust: Vampire Shadowhunter.

Develops Bloodlust Small independent studio named after its creator William r. Fisher (William r. Fisher) – WRF Studios. Nevertheless, it is quite famous in the industry. Since 1989 Fisher releases a series of quests Last Half of Darkness, who also have their fans who recognize these games with cult and unique. These quests are imperfect from a technical point of view, even archaic in some ways, but they know how to truly frighten and fascinate with their gloomy atmosphere. Apparently, the same can be said about Bloodlust: Vampire Shadowhunter.

In the wake of Bloodlines

Where do the legs grow from Bloodlust And what kind of game her author focused on, you can see right away. A non -linear plot is also announced here, telling about the life of vampires in the modern world. Fate played a cruel joke with a hunter for ghouls: once he discovered himself in a coffin, from where he crawled out with a converted ghoul. Someone unknown did this so that our hero could adequately resist the formidable and ruthless lord of vampires, terrorizing a city. Fighting, overcoming obstacles and gradually approaching his goal, the character becomes stronger, but at the same time, more and more loses his human appearance. And in the final, the player will be faced with a difficult choice: to finally turn into an immortal and ruthless vampire or destroy the source of this force.

In the process, as you have already guessed, it will be possible to join various vampire clans and gangs operating in the city. Each of them has its own characteristics, goals, enemies and bonuses that joined receives. So, the Durkas clan in full accordance with its name unites the most crazy ghouls of the city, which everywhere see ghosts. Entering here will immediately gain access to such skills as telepathy and detecting traps. But the SCADES clan is, on the contrary, the oldest and most aristocratic vampire sect, which prefer to cooperate with the political and economic elite of the city. Its members will immediately learn the art of calling minions, changes in the shape and frying of enemies with “fireballs”.

Other clans are also promised. With each of them, we will be able to build relationships through the system of reputation. However, in parallel the player will form his own family. It will include the characters bitten by him and the vampires. Each such “family member” will bring the hero additional experience points: someone-more, someone-less.

Hunger, blood and reputation

Something like Vampire: The Masquarade-Bloodlines and role-playing system Vampire playersclubvipcasino Shadowhunter. In addition to such standard parameters as endurance, strength, dexterity, intelligence, there are also the concepts of “charisma” and “belief”: the latter affects the availability of some options in dialogs, the ability to get a discount from merchants or avoid an unplanned skirmish. In addition, there is a parameter of “thirst” – this is the hunger of a vampire, with an increase in which our hero weakens and eagers to bite the first oncoming.

It is dark in demo version all the time, so our hero or heroine constantly run with a flashlight in their hands. And for him you will have to buy batteries.

When creating a character, you will have to choose not only the floor and class (the warrior, of course, puts on strength, the witch or the witcher – on conviction and charisma, and the bandit – for dexterity), but also his races. The true vampire is stronger than half -breed, but he often will have to drink fresh blood, avoid sunlight, be afraid of fire and silver;A semi -vampire is more resistant to these typical “antivamps” elements.

The set of starting active skills, as we have already said, will depend on belonging to a particular clan. And their further “pumping” – from the level of reputation in it. In addition to active in battle, there will be three branches of passive talents: they can give a bonus to damage or experience, increase certain parameters with each new level, reduce the “thirst” of blood or the time of casting of spells.

Setterpathic Gothic

To get the first ideas about how all this will look in practice, and not in words, you can already today-by trying a demo version. Here, of course, the quality of technical performance is striking. It is immediately clear on it that at WRF Studios There is no experience in action and role -playing games. Even the Unreal Engine engine does not really help: anyway, the game still looks like, let’s say, crookedly. There is uncomfortable control and insane camera, because of which it is not possible to play normally from a third-person mode and all the time you have to turn on the view “from the eyes”.

However, the gloomy Gothic atmosphere – and this is the most important thing in any vampire game – as always William r. Fisher, Transferred perfectly. The darkness is on the levels, the coffins, the frightening statues in the narrow corridors of the crypts and dungeons, uncomfortable sounds – all this makes the player shive and shyly look at the player. Here even rare quest characters look like heroes of horror films: they wear bloody clothes and speak some kind of afterlife voices.

There are obvious problems with the balance in the demo: at the normal level of complexity, the enemies do not pose much danger, and at a higher immediately become excessively strong.

“Rare” are because in demo versions we are not given the right to evaluate the diplomacy and “boltology” of the game: there is a specific task of escaping from the dungeon, and the players are not allowed into the city and the leaders of vampire clans of the players. However, even in rare dialogs, you can use conversational skills to ask the character financial assistance or, for example, master.

A trap on the vampire

Basically, you have to fight and overcome traps/look for caches. Moreover, the second is much more interesting. Fights are implemented standardly for such RPG: “collapse” enemies of near -fight weapons or spit in them with magic. Although it is not easy to use spells: you need not only to accurately aim with Fireball, but also in every possible way to maneuver and not let the enemy let the enemy, otherwise the “spell” will break.

But with traps and hiding places everything is much more interesting. Firstly, there are a lot of them. Almost every chest or box we found is a danger to those who decide to open it. The probability that you will not hit you with lightning or other muck depends on the parameters of the character and the level of ability to deactivate traps. Secondly, there are a lot of closed and secret doors: you need to use the already mentioned master keys (they are sold at one very skilled merchant) or activate a special vampire skill that allows you to see hidden passages.

Thirdly, you often have to solve simple, but still tasks: get up on stone slabs, sit on the roofs in search of the desired lever and even start a special ball that can fly into an inaccessible place.

Many items need to be identified. The corresponding scrolls recognize the properties of several things at once.

All this still leaves a double impression. On the one hand, wait from Bloodlust: Vampire Shadowhunter the qualities of AAA projects and technical perfection are clearly not necessary. This will be such a typical indie made by an enthusiast in conditions of a constrained, to put it mildly, budget. On the other hand, this is still not a primitive craft of any debutant. Rich experience William r. Fisher It will allow you to realize a thick Gothic atmosphere and a fairly interesting “research” gameplay, full of traps, riddles and hiding places. Well, if he fulfills his promises, and in Bloodlust There will be a non -linear plot and a war of vampire clans, in which a lot depends on our choice, then the game can be forgiven for all its technical flaws and not the most convenient management.