The release of Half-Life 2 meant two things for gamers. The fist is that one of the most anticipated games of the year was finally out and the second was that the developers at Troika would finally be able to release their Source based game Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines. If you believe what you read on the internet, the game has actually been done for quite some time but they were unable to release the game until Half-Life 2 was released. It was also nice to finally get my hands on the game that John and I had seen at the last two E3’s.

Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines is the latest installment in the Vampire series but it represents my first foray into the franchise. Originally based on a pen and paper role playing game, it has a huge back story for gamers to dive into. As you might have guessed from the title, you play a vampire in the game. Rather than the cheesy Count Dracula type vampires or the pop-culture spewing Buffy type vampires, the game goes with more of the Embrace of the Vampire/Ann Rice vampires. In this version, the vampires live as a secret society hidden away from humans. In order to keep their presence hidden (to avoid being hunted to extinction if ever found out), the vampires have a code (The Masquerade) which all vampires are supposed to follow. The Masquerade stipulates that a vampire can’t feed on people in a public place, use their vampiric powers in front of the kine (the vampire term for humans), or discuss any of the details of the lifestyle with anyone who doesn’t enjoy the occasional glass of O positive.