Gameplay

3rd person

Vampire: the Masquerade is played from a third person perspective with your viewpoint primarily behind the character. Don't worry, the camera angle and zoom are partially adjustable if you find it necessary. Though the story focuses on Christof, you'll run into other party members (there can be four at a time) who will help you out. Each character plays an important role in the story, and each also has a unique skill set that will come in handy. You'll be able to switch between characters to control them directly if you so desire. The interface for the game is simplified in order to keep the focus on the extensive story. Basically, you point and click, and keep your hand on the keyboard for important hotkeys. Clicking in the world is context sensitive, so you won't accidentally attack a neutral or a friendly. What's also cool is that each character in your party is represented by an animated 3D face in the bottom center of the interface. Depending on what the player does (feeding, fighting, spell casting, getting beat up), the face will animate noticeably and expressively. You'll see several examples of this at the end of the article.

Stay cool

Keeping nourished

Vampires of course, feed on blood, usually human blood. In order to stay alive, you will have to feed from time to time. However, you can't kill or feed indiscriminately; if you are spotted, then it's likely that guards or a lynch mob will come out and kill you. If you kill carelessly and often, then you risk losing your humanity and the sanity that you are so desperately trying to keep. Staying alive is a balance - drinking less blood means that you stay human and sane, but you can't use your powers as much. Gorging and pigging out risks that you will be discovered and that you'll turn into a ghoulish, bloodthirsty monster! The key is to try and catch a human unaware, in a secluded area and feed on them without killing them.

Conversing with the natives

The game consists of 16 or so primary goals, with a certain amount of subgoals/side quests sprinkled around here and there. There's going to be a lot of interaction with the NPCs, with you being able to choose your responses. The way you deal with one character or vampire can be political and may affect how things happen later on. Certainly, the choices you make in action and conversation will affect the ending (there are multiple endings)! What's even more exciting is that all interaction in the single player game will be voice acted, in order to give a more cinematic feel and quality to the game.

At the dockyard