Now for another look at Vampire The Masquerade - Bloodlines. This is becoming a written let's play at this point so this series will be more chronicling Mark's adventures in the night with some thoughts on the game in those segments.
In the previous part, Mark had defeated an Asian vampire, braved the haunted Ocean House Hotel, slashed some paintings and resolved a feud between two personalities. Mark now proceeds to fulfil the mission LaCroix assigned to him several parts ago. This post has been on my Wordpress site for a while now though some of the posts are currently being fixed due to the screen-caps being deleted by accident.
This is Bertram Tung.
He looks a lot like Orlok from Nosferatu and looks different than the vampires Mark has seen so far.
A nice touch here is his hostile reaction to seemingly being insulted only to then recognise that the player character (Mark) is a Malkavian who is using a nickname.
He also explains the mission by LaCroix involves taking out a Sabbat warehouse. Suicidal to do so alone but there is the Astrolite bomb we obtained from Mercurio.
Here is a brief explanation on the Sabbat by Bertram Tung.
Here is part 2 of that explanation. The Sabbat, shown in this game at least, are mainly vampires who are obviously evil and tend to be more malicious. I have read a little of Classic World of Darkness so I am somewhat aware that there is more to the Sabbat than what is shown in the game.
He adds that the humans at the warehouse know that their masters are vampires and some even want to become vampires since the Sabbat here do not care for the Camarilla-instituted masquerade.
So, this establishes that the warehouse will be a combat-zone where vampiric powers can be used freely.
This part is the last chance the player has to grab anything they need before proceeding to the warehouse. Since Mark has no need for extra ammunition and the like, he asks Dudeness to light the way.
The player starts here.
With Obfuscate, sneaking becomes far more easier and helps out. For instance, it can help Mark sneak behind someone and eliminates said person silently. With a fire axe.
In another room, there is a box of ammunition for the .38 pistol.
In the same room as that box of ammunition, there is a piece of wood that can be moved. Since this leads to a hobo, Mark chooses to take an alternate route.
Said route leads to a guard who has his back turned. A Shin Guto should be enough to punish him for turning his back.
Sneaking past the corpse, Mark makes his way to the platform. Here, there is a small space that can be walked across. This is probably the best route to take if the player wishes to sneak around.
Here are the two guards that constantly stay at that spot. That is why I mentioned the small space to be the best way to take since said space bypasses the two.
In a gap between some of the trains, the player character can walk through to get closer to the warehouse. The only problem is this patrolling guard. With Obfuscate though, this is not much of a problem.
"And that is for getting other me caught in my previous playthrough as a Tremere!"
Walking past the corpse, the player character may reach an area with a train engine where a single guard is working by himself to fix or maintain said engine. Thus, Mark attempts to 'award' the guard for his hard work.
Take note of this ladder and the passage it leads to.
Before proceeding up said ladder, there is some work to be done. Like unlocking this padlock on this train door.
Mark's lockpick skill was not high enough so I use a few skill points to remedy this.
I do not recall if those 3 guys in that train car ever move but they will never notice the player as long as they are sneaking. The more important thing in the picture would be the alley past the train car on the right.
The guard up there may spot the player character at times and may even lead to delays when sneaking around.
To remedy this problem, Mark uses Obfuscate and drains him dry.
This area is home to two patrolling guards. If the reader wonders why I have not snuck into the building yet, I have my reasons.
Here is a picture of Mark breaking this guard's neck. The more important feature of the picture is the door next to them.
Up those stairs leads to where Mark needs to go but before Mark does that, there is some cleaning up to do.
Here is one method of cleaning: With a Shin Guto.
This route is too dangerous to clean up even for Mark. Besides, there is a reason to do this stealthily.
Now back to that passage with the ladder. Climbing it leads to this area. On the right is a ring that can be sold.
On the left is a way to the rafters.
This is where Mark needs to go: This office in the warehouse.
Featured here are a bunch of mooks who are having a private discussion. Best not interrupt them.
Gee, an icon. I am sure this would not amount to anything.
The objectives are to destroy the warehouse. How else should this be done? Take the warehouse apart, brick by brick?
I enjoy receiving acknowledgement from games for my stealthier feats. The reward of a timer though is a bit of a disappointment. Also, not escaping the vicinity of the warehouse will lead to Final Death so escaping within that time limit is a must.
Luckily, Mark has Obfuscate. This is why Mark was cleaning up the other areas. It makes sneaking through here a more manageable task.
This is why Mark picked that padlock. Not doing so would be problematic here.
Sneaking past those men will take time, possibly too much based on that timer.
Luckily I remembered this basic trick.
With the job done, we are greeted by this wolf. This might not end well for Mark... (and he just finished his mission too...)
Actually, no. This is another vampire. Seeing a wolf turn into a vampire is surprising for most normal vampires so an occult nut like Mark would have to ask about this.
This is an important point to remember.
This is Beckett. He is a Gangrel and a prominent character in other Vampire The Masquerade materials (usually as a main character of said materials). Here, he tends to be a lone wolf (wonder why that sounds familiar).
Now to reference previous encounters of the player character!.
No reaction to ghosts. Then again, vampires tend to trump ghosts.
This line is different when playing a non-Malkavian player character. For the aforesaid character, Beckett is able to identify the Voerman sisters as a Malkavian.
Now thin-bloods... they are fascinating to Beckett. There is a reason for this as later conversations indicate.
The next nights of Mark Flavian are not going to be easy ones, are they?
We will meet the lone wolf again someday (I know this for a fact).
After the conversation, Mark returns to Bertram (via teleportation through loading transition).
The Sabbat are definitely pissed as we will see later on.
As I mentioned before, Beckett is a prominent character in the source material so he is well-known to most Kindred.
This is a short but apt summary of Beckett's role in Kindred society: A historian of vampires who has uncovered more about their lore than anyone (save for one particular vampire).
Now we go to questions. This part will be exposition-heavy so expect a lot of reading and text in the remaining screenshots. Here I pick 1.
Bertram here reveals how he foresaw the player character's meeting with his ghoul, Knox.
Since Mark figured out the scheme that Bertram cooked up to kill off the Cathayan, I pick 3.
He took it well.
This is regarded as a big deal. I'm guessing it is due to the fact that a mere fledgling was able to figure out the schemes of an older senior vampire.
Since Mark is a good-natured madman, Mark does not rub it into Bertram's face.
The Malkavian's tendency to provide nicknames to other characters does indicate the true nature of these characters like LaCroix being the jester-prince.
An appropriate response from someone with loyalties to the Camarilla (or someone who is careful with their words).
Now for a biased perspective on the clans from Bertram. I pick the one with Brujah first.
This does sum up the negative aspects of Brujah though remember, BIASED perspective. Bertram has his own opinions on the clans asked about.
Here is the one on Gangrels.
Now Malkavians. The dark daughter of Janus intrigues us.
Politics in the vampire society is often messy and having a Malkavian in it makes it more messy. Just for fun, I make Mark pick 3.
It would be a pain to be friendly with one half of a split personality and needing to avoid the other half who bears severe hatred towards you. I pick 1 here.
Malkavians are weird like that.
Interesting... Picking 1 continues this conversation so 1 is picked.
A reasonable response.
Now Nosferatu, Bertram's own clan.
So remember: Every time the reader goes anywhere at night, the Nosferatu will be watching.
I pick 1.
To keep the conversation on clans going, I pick 2.
Now Toreador. Since Toreadors are the polar opposites of Nosferatu (primarily in terms of physical appearance), there is a definite dislike of Toreadors on Bertram's part.
Now a piece on the Tremere, the mages. The lore surrounding the Tremere in the source material is rather interesting to read so I do suggest the reader do some basic reading (probably via wikis) to get a basic idea on the lore.
Finally, the Ventrue. From here, I now pick 2 to find out more about the sects.
I go with 1.
This is an opinion on the LA Anarchs. Others exist and it's up to the player to dig up more.
Picking 1 in the previous conversation options, Bertram gives his own opinion on Nines.
Now an opinion on the Camarilla.
A mention and brief explanation on Caitiffs. I pick 1 here.
Now Bertram mentions bloodlines and a certain Caine... Was he not the one whom the paintings depicted?
Gehenna... This is an important event to remember for anyone looking into Classic World of Darkness (CWoD) with vampires in mind.
The Final Nights. Keep that in mind.
This sufficiently sums up Caine. Still, there is more to Caine than this.
Hunters exist in CWoD. Real hunters can be dangerous as someone like Bertram is more than willing to advise caution around them.
Now, Bertram's opinions on the Sabbat.
Here is Bertram's opinion on the recent serial killings as stated before.
This ends this instalment of my look at Vampire the Masquerade - Bloodlines. Hopefully, Bertram's exposition sheds more light on the lore and background of this game's world for the reader.
Next time, we go to Downtown LA and perform a few sidequests before reporting to the jester prince.
No comments:
Post a Comment