A Look at Vampire the Masquerade – Bloodlines Part 20

Now to head back to the World of Darkness and continue with this look at Vampire the Masquerade - Bloodlines. Last time, Mark was getting ready to head to the Giovanni mansion to get the Sarcophagus back.

Now to begin with a complaint: This game's method of handling saves can be tedious to deal with as quicksaving results in a new save being made. While this is great for situations where you screwed up so badly that you need to reload to a far-off point, it does get annoying to have to delete saves once they get too excessive.

As the reader can tell, Mark has gone back to Downtown to settle some matters left hanging. This screen-cap depicts VV's autographed photo so as to remind the reader that Mark still has this.

Now to check in with our goddess who holds Mark's share of profits.

Also, Mark needs to replenish some blood after the events at the Fu Syndicate.

Now to mail off the Chalice to Gary.

And settle the library quest once and for all.

Using the manhole from earlier, the library entrance lies directly ahead.

Here to be precise.

Climbing in, Mark finds himself in some kind of basement room.

Here is the rest of the basement area.

Another room here contains this circuit breaker. It seems important.

Based on the sparkles, it is important. So Mark turns it on.

And immediately after, the vacuum tubes break.

Good thing the spares were lying around at this corner.

Now to replace the tubes.

And turn on the power...

Hey presto! The elevator works.

There is only one way to go from bottom so time to head up.

Here is the entrance area of the library.

Patrolling this place is a security guard but Mark, being a friendly vampire, decides to leave him alone.

Aztec jugglers? I wonder if they entertained the Aztec gods of fitness before they were fed upon.

Here lies the main hall. A guard patrols this area and unlike the previous guard, his patrol patterns can serve as an obstacle to the player.

Fortunately, the stealth system in this game is easy to manipulate with high stats. Again, I express my dislike of the game's stealth system even though here it has worked to my advantage.

Here is a useful note with a password written on it.

Now to check out the door on the left.

An art exhibit? Cool.

Over here appears to be a storage area.

Looks like it is a storage area.

I wonder if this is supposed to be a reference to someone in real life.

Here is a working terminal. However, the command it displays is a little different than the usual commands.

Looks like it is time to find a library card.

So it is time to head to the opposite door.

Opening the door reveals a room filled with bookcases. The library part of this library.

Here there is a book that can be interacted with.

Someone is gonna be in big trouble. Vandalizing a book like that will have serious consequences... Also the library card is in it.

Now back to the computer.

After inserting the card, the computer asks for a password. Hmm... I wonder...

As expected, the note explicitly reveals the password.

Now a familiar command reveals itself.

Looks like a hidden switch opened up. But where?

Before moving on, do take note of this strange floor panel. It looks familiar...

I guess that quote on the computer was right. Art is the secret.

Using the switch opens up this secret passage in the storage area.

Blood. That is never a good sign.

Time to whip out the shotgun.

More blood. That cannot be good.

All that walking culminates in Mark's arrival into this chamber.

Looks like a ritual is taking place.

Based on the character model, it can be presumed that the one placed under the other's power is Beckett's Gangrel friend. Looks like he is in trouble, like becoming a sacrifice trouble.

Mark Flavian to the rescue!

Now to destroy the enemy with bugged out animations!

It's super effective!

Good to see Beckett is friends with someone smart enough to know when to fold them.

Looks like the head honcho of this operation has emerged.

A Lasombra!? In case the reader is wondering, the Lasombra are a clan who generally control the Sabbat (from what I have read albeit said reading is lacking). Here is the link to the wiki article for curious readers: http://whitewolf.wikia.com/wiki/Lasombra

His main form of attack in this fight is to fire his Uzi at Mark. Which hurts. A lot. As shown by the health lost.

Fortunately, I remembered to increase Mark's skill in ranged combat so he shoots harder than the Lasombra. Resulting in the latter's Final Death.

As to what happens to the coffin, not sure. Since the quest is one of the additions made via the Plus Patch, this quest does not appear in the vanilla game nor does it have an effect (aside from giving the player a new melee weapon and more experience points).

Said weapon is this broadsword. It is decent though Mark's skill with melee weapons is pitiful.

Now to get out of this place. Surprisingly, the guards did not catch onto the sounds of gunfire.

Note that the stealth meter's score is rather high even though no one is nearby.

That is because this abomination is waiting in the elevator for the unsuspecting player. Looks like Mark gets to test the broadsword out.

Success! The monster is dead!

Now to leave the elevator.

And the basement as well.

With that, the quest is done.

I highlight this pic to explain an issue I did encounter: Namely the NPC becoming an obstacle. See, Mark was attempting to walk towards the club when the NPC woman to his left ended up blocking the doorway. No matter what pacifist action he took, she would not move. This kind of NPC obstruction rarely comes up as a problem but when it does in Masquerade areas, it can be detrimental to the player. Luckily she moved aside so Mark gets to maintain his Humanity score at its current level.

Now to check in on the Haven.

New e-mails. One from Beckett regarding the library quest, one from Gary regarding a new poster and one from Mark's mysterious friend.

Note that the newscaster is speaking nonsense in his dialogue. This is yet another Malkavian effect on gameplay.

One more poster quest from Gary. Looks like he wants a throwing star.

Like the one Mark has.

Success! The quest is complete! Now to showcase my rewards.

Jeanette/Therese Voerman.

Damsel, pre-Embrace.

Ming Xiao.

VV. Note that this is essentially her photograph blown up to poster size.

Tawni Sessions. Non-vandalized and no signs of bestiality.

Imalia. Definitely pre-Embrace.

Here is Gary's last poster. A final mocking gift from the golden git.

Now to check with Trip. Remember him, reader? Well now he has new stuff in stock. Like this Desert Eagle.

And this bush hook.

Since Mark needs money to resupply after his encounter with the Lasombra, it is time to sell off VV's photo. Sorry VV.

The Uzi can go to.

Looks like Mercurio has some new stock for Mark.

Anyone up for Counter-Strike?

Shame that it is not an AWP.

This seemingly simple image is my attempt to depict the AUG's zoom. Pressing Tab with this gun equipped toggle's the weapon's zoom. It will prove useful later on.

Now to check in with this creepy basement dweller.

Along with a quick sip from Doctor Malcolm.

Now to level up Obfuscate and Perception.

Before we head off to the Giovanni Stronghold. The Giovanni are a vampire clan that tends to Embrace members of their own family. Here is a link to their wiki page: http://whitewolf.wikia.com/wiki/Giovanni

A fancy mansion.

Meet one member of the family. As the astute reader can tell, she took to drinking before the party started.

She seems easy to fool.

Looks like non-violent entry requires an invitation. As usual.

I doubt that would work but points for being considerate.

Do note the name for players with female player characters.

Time to point out the lady's... problem to her companion.

I think she would need an entire water tank's worth of coffee to sober her up.

I do not doubt that.

Looks like she has more than drinking problems if she's vomiting that much blood.

After picking up the invitations they drop, Mark goes to the main entrance. Also, the name of the man is on his invite so players with male player characters ought to take note.

Why yes.

Thank you.

Let's get this party started.

And it looks to be one of those lame ones.

Writer's note: Originally, I wanted to showcase a quest that players can perform here which is to assist certain family members collect blackmail material on each other so that they can eliminate competition in order to be the likely candidate to earn the chance to receive the family's gift. However, Mark possess the Occult Nut character history which prevents him from leveling up his Charisma up to a certain point. As a result, he does not have the minimum amount of Persuasion to complete the quest. Rather than have an unfinished quest lying around the Quest Log, I decided to skip the quest instead and leave the stories surrounding the quest untouched.

Here is Mira Giovanni. She is one of the family members seeking blackmail material.

This is Christopher Giovanni. He is another family member seeking out blackmail material. 

Lastly is Adam Dunsirn. He is not part of the Giovanni family per se but seeks out blackmail material.

One aspect of the Giovanni mansion to note is that it is filled with secret passages. Like the one on the left. The passages are for stealth based players (and stealthy Toreadors performing their Clan Quest).

This is the back entrance to the mansion. Presumably this is for Nosferatu players that are unable to go in through the front door.

Here is another secret passage.

And another.

This is that back door from the inside. Presumably this is where you would enter from if you came in from the back door.

The Giovanni Stronghold and later levels were probably where Troika's development problems fully kicked in. In this level, there are quite a number of empty rooms where either nothing or the bare minimum of items are placed in.

This is thankfully not one of those empty rooms.

This locked door seems suspicious so Mark goes to unlock it.

After using Bloodbuff, Mark unlocks the door to find... two ladies standing around in the dark. They were probably in the middle of a tryst or something based on the rumors surrounding the Giovanni but here, they do absolutely nothing.

Now for something to note; the field of vision of some NPCs can be terribly small. In fact, I would say that it is difficult to break the Masquerade in the game simply because some NPCs are incapable of seeing your powers or feeding. 

Moving on, here is another secret passage.

Unlocking this door reveals a woman in her underwear.

With a guard NPC. I am sure they were 'playing cards' before Mark barged in.

Here is another NPC that one can talk to. She however does not want blackmail material. More on her in a bit.

Inside one of the more extensively decorated rooms in this level is this skill-book. More on this room later.

Note that any door leading to the center of the manor is locked away.

Here are more details on that skill-book. Dodge 4, eh?

Now to speak to the woman.

Nadia Milliner is her name.

That is nice of Great Aunt Francis. Considering what the Giovanni does.

Anything eldritch in that Master's thesis?

Time to use that madman's charm.

Looks like she knows a secret she's dying to spill to someone.

Here we go.

Nadia proceeds to lead Mark into the room where the skill-book was found.

The old sword-as-a-secret-switch. Classic.

And here's another secret passage.

One that goes deeper into the mansion.

After a loading screen, Mark and Nadia proceed down the passage.

One that leads to the family embalming room.

And here lies the final artifact that Pisha wants.

Do tell, Nadia.

Hmm... looks like she has more she wants to gush about.

Indulge in necrophilia? Reader, do not Google that.

Gets pretty weird? What, the Giovanni practice S&M on unmoving corpses?

With that said, she leads Mark on.

Here is the family crypt. In the distance, zombies.

As Nadia notes, the zombies are generally non-hostile if unprovoked. Unfortunately, the zombies are hostile towards vampires like Mark so they are provoked by default.

Good thing these zombies are not particularly sturdy.

As for Nadia, she begins to panic at the sight of the suddenly hostile zombies.

Thus, she spends the rest of the level cowering at this spot. I like to think that she escaped once Mark heads on in since compared to the other Giovanni, she is not that bad or disgusting of a person.

If the player did not assist Romero at the Hollywood Graveyard, this would be the player's second encounter with zombies. They behave the same way; slow, only uses melee attacks, and quite grabby.

Here is one place where the AUG proves useful. The zombies are quite vulnerable to headshots and this gun is very precise.

In this chamber, this artifact lies here. It took a while for Mark to identify the artifact even though he has the appropriate Research skill.

Saulocept. Incidentally, the name Saulot is rather important to the lore of the World of Darkness. Curious readers ought to look him up.

Anyways, time to proceed through the crypt.

Spiral staircases are popular with these decrepit places.

Now for the next level of the family crypt. Necromancy necessitates large crypts filled with corpses to use.

This path is filled with pitfalls. No spiked pits at least.

As for this path, the pitfalls are covered by grates. Grates that will probably collapse and cause the walker to fall into the pits.

So I have Mark hop about in the center of the path.

Sticking to the center does ensure that Mark does not fall down into the pit. Thank you, physics engine.

Here is a door to the side.

Here is a ladder to climb up if the player falls into a pit.

Anyways, it is time to move on.

Fancy door. The kind that goes up and down.

More zombies. More rounds to use up.

Here is the path to the next area.

One thing I note is that the gun model is rather large and obscures the screen.

Here is one of the side rooms.

Now to go through this passage. The path onward is straightforward.

Here is the door to go through.

Here is the room with zombies in it along with the next door to go through.

Just remember, the way forward in this level requires the player to descend further into the Giovanni crypts.

Here is a loading screen for readers who did not use the link to read up on the Giovanni.

Looks like the passages open up to a large chamber. This setup seems familiar...

Looks like Mark stumbled into the middle of something- THERE'S THE SARCOPHAGUS!!!

Is that so? Mark will be sure to inquire about that after GETTING THE SARCOPHAGUS BACK!!!

Bring it on.

Mark thanks you for submitting your lives to him too.

If I am to be honest, I died a couple of times. Mostly because I forgot how fragile Mark is and that he does not have Celerity or Thaumaturgy.

So it is time for Mark Flavian to suddenly power up in the middle of battle by using up his accumulated experience points. Eh, I will claim that Malkav suddenly took pity on how badly Mark was doing and allowed this to occur.

With the first brother down, it becomes easier to handle the remaining one.

The great thing about this Chalice is that it acts like a free Elder Vitae blood bag with enough blood collected in it.

With the final burst of fire from the AUG, the last Chang brother goes down. Thank you, basic knowledge of Counter-Strike.

With their deaths, Mark gains more experience points. Now would be an appropriate time to power up.

At last, the sarcophagus...

Here is another loading screen on the Giovanni.

Here is a rare shot of the pants that Mark wears under his pimp suit. As you can see, he does not wear a shirt under that coat.

With the sarcophagus loaded on-board, Mark drives off into the night.

Back to Lacroix and Beckett. Remember them, reader? If you do not, well you can catch up on previous installments of this look at Vampire the Masquerade - Bloodlines because this is where I will stop for now.