Now we return to this look at Vampire the Masquerade - Bloodlines and the tale of Mark Flavian. Last time, Mark begun crafting his legend atop the corpses of Ming Xiao's followers and has begun to make his way into her inner sanctum.
As the reader can see, Mark still continues to abandon subtlety for style.
The AUG helps to maintain said style too.
In this part of the interior, there are panels such as this lying around.
These panels activate traps that make these pointed sticks, or bamboo to be precise, spring from the wall to impale you. Rather simplistic for a trap against vampires, perhaps Ming Xiao's people are hoping bamboo can cause aggravated damages.
Time to show them why such hopes are futile.
And with all but one conventionally slain, Mark will proceed.
However, seems more people are pouring out of the woodwork. I guess Ming Xiao must have been quite the successful priest.
Oh no, my one weakness: More bamboo!
Well this room is different in that there are two guys with crossbows in a defensible position. Gee, I wonder what can Mark do.
Vision of Death and Vision of Bedlam are so useful here.
Well, this room seems interesting...
So does this guy.
Too bad this guy still has the weakness of gun.
More bedlam here.
Oh, this room has chests with ammunition inside for re-stocking. Keep an eye out for this room if you are playing this bit.
Eventually after exploring all the rooms on this floor, Mark has no other choice but to head down.
And then sucking the surviving guard dry.
Along with his buddies.
Now to open the fancy door.
To bring Mark into this room. Take note on how one can reveal these passages with a melee attack.
This room, along with most of the rooms here, serve no purpose.
That said, you could stumble onto some hapless humans to drain.
This room is different though. There are two floor panels that can be pressed down but do not stay down. There are also movable objects here.
The average gamer or person should be able to deduce the solution to the above conundrum.
The revealed passage leads Mark to a new area.
This area looks different from the earlier ones. Plus this room seems to have a puzzle.
One that requires some wholesale slaughter. Note that the floor panel here activates blades that move back and forth in the hallway. The blades are extremely dangerous and must be ducked under in order to survive.
Upon navigating the trap and killing the guards, Mark can retrieve the jade statue. Take note of the animal and the pedestal it was on.
This part of the game is quite dull for people wanting something other than pure action. This entry in the online journal will be rather short due to my own boredom in playing this bit.
Also, note that the statues can fall off their pedestals. If the player cannot recall which animal was on the pedestal, a symbol on the wall will indicate what animal had been on said pedestal.
Upon getting all four, Mark can get to placing the statues on their pedestals. This puzzle can be brute-forced or solved normally through memorization or note-taking (or reliance on a walkthrough).
Upon placing the last animal, a portal appears.
Leading Mark straight to Ming Xiao who is definitely not pleased to see him.
Not like that will stop you.
As for you, Mark will ensure you never live to see the dawn of the Sixth Age.
If the reader has seen clips of the news reports in this game, the reader may recall a story about a blob monster being reported. It turns out Ming Xiao was that blob monster, most likely her way of getting to Los Angeles without being detected. She is not gonna be as easy as Bach.
One thing to be careful of during the fight is how Ming Xiao's severed tentacles can split off to be their own entities. Entities ready to attack you so either take them out or use abilities to withstand.
Luckily, Mark has been improving his gun skills so he is able to finish off Ming Xiao for good. Looks like the Kuei Jin just lost their foothold in LA.
With her death, the key to the sarcophagus is revealed, ready to be picked up.
Once picked up, a new portal opens. One that presumably leads to the exit.
This is the last chance for the player to pick up gear and blood packs so pray that you have some money on you. Mark does so he heads over to the one person he does trust.
Who has an interesting line of dialogue. What is this Troika Games, I wonder?
So concerned that they forced them to release Bloodlines in its unpatched state around the same time as games like Half Life 2 and ended their company. Damn you, Camarilla! I wanted a new game in Arcanum's setting!
With everything Mark needs, Mark is now skint-broke.
So it is time for our final destination. Mark has one last question for the Taxi Driver.
So he guides people to their fates... I wonder...
Curious name to drop there. Farewell, driver.
Looks like Mark is starting to realise something.
Oh Chunk... Mark already lost Heather. He can not let Chunk get hurt too so it is time for some Dementation.
With Chuck covering in a corner of LaCroix's tower, this seems like a good place to stop. Join me next time for the finale of my look at Vampire the Masquerade - Bloodlines and the end of Mark's journey into the night.
