Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption screencaps and Redemption/Bloodlines musings
I didn't even remember that Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption had a screenshot key, let alone that I had used it and saved my original screencaps. I stumbled upon these while indexing data DVDs and thought they'd be worth sharing. It's been quite a while since I last played Redemption, though I ran through the game at least twice.
Redemption is split into two times periods: the Middle Ages, with the cities of Prague and Vienna, and the Modern Nights (i.e., present day [2000 when the game was released]), featuring London and New York City. I prefer the Middle Ages sections, which is reflected in my screencaps. There are some minor spoilers, but no major ones.
Here we are at the beginning of the game with our protagonist, Christof. He was wounded in battle and nursed back to health in Prague. At this point, he's also still human. As you can see, Redemption is a third-person game, which is fairly rare for me.
This is the Prague Astronomical Clock (Czech: Pražský orloj) that stands in the Old Town Square. (The Prague photos linked to are my own. And yes, it was Redemption that made me want to visit Prague.)
Redemption did have a way to switch to first-person, but it wasn't very useable aside from taking screenshots like this.
Christof going to kill some 'demons'! Switch his sword out for a hammer and dye his hair blond and he'd almost look like Thor in this shot.
I should talk about the HUD. The bloodied ankh is your mouse cursor. The lower right contains your inventory quick-use bar. Lower centre is your update window and character info; the blue bar represents health, the white bar is faith [something that only applies to your brief time as a human], and I think the purple is mana [again, it only matters when you're human]. The lower left features AI party controls and, I think, quest tools (maps, log, etc.).
This is the Petřín Hill Monastery. ( Here's a photo of Strahov Monastery, which is built on Petřín Hill in real life.) The new party member is Wilhelm and I've got rats in my inventory for blood. Also, since Christof's a vampire now, he only has a blue health bar and a red blood bar. Disciplines [vampiric powers] are on the lower right under the inventory quick access. Wilhelm and Christof are both from Clan Brujah.
A nice and creepy piece of furniture from inside the monastery. This monastery belongs to Clan Cappadocian, which happens to be one of my favourite vampire clans; they're all about the study of death. Sadly, the clan only exists in Medieval times as they were taken over by the (far less interesting, IMHO) Giovanni. Their clan-specific discipline is Mortis, which, among other things, lets you spit diseased breath and temporarily reanimate corpses.
I believe this shot is from the Prague tunnels. The new party member is Serena, my favourite character. She's also from Clan Cappadocian! Once I get her, I tend to ignore all the others characters because I love her that much. I played a Thief 2 fan mission about a year back that used some of her voice clips and it made me so happy.
This is the beginning of the large Tremere chantry in Vienna. I really like the lighting here.
Some more about the party system: you can rotate between any members of your party at will. You can also detach members or change their status (attack, neutral, or defense, though it's usually fine to just leave it on neutral). There's also an option in the main menu controlling how AI spend blood, which I always use since the AI tend to waste blood on relatively useless disciplines when left to their own devices.
In addition to disciplines, Redemption has magic scrolls. These let you temporarily use a discipline you might not know. It's completely against the pen-and-paper Vampire: The Masquerade game rules, but by the end of Redemption you have access to nearly every discipline, including clan-specific ones outside your clan, so it's not as if Redemption is aiming to be 100% faithful to the original. There are also a few scrolls that allow you to do things not usually covered by disciplines. One of these is 'Walk The Abyss', used here, which allows you to transport back to your haven and then return again.
More of the Tremere chantry, including some examples of chests. [I must have taken these smaller resolution screencaps during my first run, then increased my resolution on my second.]
The magically-sealed door in the Tremere chantry. Also, a new party member: Erik of Clan Gangrel.
I don't remember what the chronological order is in this section, but here's something most Medieval-based games have: ye olde tavern!
Three beautiful women and a drunk (?) man.
Still in Vienna, this time in front of a large mansion in the Western Ringstrasse/Ringstraße.
The mansion has a very shiny floor.
The owner of the mansion, a Ventrue whose name I don't remember, and his, er, lovely collection of blood slaves.
What could be more fun than running on rooftops in Medieval Vienna?
Here's me controlling Wilhelm instead of Serena, for a change. I do like Wilhelm's halberd. This is the only section of the game with sunlight.
A lovely window that I'm sure isn't symbolic in the least. (It would have been better had I not taken it upside down.)
The location of my favourite weapon in the game. Also, Wilhelm entered torpor! (It's okay; one the of magic scrolls lets you revive dead party members.)
Back in Prague now. I'm sure these stylised ankhs will look familiar to anyone who knows Vampire: The Masquerade.
'Hey, I think Christof is dead.' Wilhelm and Christof's poses in this shot really amuse me. This image isn't in chronological order, but it's a good transition point for . . .
. . . the Modern Nights! Welcome to London, Christof! I hope you enjoy being captured by people who want to experiment on you! (I miss Serena already, though since I had Christof leveled up in Thaumaturgy [Tremere blood magic] by this point, it was pretty amusing electrocuting guards with magic lightning while they tried to stop me with guns.)
Lightning effects (outdoor, not magic) in the Tower of London. The two party members are Lily (a Toreador) and Pink (who is totally and completely a Brujah). Yes, the punkrocker with a blue mohawk's name is Pink. Awesome.
Still in London, the temple of the Followers of Set.
Here we are in New York City in front of a gun shop. Because it says 'GUNS'. With a policeman and two cop cars standing right next to it. However, I laugh at the use of guns; all my party gets equipped with medieval swords! (The AI isn't very good at using projectile weapons, plus the firearms are somewhat underpowered.)
Your haven in New York City. The new party member is Samuel, a Nosferatu. The character at the computers is Dev/Null, the one and only Malkavian in the game. He is so awesome that I named my first Bloodlines character after him. Who is this Christof? Serena and Dev/Null are where it's at!
Spoilers in party member list. In other news, I don't trust suspiciously open and unguarded pools of lava.
Random fact: Redemption is the only game I've ever played with a party system.
I completely forgot Redemption was released pre-9/11 until I saw this image. Not even Deus Ex features the Twin Towers in its New York City, although more for technical reasons than anything else.
A large cathedral.
One of the creepiest chests you'll ever see.
And that's it!
Redemption did have an online multiplayer mode where you could create your own campaigns, but I never used it.
One interesting thing about Redemption is that it includes more clans than Bloodlines does. Although only six clans [Brujah, Cappadocian, Nosferatu, Toreador, Gangrel, and spoiler] are playable characters (i.e., Christof and your party members), every clan except for Ravnos is represented. (I don't think Clan Ravos was wiped out yet in the source material, but don't remember.) Clan Salubri is also absent, but that's because the Tremere have already taken their place.
On the other hand, Bloodlines features more offshoots and non-Kindred, such as the Nagaraja, Caitiff, and Kuei-jin.
Bloodlines and Redemption, despite both being set in the Vampire: The Masquerade world, are quite different games. Bloodlines' gameplay, with its single character focus, first/third-person toggle, and multiple routes (combat, stealth, dialogue, etc.), is more to my tastes than Redemption's party-based third-person hack and slash. That said, Bloodlines and Redemption have different aims and I think each accomplishes their goals. While Bloodlines is about your journey through the convoluted manipulations of vampire society, Redemption is about the protagonist's centuries-long struggle over his faith and love.
Though I've joked above that Serena and Dev/Null are the only characters who matter, Christof's story is compelling. He goes from a man who fights in God's name against the heathens to falling in love with a woman he shouldn't be with and becoming one of the monsters he's always hated. There is quite a bit of self-hatred and angst inside him, but he remains noble and resolute, trying - and failing - to protect the woman he loves, then falling into torpor for centuries before waking up in a very strange and unfamiliar time and place. The past replays itself, though things are not what they might have seemed. (I won't go into specifics here due to spoilers.) By the end of the game, Christof feels like an Elder vampire, extremely powerful, but also weary. Yet he hasn't given up his hope, his love, or his humanity. (Or maybe he has, depending on which ending you go with.)
Christof's personality and story arc are already established and there aren't too many ways you can change it. In this sense, Redemption has a more concrete story than Bloodlines. Which is perfectly fine as Bloodlines, like the pen-and-paper game, is about developing your own player-created character. What kind of character you are, what your development is like, how you react to the other characters, is mostly in the hands of you, the player.
Bloodlines is generally more adherent to the pen-and-paper rules, especially when it comes to discipline use, and is probably the more faithful representation. Nevertheless, Redemption is a good game in its own right. I'd certainly recommend both to Vampire: The Masquerade fans; just don't expect Redemption to be a Medieval version of Bloodlines, or Bloodlines to be a more modern Redemption.
Redemption is split into two times periods: the Middle Ages, with the cities of Prague and Vienna, and the Modern Nights (i.e., present day [2000 when the game was released]), featuring London and New York City. I prefer the Middle Ages sections, which is reflected in my screencaps. There are some minor spoilers, but no major ones.
Here we are at the beginning of the game with our protagonist, Christof. He was wounded in battle and nursed back to health in Prague. At this point, he's also still human. As you can see, Redemption is a third-person game, which is fairly rare for me.
This is the Prague Astronomical Clock (Czech: Pražský orloj) that stands in the Old Town Square. (The Prague photos linked to are my own. And yes, it was Redemption that made me want to visit Prague.)
Redemption did have a way to switch to first-person, but it wasn't very useable aside from taking screenshots like this.
Christof going to kill some 'demons'! Switch his sword out for a hammer and dye his hair blond and he'd almost look like Thor in this shot.
I should talk about the HUD. The bloodied ankh is your mouse cursor. The lower right contains your inventory quick-use bar. Lower centre is your update window and character info; the blue bar represents health, the white bar is faith [something that only applies to your brief time as a human], and I think the purple is mana [again, it only matters when you're human]. The lower left features AI party controls and, I think, quest tools (maps, log, etc.).
This is the Petřín Hill Monastery. ( Here's a photo of Strahov Monastery, which is built on Petřín Hill in real life.) The new party member is Wilhelm and I've got rats in my inventory for blood. Also, since Christof's a vampire now, he only has a blue health bar and a red blood bar. Disciplines [vampiric powers] are on the lower right under the inventory quick access. Wilhelm and Christof are both from Clan Brujah.
A nice and creepy piece of furniture from inside the monastery. This monastery belongs to Clan Cappadocian, which happens to be one of my favourite vampire clans; they're all about the study of death. Sadly, the clan only exists in Medieval times as they were taken over by the (far less interesting, IMHO) Giovanni. Their clan-specific discipline is Mortis, which, among other things, lets you spit diseased breath and temporarily reanimate corpses.
I believe this shot is from the Prague tunnels. The new party member is Serena, my favourite character. She's also from Clan Cappadocian! Once I get her, I tend to ignore all the others characters because I love her that much. I played a Thief 2 fan mission about a year back that used some of her voice clips and it made me so happy.
This is the beginning of the large Tremere chantry in Vienna. I really like the lighting here.
Some more about the party system: you can rotate between any members of your party at will. You can also detach members or change their status (attack, neutral, or defense, though it's usually fine to just leave it on neutral). There's also an option in the main menu controlling how AI spend blood, which I always use since the AI tend to waste blood on relatively useless disciplines when left to their own devices.
In addition to disciplines, Redemption has magic scrolls. These let you temporarily use a discipline you might not know. It's completely against the pen-and-paper Vampire: The Masquerade game rules, but by the end of Redemption you have access to nearly every discipline, including clan-specific ones outside your clan, so it's not as if Redemption is aiming to be 100% faithful to the original. There are also a few scrolls that allow you to do things not usually covered by disciplines. One of these is 'Walk The Abyss', used here, which allows you to transport back to your haven and then return again.
More of the Tremere chantry, including some examples of chests. [I must have taken these smaller resolution screencaps during my first run, then increased my resolution on my second.]
The magically-sealed door in the Tremere chantry. Also, a new party member: Erik of Clan Gangrel.
I don't remember what the chronological order is in this section, but here's something most Medieval-based games have: ye olde tavern!
Three beautiful women and a drunk (?) man.
Still in Vienna, this time in front of a large mansion in the Western Ringstrasse/Ringstraße.
The mansion has a very shiny floor.
The owner of the mansion, a Ventrue whose name I don't remember, and his, er, lovely collection of blood slaves.
What could be more fun than running on rooftops in Medieval Vienna?
Here's me controlling Wilhelm instead of Serena, for a change. I do like Wilhelm's halberd. This is the only section of the game with sunlight.
A lovely window that I'm sure isn't symbolic in the least. (It would have been better had I not taken it upside down.)
The location of my favourite weapon in the game. Also, Wilhelm entered torpor! (It's okay; one the of magic scrolls lets you revive dead party members.)
Back in Prague now. I'm sure these stylised ankhs will look familiar to anyone who knows Vampire: The Masquerade.
'Hey, I think Christof is dead.' Wilhelm and Christof's poses in this shot really amuse me. This image isn't in chronological order, but it's a good transition point for . . .
. . . the Modern Nights! Welcome to London, Christof! I hope you enjoy being captured by people who want to experiment on you! (I miss Serena already, though since I had Christof leveled up in Thaumaturgy [Tremere blood magic] by this point, it was pretty amusing electrocuting guards with magic lightning while they tried to stop me with guns.)
Lightning effects (outdoor, not magic) in the Tower of London. The two party members are Lily (a Toreador) and Pink (who is totally and completely a Brujah). Yes, the punkrocker with a blue mohawk's name is Pink. Awesome.
Still in London, the temple of the Followers of Set.
Here we are in New York City in front of a gun shop. Because it says 'GUNS'. With a policeman and two cop cars standing right next to it. However, I laugh at the use of guns; all my party gets equipped with medieval swords! (The AI isn't very good at using projectile weapons, plus the firearms are somewhat underpowered.)
Your haven in New York City. The new party member is Samuel, a Nosferatu. The character at the computers is Dev/Null, the one and only Malkavian in the game. He is so awesome that I named my first Bloodlines character after him. Who is this Christof? Serena and Dev/Null are where it's at!
Spoilers in party member list. In other news, I don't trust suspiciously open and unguarded pools of lava.
Random fact: Redemption is the only game I've ever played with a party system.
I completely forgot Redemption was released pre-9/11 until I saw this image. Not even Deus Ex features the Twin Towers in its New York City, although more for technical reasons than anything else.
A large cathedral.
One of the creepiest chests you'll ever see.
And that's it!
Redemption did have an online multiplayer mode where you could create your own campaigns, but I never used it.
One interesting thing about Redemption is that it includes more clans than Bloodlines does. Although only six clans [Brujah, Cappadocian, Nosferatu, Toreador, Gangrel, and spoiler] are playable characters (i.e., Christof and your party members), every clan except for Ravnos is represented. (I don't think Clan Ravos was wiped out yet in the source material, but don't remember.) Clan Salubri is also absent, but that's because the Tremere have already taken their place.
On the other hand, Bloodlines features more offshoots and non-Kindred, such as the Nagaraja, Caitiff, and Kuei-jin.
Bloodlines and Redemption, despite both being set in the Vampire: The Masquerade world, are quite different games. Bloodlines' gameplay, with its single character focus, first/third-person toggle, and multiple routes (combat, stealth, dialogue, etc.), is more to my tastes than Redemption's party-based third-person hack and slash. That said, Bloodlines and Redemption have different aims and I think each accomplishes their goals. While Bloodlines is about your journey through the convoluted manipulations of vampire society, Redemption is about the protagonist's centuries-long struggle over his faith and love.
Though I've joked above that Serena and Dev/Null are the only characters who matter, Christof's story is compelling. He goes from a man who fights in God's name against the heathens to falling in love with a woman he shouldn't be with and becoming one of the monsters he's always hated. There is quite a bit of self-hatred and angst inside him, but he remains noble and resolute, trying - and failing - to protect the woman he loves, then falling into torpor for centuries before waking up in a very strange and unfamiliar time and place. The past replays itself, though things are not what they might have seemed. (I won't go into specifics here due to spoilers.) By the end of the game, Christof feels like an Elder vampire, extremely powerful, but also weary. Yet he hasn't given up his hope, his love, or his humanity. (Or maybe he has, depending on which ending you go with.)
Christof's personality and story arc are already established and there aren't too many ways you can change it. In this sense, Redemption has a more concrete story than Bloodlines. Which is perfectly fine as Bloodlines, like the pen-and-paper game, is about developing your own player-created character. What kind of character you are, what your development is like, how you react to the other characters, is mostly in the hands of you, the player.
Bloodlines is generally more adherent to the pen-and-paper rules, especially when it comes to discipline use, and is probably the more faithful representation. Nevertheless, Redemption is a good game in its own right. I'd certainly recommend both to Vampire: The Masquerade fans; just don't expect Redemption to be a Medieval version of Bloodlines, or Bloodlines to be a more modern Redemption.