Vampire the Masquerade: Redemption
CRPG by Nihilistic Software set in White Wolf's World of Darkness(TM?).
The plot of the game is quite a simple, but effective one: a young crusader, one Christof Romuald, is injured in a battle in Hungary, and stops to recuperate in a convent in Prague. He falls n love with the sister who nurses him back to health, Sister Anezka.
To help the poor inhabitants of Prague, who have been having a pretty bad time of it, Christof agrees to enter the silver mines in the mountains to the East of Prague. Within he finds a vampire, Ahzra, whom he slays.
On his return to the city, Christof finds it under siege by ghouls. He returns immediately to the convent, and saves Anezka. However, by now he has drawn the attention of the Vampiric rulers of Prague. Rather than being dispatched as a simple nuisance, he is recruited into the unlife, by Clan Brujah.
Initially the game centers around Christof running 'errands' for his sire, Ecaterina the Wise, but before long he is dragged deep into the swirling politics of the Cainites. His journeys take him to Vienna, where he is imprisoned, but escapes. He returns to Prague to find it in the grasp of anarchy. He enters Vyhserad Castle, the stronghold of the Tzimisce to seek the perpetrator of this crime. He finds the Tzimisce Elder Vukodlak, and Anezka, who has become his ghoul.
He is hit on the head by falling masonry in the chaos, and enters torpor. In the year 1999, his body is found by the Order of Allatius, a sect of mortal vampire hunters. Escaping their clutches, Christof collects allies and ventures halfway across the world seeking both vengeance against Vukodlak, and Redemption for his vampiric sins.
The graphics in this game are superb and wonderfully capture the dark and brooding mood of the World of Darkness. The first half of the game is imbued with the traditional Gothic feel associated with vampires, with such locations as abandoned churches and crumbling tunnels.
The second half, however, takes a radically different approach, blending the subtlety of the World of Darkness with 1980's punk. Thus we see brothels, factories and and New York warehouse. However, although both the tone and the pace alter, the overall impression doesn't.
The game mixes frenetic hack-and-slash gameplay in the style of Diablo with a wide range of spells, which are termed vampiric 'disciplines'. It is these that provide the bulk of combat, as the truly powerful weapons are always prohibitively expensive. They cover the full range of vampiric powers, from the Bram Stoker originals, such as superhuman strength, and the ability to turn into a wolf or a puff of mist, to mind control and fireballs.
The only letdown is, to play it in multiplayer, one player must take the role of the Storyteller (White Wolf's term for a DM). Although this gives total flexibilty to the game, it means one player is essentially removed from the game experience. Also, with an inexperienced storyteller, the game can run slowly as he prepares the next scene.
However, this should not detract from what is otherwise a fine game.