By Nathan Grayson on May 12th, 2012 at 10:00 am.
When I first saw the words “vampire” and “RPG” appear in DARK‘s elevator pitch, my brain immediately made a mad dash down the portion of memory lane marked “Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines.” But then my incredibly rare T-Rex-like vision disorder cleared up, and I saw other words skitter out – for instance, “stealth-action” and “RPG elements.” So no, this probably isn’t the long-awaited successor to Bloodlines’ bloodline, but the RealmForge-developed, Kalypso-published vampire, er, chokeslam sim could be interesting.
So the focus appears to be on either stealth or action (or both – depending on how you evolve your character). Kalypso boasts that you’ll be able to “use powerful vampire abilities and hard-hitting melee attacks to defeat dangerous enemies – turn into a puff of smoke and disappear, or close with your foes in an instant.” AI’s apparently also a major selling point, but that’s a bullet point that’s shot developers in the foot far too many times for my liking, so I’m not getting my hopes up.
The plot, meanwhile, centers around “unraveling the mystery behind a global conglomerate that seems omnipresent and all-powerful.” Sounds kind of Deus Ex-ish on paper, huh? But then, anything can sound Deus Ex-ish in half a sentence. For instance, if I’m running late while attempting to pick which clothes to wear, I usually tell my friends I’m “locked in desperate struggle between augmenting my body and preserving my brittle human soul.” It’s also how I justify showing up without pants.
It all sounds interesting, but I can’t claim to be familiar with anything on RealmForge‘s resume, so we’ll see. DARK’s currently slated for an early 2013 release. And me? Well, I think I’m currently slated for my annual Bloodlines replay right now. So I’m gonna go do that. Yay vampires!
12/05/2012 at 10:08 frightlever says:
Ahh. Not to be confused with this:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/12/17/bloodlust-vampire-shadowhunter-has-a-demo/
Which I confused it with.
12/05/2012 at 10:20 coldvvvave says:
Looks like some photoshoppin been done to screens.
12/05/2012 at 10:33 Inigo says:
How is a vampire supposed to be stealthy if they keep sparkling?
12/05/2012 at 10:54 Malk_Content says:
The game is mostly set in a post-apocalyptic New York which was a target of a viscous glitter bomb.
12/05/2012 at 11:12 Icarus says:
And yet, still makes more sense than Ultimatum.
12/05/2012 at 15:23 Fumarole says:
Glitter is the herpes of the arts and crafts world.
13/05/2012 at 09:23 jrodman says:
So good, it keeps coming back?
12/05/2012 at 10:54 Vegard Pompey says:
“If I’m running late while attempting to pick which clothes to wear, I usually tell my friends I’m “locked in desperate struggle between augmenting my body and preserving my brittle human soul.” It’s also how I justify showing up without pants.”
Must be my favorite RPS quote yet.
12/05/2012 at 11:31 Raiyan 1.0 says:
Yeah, I’m rather pleased with the new blood in RPS.
12/05/2012 at 12:14 Orija says:
The graphics look a lot like that of Darkness 2.
12/05/2012 at 12:36 pilouuuu says:
Oh, this reminds me that I want a new Vampire Bloodlines games so badly…
12/05/2012 at 12:38 Post-Internet Syndrome says:
I thought the article was about the next game in the splinter cell series. Seeing as they already jumped the shark I wouldn’t mind actually.
12/05/2012 at 12:57 Iskariot says:
Even though this is not a new Bloodlines I am still very interested.
From what I can gather from the link (http://forum.kalypsomedia.com/showthread.php?tid=14655) it sounds very promising and exactly up my alley.
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I wish someone would just buy Gta 4′s open world setting and add the Bloodlines vampire layer to it. I would die to play a vampire in that setting.
12/05/2012 at 14:07 Solidstate89 says:
I’m liking this Nathan fellow more and more. Seeing a fellow Yankee with a damn good sense of humor being represented on RPS is a fine show. A fine show indeed.
Also, the game sounds quite interesting.
12/05/2012 at 14:54 sbs says:
(Y) Kill
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
12/05/2012 at 15:32 iwem.xo says:
My first thought was of Vampire Rain. Hopefully this will be at least a bit better.
12/05/2012 at 16:18 kud13 says:
What’s happening with that other Kalypso-published game, Demonicon? I’ve been made intrigued in it by RPS in October, and we’ve heard nothing since
12/05/2012 at 18:29 RedViv says:
So after a mediocre p&c adventure, a mediocre management game, a mediocre Dungeon Keeper Lite, and the sequelpansion to the latter, they’re trying their hands at something new again.
Now, it might give them the chance to show that their actual potential lies in this new genre, but I’m not really optimistic about this game, going from their releases alone.
12/05/2012 at 18:32 niull says:
http://1su.net/aF5
12/05/2012 at 23:43 wodin says:
Odd when you think about it, Vampires and Werewolves have become very popular over the last 5 or so years and yet we haven’t seen it crossing over into games.
I’d like a well made vampire game myself though.
13/05/2012 at 10:48 RedViv says:
Games take time, and quite frankly it’s not the classical vampires and werewolves that have become popular. Now, an intelligent adventure about a teenager followed by a creepy possessive stalker, that’s something I want to see tackled.
13/05/2012 at 13:27 wesp5 says:
Yeah, if Bloodlines had been released in the current vampire hype it surely would have been a success! As for DARK, dissappearing in a puff of smoke sounds like Obfuscate, closing in on your foe in an instant like Celerity and the conglomerate seems like the Camarilla would appear to a thin-blood ;).
19/05/2012 at 02:42 Iskariot says:
I would even buy a Bloodlines remake with the exact same storyline for double retail price if it was set in in an open city world like Liberty city.
Rockstar should release a vampire DLC for GTA IV or perhaps GTA V.
13/05/2012 at 14:45 dE says:
Which is, because it isn’t about vampires and werewolves but vampire romances and werewolf romances. The fantasy sections of bookstores are literally infested with one “dark romance” book after another, to the point where the only non vampire book you can get is called “Lord of the Rings”.
Well, we better call Bioware. They need a new sexuality spin to keep the press on hating about their games. And necrophilia combined with the whole dracula raining on church parades thing. Oh boy, that’s gotta get their hate-engines pumping. Et voila, we’ve got the next Bioware game.
14/05/2012 at 09:40 Fadobo says:
Vampires? Splinter Cell? If it is anything like “Vampire Rain” it can go burn in hell!
19/05/2012 at 02:43 Iskariot says:
Yeah, but imagine it being anything like Bloodlines. That would be great.