As I slunk through the dark alleys of LA with a prostitute in tow, I thought to myself, "This isn't your run of the mill role-playing game." Darkness and all the gothic goodies are what make Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines interesting. The latest title from White Wolf Game Studio, Troika Games, and Activision serves up a healthy dose of atmosphere and often leaves you wanting more. But while the makers of the game claim that they present "gamers with one of the most unique, intense, and open-ended gaming experiences they'll ever encounter", don't expect the open-endedness that you would get from the Grand Theft Auto series.

Vampire is based upon the "pen and paper" role-playing game from White-Wolf in which you become a modern-day vampire in the seedy underground of LA. The game opens with the generation of your character, which is familiar to those of us who have played D&D. It looks like the developers have also kept those non-dungeon and dragon players in mind as well by providing a set of canned questions to help you choose your clan (and by proxy your sect). Clans are the "bloodlines" of the vampire who has made you into the undead, otherwise known as your sire. And interestingly your ancestor vampires and can be traced back to biblical times and the first original vampire, Cain (who slew his brother Abel).

There are seven Clans that range in characteristics from the high-brow ruling class Ventrue to the misshapen Nosferatu. Each Clan has special vampire powers known as Disciplines. Disciplines act much like spells and afford vampires their famous feats such Celerity which allows vampires to move faster than humans or Animalism which is the ability to summon animals to do the caster's bidding.

One other game mechanic that you should be aware of (apart from the standard health bar and experience points) is the blood bar. This is a meter which measures how much blood your vampire has in his system and is similar to mana. This blood is used up by using Disciplines. When your blood levels are too low there is an increasing chance that your vampire might fly over the coo-coo's nest and start feasting on any humans he can find. This can potentially violate the masquerade which is the complex code of laws that governs how vampires live and interact. If you violate the masquerade too often you will have to suffer the consequences.

The vampire character sheet also has abilities, attributes and feats. These items describe your character and have a direct impact on how you play the game. These character stats determine how well you fight and even how persuasive you are. I played most of the game as a Toreador clan member. The Toreador are the smooth talking artsy types who aren't much into fighting. So I chose to keep high scores in the social attributes. This opened up dialog paths such as persuasion and seduction, which were highlighted in a different color in the interface.

If I had to choose the best executed portion of this game it would be the story. I was utterly fascinated as the game opened and I was illegally "sired" by a sexy little vamp. However, the Prince of Los Angeles, Sebastian La Croix, didn't seem quite as happy as I did about the whole situation and I soon found myself running his errands.

The game has earned its mature rating and you will find your self running some very strange errands. It's refreshing to play a game that offers the grittiness of a real vampire movie. Through the course of the game I found a plague-bearing hooker, unmasked a lycanthropic serial killer and got in between the hottest vampire twins ever. Oh, and did I mention that I killed a vampire hunter for a stripper?