History VideoGame / VampireTheMasqueradeRedemption

* EnemyMine: Wilhelm, a Sabbat, agrees to work with Christof because a) they're old friends from when Christof was sired, and b) there's a greater evil at work.

** After an early quest, a ghastly-looking madwoman can be found near the convent spouting dire portents and grim recollections of abuse at the hands of an unknown man in a "cathedral of flesh". Her name is Libussa and she is the BigBad's chief lieutenant, although the creature she speaks of will not be met for a long while yet.
** The first boss, Ahzra, also speaks of his coming awakening.

* TheGhost: Duke Leopold, Count Orsi's benefactor, who's name-dropped a few times but never encountered. Given his title and apparent awareness of Kindred affairs, he's likely another Ventrue.

Vampire: The Masquerade – Redemption is a PC role-playing game released on June 7, 2000 by Activision. The game follows the adventures of a French crusader, [[TheHero Christof Romuald]], through Prague and Vienna in the Dark Ages and modern-day London and New York City. The game is based on the pen-and-paper roleplaying game TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade.

* ALighterShadeOfBlack: Both the Tremere and the Tzimisce are antagonists, at odds with each other as well as you, but the latter is up to ''far'' worse things than the former. The Tremere lord, Etrius, even calls you out after his boss battle for wasting his time and resources when he's trying to fight a war against ''real'' monsters who'd see the world destroyed.

* AnEconomyIsYou: {{Justified}}. Of course the only businesses in town that are open in the middle of the night cater to vampires and/or nocturnal thugs; that's just good marketing.
* AntiFrustrationFeatures: Your AI-controlled coterie will no doubt encounter some of the classic pathing problems so many point-and-click [=RPGs=] enjoy. Fortunately, them getting stuck on items or scenery isn't a huge issue, as you needn't gather your party to venture forth: any single character entering or leaving an area will teleport the entire coterie to you.

* AristocratsAreEvil: Even the ones who DON'T advocate human sacrifice will treat you like garbage.
* ArtificialStupidity: Your allies' AI is only just good enough to keep them from using ALL of their own blood for disciplines. They tend to stink at any combat that requires a more complex plan than "shoot until it's dead." And even when shooting until dead, they don't ever take advantage of the automatic fire that their weapons may have, and may fire into walls. On the plus side, your enemies are no smarter.
* AsLongAsItSoundsForeign: The [[EvilSorcerer Tremere's]] base of operations is called "Haus De Hexe". Two problems: "de" mean "of" in Spanish, NOT German. Second: Hexe is singular, which is also presumably a mistake as there is obviously more than one Tremere in it. A proper rendering would be "Haus Der Hexen."

* BadassNormal: Christof, initially. The Society Of Leopold's troopers might qualify for this too, given how well they perform compared to most mooks.

* BlackMagic: Almost all of the magic you can learn is designed to hurt other people. You can learn some things to heal or bolster yourself, but there are no disciplines you can learn that will help anyone but you.

* BloodLust: This game is about VAMPIRES. What'd you expect?

* ChainsawGood: Oddly it does less damage than a lot of weapons.
** In the Modern age, it's the most damaging melee weapon, but it takes some time in order to work. The machete is weaker but faster. [[AwesomeButImpractical Which is pretty realistic]]; chainsaws inflict huge messy wounds on anything you hold them against, but are extremely unwieldy and in a quick impact they're little better than a spiked club.
* ChasteHero: Good Christian that he is, Christof refuses to despoil a nun while he's alive. After he gets turned, he still doesn't respond to anyone's amorous advances, probably because he's too driven to care.
** In the tabletop game that serves as source material, Vampires cannot have sex or perform other functions of human biology involving blood flow without expending points of consumed blood. Since hunting for blood is one of the few activities that puts a vampire in substantial danger, most of them don't bother.

* ChickMagnet: Christof. Many females comment on how handsome he is, while a few others outright try to seduce him.
** Christoff seduces Anezka ''whilst unconscious'', and Serena barely waits until you take her back to your haven after you first meet her before "offering what comfort (she) can," though Christoff turns her down (and Serena basically says that Anezka is a very lucky woman).
* ChronicHeroSyndrome: Christof seems to have a mild case of this. I say "Mild" because he is focused enough on his objective of finding Anezka that he is willing to do some decidedly unheroic things to find her. You can make him grow out of it.

* ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve: Touched on, in true W.O.D. fashion, when Christof pulls a silver cross on a vampire [[spoiler: and it does nothing, because Christof lacks the depth of faith needed to make that trick work. Anezka has no such problem, though.]]

* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: Your vampire enemies will never have any problems grabbing you and draining your blood, even if you're wearing a neck protector specifically made to prevent this. There are also numerous Tzimizce monsters that have a "bite your head off" instakill move as a standard attack.

* TheCorrupter: Vukodlak is not named "The Defiler" for nothing. That said, nearly every vampire Christof talks to does this, to some extent. It is a [[TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness World of Darkness]], and all that.

* EarnYourHappyEnding: The game's title isn't an accident. "Redemption," of a sort, is possible, but Christof really has to work hard for it, and you as the player have to make sure to always make the "good" choice even when other choices seem more [[ShootTheDog practical]].

* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: Averted with all the merchants you deal with, even the "Smithy" in Prague and "Weaponsmith" in Vienna give you their full names when you first meet them[[labelnote:*]]Jiri Borijov and Friedrich Von Zweter respectively[[/labelnote]]. There are a few literal barkeeps in the game, but they're such minor characters that it's [[JustifiedTrope reasonable]] that Christof wouldn't ask them their names.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Dev/Null the [[TheMadHatter Malkavian]] will tell you the entire plot of the game from the point where you meet him to the end... assuming you can [[MadOracle understand a damn thing he says]].

* FullFrontalAssault: The Tzimisce in the Dark Ages wear concealing black robes. The ones in modern age? Are naked.

** SkippableBoss: It's easy to miss the werewolf completely by using [[WarpWhistle Walk The Abyss]] to leave the Tower of London instead of having to [[BackTracking back-track]] through the level. This will then leave you wondering what the heck the [[UselessItem Argent Baton]] was for.

* HamToHamCombat: Especially in the Dark Ages portion of the game, whenever Cristof speaks to another vampire, this is all but guaranteed to happen. Notably, his first interaction with Ahzra the Unliving sets the tone for how he interacts with Kindred for the remainder of the game.

* HufflepuffHouse: The Ravnos are the only one of the 13 clans not to appear anywhere in the game. Around half of the others[[labelnote:*]]Lasombra, Gangrel, Assamite, Malkavian and Toreador[[/labelnote]] only have one or two members in the game, although they are mostly either party-joinable or otherwise memorable. Surprisingly, the ''Camarilla'' also qualifies: Pink claims to work for them and Lily, Samuel, Dev/Null and Alexandra Ruthven are presumably notional members, but you never meet anyone significant in the Camarilla or have any real involvement with them despite them being the largest sect. However, all the clans and sects get the same amount of background info [[AllThereInTheManual in the manual]].

** InfinityMinusOneSword: The other item that can make the time skip with you is the Berserker Fang. While it has no special properties, it deals a surprising amount of aggravated damage[[note]]The Ainkurn Sword does as much damage as the Berserker Fang, slower, but has additional benefits that make it powerful[[/note]], which is very powerful against very enemy in the game, and it has the highest speed in the game, letting you attack very quickly with it. It will easily get you through the Society of Leopold at the beginning of the time skip.

* TheMole: [[spoiler:Pink]] turns out to be a Assamite who wanted to delay Christof til it's too late.
* MoneyForNothing: Averted for most of the game; even if you forgo as much shopping as you can and trust your luck to dungeon loot, money can be tight. In the last stretch of the game though, you're showered with cash and will likely have enough in your pocket to deck the entire coterie out in decent armaments.

* OffWithHisHead: It's possible to behead enemies while using a bladed weapon, causing them to die shortly after. This however, can also lead to creepy/hilarious situations, including those huge teutonic knights getting beheaded, running around for a while like chicken asking for reinforcements and then finally dropping dead while screaming "[[LargeHam I'm Dying!"]].

* OneGenderRace: Most of the vampire clans you'll face will have only male mooks or, in case of Toreador and Dark Age Malcavians, female ones. There are some cases of TheSmurfettePrinciple with Ecaterina (female Brujah), Virstania (female Tremere), Teta Kazi and Zeel (female Ventrue) and Libussa (female Tzimisce). The only exceptions are the Cappadocians, as you'll find both men and women in their lair.

* OneWingedAngel: After the first beating, Vukodlak turns himself into a dragon-like monster named Zulo.
** ClippedWingAngel: ...who is actually quite a bit easier to defeat than Vukodlak's humanoid form.

* RailRoading: Various dialogue options let you argue against following the plot. In one instance, you can even argue with Ekaterina ''for'' carrying out the plot, and have her pull a one-eighty the moment you agree not to go along with the plot.

* TheReveal: A few big twists, the main one being that [[spoiler:Anezka, far from undergoing a FaceHeelTurn, is playing the long con and sabotaging Vukodlak from inside the enemy camp.]]

* SavePoint: You can save anywhere, but there are still savepoints in your haven, vestiges of earlier versions of the game.

* SoulJar: In London you have to kill the leader of the Setite vampires, and you need a certain heart artifact which contains her soul to vanquish her once and for all.

* TimeSkip: Halfway through the game Christof is entombed as a castle collapses around him and he spends eight hundred years in torpor.
* TrueCompanions: Christof manages to inspire the unflinching, unfailing loyalty of his coterie, even crossing thousands of years in the case of Wilhelm (and, in the Age of Redemption mod, Serena). These vampires will do anything to stay at Christof's side and help him reunite with his true love. [[spoiler: Except Pink.]]

** When Christof accuses a mugger of being "A common cutpurse" the man's reply is a baffled "What?"

* ObfuscatingStupidity: [[spoiler:"Pink" effects the stereotypical new-age Brujah aesthetic and attitude, although for all his rudeness and impulsiveness, he never comes off as ''stupid''. He even calls it "idiotic" after TheReveal.]]

* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: The Tzimisce, surprisingly, between the Dark Ages and modern nights. The chroniclers in the Society of Leopold attribute Vukodlak's EvilPlan to the entire clan, when in reality [[EvenEvilHasStandards he was deposed and cast into torpor by his fellow Voivodes for being too radical]].

** True in a more literal sense as well. The two bad endings simply require you to choose certain dialogue options before the final boss; either one skips the fight and triggers its own BadEnding. The good one requires you to [[ShutUpHannibal give him the finger]] and engage in a NintendoHard two-phased boss fight against by far the most dangerous enemy in the game.

* FiveManBand: ...with Christof as TheHero, Wilhelm or Pink as TheLancer, Erik as TheBigGuy, Samuel as TheSmartGuy, and either Lily or Serena as TheChick. FiveManBand is a bit of a misnomer, though, since you only ever have four people in the party at once.

* SaveScumming: As with other RPGs of its time, this is many players' favourite tactic of bending fate to their advantage.

* FinalDeath: Actually averted as a vampire. Your game over condition is every coterie member entering torpor; so long as at least one is still active, the others can be awoken. Your enemies suffer this en masse, though.

* InfinityPlusOneSword: The Ainkurn Sword, found in the Teutonic Knight Base. This incredibly powerful item may very well remain your most powerful and useful weapon throughout the rest of the game. Notably, the sword is the ''one'' item in your inventory that survives the 800-year TimeSkip.

* CentralTheme: [[ExactlyWhatItSaysInTheTin The clue is in the title]]. Christof and Anezka are both brought low by the world of vampires, and both fear for the loss of their souls amidst all the evil they see (and, in some cases, personally commit). Whether redemption can be attained despite their cursed states is a question asked throughout the story. In the end, [[spoiler:they find salvation in their love for each other, and each of them is blameless in the other's eyes.]]

* InfinityPlusOneSword: The Ainkurn Sword, found in the Teutonic Knight Base. This incredibly powerful item may very well remain your most powerful and useful weapon throughout the rest of the game.

* TheMole: [[spoiler:Pink]] turns out to be a Assemite who wanted to delay Christof til it's too late.

* RPGsEqualCombat
* RunDontWalk

** After an early quest, a ghastly-looking madwoman can be found near the convent spouting dire portents and grim recollections of abuse at the hands of an unknown man. Her name is Libussa and she is the BigBad's ghoul/chief lieutenant, although the creature she speaks of will not be met for a long while yet.

** Most lengthy levels have a convenient exit after completion through which you can resurface at the entrance or the first floor... except for the Setite Temple, which you'll have to run all the way back through, ''twice''.

* ImAHumanitarian: if you pay attention to your surroundings it quickly appears clear that Orsi International is a food processing factory manufacturing [[BreadEggsMilkSquick deep-fried human corpses]]. It also gathers their blood for vampire customers before going through with the cooking, think about recycling!

* UnusualEuphemism / GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Pink's [[UsefulNotes/BritishEnglish Cockney Rhyming Slang]].

* AllYourPowersCombined: Christof can learn the disciplines from any clan, whereas the NPCs (friendly or enemy) can only learn their own clan's disciplines.

* TheMole: [[spoiler:Pink]] turns out to be a Tzimisce who wanted to delay Christof til it's too late.

* OhCrap: Christof first encounter with the Ghoul Rats.

* SoLongAndThanksForAllTheGear: [[spoiler: Pink]]