Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption (Jewel Case)

The single-player mode locks you into the story line of Christof, a medieval crusader who blunders into immortality at the fangs of an ancient Brujah vampire. Christof's damnation and search for redemption lead him from the Prague of the Dark Ages to modern New York City. Multiplayer options include local area network and Internet play as well as the ability to create and run your own stories for other players. The manual is beautiful and helpful, a rare combination. Clearly, the designers took their cue from White Wolf, as evidenced by the clarity of text and carefully chosen illustrations. Though Redemption is well worth playing, gamers should be warned that the save-game feature is irritating and often beyond the player's control and that the installation requires at least 720 MB (and up to 1.3 GB!). Despite these flaws, the game is still wicked fun and merits plenty of praise. --Rob Lightner

Pros:

• Fantastic graphics and sound
• Rich online storytelling options
• Perfectly captures the mood and settings of Vampire: The Masquerade and Vampire: The Dark Ages

• Enormous installation size
• Irritating save-game feature
• Not strictly faithful to original White Wolf rules