As rickety and often barely functional yet ultimately powerful as its titular protagonists. Less than an hour into this replay, I got stuck inside a door and had to reload a save to get out, had a guard I’d intimidated into passivity turn hostile again when he rounded a corner and witnessed an unconscious, bedridden patient aggressively A-pose when I fed on his doctor, but as ever, I stick with it regardless because virtually everything else about the game is so enthralling. The ladies call it “oh God!,” but you can call it Vampire the Masquerade – Bloodlines.
Paradoxically, VTMB’s main strength is probably its immersion. No amount of glitchiness could be enough to prevent anyone from feeling smothered in the atmosphere of dark urban decay it depicts, even after several playthroughs; this was my fourth since I was little and I still find myself wary of areas which I should know by now have no enemies or other dangers, because (appropriately, considering the game’s premise) there’s always a pervasive sense that there could be. Something less obvious that contributes to this is the fact that it’s one of few RPGs with a contemporary setting – it’s easier to feel on edge when familiar locales like a beachside hotel, a hospital or an arcade are supernaturally twisted into something uncomfortable. These aspects join hands with a soundtrack which sounds like what you’d see if you peered into the mind of any of this portrayal of LA’s aimless drifters, grungy ambient sound effects, imposing neo-Gothic architecture and some lovely, imagination-sparking skyboxes to make each of its four small but dense hub worlds that much more of a joy to explore, even when the later portions take their infamous downturn in terms of options for resolving quests and general rushed-ness.
It's a pity that the endgame’s so combat-orientated given that the combat system, despite being somewhat flexible and satisfying in small doses thanks to some of the more out-there vampiric powers, generally isn’t engaging enough to maintain long-term interest. One area in which VTMB never falters, though, is in terms of character interactions. Stellar voice acting and facial animations unique in their sheer expressiveness, true even of NPCs which most players might never even encounter, don’t just bring its cast to (un)life but also make the dialogue system feel more natural, too. As in the first two Fallout games with which Troika shared several staff, NPCs’ demeanour towards you is telegraphed diegetically via their facial expressions and, although speech checks are highlighted by a bunch of fancy fonts, there’s no indication of whether you’ll succeed at them or whether doing so’ll even result in a beneficial outcome. Only on my third playthrough did I learn that you can lock yourself out of getting the Downtown haven if you’re too cheeky to LaCroix, with no warnings next to any of the dialogue options that result in this. It’s all too rare and all too cool that an RPG pulls the rug out from under you like this and lets you get whisked away on a domino effect of your poor decisions, however minor they seem at the time.
What accentuates this even further is the diversity between the clans you can pick at the start. Playing a Malkavian or Nosferatu in particular’s so differentiated from those with their heads and/or skin screwed on that it’s almost like playing the game for the first time again; as above, it wasn’t until this replay that I learned you could skip the tutorial and miss out on a free lockpick until I realised the hard way that I don’t have as good a grasp on the voices in my Malk’s head as I’d thought. It occasionally feels like every character needing to be voiced restricted the lengths Troika could go to in integrating unique interactions for these oddball clans, but the fact that there’s one entirely optional clan which alters every single line of player dialogue in the game and at least one other which fundamentally changes how you have to navigate the hubs is really impressive, no less for the restraint this must’ve taken than for its impact on gameplay and replay value – again, reminiscent of low-INT builds in Fallout 1 and 2.
You’ll probably have noticed that this review’s got a consistent thread running through it of getting slapped in the face with things I didn’t know were in the game before, and that’s because a core draw of VTMB is discovery. It’s why I’ve not dug into how juicy much of its dialogue is, the surprising amount of other World of Darkness tabletops it draws from beyond just Vampire or the frequency with which it reminds you what a vivid imagination its character designers/artists have, because it all deserves to learnt firsthand. That said, I did make a tiny collage to drive home the latter point: these four characters all live on roughly the same street. The amount of effort it must’ve taken to conceptualise a cast so varied’s almost as mad to think about as the fact that VTMB is old enough now to arguably function as period piece.
This being as true of the time in which it released as of its contents is what led to this revisit in the first place. Having played and enjoyed Cyberpunk 2077 and Starfield in quick succession, both of which feature only about as many bugs across an entire playthrough as any individual hour of this (if even), I find it hard to imagine a world where the public wouldn’t sentence VTMB to the same death-by-hyperbole if it were to come out now, without the reputational fortune of being long solidified as a cult classic for epic gamers only. It turns out that releasing in the same week as Half Life 2, MGS3 and Halo 2 was a blessing in disguise, if only because this was well before the Camarilla saw fit to punish us with social media monetisation and how it's helped foster vague, directionless outrage about games most of those perpetuating it have no intention of playing anyway as its own micro-industry.
Forever glad that people were able to see the forest for the trees in this particular case, for whatever reason, and recognise that not even bugs on the level of crashing the game when you press the screenshot button or a penultimate boss in three out of four story routes constituting what may genuinely be the worst boss fight in any video game are enough to sink the one-of-a-kind RPG that VTMB is. Take the plunge into its supernatural underworld, look forward to making mistakes along the way and remember: don’t open it.
Paradoxically, VTMB’s main strength is probably its immersion. No amount of glitchiness could be enough to prevent anyone from feeling smothered in the atmosphere of dark urban decay it depicts, even after several playthroughs; this was my fourth since I was little and I still find myself wary of areas which I should know by now have no enemies or other dangers, because (appropriately, considering the game’s premise) there’s always a pervasive sense that there could be. Something less obvious that contributes to this is the fact that it’s one of few RPGs with a contemporary setting – it’s easier to feel on edge when familiar locales like a beachside hotel, a hospital or an arcade are supernaturally twisted into something uncomfortable. These aspects join hands with a soundtrack which sounds like what you’d see if you peered into the mind of any of this portrayal of LA’s aimless drifters, grungy ambient sound effects, imposing neo-Gothic architecture and some lovely, imagination-sparking skyboxes to make each of its four small but dense hub worlds that much more of a joy to explore, even when the later portions take their infamous downturn in terms of options for resolving quests and general rushed-ness.
It's a pity that the endgame’s so combat-orientated given that the combat system, despite being somewhat flexible and satisfying in small doses thanks to some of the more out-there vampiric powers, generally isn’t engaging enough to maintain long-term interest. One area in which VTMB never falters, though, is in terms of character interactions. Stellar voice acting and facial animations unique in their sheer expressiveness, true even of NPCs which most players might never even encounter, don’t just bring its cast to (un)life but also make the dialogue system feel more natural, too. As in the first two Fallout games with which Troika shared several staff, NPCs’ demeanour towards you is telegraphed diegetically via their facial expressions and, although speech checks are highlighted by a bunch of fancy fonts, there’s no indication of whether you’ll succeed at them or whether doing so’ll even result in a beneficial outcome. Only on my third playthrough did I learn that you can lock yourself out of getting the Downtown haven if you’re too cheeky to LaCroix, with no warnings next to any of the dialogue options that result in this. It’s all too rare and all too cool that an RPG pulls the rug out from under you like this and lets you get whisked away on a domino effect of your poor decisions, however minor they seem at the time.
What accentuates this even further is the diversity between the clans you can pick at the start. Playing a Malkavian or Nosferatu in particular’s so differentiated from those with their heads and/or skin screwed on that it’s almost like playing the game for the first time again; as above, it wasn’t until this replay that I learned you could skip the tutorial and miss out on a free lockpick until I realised the hard way that I don’t have as good a grasp on the voices in my Malk’s head as I’d thought. It occasionally feels like every character needing to be voiced restricted the lengths Troika could go to in integrating unique interactions for these oddball clans, but the fact that there’s one entirely optional clan which alters every single line of player dialogue in the game and at least one other which fundamentally changes how you have to navigate the hubs is really impressive, no less for the restraint this must’ve taken than for its impact on gameplay and replay value – again, reminiscent of low-INT builds in Fallout 1 and 2.
You’ll probably have noticed that this review’s got a consistent thread running through it of getting slapped in the face with things I didn’t know were in the game before, and that’s because a core draw of VTMB is discovery. It’s why I’ve not dug into how juicy much of its dialogue is, the surprising amount of other World of Darkness tabletops it draws from beyond just Vampire or the frequency with which it reminds you what a vivid imagination its character designers/artists have, because it all deserves to learnt firsthand. That said, I did make a tiny collage to drive home the latter point: these four characters all live on roughly the same street. The amount of effort it must’ve taken to conceptualise a cast so varied’s almost as mad to think about as the fact that VTMB is old enough now to arguably function as period piece.
This being as true of the time in which it released as of its contents is what led to this revisit in the first place. Having played and enjoyed Cyberpunk 2077 and Starfield in quick succession, both of which feature only about as many bugs across an entire playthrough as any individual hour of this (if even), I find it hard to imagine a world where the public wouldn’t sentence VTMB to the same death-by-hyperbole if it were to come out now, without the reputational fortune of being long solidified as a cult classic for epic gamers only. It turns out that releasing in the same week as Half Life 2, MGS3 and Halo 2 was a blessing in disguise, if only because this was well before the Camarilla saw fit to punish us with social media monetisation and how it's helped foster vague, directionless outrage about games most of those perpetuating it have no intention of playing anyway as its own micro-industry.
Forever glad that people were able to see the forest for the trees in this particular case, for whatever reason, and recognise that not even bugs on the level of crashing the game when you press the screenshot button or a penultimate boss in three out of four story routes constituting what may genuinely be the worst boss fight in any video game are enough to sink the one-of-a-kind RPG that VTMB is. Take the plunge into its supernatural underworld, look forward to making mistakes along the way and remember: don’t open it.
i blame this game for my deep need to be pegged by girls wearing chokers
Making a big choice based narrative rpg game seems like a nightmare in ambition and effort. These kinds of projects require an intense workload and consistency across a whole team. Writing all these competing factions that are (ideally) well-written, building a decent stat system, ensuring all these systems mesh together, making sure its all FUN by the end of it all... its a huge task! I don't envy the sheer effort it all took.
I think its inevitable, under these conditions, that a game like this turns out to be rife with bugs. In fact, I think sometimes you need a game to have bugs. As much as some people may crave a perfect, fully immersive experience, I think the real heart of video games is laughing at a goofy glitch. And its a good reminder to an audience just how difficult it is to make a video game. They dedicated hours and hours of craft to force these disparate programs to play nice together, here's the stuff that slipped through the cracks. There's a sincerity to the flaws. Its almost community building in a weird way. We're all enjoying our passion for games here, why not share that awkward passionate sincerity alongside the devs, rather than against them?
And god damn can you feel the sheer weight of this studio's passion in this game. Troika studio was collapsing as this game was rushed out the door, but the team cared so much for the project, they worked on community patches to help even out the flaws they couldn't fix in house. In the decades since the game's release, the fan community built a more elaborate patch with rediscovered lost content, quality of life features, and little touches for a better experience. I could ramble about the clever writing or how the different upgrade systems add a specific challenge and thrill to the game, but it really comes down to four words: the game is fun! Its just fun to play! Playing all the politics, maneuvering different clever set-pieces, its all fun to dig your teeth into.
The two main flaws of the game are more issues of the time it came out and the nature of production. In the latter case, the final hours lose the game's perchant for multiple solutions to problems and kind of descend into endless corridors of enemies. I've heard some modern complaints lodged at new narrative rpgs for letting you talk down endbosses or things, claiming it means your villains don't actually stand for anything. While I understand that critique, I'll take that any day over the absolute slog that is the final hours of this game's combat. The combat is at its best in short chunks. Relying on it too much makes for a more exhaustive experience.
The other problem is, well, it is an 00s game. Split personality storylines, weird asian stereotypying... This is all coupled with a tendency towards some edgelord dialogue. I generally tried to play my character with the mentality of "bro i just work here." My character's been a vampire for like two days and the game wants me to be saying lines like "you will bow before ME, mortal!"
This is particularly noticeable when dealing with Heather Poe. The game gives you the chance to give a dying woman some blood. This is a clear good guy action to do. Save the human, gain some humanity back. Well, things aren't that simple. Giving a human vampire blood quickly makes them an addict. Heather quickly tracks you down and leaps all the way into putting herself in the role of slave. She calls you master, she offers you her college fund, she starts luring victims to your apartment, you can demand that she change her appearance... the whole situation is profoundly fucked. While the game does let you try to treat Heather gently, its all with an air of condescension. I'm not allowed to say "hey girl, wanna hear about my work day?" The options are all "Ah yes, you have been a good loyal pet." The writing is inclined to being a cool edgy vampire who's just better than humanity. That's excellent for that kind of roleplayer, but sometimes I want my character to just be a normal guy. I guess that speaks to a wider problem in video games though. Video games are inherently designed for the player. You will always be the big special person who everything revolves around.
Still, the game is a cult classic for a reason. There was love put into this game, from both creators and fans. The VTM universe is a complicated world and putting that system into a video game was a huge challenge to begin with. The fact this managed to pull it off despite everything going against it is truly a marvel.
I think its inevitable, under these conditions, that a game like this turns out to be rife with bugs. In fact, I think sometimes you need a game to have bugs. As much as some people may crave a perfect, fully immersive experience, I think the real heart of video games is laughing at a goofy glitch. And its a good reminder to an audience just how difficult it is to make a video game. They dedicated hours and hours of craft to force these disparate programs to play nice together, here's the stuff that slipped through the cracks. There's a sincerity to the flaws. Its almost community building in a weird way. We're all enjoying our passion for games here, why not share that awkward passionate sincerity alongside the devs, rather than against them?
And god damn can you feel the sheer weight of this studio's passion in this game. Troika studio was collapsing as this game was rushed out the door, but the team cared so much for the project, they worked on community patches to help even out the flaws they couldn't fix in house. In the decades since the game's release, the fan community built a more elaborate patch with rediscovered lost content, quality of life features, and little touches for a better experience. I could ramble about the clever writing or how the different upgrade systems add a specific challenge and thrill to the game, but it really comes down to four words: the game is fun! Its just fun to play! Playing all the politics, maneuvering different clever set-pieces, its all fun to dig your teeth into.
The two main flaws of the game are more issues of the time it came out and the nature of production. In the latter case, the final hours lose the game's perchant for multiple solutions to problems and kind of descend into endless corridors of enemies. I've heard some modern complaints lodged at new narrative rpgs for letting you talk down endbosses or things, claiming it means your villains don't actually stand for anything. While I understand that critique, I'll take that any day over the absolute slog that is the final hours of this game's combat. The combat is at its best in short chunks. Relying on it too much makes for a more exhaustive experience.
The other problem is, well, it is an 00s game. Split personality storylines, weird asian stereotypying... This is all coupled with a tendency towards some edgelord dialogue. I generally tried to play my character with the mentality of "bro i just work here." My character's been a vampire for like two days and the game wants me to be saying lines like "you will bow before ME, mortal!"
This is particularly noticeable when dealing with Heather Poe. The game gives you the chance to give a dying woman some blood. This is a clear good guy action to do. Save the human, gain some humanity back. Well, things aren't that simple. Giving a human vampire blood quickly makes them an addict. Heather quickly tracks you down and leaps all the way into putting herself in the role of slave. She calls you master, she offers you her college fund, she starts luring victims to your apartment, you can demand that she change her appearance... the whole situation is profoundly fucked. While the game does let you try to treat Heather gently, its all with an air of condescension. I'm not allowed to say "hey girl, wanna hear about my work day?" The options are all "Ah yes, you have been a good loyal pet." The writing is inclined to being a cool edgy vampire who's just better than humanity. That's excellent for that kind of roleplayer, but sometimes I want my character to just be a normal guy. I guess that speaks to a wider problem in video games though. Video games are inherently designed for the player. You will always be the big special person who everything revolves around.
Still, the game is a cult classic for a reason. There was love put into this game, from both creators and fans. The VTM universe is a complicated world and putting that system into a video game was a huge challenge to begin with. The fact this managed to pull it off despite everything going against it is truly a marvel.
Every poor devil who, as me, enjoys partying at nightclubs, sometimes the nasty kind of ones, learns either by failure or luck some golden rules that no amount of alcohol can black out. For instance:
- Don't trust anyone who talks either too little or too much, but always trust the nerd.
- People will generally side with the person pouring the booze.
- If she looks crazy she probably is crazy.
- The final two hours of your night are always the most desolating ones.
- DON'T OPEN doors, purses, wallets or really anything which isn't strictly your business.
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines just asks for you to spend this little amount of street smarts anyone could achieve if they are willing to spend a few nights partying in some godforsaken complot you really shouldn't be anywhere near. It's the same criminals, crooks and creeps you can spot at the clubs, it's just their drink of choice is a little bit more... exotic. Not my weirdest night, to be honest.
- Don't trust anyone who talks either too little or too much, but always trust the nerd.
- People will generally side with the person pouring the booze.
- If she looks crazy she probably is crazy.
- The final two hours of your night are always the most desolating ones.
- DON'T OPEN doors, purses, wallets or really anything which isn't strictly your business.
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines just asks for you to spend this little amount of street smarts anyone could achieve if they are willing to spend a few nights partying in some godforsaken complot you really shouldn't be anywhere near. It's the same criminals, crooks and creeps you can spot at the clubs, it's just their drink of choice is a little bit more... exotic. Not my weirdest night, to be honest.
Q: What's your favorite track from Bloodlines? I was listening to the Chinatown theme earlier.. so good!
Rik Schaffer: Hollywood Hub, wrote it a day after being released from jail. I was in the worst depression of my life, it captured it.
Rik Schaffer: Hollywood Hub, wrote it a day after being released from jail. I was in the worst depression of my life, it captured it.
any time a game has talking heads in it i know its gonna be one of my fav games ever. ending was obviously rushed but it doesnt overshadowed the masterpiece of the rest of the game
Replaying it again, my stance remains pretty much the same. An unfinished masterpiece with a fantastic long stretch starting from the beginning that gets mangled up when the budget just ran out and Activision rigged it to fail. The Nosferatu Warrens remain annoyingly long, Chinatown is still a solid hub world but is noticeably lacking compared to the previous three, and it's ironic that for a game touted as "Deus Ex with Vampires" when it came out it recreated Deus Ex's similar trapping of the last stretch shying away from the exploration and NPC interaction that gave it massive appeal for something more linear and combat heavy instead. With Bloodlines it's a different case that, though not impossible, isn't easy to overlook. This is all to say it’s an immense testament to Bloodlines’ sheer goodwill and undying strength that almost none of this detracts from how unforgettable traversing gothic Los Angeles was.
The Malkavian playthrough of Bloodlines is indeed a one-of-a-kind legendary gaming experience, and one that led me to further affirm my adoration of this game and how its cult status persists today. Even though the chain of events occurring in the plot remain the same, being a Malkavian added so much wild flavor to even the simplest of NPC interactions that it ranged from entertainingly incomprehensible insanity to clever bits of foreshadowing to returning players who know the important bits that happen in the story. If there’s anything that comes closest to the concept of the original Fallouts’ low intelligence run then this is it. And who we have to thank for this ambitious and let’s just say unforgettable experience was the lead writer himself, Brian Mitsoda. Who wrote the entire dialogue for the Malkavian class while being incredibly sleep deprived and in a unstable mental condition because of how tiring development was and it shows in unhinged spades. Also Disciplines have grown on me for how broken they can be to use in combat, especially playing as a Malkavian. I just love the experience of instantly killing a guy, hallucinating a random guy next to him to use as an easy blood bank, and then turning another into a berserker frenzy fighting against the others. This is actually what made the last stretch, especially when you charge into Venture Tower, so much more bearable than my first playthrough because I barely have to put up a fight until you reach The Sheriff.
Santa Monica is still one of the greatest hub worlds in video games and it's just the first one. It may not be as expansive in scale as the others you later unlock but its density and atmospheric liveliness is unmatched. The locations you can explore feel uniquely designed, populated with well-defined characters that even though some may be largely unimportant at least give you an impression you can’t shake off and forget. What replaying through this helped affirm was that Brian Mitsoda stepped up to being one of my favorite video game writers, like, ever. It’s saying something because his only real work so far was Tides of Numenera (strangely wooden in his contributions to the overall writing) and Dead State (yet to play but am curious about). He does an excellent job of making his characters feel like they have agency beyond the player, and when you interact with them their lives didn’t just unpause or start because of you. They’re incredibly memorable, distinctive in their respective personalities, and have this depth to them that the only writers I can make comparisons with are Josh Sawyer and Chris Avellone. Mitsoda’s creations like the iconic Voerman Sisters and a well-written antagonist in our favorite power-hungry rich manchild LaCroix have are among some of the very best that the genre offers. Speaking of LaCroix, I love the attention to detail with establishing his dominating presence over both LA and your life. You really feel like a fledgling who is under his control now as no matter where you are in Los Angeles, you can always see his royally tall dark skyscraper peering into the nightly backdrop somewhere, reinforcing his grip on the vampire’s domain in the city. Until you reach Chinatown where you can’t even see it anymore because now you’re truly alone in dangerous, uncharted waters that not even LaCroix has any influence over. Again, the developers responsible for the hub worlds flexed harder than you can even imagine. We see game developers strive towards open worlds as this generation’s defining staple but we need to normalize having hub worlds again as a more practical alternative.
It’s worth mentioning that I replayed with the Unofficial Plus Patch which restores and adds more content than what was originally shipped into the final game. I can’t quite speak for much of these changes, some of them from what I encountered basically add in a few more quests, maybe some lines of dialogue here and there that was cut, and probably tweaked the gameplay but what’s really worth restoring was the extra music Rik Schaffer composed for Bloodlines which stepped up into being one of my top five favorite video game soundtracks, easily. There’s some disagreement for this change in the patch because how some feel where the tracks now play in certain sections feel pointless to the already empty ambience which invoked the mood just fine. Considering how good these tracks are however it’s a crime to just leave them on the cutting room floor and not be used in any capacity for a player to hear. Selfless Doubt, Festival, and Downtown Theme - Alternative Version are musical bangers which remain a constant in my usual day-to-day Spotify vibing sessions.
Glad that I bothered replaying this because now I’m completely certain of its place among my top favorites, thanks to its interesting story, memorable characters, immersively gothic atmosphere, and pretty solid gameplay that gets tested too unfavorably later on. It’s making me consider going through Troika’s library (which is fittingly just two other games) to feel heartbroken how a developer like them died too young.
The Malkavian playthrough of Bloodlines is indeed a one-of-a-kind legendary gaming experience, and one that led me to further affirm my adoration of this game and how its cult status persists today. Even though the chain of events occurring in the plot remain the same, being a Malkavian added so much wild flavor to even the simplest of NPC interactions that it ranged from entertainingly incomprehensible insanity to clever bits of foreshadowing to returning players who know the important bits that happen in the story. If there’s anything that comes closest to the concept of the original Fallouts’ low intelligence run then this is it. And who we have to thank for this ambitious and let’s just say unforgettable experience was the lead writer himself, Brian Mitsoda. Who wrote the entire dialogue for the Malkavian class while being incredibly sleep deprived and in a unstable mental condition because of how tiring development was and it shows in unhinged spades. Also Disciplines have grown on me for how broken they can be to use in combat, especially playing as a Malkavian. I just love the experience of instantly killing a guy, hallucinating a random guy next to him to use as an easy blood bank, and then turning another into a berserker frenzy fighting against the others. This is actually what made the last stretch, especially when you charge into Venture Tower, so much more bearable than my first playthrough because I barely have to put up a fight until you reach The Sheriff.
Santa Monica is still one of the greatest hub worlds in video games and it's just the first one. It may not be as expansive in scale as the others you later unlock but its density and atmospheric liveliness is unmatched. The locations you can explore feel uniquely designed, populated with well-defined characters that even though some may be largely unimportant at least give you an impression you can’t shake off and forget. What replaying through this helped affirm was that Brian Mitsoda stepped up to being one of my favorite video game writers, like, ever. It’s saying something because his only real work so far was Tides of Numenera (strangely wooden in his contributions to the overall writing) and Dead State (yet to play but am curious about). He does an excellent job of making his characters feel like they have agency beyond the player, and when you interact with them their lives didn’t just unpause or start because of you. They’re incredibly memorable, distinctive in their respective personalities, and have this depth to them that the only writers I can make comparisons with are Josh Sawyer and Chris Avellone. Mitsoda’s creations like the iconic Voerman Sisters and a well-written antagonist in our favorite power-hungry rich manchild LaCroix have are among some of the very best that the genre offers. Speaking of LaCroix, I love the attention to detail with establishing his dominating presence over both LA and your life. You really feel like a fledgling who is under his control now as no matter where you are in Los Angeles, you can always see his royally tall dark skyscraper peering into the nightly backdrop somewhere, reinforcing his grip on the vampire’s domain in the city. Until you reach Chinatown where you can’t even see it anymore because now you’re truly alone in dangerous, uncharted waters that not even LaCroix has any influence over. Again, the developers responsible for the hub worlds flexed harder than you can even imagine. We see game developers strive towards open worlds as this generation’s defining staple but we need to normalize having hub worlds again as a more practical alternative.
It’s worth mentioning that I replayed with the Unofficial Plus Patch which restores and adds more content than what was originally shipped into the final game. I can’t quite speak for much of these changes, some of them from what I encountered basically add in a few more quests, maybe some lines of dialogue here and there that was cut, and probably tweaked the gameplay but what’s really worth restoring was the extra music Rik Schaffer composed for Bloodlines which stepped up into being one of my top five favorite video game soundtracks, easily. There’s some disagreement for this change in the patch because how some feel where the tracks now play in certain sections feel pointless to the already empty ambience which invoked the mood just fine. Considering how good these tracks are however it’s a crime to just leave them on the cutting room floor and not be used in any capacity for a player to hear. Selfless Doubt, Festival, and Downtown Theme - Alternative Version are musical bangers which remain a constant in my usual day-to-day Spotify vibing sessions.
Glad that I bothered replaying this because now I’m completely certain of its place among my top favorites, thanks to its interesting story, memorable characters, immersively gothic atmosphere, and pretty solid gameplay that gets tested too unfavorably later on. It’s making me consider going through Troika’s library (which is fittingly just two other games) to feel heartbroken how a developer like them died too young.
A buggy, clearly unfinished mess of a game that completely falls apart near the end thanks to some atrocious combat and level design - And that's all after one installs the quite frankly necessary community patch that make the game actually playable.
10/10 - One of the best games I've ever played.
Seriously, despite all of the very real issues with this game, it still manages to be one of the most immersive and well crafted RPGs I've ever played, with a plethora of well written and memorable characters, some of the best quests I've ever experienced in a video game, (special mention to Calling Dr. Grout, one of my favorite levels in any game ever) and an incredible dark and sleazy atmosphere that just perfectly encapsulates the feeling of being a vampire in early 2000s LA.
10/10 - One of the best games I've ever played.
Seriously, despite all of the very real issues with this game, it still manages to be one of the most immersive and well crafted RPGs I've ever played, with a plethora of well written and memorable characters, some of the best quests I've ever experienced in a video game, (special mention to Calling Dr. Grout, one of my favorite levels in any game ever) and an incredible dark and sleazy atmosphere that just perfectly encapsulates the feeling of being a vampire in early 2000s LA.
masterpiece if you turn on god mode so you can pretend the combat doesn't exist
Caine: Hmmmmmm. Coelhos também fogem... Porem, cedo ou mais tarde, a mandíbula do lobo é seu destino. E os lobos tem sua fragrância - você está revestido com o sangue do nono circulo.
1. Cheire bem, você não vai sentir esta vintage em mim.
2. Esta cidade está cheia de mentirosos!
3. Corra coelho, corra.
Os diálogos desse jogo são perfeitos.
1. Cheire bem, você não vai sentir esta vintage em mim.
2. Esta cidade está cheia de mentirosos!
3. Corra coelho, corra.
Os diálogos desse jogo são perfeitos.
it slowly takes a noticeable decrease in quality when you get to chinatown & onwards but eh still one of the best games ive ever played.
One of the greatest burning pile of **** you will play alongside Fallout: New Vegas, probably. Well, first of all you can't even run the game without a community patch. Technical stuff bring a certain difficulty to gameplay for sure. Combat doesn't feel nice and unfortunately it gets obvious that game was rushed and left unfinished towards the end (I god-modded through the ending because of endless enemies and I feel no guilt and no one should). Alongside all that jazz, VtMB brings storytelling, worldbuilding and a dark, atmospheric vampire setting together so well that you even forget how it looks. Most of the characters and their dialogues with the given quests are quite memorable, thanks to the great writing behind them. And with all of that, the game doesn't even take itself so serious, lots of humor is filled within the characters and the world. All these give a certain character to the game that can still bring new audiences (like me) and give chances for more playthroughs. I wish there were more decision making and better impact on world with protagonist's behavior, though.
Anyways, I'll take these unpolished but passionate games over any big budget AAA production that makes you feel nothing at all. VtMB is a classic but nothing in it is perfect.
Anyways, I'll take these unpolished but passionate games over any big budget AAA production that makes you feel nothing at all. VtMB is a classic but nothing in it is perfect.
I swear that this autistic goth version of Deus Ex can sometimes be one of the most tedious games that I've came across to, the cast, story, lore and atmosphere are amazing and the OST is freaking incredible but everything else just boils down on being annoying, wonky and dry.
Will give it a replay with a different class next year now that I understand how to cheese huge chunks of enemies and spend my points more wisely so but rn I can't give it more than a 7.5-8/10
Will give it a replay with a different class next year now that I understand how to cheese huge chunks of enemies and spend my points more wisely so but rn I can't give it more than a 7.5-8/10
This is it. This is the game with the most character ever made. No video game has half of the soul that this horrible buggy ugly piece of shit has.
/Have no choice but be isolated/
Furious arm flailing
/Have no choice but be isolated/
Furious arm flailing
Estou preso na boate Asylum da Jeanette Voerman dançando "Chiasm - Isolated" pro resto da minha vida desde a primeira vez que coloquei meus dedos nessa masterpiece based kino raw peak fiction chamada Vampiro: A Máscara.
Maggots love you! Trust me! Mast lay shrouded and the moon is melting...
A noite é minha melhor e pior companhia, a paranoia e a sede espreitam cada esquina suja da cidade de anjos caídos. Não tenho escolha a não ser me isolar, lutar... Fui deixado sozinho, à mercê da sociedade.
As noites finais se aproximam. A Gehenna se aproxima, sangue fraco!
Maggots love you! Trust me! Mast lay shrouded and the moon is melting...
A noite é minha melhor e pior companhia, a paranoia e a sede espreitam cada esquina suja da cidade de anjos caídos. Não tenho escolha a não ser me isolar, lutar... Fui deixado sozinho, à mercê da sociedade.
As noites finais se aproximam. A Gehenna se aproxima, sangue fraco!
flawed... masterpiece? maybe not quite that, but this is a mess of trashy iconoclasm, campy pastiche in the form of action rpg. "rough around the edges" barely says it, as the game is clearly unfinished and a bit rushed in the late game, and some of its most compelling aspects are left only mostly realized. this isn't necessarily a bad thing, however.
i played as a tremere - a vampire clan devoted to thaumaturgy. blood mages, essentially. frustratingly, the sanguine magicks afforded to you aren't really given the time to shine, with guns and bare fists being better suited to most encounters (and the open use of thaumaturgy being a risk to the masquerade). at least blood shield is useful throughout, and looks fucking cool... though of course any mortal who sees a human-shaped mass of blood will run screaming through the streets. with a few more sections enabling creative use of stealth and vampiric abilities, this playthrough could've been extremely satisfying. in fairness, that's only one of the seven clans, and each of them offers a distinct style of play, philosophy, dialogue, and in at least one case experience of reality. so there's quite a bit of depth here. and to be clear, i absolutely did have a great time with abilities like blood boil, which lifts an enemy struggling helplessly into the air before they explode into chunks and obliterate any other enemies within range. combining that with the ability to entrance solo opponents and drain their blood (their blood is your mana), several areas were exhilarating to storm through. i really want to go through the game again as a sneaky nosferatu hacker, a brawling brujah liberator, and perhaps once more as a malkavian weirdo. may or may not look into the unofficial plus patch for those, which mods in some cut content along with a handful of other liberties taken.
what's present and adequately fleshed out here is mostly very good. santa monica, downtown los angeles, and hollywood are all great (downtown being my favorite), while chinatown is a pretty major letdown on a few levels. worst of all, the pastiche descends into really gross racial caricature in a few instances (along with the presence of some really shitty dialogue choices). it's a stain on an otherwise very special and unique game, so i'm inclined to forgive it somewhat, but this stuff absolutely has to be called out. it does help that it's not all othering crassness: there's a gentle beauty and melancholy to the vibes - the sounds of wind chimes and mourning doves fill the air. there's a distinct feeling that you're haunting these spaces, a living apparition... and something about that is both cathartic and serene.
i did have a really good time navigating the politics of the plotting and power struggles between sects - namely, the corpo-fascist camarilla and the anarchic... anarchs. tremere are treated with mistrust, since their 'pyramid' social structure is a selfish and clandestine lot, and they're known to aid the camarilla in service of their own interests. being me, however, i wanted to lend my plasmatic sorcery to the anarchs. how am i not gonna pick the team smiling jack (voiced by jake the dog) is on?! that is my guy. this presented an interesting conundrum or two, and ultimately i felt i was able to carve out the path i wanted to. (also, this is kinda neither here nor there but i wanted to point out that there are some pretty decent mods available, like this skin i used for my vamp's appearance. i love how mean she looks.)
a minor spoiler: one of my favorite moments was when someone runs up to you, recognizing you from before your embrace, and you have a choice: let her call a friend to say you've been found and risk losing stature in the masquerade, or kill her. or...! find a solution that results in neither a loss of humanity nor a strike against the masquerade. what i did was admit to being her lost friend, and then before she could make the call, placed her in a trance and mind-wiped her, leaving her standing there in a daze. vampire life is cold. but it was the most merciful thing i could do.
not unlike morrowind, it took me a long time to find my way into this game after bouncing off it more than once. obviously, it has its issues. what really matters to me is, again, there's just nothing else quite like this. i sincerely hope to see bloodlines 2 one day emerge from development purgatory. i do hope, as well, that if it sees the light of day (rather, the moon) it's reflective of white wolf's nowadays more openly progressive stance on representation, while maintaining that distinctively ragged edge of sordid night life.
i played as a tremere - a vampire clan devoted to thaumaturgy. blood mages, essentially. frustratingly, the sanguine magicks afforded to you aren't really given the time to shine, with guns and bare fists being better suited to most encounters (and the open use of thaumaturgy being a risk to the masquerade). at least blood shield is useful throughout, and looks fucking cool... though of course any mortal who sees a human-shaped mass of blood will run screaming through the streets. with a few more sections enabling creative use of stealth and vampiric abilities, this playthrough could've been extremely satisfying. in fairness, that's only one of the seven clans, and each of them offers a distinct style of play, philosophy, dialogue, and in at least one case experience of reality. so there's quite a bit of depth here. and to be clear, i absolutely did have a great time with abilities like blood boil, which lifts an enemy struggling helplessly into the air before they explode into chunks and obliterate any other enemies within range. combining that with the ability to entrance solo opponents and drain their blood (their blood is your mana), several areas were exhilarating to storm through. i really want to go through the game again as a sneaky nosferatu hacker, a brawling brujah liberator, and perhaps once more as a malkavian weirdo. may or may not look into the unofficial plus patch for those, which mods in some cut content along with a handful of other liberties taken.
what's present and adequately fleshed out here is mostly very good. santa monica, downtown los angeles, and hollywood are all great (downtown being my favorite), while chinatown is a pretty major letdown on a few levels. worst of all, the pastiche descends into really gross racial caricature in a few instances (along with the presence of some really shitty dialogue choices). it's a stain on an otherwise very special and unique game, so i'm inclined to forgive it somewhat, but this stuff absolutely has to be called out. it does help that it's not all othering crassness: there's a gentle beauty and melancholy to the vibes - the sounds of wind chimes and mourning doves fill the air. there's a distinct feeling that you're haunting these spaces, a living apparition... and something about that is both cathartic and serene.
i did have a really good time navigating the politics of the plotting and power struggles between sects - namely, the corpo-fascist camarilla and the anarchic... anarchs. tremere are treated with mistrust, since their 'pyramid' social structure is a selfish and clandestine lot, and they're known to aid the camarilla in service of their own interests. being me, however, i wanted to lend my plasmatic sorcery to the anarchs. how am i not gonna pick the team smiling jack (voiced by jake the dog) is on?! that is my guy. this presented an interesting conundrum or two, and ultimately i felt i was able to carve out the path i wanted to. (also, this is kinda neither here nor there but i wanted to point out that there are some pretty decent mods available, like this skin i used for my vamp's appearance. i love how mean she looks.)
a minor spoiler: one of my favorite moments was when someone runs up to you, recognizing you from before your embrace, and you have a choice: let her call a friend to say you've been found and risk losing stature in the masquerade, or kill her. or...! find a solution that results in neither a loss of humanity nor a strike against the masquerade. what i did was admit to being her lost friend, and then before she could make the call, placed her in a trance and mind-wiped her, leaving her standing there in a daze. vampire life is cold. but it was the most merciful thing i could do.
not unlike morrowind, it took me a long time to find my way into this game after bouncing off it more than once. obviously, it has its issues. what really matters to me is, again, there's just nothing else quite like this. i sincerely hope to see bloodlines 2 one day emerge from development purgatory. i do hope, as well, that if it sees the light of day (rather, the moon) it's reflective of white wolf's nowadays more openly progressive stance on representation, while maintaining that distinctively ragged edge of sordid night life.
play vtmb if you like:
- vampires
-immersive sims
-good writing
-mid 2000s emo/punk scene
-video games
-fun
- vampires
-immersive sims
-good writing
-mid 2000s emo/punk scene
-video games
-fun
Ankara
𝙁𝙞𝙣𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮 𝙨𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝙜𝙤𝙤𝙙 𝙛𝙪𝙘𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙛𝙤𝙤𝙙.
I love vampire media, I love the stories, I love the differentiating styles and tones, and I absolutely love different types of Vampires, and most of all I love the potential vampires have as a monster. Depending on what kind of story you’re writing you can have vampires be mindless beasts, or a group of mindless beasts with a head vampire who rules over them like Dracula. You could have an overly melodramatic and possibly dangerous teen drama with them like Twilight, you can make stupid over the top fun with them like Blade, or you can make shit like Mordius; Vampires as a movie monster have no real limit to their use; which is why I’m so disappointed with the lack of good vampire representation in gaming. I mean don’t get me wrong I’m sure there's loads of good vampire games out there like Legacy of Kain games or Darkwatch, Castlevania kinda, and um………..…..vampyr….um….r..redfall?.....…………ffffffuck this is sad. Regardless of that really depressing statement I’m here to stake (haha) my claim that Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines is the probably best vampire game I’ve played in recent memory.
Knowing the backstory behind this game honestly makes this one of the more unfortunate underdog stories. Like outside of the horrid crunch the team was put through near the end of the development is one thing but then legally not being able to even patch the game is just the most evil thing a company could do to its own project. (although it’s fitting knowing activision) Regardless of the state the game was released in that was 19 years ago and now the game has been patched by modders so how's the actual game…..yeah it’s damn good, dare I say “a classic”.
I don’t wanna say much about the story since its narrative is basically its strongest aspect and I feel the best way to approach it is completely blind so I’m mostly gonna talk about its world building and its characters. First thing I wanna get out of the way are the hub maps you explore in the city of LA. The world building is honestly one of the best aspects of the overall game; which is honestly something I’d expect from a game based on a tabletop game but to be far I’ve been burned before. (cough cough Cyberpunk 2077 cough cough) I love this thorough organize the system the vampires have made for themselves; filled with just as much bureaucracy and backstabbing power struggles really being a vampire is no more different then being a human in this world, well you know besides the whole undead thing; drinking human blood and turning to ash in sunlight, but besides those yeah it’s pretty much the same, kind of a crappy deal if you think about it. All the different and unique factions that intertwine with each other really adds a lot to the roleplay element which I feel a lot of RPGs don’t really grasp all that way, the only other game I can honestly think of is New Vegas but that’s kinda a cop out since New Vegas is basically good at everything an RPG should be. Sometimes the game can be kinda blatant when it comes to how the different factions are written and how you’re meant to feel about them. Yes faction A and faction B are the obvious bad ones with a little bit of reason behind them although not so much for faction 8 then faction A, but besides them all other factions have their own pros and cons that do help flesh out not only the city of LA but the different characters of said faction. (this is a little side thing but I just love how early 2000's this game feels, from both a writing and aesthetic angle. althought maybe the game can sometimes be a little too horny for it's own good but I don't mind it that much.)
Now let me make this 100% clear, this game’s characters are one of a kind. Not only are they written to perfection by Brian Mitsoda and the rest of the stupidly talented writers of Troika, with each individual character just written in a way where they feel less like NPCs and more like real people living in this virtual world, but I think their writing is heightened by the cast they got for this, not a single voice sounds out of place or doesn't fit the character every just fits perfectly. It also helps that they got an absolute staked cast; just to name a few they got have John DiMaggio (Jake the Dog, Bender), Grey Griffin (Mandy from Billy and Mandy and problem half your childhood), James Arnold Taylor, (Ratchet and Obi Wan-Clone Wars) Courtenay Taylor ( Jack-Mass Effect 2/3), Phil LaMarr (Samurai Jack and John Stewart-Green lantern), and Steve Blum just to name a few (fuckin Spike Spiegel man) Not only are these VA’s venters of their industry but they giving 101 percent of their voice acting chops to really sell this character as a real living person, the performances in this can honestly that rival the highest paid VAs in current AAA gaming. (I’m looking at you Troy Baker, you NFT selling prick) I honestly think this is probably some of the best voice acting I’ve seen in a video game, the way the VAs just melt into their characters is just amazing and a impressive testament to not only the VA’s but the voice directors as well.
The four hubs this game offer are possibly some of the best hub maps in any rpg I’ve play (besides one but well get to that soonish), not only are they pretty sprawling for their sizes, but regardless of how lost you might feel at times the map always give you enough to identify visual indications on where you are and after a while it’ll just become musial memory on where to go and what you need to do. Santa Monica is probably one of the most well put together tutorial hub maps on par with stuff like The Great Plateau from BOTW or GoodSprings in New Vegas. The whole area perfectly teaches you how you’ll be traversing the hubs and how they can subtly tell you where to go through lighting and amazing map design. A hub map at it’s best when you don’t need to look at a map to see where to go, instead you’ll just know where it is from just learning from your surrounding because that’s what the game taught you, I like it when games actually trust their player to understand their surrounding rather then the whole checkmark open world horse shit we’ve been dealing with for years. Granted now all the hub world is great…well… it’s only one….but we haven’t gotten there yet.
Since this game has multiple different types of vampire factions you can choose what kind of vampire you wanna play as. I can’t really comment on all of them since I only played as one out of 7 different clans you could play as. I guess for my own personal experience I went with Gangrel which is basically the furry clan. It’s more melee focus with being able to tank more hits while also being able to tap into nature’s animale spires, also you can turn into a wolf which is honestly pretty badass.
I don’t really know what to say about the gameplay since honestly it’s kinda basic for an rpg. It has your traditional rpg systems but since this series is based off of a table top game all of the up stats are handed like a spreadsheet. It’s not super deed with its mechanics but what it lacks in depth it doesn't really make up for in combat. Melee combat is super simple and as long as you’re a high enough level with a high level weapon and properly divvy out your xp to the stats you wanna build your character with then you’ll be fine; it still won’t help you with the weird difficulty spikes the game can throw at you but as long as you save scum like me you’ll be alright. The gun play on the other hand, is pure shit. If you don’t level up for firearms perks by at least 3 or 4 then don’t bother using a gun because you won’t be able to hit anything unless you were right up a vampire's nose; and even then that’s being generous. It also doesn't help that all the guns feel like shit to use and don’t have any real impact on them, they feel and sound like airsoft guns and are ultimately useless until the last few hours of the game where they feel borderline necessary if you want to get past them. The combat is nothing to really write home about but to be fair when has an rpg really had combat to write home about, all the classic Fallout games have combat that was never anything to write home about and those games are still considered classics to this day because of their fantastic writing and world building. So besides the rpg systems feeling really simple and the gunplay being shit I can look past them and still enjoy the game. Ok I think it’s time to discuss the later half of the game.
So as the game goes on it starts becoming very apparent when the money dried up and the rush and crunch started. You can tell it started around the time of the finale hub Chinatown. Not only is Chinatown just generally less interesting than the previous hubs but there's also less interesting side missions and the main missions are pretty bland as well. None of the new characters introduced in Chinatown are all that interesting and even now, only finishing the game like a few days ago I’m struggling to even remember most of the new characters. It also doesn't help that even before Chinatown started the second to last level in Hollywood where you plunder the sewers for the secret Nosferatu lair is way too long for its own good and a huge pain in the ass if you didn’t already plan ahead for it. After all of the Chinatown missions are finished you then move on to the last 3 or so hours of the game, which are all combat oriented with a strictly linear design with no deviation and having gunplay being a major focus in all of them. Like I said before, the gunplay in this game is pretty bad; so having it be the main focus for the last few hours honestly tested my patience a lot, and then we got to Werewolf Park. I hate Werewolf Park almost as much as I hate the sewer part. I genuinely don’t know if it was just a me thing but I struggled with that part for like 45 minutes, the werewolf kills you so quickly you don’t really have a good enough time to react to what’s happening, or what you need to do. The game tells you that you need to survive for roughly 5 minutes but those 5 minutes can feel like a fucking eternity when how ruthless the werewolf’s AI is, that ting is out for blood and it will not stop for anything. I genuinely didn’t know what I was supposed to do so eventually I just harkened back to a classic rpg strategy “fuck around and find out”. I did find the way you were supposed to kill the werewolf but the game does such a bad job at communicating it to the player I honestly don’t blame people if they looked it up. After all that bullshit with the crappy liner levels with crappy gunplay and shitty sewer levels and annoying werewolf I got to the second to last boss, and man; it’s fucking dreadful. I spent well up to an hour on Ming Xiao’s fight, mostly because it was stupidly hard and it wasn’t hard in the same a souls boss is hard, more in a horribly balanced and spongy sort of way, top it off with that shitty gunplay and stupidly simple melee combat it makes for one awful fight. I was really tempted to turn on god mode and finish off but I really didn’t wanna cheat on my first playthrough of this so by the end I somehow beat her (I honestly can’t tell you how I did it I’m 97% sure it was just luck) and then I got to the last portion which is just a glorified shooting gallery with a piss easy final boss.
Making it to the end was a challenge in frustration. I didn’t really like anything after Chinatown and even the general writing started to feel rushed at some points; then the ending happened, and everything was great again. For real the ending of this game pretty much saves the game from throwing a flawed 8 out of 10 at it.
As the game stand for me I absolutely adore a lot about this game from the outstanding game design, to the fantastic writing and voice acting; this is one of those very special video games where all the pieces fall together in place to make a magical time, and then big fat bully Kotick stomps over and knocks down the building boxes and tells them “rebuilding it in 5 hours or else you're blacklisted”. It’s not a perfect game as much as I feel like I’m making it out to be, it’s still jank as fuck even with all the bugs ironed out in the unofficial patch and maybe the combat is too simple for it’s own good, but dammit I love the soul dammit. Games like these don’t come out nearly as much anymore, games that have fantastic sections like the Ocean Hotel or the side mission in the crackout in downtown where you fight all the plaguebearers. This game was made by people who genuinely love the medium of video games and dammit I think there’s some merit in that.
I love vampire media, I love the stories, I love the differentiating styles and tones, and I absolutely love different types of Vampires, and most of all I love the potential vampires have as a monster. Depending on what kind of story you’re writing you can have vampires be mindless beasts, or a group of mindless beasts with a head vampire who rules over them like Dracula. You could have an overly melodramatic and possibly dangerous teen drama with them like Twilight, you can make stupid over the top fun with them like Blade, or you can make shit like Mordius; Vampires as a movie monster have no real limit to their use; which is why I’m so disappointed with the lack of good vampire representation in gaming. I mean don’t get me wrong I’m sure there's loads of good vampire games out there like Legacy of Kain games or Darkwatch, Castlevania kinda, and um………..…..vampyr….um….r..redfall?.....…………ffffffuck this is sad. Regardless of that really depressing statement I’m here to stake (haha) my claim that Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines is the probably best vampire game I’ve played in recent memory.
Knowing the backstory behind this game honestly makes this one of the more unfortunate underdog stories. Like outside of the horrid crunch the team was put through near the end of the development is one thing but then legally not being able to even patch the game is just the most evil thing a company could do to its own project. (although it’s fitting knowing activision) Regardless of the state the game was released in that was 19 years ago and now the game has been patched by modders so how's the actual game…..yeah it’s damn good, dare I say “a classic”.
I don’t wanna say much about the story since its narrative is basically its strongest aspect and I feel the best way to approach it is completely blind so I’m mostly gonna talk about its world building and its characters. First thing I wanna get out of the way are the hub maps you explore in the city of LA. The world building is honestly one of the best aspects of the overall game; which is honestly something I’d expect from a game based on a tabletop game but to be far I’ve been burned before. (cough cough Cyberpunk 2077 cough cough) I love this thorough organize the system the vampires have made for themselves; filled with just as much bureaucracy and backstabbing power struggles really being a vampire is no more different then being a human in this world, well you know besides the whole undead thing; drinking human blood and turning to ash in sunlight, but besides those yeah it’s pretty much the same, kind of a crappy deal if you think about it. All the different and unique factions that intertwine with each other really adds a lot to the roleplay element which I feel a lot of RPGs don’t really grasp all that way, the only other game I can honestly think of is New Vegas but that’s kinda a cop out since New Vegas is basically good at everything an RPG should be. Sometimes the game can be kinda blatant when it comes to how the different factions are written and how you’re meant to feel about them. Yes faction A and faction B are the obvious bad ones with a little bit of reason behind them although not so much for faction 8 then faction A, but besides them all other factions have their own pros and cons that do help flesh out not only the city of LA but the different characters of said faction. (this is a little side thing but I just love how early 2000's this game feels, from both a writing and aesthetic angle. althought maybe the game can sometimes be a little too horny for it's own good but I don't mind it that much.)
Now let me make this 100% clear, this game’s characters are one of a kind. Not only are they written to perfection by Brian Mitsoda and the rest of the stupidly talented writers of Troika, with each individual character just written in a way where they feel less like NPCs and more like real people living in this virtual world, but I think their writing is heightened by the cast they got for this, not a single voice sounds out of place or doesn't fit the character every just fits perfectly. It also helps that they got an absolute staked cast; just to name a few they got have John DiMaggio (Jake the Dog, Bender), Grey Griffin (Mandy from Billy and Mandy and problem half your childhood), James Arnold Taylor, (Ratchet and Obi Wan-Clone Wars) Courtenay Taylor ( Jack-Mass Effect 2/3), Phil LaMarr (Samurai Jack and John Stewart-Green lantern), and Steve Blum just to name a few (fuckin Spike Spiegel man) Not only are these VA’s venters of their industry but they giving 101 percent of their voice acting chops to really sell this character as a real living person, the performances in this can honestly that rival the highest paid VAs in current AAA gaming. (I’m looking at you Troy Baker, you NFT selling prick) I honestly think this is probably some of the best voice acting I’ve seen in a video game, the way the VAs just melt into their characters is just amazing and a impressive testament to not only the VA’s but the voice directors as well.
The four hubs this game offer are possibly some of the best hub maps in any rpg I’ve play (besides one but well get to that soonish), not only are they pretty sprawling for their sizes, but regardless of how lost you might feel at times the map always give you enough to identify visual indications on where you are and after a while it’ll just become musial memory on where to go and what you need to do. Santa Monica is probably one of the most well put together tutorial hub maps on par with stuff like The Great Plateau from BOTW or GoodSprings in New Vegas. The whole area perfectly teaches you how you’ll be traversing the hubs and how they can subtly tell you where to go through lighting and amazing map design. A hub map at it’s best when you don’t need to look at a map to see where to go, instead you’ll just know where it is from just learning from your surrounding because that’s what the game taught you, I like it when games actually trust their player to understand their surrounding rather then the whole checkmark open world horse shit we’ve been dealing with for years. Granted now all the hub world is great…well… it’s only one….but we haven’t gotten there yet.
Since this game has multiple different types of vampire factions you can choose what kind of vampire you wanna play as. I can’t really comment on all of them since I only played as one out of 7 different clans you could play as. I guess for my own personal experience I went with Gangrel which is basically the furry clan. It’s more melee focus with being able to tank more hits while also being able to tap into nature’s animale spires, also you can turn into a wolf which is honestly pretty badass.
I don’t really know what to say about the gameplay since honestly it’s kinda basic for an rpg. It has your traditional rpg systems but since this series is based off of a table top game all of the up stats are handed like a spreadsheet. It’s not super deed with its mechanics but what it lacks in depth it doesn't really make up for in combat. Melee combat is super simple and as long as you’re a high enough level with a high level weapon and properly divvy out your xp to the stats you wanna build your character with then you’ll be fine; it still won’t help you with the weird difficulty spikes the game can throw at you but as long as you save scum like me you’ll be alright. The gun play on the other hand, is pure shit. If you don’t level up for firearms perks by at least 3 or 4 then don’t bother using a gun because you won’t be able to hit anything unless you were right up a vampire's nose; and even then that’s being generous. It also doesn't help that all the guns feel like shit to use and don’t have any real impact on them, they feel and sound like airsoft guns and are ultimately useless until the last few hours of the game where they feel borderline necessary if you want to get past them. The combat is nothing to really write home about but to be fair when has an rpg really had combat to write home about, all the classic Fallout games have combat that was never anything to write home about and those games are still considered classics to this day because of their fantastic writing and world building. So besides the rpg systems feeling really simple and the gunplay being shit I can look past them and still enjoy the game. Ok I think it’s time to discuss the later half of the game.
So as the game goes on it starts becoming very apparent when the money dried up and the rush and crunch started. You can tell it started around the time of the finale hub Chinatown. Not only is Chinatown just generally less interesting than the previous hubs but there's also less interesting side missions and the main missions are pretty bland as well. None of the new characters introduced in Chinatown are all that interesting and even now, only finishing the game like a few days ago I’m struggling to even remember most of the new characters. It also doesn't help that even before Chinatown started the second to last level in Hollywood where you plunder the sewers for the secret Nosferatu lair is way too long for its own good and a huge pain in the ass if you didn’t already plan ahead for it. After all of the Chinatown missions are finished you then move on to the last 3 or so hours of the game, which are all combat oriented with a strictly linear design with no deviation and having gunplay being a major focus in all of them. Like I said before, the gunplay in this game is pretty bad; so having it be the main focus for the last few hours honestly tested my patience a lot, and then we got to Werewolf Park. I hate Werewolf Park almost as much as I hate the sewer part. I genuinely don’t know if it was just a me thing but I struggled with that part for like 45 minutes, the werewolf kills you so quickly you don’t really have a good enough time to react to what’s happening, or what you need to do. The game tells you that you need to survive for roughly 5 minutes but those 5 minutes can feel like a fucking eternity when how ruthless the werewolf’s AI is, that ting is out for blood and it will not stop for anything. I genuinely didn’t know what I was supposed to do so eventually I just harkened back to a classic rpg strategy “fuck around and find out”. I did find the way you were supposed to kill the werewolf but the game does such a bad job at communicating it to the player I honestly don’t blame people if they looked it up. After all that bullshit with the crappy liner levels with crappy gunplay and shitty sewer levels and annoying werewolf I got to the second to last boss, and man; it’s fucking dreadful. I spent well up to an hour on Ming Xiao’s fight, mostly because it was stupidly hard and it wasn’t hard in the same a souls boss is hard, more in a horribly balanced and spongy sort of way, top it off with that shitty gunplay and stupidly simple melee combat it makes for one awful fight. I was really tempted to turn on god mode and finish off but I really didn’t wanna cheat on my first playthrough of this so by the end I somehow beat her (I honestly can’t tell you how I did it I’m 97% sure it was just luck) and then I got to the last portion which is just a glorified shooting gallery with a piss easy final boss.
Making it to the end was a challenge in frustration. I didn’t really like anything after Chinatown and even the general writing started to feel rushed at some points; then the ending happened, and everything was great again. For real the ending of this game pretty much saves the game from throwing a flawed 8 out of 10 at it.
As the game stand for me I absolutely adore a lot about this game from the outstanding game design, to the fantastic writing and voice acting; this is one of those very special video games where all the pieces fall together in place to make a magical time, and then big fat bully Kotick stomps over and knocks down the building boxes and tells them “rebuilding it in 5 hours or else you're blacklisted”. It’s not a perfect game as much as I feel like I’m making it out to be, it’s still jank as fuck even with all the bugs ironed out in the unofficial patch and maybe the combat is too simple for it’s own good, but dammit I love the soul dammit. Games like these don’t come out nearly as much anymore, games that have fantastic sections like the Ocean Hotel or the side mission in the crackout in downtown where you fight all the plaguebearers. This game was made by people who genuinely love the medium of video games and dammit I think there’s some merit in that.
Cult classic, V:TMB is as enjoyable as it is frustrating. Enjoyable for its well-executed setting and the exceptional atmosphere of Los Angeles, in a pure gothic tradition, which makes the geographical locations the real characters of the story. But if the connections are complex and the attention to detail present, the fact remains that Troika Games delivers a half-finished copy. The ending seems largely sloppy, so much so that it's just a succession of fights, without much interest – especially since this is not where the game shines the most. It's rather in its restricted sections, which show a real understanding of level-design, that the title reveals its talent: the burglary sessions are thus pleasant, becoming little puzzles in themselves. Special mention must be made of the dubbing, which is always rather good, if not for the sometimes haphazard mixing: the characters all seem credible and give a real vitality to the City of Angels under the Moon: it is unfortunate that the scripts are a bit too obvious, with humans always replaying the same scenes in front of us. Similarly, there is some disappointment at the amount of bugs present, which even the most recent Unofficial Patch fails to entirely fix. In the last vein of problems, it's hardly possible to endorse the game's sexism and racism: yet, I feel Troika Games wanted to make an effort on this side and I sometimes thought the game was heading in the right direction, but it fails at some key moments. Nevertheless, it's a charming adventure in the vampiric world, which pays a vibrant tribute to the World of Darkness.
sex game :)
Failed the stealth tutorial 3 times and had to restart a save because I got stuck in a door. I love it!
Edit: Forgot to mention I also got softlocked near the end of the game because I guess I didn't select the right dialogue options that progressed the story and had to reload a save. Still love it!
Edit: Forgot to mention I also got softlocked near the end of the game because I guess I didn't select the right dialogue options that progressed the story and had to reload a save. Still love it!
a classic game that actually lives up to the hype before completely coming apart at the seams in the last act in that mind boiling way that only fucked up games from the early 2000s can
It's one of those games that, as soon as you think or write about it, you immediately feel the urge to install it again and play it till the end. For me, this game belongs in my top 10 best games of all time. Unfortunately, the game came onto the market as a buggy and unfinished mess, but community patches have brought it to a state where there are no more excuses not to play it.
The atmosphere of this dark vampire-infested L.A. is simply unsurpassed, the music and the graphics contribute immensely to the generally gloomy mood. The RPG elements, which may seem a little confusing to some players, also ensure that I can completely immerse myself in a certain role and give the game replay value.
Above all, the writing is THE key reason why I enjoy this game so much. The writers have done a fantastic job here. The dialogue is so incredibly good, clever, funny and believable, something I unfortunately miss in many modern games. The main story was also exciting and each side mission has its own little sub-plot that fits seamlessly into the world of Bloodlines.
This game is a masterpiece and an absolute must for any RPG fan, especially if you like dark settings and vampires.
The atmosphere of this dark vampire-infested L.A. is simply unsurpassed, the music and the graphics contribute immensely to the generally gloomy mood. The RPG elements, which may seem a little confusing to some players, also ensure that I can completely immerse myself in a certain role and give the game replay value.
Above all, the writing is THE key reason why I enjoy this game so much. The writers have done a fantastic job here. The dialogue is so incredibly good, clever, funny and believable, something I unfortunately miss in many modern games. The main story was also exciting and each side mission has its own little sub-plot that fits seamlessly into the world of Bloodlines.
This game is a masterpiece and an absolute must for any RPG fan, especially if you like dark settings and vampires.
This review contains spoilers
Whatever way you imagine it, Vampire the Masquerade Bloodline is a really interesting game to think about. I'm drawn to messy transitional games that are polysemic in nature and Bloodlines fits that to a tee. A game that is all at once a CRPG adaptation of a complex and unorthodox tabletop rpg, a source engine FPS and an immersive sim lite. A game that marked the death of a continuous tradition of mainstream non-indie choice and consequence heavy rpgs while also highlighting how it might have continued to evolve. Its a game that is impossible to break down into any one thing and its for that reason I believe it has endured past its launch as a cult classic among so many different audiences.
I only wish it was as interesting to experience. I say 'experience' rather than 'play' because I'm well used to a lot of my favorite rpgs having less than stellar individual systems, my favorite rpgs offer a holistic experience that surpasses their many shortcomings. I think even Bloodlines biggest fans would say the same thing about this game. I was prepared to accept the wonky gunplay, stealth and melee but the overall experience never came together the way it has for my friend and many others.
I'll talk a bit first on what did come together. I think Bloodline's execution of character building comes together brilliantly well and offers a genre high creation screen with its (seven!!!) playable races each moulding the player's journey in big and small ways. I got Malkavian during the intro quiz and got a lot of mileage out of the dementation skill unique to them, whether that be spamming veil of madness to suck people to death or using the voice of Bedlam to cause chaos among crowds. And outside of combat I had just as much fun trying to determine what my character was trying to say and chatting with stop signs and a monitor bound news anchorman. I played this as part of a monthly gaming club me and my friends do and it was thrilling to hear how differently other peoples playthroughs were. If I ever play this game again, seeing how the other clans play will be my primary motivation.
I also adore the setting and all the early noughties grunge that comes with it. I could never get enough of the sights and sounds of Santa Monica, Downtown and Hollywood. The Piers alone took me back to a place of deep nostalgia. Bloodlines often fixates on the minutiae of mundane urban spaces and more broadly a melancholy and even ominous sense of aimlessness and alienation. It is felt most keenly in the many one-off mission spaces. Oceanview Hotel is often praised as the best of these but honestly I loved nearly all of them. Whether it be continually descending through a parking lot or traipsing through a near empty apartment block, I wish the game had emphasizes these smaller spaces more at the expense of the hubs. They are more distinctly themed and paced, functioning as bespoke little challenges in which the game's systemic opportunities and more immersive sim qualities shine the brightest.
As for everything else the operative term would be 'unfinished'. Virtually every other facet of Bloodlines' design feels either unfinished or unrealized to a substantial degree. I enjoy the theming and atmosphere of the hubs but beyond that they are static and bare in contrast to the more dynamic and denser mission spaces. Past the first visit there are no new encounters or changes that make them anything more than avenues for backtracking. And though I enjoyed most of the mission spaces, the Nosferatu sewer is easily the worst dungeon I've played in a game this year and the endgame dungeons are of a similar unfinished quality. The main narrative for the most part railroads the Fledgling into working for LaCroix and thus there is little actual politicking in a game that emphasize the inter-clan intrigue and conflict. LaCroix himself isn't a particularly nuanced figure and while I came to appreciate his punchable nature, the slack isn't really picked up anywhere outside of the Voerman sisters and Nines. Characters like Ming Xiao feel more like sketches than complicated people with their own agendas. And it all unravels in the last third of the game into a series of heavily telegraphed betrayals and double-crossings that make the protagonist seem like the most inept vampire in existence while also perpetuating a very ugly Yellow Peril message that I hope was done out of unintentional ignorance. I generally enjoyed a lot of the side quests and individual characters but by the end they weren't quite able to make up for a narrative that is half-sketched at best and kind of misanthropic and outright racist at worst.
I enjoyed Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines. I get why people love this game so much, I'm glad my friend got to recommend it to me. I certainly vibe with how it looks, sounds and even feels. It makes me want to go the West Coast. It also never really rose above 'disjointed' and 'incoherent' for me. Deeply compelling and disjointed in equal parts.
I only wish it was as interesting to experience. I say 'experience' rather than 'play' because I'm well used to a lot of my favorite rpgs having less than stellar individual systems, my favorite rpgs offer a holistic experience that surpasses their many shortcomings. I think even Bloodlines biggest fans would say the same thing about this game. I was prepared to accept the wonky gunplay, stealth and melee but the overall experience never came together the way it has for my friend and many others.
I'll talk a bit first on what did come together. I think Bloodline's execution of character building comes together brilliantly well and offers a genre high creation screen with its (seven!!!) playable races each moulding the player's journey in big and small ways. I got Malkavian during the intro quiz and got a lot of mileage out of the dementation skill unique to them, whether that be spamming veil of madness to suck people to death or using the voice of Bedlam to cause chaos among crowds. And outside of combat I had just as much fun trying to determine what my character was trying to say and chatting with stop signs and a monitor bound news anchorman. I played this as part of a monthly gaming club me and my friends do and it was thrilling to hear how differently other peoples playthroughs were. If I ever play this game again, seeing how the other clans play will be my primary motivation.
I also adore the setting and all the early noughties grunge that comes with it. I could never get enough of the sights and sounds of Santa Monica, Downtown and Hollywood. The Piers alone took me back to a place of deep nostalgia. Bloodlines often fixates on the minutiae of mundane urban spaces and more broadly a melancholy and even ominous sense of aimlessness and alienation. It is felt most keenly in the many one-off mission spaces. Oceanview Hotel is often praised as the best of these but honestly I loved nearly all of them. Whether it be continually descending through a parking lot or traipsing through a near empty apartment block, I wish the game had emphasizes these smaller spaces more at the expense of the hubs. They are more distinctly themed and paced, functioning as bespoke little challenges in which the game's systemic opportunities and more immersive sim qualities shine the brightest.
As for everything else the operative term would be 'unfinished'. Virtually every other facet of Bloodlines' design feels either unfinished or unrealized to a substantial degree. I enjoy the theming and atmosphere of the hubs but beyond that they are static and bare in contrast to the more dynamic and denser mission spaces. Past the first visit there are no new encounters or changes that make them anything more than avenues for backtracking. And though I enjoyed most of the mission spaces, the Nosferatu sewer is easily the worst dungeon I've played in a game this year and the endgame dungeons are of a similar unfinished quality. The main narrative for the most part railroads the Fledgling into working for LaCroix and thus there is little actual politicking in a game that emphasize the inter-clan intrigue and conflict. LaCroix himself isn't a particularly nuanced figure and while I came to appreciate his punchable nature, the slack isn't really picked up anywhere outside of the Voerman sisters and Nines. Characters like Ming Xiao feel more like sketches than complicated people with their own agendas. And it all unravels in the last third of the game into a series of heavily telegraphed betrayals and double-crossings that make the protagonist seem like the most inept vampire in existence while also perpetuating a very ugly Yellow Peril message that I hope was done out of unintentional ignorance. I generally enjoyed a lot of the side quests and individual characters but by the end they weren't quite able to make up for a narrative that is half-sketched at best and kind of misanthropic and outright racist at worst.
I enjoyed Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines. I get why people love this game so much, I'm glad my friend got to recommend it to me. I certainly vibe with how it looks, sounds and even feels. It makes me want to go the West Coast. It also never really rose above 'disjointed' and 'incoherent' for me. Deeply compelling and disjointed in equal parts.
Oh baby woo baby damn baby aww yeahhhh
This game taught me how to talk to women.
This game taught me how to talk to women.
it is the blood of caine that makes our fate
farewell, vampire
farewell, vampire
A vampire game heavy on 2000’s grit and atmosphere, fantastic soundtrack, gameplay that manages to sell you on the fantasy of being a vampire and some of the best writing out there make this title a must play. The characters were all so unique and each had their own distinct mannerisms which I thought was incredible and made them all distinct from one another as opposed to being flat cardboard npc’s that feel like they only exist cause the protagonist does. Not only that but their quests were so refreshing and compelling as-well. Although I think the end-game was fumbled in terms of gameplay, whereas most of the game had intriguing side quests, well designed levels, feasible enemies and generally something else to do rather than fight most of the time, the end-game is the complete opposite, it’s mostly combat with barely any breaks which means you’ll eventually get tired of it, and the level design is quite poor at that, the nosferatu sewers and the hallowed apartments being the highlights. Then the game decides to throw enemies with busted ranged weapons at you (the fucking SMG’s) and its just hell to get through, though I will say that this did not really impact my view on the game much because of how fucking amazing it overall is, especially once you know what went down with it’s development.
VtM Bloodlines fans be like:
This is the most broken utterly unplayable game i ever installed, i literally cannot play it without a fan patch...
When is the second one coming out?
This is the most broken utterly unplayable game i ever installed, i literally cannot play it without a fan patch...
When is the second one coming out?
Equal parts mindblowing and frustrating, I so badly wish I could give this game 5 stars.
Significant portions of this game have yet to be matched by the gaming industry, providing the most immersive and open ended RPG of all time. It's so easy to get lost in it's moody world, containing some of the best side missions, level design, dialogue and characters of all time.
However this game was rushed. Extremely rushed. The last few hours are a nightmare, and some of the late game missions feel like they were thrown together haphazardly, throwing tightly designed environments out the window in favor of rooms full of enemies.
Despite it all, the positives FAR outweigh the negatives. It will always be an influential cult classic that fans find themselves coming back to again and again for entirely unique playthroughs. It's just frustrating knowing that given a bit more time in the oven, it could have been even more than that.
Significant portions of this game have yet to be matched by the gaming industry, providing the most immersive and open ended RPG of all time. It's so easy to get lost in it's moody world, containing some of the best side missions, level design, dialogue and characters of all time.
However this game was rushed. Extremely rushed. The last few hours are a nightmare, and some of the late game missions feel like they were thrown together haphazardly, throwing tightly designed environments out the window in favor of rooms full of enemies.
Despite it all, the positives FAR outweigh the negatives. It will always be an influential cult classic that fans find themselves coming back to again and again for entirely unique playthroughs. It's just frustrating knowing that given a bit more time in the oven, it could have been even more than that.