Even with the Unofficial Patch (which is still getting updates to this day, surprisingly) this game is a buggy, barely functioning piece of garbage held together with spit and good wishes. And it's absolutely brilliant. The voice acting is surprisingly good, the facial animations are incredible for 2004, and the story is amazing. In fact, several trips to the wiki to learn about the lore got me interested on the Vampire The Masquerade franchise as a whole. Saying this game is "a flawed masterpiece" feels very cliché, but I don't think there is a better way to describe it. Even with a crapton of crashes, clipping issues, weird bugs, bland combat which only is either trivial or grueling as fuck, and for some reason, quicksaves freezing the game for like 10 seconds, I wanted to finish this game and see what happened. It is a must play.

Writing: 5/5
Gameplay: 3/5
Art Design & Visuals: 4/5
Voices & Sounds: 4/5
Atmosphere & Immersion: 4/5

Played this because I frequently see it compared to New Vegas. It has great atmosphere and role-playing elements, but the combat sucks (even worse than New Vegas, which wouldn't be a problem if the last third of the game didn't make combat such a central focus--screw the Nosferatu sewer quest). It also has significantly less player freedom than I expected. It's still a very engaging and enjoyable RPG though, I probably would have absolutely loved it if I played it near release instead of sixteen years later.

Um RPG incrível... Exceto pelo combate. Diálogo? Fenomenal. Quests? Divertidíssimas. Roteiro? 10/10. Ambientação? Poucos jogos se comparam. Mas na hora de usar uma arma, só tem dois extremos: ridiculamente fácil ou quase impossível. Felizmente o jogo te dá várias ferramentas para evitar o combate, sendo possível se esgueirar, hackear ou manipular NPCs quase sempre... Quer dizer, até você chegar no ato final, que vira basicamente uma série de corredores com trocentos inimigos e chefes apelões. Apesar dos pesares, os pontos altos se sobressaem bastante. Visto que a Troika Games (desenvolvedora do jogo) estava à beira da falência e ruiu logo após o lançamento de Bloodlines, até dou um desconto pelas partes ruins como efeito da produção conturbada.

A cult classic for a reason. An incredibly atmospheric, immersive and unique experience that utterly absorbs you into your role as a clueless baby vampire in a Gothic vision of 2000's California ... at least for the first two thirds. It's such a treat having this as your entry point to the World of Darkness as you and your character learn things side-by-side, each Clan feels unique (some more than others) and there's plenty of oppurtunity for roleplaying ... at least for the first two thirds. There was a time about five years a go when the Plus version of the UOP turned this game into a complete gem but that's no longer the case and getting an older version to work can be challenging to say the least. But anyway, everybody who enjoys WRPG's should give this a spin. Just don't open it.

despite a few blemishes here & there whether due to aging or issues, this would be a recommendation for any RPG lovers.

An absolute classic whether it's writing, world design or even VO.

A remake/remaster would be the easiest way to part me from my money

It's a mess. The combat is atrocious. The pacing, especially in the last hours, is borderline torturous with how many long forced-combat sections there are. The level design has ups and downs, but the downs are hard to stomach.

But it's also a beautiful mess. The voice acting can be slightly inconsistent, but the good ones are some of the best I've ever experienced in this medium. The intricate lore of the World of Darkness is woven expertly throughout the dialogues. Character development requires actual thinking, with how each exp point on certain attributes may affect multiple skills. And to top it all off, its story is a genuine treat, with a cast of so many interesting characters all existing not just as talking heads whose job isn't just to push the plot or satiate your curiosity, but (un)living, (non)breathing people who have their own ambitions and motivations.

I'm not sure if I would recommend it. But I sure as hell know that some people might just skip this, not knowing they will love it at the end.

I have to open this by saying I'm heavily biased towards this game. I've played V:tM/WoD since 2nd Edition and the general setting is just one of my jams. That being said, I pre-ordered this way back in the dinosaur days so I could get the soundtrack with it that had some really killer tunes, including but not limited to "Swamped" by Lacuna Coil. Much to my dismay, the game in its infancy couldn't run for longer than 20 minutes at a time without crashing. It can't be oversold how incredibly bad this game was for the first month or so until Troika pulled it together and issued the first official patch and made the game run decently for the most part. Despite the sour start this game ended up being everything I wanted it to be as a fan. It set an extremely unfair bar for all of the WoD game adaptations that came after it. Brian Mitsoda and the team definitely put the work in and got the setting completely correct. I just replayed it last year and beat it as my favored clans to get hype for the sequel coming up. It still feels rough, but when you put this level of attention into the details it's impossible not to create something where the immersion overshadows the technical flaws. R.I.P. Troika

This is still one of the most in-depth RPGs I have ever played. So many variations of vampires you can choose from with different abilities and dialogue options. For example, clans like Brujah and Gangrel have generic stat changes. However, something like Ventrue (which was my guy) have an easier time with other factions and also affect who you can feed off of. Meanwhile clans like Nosferatu and Malkavian can change the game completely.

Really, in-depth shit like that, not to mention, depending on the people you side with can change the ending too. For 2004, this is filled with replayability. And the combat's pretty fun too. Take that statement with a grain of salt by the way. I know some people weren't a fan of it.

The writing and characters are incredible too. The game deals with themes such as conspiracy, the occult, murder, blackmail, prostitution, there's a subplot where you have to track down the making of a snuff film, and all the topics that would be regarded as "edgy" are handled very well on here.

However, the one thing, the one BIG thing preventing this from a perfect 5: This game is notoriously buggy. Not even just inconveniences either. I'm talking bugs that can flat-out break the game too (however, a glitch did help me with that stupid fucking zombie missions so there's that!).

With a fan-made patch, I would recommend this game for sure. Think Deus Ex but with less cyberpunk and more vampires.

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

Has a lot of issues: the bugs, the combat, the tone of some parts. Just look at the front cover. But where it counts, this games got it.

This game has the same feeling that half life 2 has. Its constant interconnectedness, everything feels linked together. Despite having split parts, everything feels like one world and when it breaks that normal veil. It breaks it in an interesting way, like with the mansion or kings way.

I also like how it leaves quests open to find out what's happening on your own. The first quest with the hospital is just, you need to steal a thing from the hospital... good luck and its rare to see that these days.

The combat is terrible but I can overlook it and its easy to get used to it overtime. Also the entire game collapses in on itself about 2 quests into the chinatown area and be prepared for racism, sexism, and a couple other things like that when you hit those points. Its not the whole game and its kind of cute in a 14 year old trying to be tough kind of way, but still.

A very flawed 8/10

Si para algo ha servido la cuarentena ha sido para revivir en gran parte mi antiguo grupo de Vampire, y con ello, volver a jugar a mi Tremere después de casi 10 años. Ha sido bastante interesante (y raro, me he dado cuenta de lo mucho que he mejorado en hacer backgrounds y personajes con algo de profundidad en estos años), y con todo esto y el lanzamiento de Bloodlines 2 bastante cerca, ha sido inevitable.

Bloodlines es un happy place para mi, es posiblemente el primer RPG occidental (quitando WoW) que realmente me enamoró, y pese a que los años le pesan muchísimo, que su último acto sigue estandome extrañamente lleno de combate, cuando es la parte mas floja del juego, el resto del juego es buenísimo, la cantidad de variables y opciones que tienes para resolver las cosas aún hoy en dia cuesta de ver, y la profundidad de muchos de sus secundarios rivaliza con lo que hoy en dia consideramos buenos protagonistas.

Jugado como Gangrel por primera vez por hacer algo distinto, se disfruta bastante dejándote llevar por la parte mas de bestia de los vampiros, aunque definitivamente no es mi tipo de personaje.

En resumen, un viaje por la nostalgia que me ha dejado infinitamente satisfecho.

play vtmb if you like:
- vampires
-immersive sims
-good writing
-mid 2000s emo/punk scene
-video games
-fun