extremely unique rpg with some of the best writing and characters of the genre
information:i did 2 playthroughs of the game,the first one as a tremer and the second one as a malkavian,and i liked them about the same,i completed both in about 70 hours and did most of the sidequest in both of them,i played with the basic unoficial patch only on my first playthrough and i played with the full unofical patch on my sec playthrough + cqm
graphics/aesthetics 9/10
technically the graphics are actually pretty bad,even awful some will say,but it adds a unique charm to it i dont get anywhere else,just see the opening sequence of the game and you will see what i mean,awful animations,weird facial expresions and just an overall extremely weird vibe.
and the aesthetics of the game are amazing and extremely out of left field for an rpg ,it is dark,modern and gothic,and it goes really well with all the vampire shit going on i love it,also all the hubs have kinda distinct aesthetic to them,you got the theme park asian like chinatown,you got the beatdown criminal downtown,you got hollywood that out of all the hubs feels the more expensive one and it got all kinda of entertainment places to go is kinda like the new vegas of this game and then you got santa monica that is like the stereotype of california put into a singular place
Technical part of the game 3,5/10
adressing the elephant in the room,i normally dont talk about the technical part of the game,you know bugs that kinda thing,but in this case is really bad and let me explain myself why it isnt a 1.
sure in release the game was a 1 techincally,countless bugs including a lot of game breaking ones,you got awful loading screen times,awful performance all around and the state of realease of the game was so bad it kinda become its own legend
but i obviously played with the unnoficial patch, and even though not completely the game has still a fuckton of bugs,its playable,decent loadtimes,good performance and reduced bugs
and sure its kinda weird to include mods to reviews of the game but i kinda do in like every review that i have on in this type of game,still though just for how legendarely bad the state of release was i cant give it even a 4
sound 9/10
the soundtrack i think is a 10/10,it fits extremely well with the vibe of the game and tracks like chinatown theme and the holywood theme are genuenly some of the best videogame music i heard in my life
the sound effects are fine,it doesnt has the best sound quality and they dont feel like really real,but they are fine so like a 7/10
gameplay 7,5-8/10
most people dont really like the gameplay from the game but i do and let me explain,sure you do get a lot of unfair fights and the gunplay is rather mediocre,but the game brings a lot of variety of how to play it gameplay wise,you can sneak,shoot,punch,slay,use magic and more and the melee mechanics i do like along with the sneaking and i just find it fun.
add to that 7 different classes and you get yourself a solid rpg gameplay experience
story/writing/characters 10/10
this is the main event of the game and it delivers greatly
lets start with the characters,they all feel human and have their own emotions,believes and goals and they are believable,that may not sound extremely impressive but is extremely hard to make such believable people,and most of them are really fun and charimatic with characters like jack and beckket,also the playable character has its own personality that you can decide but for me was on the first playthrough an extremely problematic honest asshole with a lot of intimidation and emotionally is a mess of a person,all over the place and in my second playthrough is the batshit insane malk.
part of the amazing characters is due to the amazing voice acting and obvoiusly beacuse of the amazing dialogue
character tier list:https://tiermaker.com/list/video-games/vampire-the-masquerade---bloodlines-characters-169624/3531740
dialogue wise these game aims to delivers lore pieces,info on the story and potraying the characters emotions and thougths,kinda like dialogue in general right?,but all of this is laced with a cheeky funny paint that just works and lefts you with some of the most funny and memorable lines in rpg history,and in general there isnt a single bit of out of place or bad dialogue,all of it feels natural and is always well written
the lore is also something the game does greatly,and as someone who hasnt played or heard anything else in the vampire the masquarade franchise,i feel like a know a lot about the world of the franchise
it has a lot of special terms,politics and places unique to it and the dialogue does a great job of telling you this information and it doesnt feel like homework it is always told on little pieces laced with the character that is in the dialogue personality and also their views affect the way they teld you the lore and with what light they say it for example lacroix will talk about the anarch on a condescending light and the anarchs will talk about the anarchs with a priding light about how good anarchs are and how bad is everyother faction.
and is just an interesting,unique world
and the main story of the game takes you to a good variety of places of la and it does a good job of tying all of the game together,even if its badly balanced gameplaywise sometimes
also,something i notices about the game is that you are like a badly paid worker that is abused time and time again by your boss and that is really relatable,not for me but like ive seen a lot of people on this same situation and i feel like it doesnt get talked enough in game,bad working conditions and bosses that is.
side content 9/10
for such a tight game it does a good amount of side quests,and the game has a more quality than quantity type of thinking,so you get a good amount of sidequest,about 40 of them,more or less,and they are mostly quality and fit nicely in their hubs and give some pretty fun characters and dialogue
replayability 9/10
the second biggest strong point of the game,and it is along with that few elite of games that have infinite replayability,it is on the level of like new vegas,divinity original sin 2 and the elder scroll games,yeah it is that good.
it has 7 different classes with all unique parts of dialogue or even completely different dialogue in the case of malkavian and nosferatu,they all have different powers also.
add to that the whole build and character progress part.
add to that all the unique lines that you can hear and all the decisions that you can make.
add to that content from the unnoficial patch and cqm and just the mod community in general and boom you got yourself infinite replayability
ending 6/10
look gameplaywise the ending part of the game is like a 4 but i actually really like the endings of the game,all faction except sabbat have endings and i think they are all different and are well written
overall,one of the most unique rpg experiences i ever had,reminds me of like deus ex on some ways but with fallout new vegas and with vampires,and it is a lot of fun
10/10
information:i did 2 playthroughs of the game,the first one as a tremer and the second one as a malkavian,and i liked them about the same,i completed both in about 70 hours and did most of the sidequest in both of them,i played with the basic unoficial patch only on my first playthrough and i played with the full unofical patch on my sec playthrough + cqm
graphics/aesthetics 9/10
technically the graphics are actually pretty bad,even awful some will say,but it adds a unique charm to it i dont get anywhere else,just see the opening sequence of the game and you will see what i mean,awful animations,weird facial expresions and just an overall extremely weird vibe.
and the aesthetics of the game are amazing and extremely out of left field for an rpg ,it is dark,modern and gothic,and it goes really well with all the vampire shit going on i love it,also all the hubs have kinda distinct aesthetic to them,you got the theme park asian like chinatown,you got the beatdown criminal downtown,you got hollywood that out of all the hubs feels the more expensive one and it got all kinda of entertainment places to go is kinda like the new vegas of this game and then you got santa monica that is like the stereotype of california put into a singular place
Technical part of the game 3,5/10
adressing the elephant in the room,i normally dont talk about the technical part of the game,you know bugs that kinda thing,but in this case is really bad and let me explain myself why it isnt a 1.
sure in release the game was a 1 techincally,countless bugs including a lot of game breaking ones,you got awful loading screen times,awful performance all around and the state of realease of the game was so bad it kinda become its own legend
but i obviously played with the unnoficial patch, and even though not completely the game has still a fuckton of bugs,its playable,decent loadtimes,good performance and reduced bugs
and sure its kinda weird to include mods to reviews of the game but i kinda do in like every review that i have on in this type of game,still though just for how legendarely bad the state of release was i cant give it even a 4
sound 9/10
the soundtrack i think is a 10/10,it fits extremely well with the vibe of the game and tracks like chinatown theme and the holywood theme are genuenly some of the best videogame music i heard in my life
the sound effects are fine,it doesnt has the best sound quality and they dont feel like really real,but they are fine so like a 7/10
gameplay 7,5-8/10
most people dont really like the gameplay from the game but i do and let me explain,sure you do get a lot of unfair fights and the gunplay is rather mediocre,but the game brings a lot of variety of how to play it gameplay wise,you can sneak,shoot,punch,slay,use magic and more and the melee mechanics i do like along with the sneaking and i just find it fun.
add to that 7 different classes and you get yourself a solid rpg gameplay experience
story/writing/characters 10/10
this is the main event of the game and it delivers greatly
lets start with the characters,they all feel human and have their own emotions,believes and goals and they are believable,that may not sound extremely impressive but is extremely hard to make such believable people,and most of them are really fun and charimatic with characters like jack and beckket,also the playable character has its own personality that you can decide but for me was on the first playthrough an extremely problematic honest asshole with a lot of intimidation and emotionally is a mess of a person,all over the place and in my second playthrough is the batshit insane malk.
part of the amazing characters is due to the amazing voice acting and obvoiusly beacuse of the amazing dialogue
character tier list:https://tiermaker.com/list/video-games/vampire-the-masquerade---bloodlines-characters-169624/3531740
dialogue wise these game aims to delivers lore pieces,info on the story and potraying the characters emotions and thougths,kinda like dialogue in general right?,but all of this is laced with a cheeky funny paint that just works and lefts you with some of the most funny and memorable lines in rpg history,and in general there isnt a single bit of out of place or bad dialogue,all of it feels natural and is always well written
the lore is also something the game does greatly,and as someone who hasnt played or heard anything else in the vampire the masquarade franchise,i feel like a know a lot about the world of the franchise
it has a lot of special terms,politics and places unique to it and the dialogue does a great job of telling you this information and it doesnt feel like homework it is always told on little pieces laced with the character that is in the dialogue personality and also their views affect the way they teld you the lore and with what light they say it for example lacroix will talk about the anarch on a condescending light and the anarchs will talk about the anarchs with a priding light about how good anarchs are and how bad is everyother faction.
and is just an interesting,unique world
and the main story of the game takes you to a good variety of places of la and it does a good job of tying all of the game together,even if its badly balanced gameplaywise sometimes
also,something i notices about the game is that you are like a badly paid worker that is abused time and time again by your boss and that is really relatable,not for me but like ive seen a lot of people on this same situation and i feel like it doesnt get talked enough in game,bad working conditions and bosses that is.
side content 9/10
for such a tight game it does a good amount of side quests,and the game has a more quality than quantity type of thinking,so you get a good amount of sidequest,about 40 of them,more or less,and they are mostly quality and fit nicely in their hubs and give some pretty fun characters and dialogue
replayability 9/10
the second biggest strong point of the game,and it is along with that few elite of games that have infinite replayability,it is on the level of like new vegas,divinity original sin 2 and the elder scroll games,yeah it is that good.
it has 7 different classes with all unique parts of dialogue or even completely different dialogue in the case of malkavian and nosferatu,they all have different powers also.
add to that the whole build and character progress part.
add to that all the unique lines that you can hear and all the decisions that you can make.
add to that content from the unnoficial patch and cqm and just the mod community in general and boom you got yourself infinite replayability
ending 6/10
look gameplaywise the ending part of the game is like a 4 but i actually really like the endings of the game,all faction except sabbat have endings and i think they are all different and are well written
overall,one of the most unique rpg experiences i ever had,reminds me of like deus ex on some ways but with fallout new vegas and with vampires,and it is a lot of fun
10/10