This review contains spoilers
from the moment you start the game and your clan can be decided by answering a personality test i knew vampire: the masquerade - bloodlines had flavour. it is so flavourful. it is dripping with wonderful lovely juices of flavour!
here we have a game shining from so many angles - not all of them admittedly - but so many. it's an old 2004 PC RPG that was rushed in development and by god it shows. it is buggy as hell, the AI is jank and mad, and the balancing... well, there is no balancing. if you go to fight the sherieff and haven't levelled up guns i don't know what to say to you chief, you're just doomed! there are oblitagory sneak missions which therefore require you to level up sneak as a skill, and the dungeons are sometimes so labrynthian and mazelike you genuinely might want to draw yourself a map of where to go.
and yet, all of that being said, this game still owns. the writing is genuinely amazing, this game a microcosm of the larger politics being explored in white wolf's world, but each actor stands out as someone unique with a storied history and specific perspective. and also, the dialogue is just good! each character's voice is unique, and their voice actors do a great job! and the dialogue the protagnoist has back is great too! compare it to the milktoast dialogue of games like Skyrim, Fallout 4 and the like, you'll be shocked they let you get away with a protagonist as yappy and rude as the fledglign! it's both politically tense, has some good mythos (abou caine and the antedilluvians for example) as well as some genuinely hilarious stuff. i was dubious to play VTMB because neo-gothic isnt normally my jam, but from the fact that the moment you start the game you can an email about making your penis bigger i was in. made me laugh out loud multiple times. also, the music is absolutely incredible. so many perfect vibes just totally work, although sometimes the game does randomly switch them out to creepy mumbojumbo for no reason.
aside from wishing the actual gameplay was tider (much tidier in fact) the only other thing i'd ask for is that the important and fun NPCs we meet aren't just irrelevant after we've done their quests? none of the Hollywood NPCs, or even Santa Monica, actually matter once you've finished their storyline. also cops suck and I didn't go Cammy, but the game would've benefitted from the Camarilla and Kei Juin having more of an argument in their favour! LaCroix is so obviously the villain that you have to REALLY be a brown noise to side with him... although at least the game punishes you for it if you do hahaha!
here we have a game shining from so many angles - not all of them admittedly - but so many. it's an old 2004 PC RPG that was rushed in development and by god it shows. it is buggy as hell, the AI is jank and mad, and the balancing... well, there is no balancing. if you go to fight the sherieff and haven't levelled up guns i don't know what to say to you chief, you're just doomed! there are oblitagory sneak missions which therefore require you to level up sneak as a skill, and the dungeons are sometimes so labrynthian and mazelike you genuinely might want to draw yourself a map of where to go.
and yet, all of that being said, this game still owns. the writing is genuinely amazing, this game a microcosm of the larger politics being explored in white wolf's world, but each actor stands out as someone unique with a storied history and specific perspective. and also, the dialogue is just good! each character's voice is unique, and their voice actors do a great job! and the dialogue the protagnoist has back is great too! compare it to the milktoast dialogue of games like Skyrim, Fallout 4 and the like, you'll be shocked they let you get away with a protagonist as yappy and rude as the fledglign! it's both politically tense, has some good mythos (abou caine and the antedilluvians for example) as well as some genuinely hilarious stuff. i was dubious to play VTMB because neo-gothic isnt normally my jam, but from the fact that the moment you start the game you can an email about making your penis bigger i was in. made me laugh out loud multiple times. also, the music is absolutely incredible. so many perfect vibes just totally work, although sometimes the game does randomly switch them out to creepy mumbojumbo for no reason.
aside from wishing the actual gameplay was tider (much tidier in fact) the only other thing i'd ask for is that the important and fun NPCs we meet aren't just irrelevant after we've done their quests? none of the Hollywood NPCs, or even Santa Monica, actually matter once you've finished their storyline. also cops suck and I didn't go Cammy, but the game would've benefitted from the Camarilla and Kei Juin having more of an argument in their favour! LaCroix is so obviously the villain that you have to REALLY be a brown noise to side with him... although at least the game punishes you for it if you do hahaha!