Vampire®: The Masquerade - Bloodlines™

This game is absolutely fantastic. A showcase of the design that could've been is that in one of the first few quests, you are tasked to steal a donation box, where you can protest to not do so, and told that it was going to the rich anyways. Stealing it without protesting leads to a loss in humanity (sort of like a score of morality). But if you do protest and get told the truth about the box, you do not lose humanity. Unfortunately, the later parts of the game are not nearly as well designed and it becomes a dungeon crawler. However all the quests, characters and the early levels are all fantastic and i can't say there's a single character or line of dialog that is poorly written. Here's a little story: I bought this game in my "welcome to GOG" deal, and this game was one of the many on the pile of games i bought. I ignored it for months but eventually i ran out of games on steam to play and decided to check GOG. I sorted them by player reviews and this was the top choice (after Deus Ex which my pc was incompatible with at the time because that pc was garbage.) The first time i played it i skipped the tutorial completely and went around on the street and accidentally right clicked, which alerted police and I died pretty quick. I decided after that to actually role play and design my character based on how i wanted my character to be. I made him a persuasive artist that uses vampiric powers to slow down (their perception of) time and shoot people. Little did i know this is the most overpowered build in the entire game.

VtM:B is barely finished. The graphics are uneven, the mechanics are unrefined, and it's full of bugs even when patched. It's also one of the best RPGs you'll ever play. The game is great at making you go through everything you would expect from a blood-sucker trying to hide from the human world: you will drain people's blood, get involved in vampire politics, fight thugs, cops and monsters alike, and explore haunted houses! A great emphasis is put on atmosphere, with most places exhaling a new flavor of spookiness or gloom. Besides the awesome game world, based off a famous pen and paper RPG, what truly shines here is the overall writing. Every single character you meet feels like a living person, and interacting with them feels great, courtesy of awesome dialog: the voice acting is fabulous and facial animations are rock-solid! The main plot and sidequests are equally complex and full of twists and subtleties. The game is full of alternate paths, often letting you choose how to approach the situations you're confronted to. Violence is almost always an option, but negotiating or sneaking up can just as well get the job done. The skills you can choose tend however to vary widely in usefulness, with some totally outclassing others or proving almost indispensable - like hacking. The combat is janky as hell, but satisfying, whether you use melee weapons or firearms - guns suck at first, but make the last levels easier! Some magic powers totally rule, allowing you to transform, summon animals, and use bullet-time! The main flaw, for me, is that the game starts losing steam in its last fourth: from your arrival in Chinatown, there's less annex content, environments get blander, and a greater emphasis is put on combat instead of alternate solutions. It is still fun, but it's clear that the developers were running out of time and resources at this point. Still, despite its lack of polish, VtM:B is an awesome experience where each playthrough is different from the last!

I played this game for the first time a week and a half ago. So many of the characters and locations are going to stick with me in ways most games nowadays could only dream of. It's equal parts grimy, unsettling, seductive, and pulse-pounding, and it switches between all of these gears masterfully. The way your character grows from a childe crashing in a shitty apartment above a pawn shop to one of the most powerful vampires in L.A. is entirely seamless and so, so satisfying. An all-time great RPG.

One of the best action RPG I've ever played and defiently best World of Darkness PC game adaptation. I mean I enjoyed some visual novels and some Choice of Games creation but we need something more mpvie-like, some more action and we have it here. So many skills and abilities, 7 unique clans to choose from (which will affect gameplay), immersive plot and very strong atmosphere. I fell in love with this game from the firt sight and I like return to it again and again. Eventhough it's kinda sad we can't choose backstories, take Library Quest or use BloodHeal discipline in GOG version.

VTMB is simply the best vampire game to exist currently and one of the best RPG's made in terms of choice, atmosphere, soundtrack and replay value with the different clans you can select. UNOFFICIAL PATCH is a must for this game and is still being updated to this day which shows the incredible support this game still has. You can select from a variety of clans when creating your character with each clan being fleshed out (some more than others) each clan has it's strengths and weaknesses with npcs reacting differently based on what you pick. I recommend picking malkavian for the dialogue you get. The soundtrack and atmosphere of the game is fantastic and draws you into the world of darkness, you also get a decent amount of choice for an RPG which is fantastic and the characters are actually interesting to speak to. Despite being a mess of a game on release with the unofficial patch this is a must play for any RPG fan.