Vampire®: The Masquerade - Bloodlines™

Vampire the Masquerade - Bloodlines is, without a doubt. one of the best games that I've ever played. Taking into account that the game was rushed out the door that's quite the achivement. Thankfully, the dedication of the developers and the fan community have mitigated this error over the years. So what is the game about? In Bloodlines you assume the role of a fledgling vampire that has been illegaly created, and only politics and the grace of the Prince of the city save your unlife. From there, the world opens up to you little by little, as you meet other vampires and learn about the politics of it all while forming your own opinions and carving your own place in the vampire community. The storyline is nothing short of amazing and well written. While the core plot stays the same you have quite a bit of freedom on how you relate to the other vampires, with a pletora of endings to reflect it. Gameplay-wise we have a mixed bag. You pick one of seven vampire clans (classes) at the beginning, each with their own abilities and better suited to some tasks. In the first 2/3rds of the game you have a lot of freedom on how you approach situations, from persuasion, stealth or going in guns blazing depending on your preference. Evidently not every option is available in every situation but this gives you options in how you build your character. Sadly, the last third of the game the rushed development takes its toll and combat is almost always the only option. While the game makes it clear early on that violence is sometimes inevitable, it ends up becoming the focus, limiting and souring the experience. And the combat itself is nothing amazing. It gets the job done but it's definitely not the game's strong suit. The OST is a masterpiece, plain and simple. If you can overlook it's flaws, Bloodlines is a flawed gem that must be experienced. I think the game has a magic that very rarely appears in videogames, and as close to art as the medium gets.

I love this game especially for its story, setting, atmosphere and memorable characters. All the dialogs are fully voice acted and you can tell that they put a lot of effort into it. Perhaps because the character development system and the disciplines (spells and abilities) are based on a pen and paper role playing game of the same name it is really creative and distinct from other games. For me the graphics are still beautiful. Especially the facial expressions are very well done even by today's standards. Their reactions really add to the conversations you have plenty of throughout the game. There are a lot of dialogues but it never feels exhausting or boring to read them. The only criticism I have is that there are abilities that are clear winners over others. I am not even talking about spells (disciplines), because in theory I think you could complete the game without even using them. But abilities like lockpicking, hacking and persuation are essential for every character. Sneaking also can break the game and combat. With a high enough level it seems to be impossible for the enemy to detect you. Furthermore some abilities feel really useless in comparison to alternatives (intimidation vs. persuation for example). And melee based combat seems to be way better than the use of guns. In the beginning ranged combat feels kinda clumsy and ineffective. For one or two playthroughs this game has a lot to offer. But after that you feel that the story does not seem to change much aside from some dialogue and character builds do not vary enough to justify doing another playthrough with a different clan. My recomendation would be to pick whatever you like except Malkavian or Nosferatu for the first playthrough. And then for the second go with Malkavian, because the dialogue and insight is really fun. Apart from that it is still 5/5. There really isn't an RPG with similar setting and atmosphere out there. It's just excellent!

If you can get past some of the dated aspects of the game, you'll find a great experience awaiting you. Great writing, intriguing characters, and a multitude of approaches to how you handle events and interactions.

VTMB has the best atmosphere in games like it, the city streets are all unique and a breath of fresh air (I really liked Hollywood), it's almost hard to believe this is running on the same engine that Half-Life 2 is on, the dialogue is also really well written, which is always a plus. Only thing that kind of bugged me was the janky combat and the balancing for it, especially in the late game, which gets you killed if you forget to bring lots of supplies, the skill tree is a deciding factor if you live or die and you have to choose a class to use most of the time and stick with it (Guns, Melee or your special abilities) otherwise you'll be weak in the late game. It's also still quite buggy but most bugs can be fixed easily using the console or in the case of the AI pathing bug, you just have to remove all .ain files from /maps/graphs to fix this.

Kinda, undeniably unique game, theres nothing like this out there afaik. Has lots replayability.