Vampire®: The Masquerade - Bloodlines™

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines is a really amazing game, yet for some reason it doesn't get as much exposure as it should. I enjoyed this game as much as I enjoyed Fallout or Elder Scrolls RPGs, but VTMB is nowhere as famous as those 2. The GOG version already included the Unofficial Patch which makes the game easy to run on newer systems, and features cloud saving. For me, the most appealing part of this game is the atmosphere. It's set in the then-modern day world of early '00s Los Angeles. We don't usually see RPGs or immersive sims in contemporary urban settings. Combat is either melee or firearms, with some unique vampire moves like the ability to drain your enemy dry. Stealth is overpowered in this game, and I love it! You can sneak through most combat missions while doing stealth kills. Boss fights, however, are unavoidable and difficult. If they're too hard for you, you can just use the console to help. I should mention that VTMB has no quest markers or fast travel. However, it's not a big deal since the hub areas are pretty small, and the quest locations are easy and quite obvious. I love this game, and I will be waiting for the long-delayed Bloodlines 2.

Personally, one of the best RPGs ,in terms of storytelling and characterization, of all time. A must play for anyone who has an interest in urban fantasy though it has faults the pros truly outweights the small part of inconvience in each playthrough. I can only say for myself that I recently started playing games that are quite "dated" and having played several modern day RPGs I can see the replayability and narrative structure differ quite a lot from modern titles. The choices of clans to play as a vampire with different disciplines makes it a high recommendation to play at least two to three times with the various clans. Storywise, I can't really put a finger on why it is so good compared to other games, maybe it's the well crafted backgrounds and lore put together with expressive voice acting as well as memorable characters. Something I would like to say is that the combat could have been better. And I wish the game would be a tad bit longer with some more quests from the minor characters insted of just one or two quests. Other than that, I would really recommend this game as one of the greatest yet flawed masterpieces of gaming history.

When it comes to compuer role playing games this is one of these games that you must have played if you're into the genre. It does pretty much everything right, eith a few issues that can easilly be avoided. The game is extremly buggy at times but most of the times you can just noclip your way out of bugs, I didn't bother to look up mods or unofficial patches since the GOG version just worked perfectly for me. For combat you will have to stick to melee, I maxed my ranged weapons skill and still it just seems unplayable, U constantly ran out of ammo, weapons are inaccurate at time, the ai is just not made for shooting and you just get to do much more damage by goin melee but it still somehow manages to create some kind of challenge... it did for me atleast I thought it was all good enough and kept me hooked unlike many other games.

I played this when it first came out, and recently replayed it with the Unofficial Patch & Plus Patch. Loved the immersive story. The game does such a great job of invoking atmosphere with rich character expressions, mysterious conspiracies, and music. As you progress through the game, the TV, news, and radio reflect the events (well, some of them). The patches also made it look surprisingly good on my 2560x1440 display. To be sure there are flaws: some of the humour/writing hasn't aged well; combat is a bit clumsy; it can get tiresome running back and forth across towns on fetch quests, and a walkthrough will help you with a few of the puzzles. But I can look beyond those to be immersed in a world of darkness.

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.