Vampire®: The Masquerade - Bloodlines™

lots of them ! cant even enter a bettle without my weapon

12 hours in and every quest has been nothing but "go here, do this, kill this guy, do what i say" It's like im some immortal errand boy. My dialogue also seems to have no real impact, all of the dialogue options seem to end up at the same place and give the same response dialogue. I literally threatened a very important vampire in no uncertain terms several times in a single dialogue tree and it still ended up with me doing an errand for them. Completely overrated.

Even without branching narratives and an exceptionally linear story, the sheer number of ways you have to solve most quests and the impressivly varied dialoge options, the experience of being able to express your character as they're thrust into this world and being forced to think and act with your characters skillset is second to none. With the community patch that fixes most of the bugs coming pre-installed, there's really only 2 caveats. The combat is terrible. (Even if you pick a combat heavy route there's actually not very much of it so this isn't as big an issue as it sounds like it is.) Kinda...low key racist. Every protagonist option is white, in Los Angeles of all places one of the least white places in the country. (you can fix this with mods.) Perhaps more glaringly, several of the asian characters in the final area are *extremely* blatant stereotypes, and unfortunately not always on a meta 'make fun of the people who actually believe this' way. If you can look past those issues (and I can't say I blame you if you can't) it's a must-have for any RPG fan.

Basically every gameplay section is horrible. This game has some of the worst combat I have ever seen. Stealth is equally misrible. Sure it is fully voiced but the game isn't even fully completed. More fun to read about than actually play.

I’ve never been so engrossed by a game. Truth be told, I don’t like vampires much but the whole universe this game has is more than superb. The voice acting and storytelling are on another level and the fact that Troika did it in such a short timeframe and pulled off this level of quality is amazing. That much I agree with everyone else. But then 28 hours of playtime later, I finished my first playthrough. And I never want to play this game again. I feel like the people giving the game 4 or 5-star ratings aren't being very open with how frustrating the combat is, especially for a first timer like me. I dreaded fighting because melee combat is literally just mashing left-click. Guns in this game wobble and wiggle around, the recoil for these guns are horrible, and you have to max out Firearms and Melee for this game to have good combat, which goes against the whole “customization” aspect of this game. You need good combat and gun skills because the game has segments and bosses that require you to have heavy damage in order to get through them without banging your head against a wall. If you’re playing as a Clan that’s predominantly combat-focused, this shouldn’t be a problem, but I can’t imagine what playing as a Tremere is like when going through the Nosferatu sewers. I gave it a try because of all the praise and found it lacking in the gameplay department. Which in a game, is a pretty important factor in deciding if people like me will stick around for it or not. It’s also got plenty of bugs and animation glitches because Bloodlines is in the Source engine. I agree Troika needed more time to develop this game, but I don’t think it’s a “flawed masterpiece,” I just think it’s “flawed.” If you’re a BIG fan of vampires and edgy stuff, this game’s incredible and has some fantastic lore. But I can’t in good conscience say that this game is worth buying, and that genuinely hurts me to say. Because it could have been so much more. So close, but no cigar.