Vampire®: The Masquerade - Bloodlines™

I've owned this VTM game a number of years and played it as most of the characters and using a lot of the different mods that are available and have to say that this game is hands down the best Vamp game to date. I Just re-purchased this game on GOG, to be free of steams hold on the game, and, as some have noted, it has been patched with Wes 5's mod...which is not a bad thing...unless you want to install other mods that aren't compatible with it. Also they have only installed the latest basic patch VTMBup96final. Download this patch from the author's site and when installing check the other choices to install the extended parts of the patch. The advantages of doing that is that it takes care of a few more bugs and adds some, in my opinion, improvements along the way. One of my favorite additions is having a check box to skip over the beginning head lopping cut scene. Nice when You've already had to suffer through it every time you start a new character:) I also agree that GOG should offer a vanilla copy of this game to those of us experienced enough to know how to tune this game to our own tastes.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines is an excellent RPG, with an immersive storyline and good character development with a wide range of options. You can specialize in ranged or melee combat, in stealth abilities or in the social skills of persuasion and seduction. And of course, there are the vampiric abilities. Each bloodline has their own unique set and with seven clans the replayability is very high. I have played the game from the original discs for many years, even on newer systems running Windows 7, but the version here on GOG is much to be preferred since it provides support for resolutions of 1920x1080 and that improves things a lot. However, the Unoffical Patch is a mixed bag. While it does fix bugs it also introduces one or two, and some dialogs that have been 'enhanced' by re-adding cut segments are actually better off without them. Various other changes are also of variable quality, and overall, I prefer the original version and run that instead by leaving off the '-game Unoffical_Patch' switch on the .exe. This gives you the original game version but with enhanced graphics. The caveat is that some of the bugs fixed with the Unoffical Patch can mess you around unless you know how to work around them. In particular, in the 'Fun with Pestilence' quest downtown the journal is not updated properly and unless you check in with Damsel after each step it will not terminate. On the other hand, Pisha's quests in the abandoned hospital from the Unoffical Patch are almost unplayable since the path out of the hospital has not been cleared and it is a real pain to get back out. Too much of a pain to actually go through it three times in my opinion. Such details aside, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines is an excellent game, and whether you use the Unoffical Patch or not, the version on GOG makes playing it on modern systems a pleasure. It is highly recommended.

Hands down one of the most atmospheric RPGs (and games) I have played so far. The original release was broken but the fan patch fixed and improved it. Get the patch with the additional content, it is free and even if it wasn't I would pay good money for it. The soundtrack, the story, the characters, everything is World of Darkness as it should be. Plus every replay is a completely different experience. Bonus: One of the most challenging side quests I have ever endured. Five minutes of pure anguish. If you manage to successfully complete it without using the Celerity Discipline (Clans Toreador and Brujah) you deserve a medal.

1st time player, no nostalgia here. Not a vampire groupie and I even avoided this title for years based on watching a few minutes of a Lets Play (VtM Redemptions) and thought it looked rubbish. Recently decided to give it a try and found a really immersive, indepth game with adult theme and humor. It surprised me how good it was, from the controls, inventory and interface to the expansive locations to explore and the many ways to level your character. What was lacking in a tutorial was made up with hasty peeks at the online wiki, trying not to get any spoilers. Lot of confusion as to what does what, especially to how the leveling system works but pretty soon you get used to it and just enjoy the game. Pros: Decent enough graphics, a bit blocky characters but not too shabby, adult theme, lots of coolio characters, mysterious storyline, vampire munching, werewolve fighting, puzzles, lockpicking, spells, cool weapons, all add to a fairly deep game with huge replayability as choices matter, clans matter, loyalties matter. There are several ways to finish tasks, whether thru brute force or stealth or cunning. It begs you to replay and see what diff choices will make. Cons: Minor mechanical bugs such as getting stuck in the landscape, some glitches which require reload,none of which were game ending. Plenty of saves to reload back to. Adult theme can be embarrassing to explain to casual observers who walk in while your char is at the stripper bar Marked this game as a favorite and will do another playthru on a diff clan just to see what happens. Runs right out of the gate from GoG with no bugs or errors. truly a fun, different kind of game.

The curse is ... if you talk about Bloodlines, someone, somewhere, will reinstall it. Ok it's buggy. Ok it's super railroady (you have a few options, but not that much, and each are pretty narrow) But the game nails the Vampire mood so well. The writting is so great. The game is so fun to be played. Just beware of the curse. That "someone" reinstalling the game might end up being you!