Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption

Believe it or not, as a kid this was one of my favourite games. I still count it among them for that reason. You know why? Cause I happened to stumble upon the one correct way to play this RPG, was willing to overlook its remaining flaws, and was awed by its graphics and subject matter. But having recently watched an extensive blind LP of it on YouTube, by someone who tried a different approach than me, and viewing it through the lens of modern developments, it has become clear to me what utter garbage this game is. Horrible AI. Linear story. Tiny or cramped environments where your party gets in each other's way constantly. Frustrating mechanics at every turn. Glitches & bugs galore. An RPG with ridiculous customization, weapon and spell options, yet so hard and unbalanced that unless you go pure melee figther or stunlock, you will likely never beat it. The game part of this game is broken, the RPG part even more. It barely works as an action game, which is how my kid self experienced and appreciated it. Good points are graphics and cutscenes, historical references and locations, and a pretty cool story. It gets the tertiary stuff right, just not what matters: The gameplay.

Then your first mission sends you to a mine, where you fumble around in the dark even while holding a torch. I suspect most people just quit at the 4 hour mark due to this.

A lot of attention to detail, complicated lore, interesting locations, but a bit wasted on a very plain RPG where you just go and fight monsters. Back in the day, though, a real attempt at genuine innovation.

After I bought this, I couldn't find it in my library. I looked it up in the store and selected the "view in library" option but it wouldn't let me install it

This is a game that has not aged well, but might still be fun for some. While it doesn't suffer from control issues, the point-&-click aspect is undermined by the camera viewing angle set by the mouse and the lack of transparency in some areas with regard to the character position. For example, if an enemy is around the corner shooting arrows at Christof, that enemy can still be obscured by walls or even ceiling until I move the mouse enough to be able to see and click to attack. Also, I encountered many issues in which I could not attack a nearby enemy, or one on stairs at Christof's feet but at a slightly different level (usually lower). The same issue occurred with items. Once I gained a character in my party, that character often got in my way such that I could not attack enemies or pick up items until I moved the camera just right. Many of the reviews here and after this game's original release talk about how the graphics add to the atmospherics. Only one post-release review said the truth, which is that the graphics are actually quite mediocre and non-immersive, especially in outside areas. Finally, despite having upgrade points to spend, I was not able to upgrade my characters at all, and it was unclear why. That said, this seems like it could have been a pretty decent game for its time, in terms of content and character development. It had the potential to be a much better game than it is. I don't think it's worth $6, and I'm definitely glad I got it on sale.