Vampire®: The Masquerade - Bloodlines™

I own this game on steam. Hands down one of the best RPGs I've ever played, story-wise. The combat is kinda meh, and the last leg is darn close to unfun, but the story and the voice acting are top notch. Buy for the story and the first 3/4 of the game.

This game has had over a decade of praise heaped on it, but the best thing I can say about it is that, like the best movies, the vampirism is incidental to the story. What I mean is this; sure the vampirism brings with it a lot of interesting events, but the reason the game is so powerful and fondly remembered to this day is that the characters, even the minor side charaters, are memorable, well written, and engaging. Due to the political nature of vampire society, you actually WANT to hear what every single person has to say about every single matter. You can ask everyone about the same person, and they'll all give you a response particular to their faction (or lack thereof), just like in the real world with divisive politicians. I won't lie, the combat is more about learning to exploit the enemy and knockdowns than it is about becoming skilled, but that's not the point of the game at all. I recommend the unofficial patch for the full experience.

I know about this game's troubled development, and how it wasn't given a fair chance. I played it when it was released, about 15 years ago. The bottom line is, it's a fascinating game and one of the better RPGs - they rarely make games this unique these days. Sadly, the current state of the game, even with the patches, isn't too good. I wish they had finally ported it to a more complete and modern version of the Source engine, so the modding community could finally fix the game. It's buggy. Especially the later portions of the game. Some bugs are just unpleasant, like random models being swapped with giant armchairs. Some just make it more tedious, like the elevator buttons being a lot harder to select. Some are game-breaking. Though thankfully there's less of those than at release. As a result, the game is not as impressive as it was supposed to be by design - the bouts of frustration and door handles being turned into vases kill the mood. And here's a free piece of advice: don't open it. You'll get it when you reach that point in the game.

There are a lot of reviews that are clearly from gamers who are willing to play a broken Ubisoft release but not for a game with a big cult following. Having played through and beaten the game, it definetly shows its age in terms of graphics, controls and UI. It's still playable but there are aspects of the game that feel dated. BUT what makes it worth your time is the writing and the unique approach to the RPG in the fact that it expects you to actually ROLE PLAY. You aren't some badass that's taking on the world but the denizen of a world where if you misbehave, there will be consequences. And with a world that has such awesome lore, you can't help but get immersed in this early 2000s style that evokes the spirit of the Blade movies. There's not really a game quite like it where talking your way out of situations is a viable option as shooting your way out. This game would have been an all-time favorite of mine, EXCEPT the ending kinda... sucks. When I looked into it, it turns out this has a really rocky development to the point where the developer had to rush the ending. And it shows in one of the boss fights that is just AWFUL along with the writing, particularly with one character that they built up for some big reveal but the payoff never materialized. Because time constrants. A tradition that seems to be carried on by the development of the sequel that has been delayed indefinately at the time of writing. But, as someone with no nostologia for this game, I reccommend it. It is such a unique gem of a game that doesn't really have an equivalent. Well worth picking up on a sale if you're unsure. It's not perfect as its development was troubled but it came out surprisely well considering.

In my younger days, I was a DIEHARD fan of White Wolf's World of Darkness. I owned (and read repeatedly) easily 30 or so books (the novels are stellar.) In fact just today I finished rereading the Book of Nod. That said, despite it's technical flaws, and truly they're nothing that can't be overcome, this game is indeed a fine example of what WoD in it's prime could be as a game (other than the tabletop version.) The writing is such that White Wolf made much of it official canon. That should say something. Gameplay is fair, better than I expected for so ambitious a project. Combat is a little clunky, but fun and depending on how you play can be quite harrowing juggling the fighting with the use of disciplines. It can be easy or hard depending again entirely on you. The story is immersive, the atmosphere is expertly painted despite the graphics being a bit dated (like many kindred, this game is old.) Any game with an online community devout enough to STILL be modding it is worth a second thought. And there are quite a few VERY in depth ones at that. Think about it. Wait for it to be on sale if you wish. Give it a shot. You might like it, you might not. But remember kindred, it is the blood of Caine that makes your fate.