Vampire®: The Masquerade - Bloodlines™

I was surprised by this game because I thought it was some cliche horror thing but what I discovered was probably one of the most enjoyable RPGs I've ever played. The first thing that roped me in was the dialogue. It was basically a campy horror movie and early 2000's adult cartoon parody, which is backed up with some pretty A-list voice acting. Bender from Futurama voices the NPC that coaches you through the tutorial and becomes a potential sassy fixture of your playthrough. But for all the entertaining GTA-esque dialogue you've also got a well-crafted story that includes important details about Vampire society lore, their ancient rites, culture, fears, superstitions, etc. The literary elements on top of that just add to the flavor. This game makes a wide use of punk, noir, and even sometimes biblical themes to make it seem like each Vampire NPC is really apart of a secret order trying to fit in with the grime and the glitz of Los Angeles. The way that the game plays out depends a lot on how you want to participate in these elements of Vampire society, including the rule that sanctions you from revealing yourself to humans, the Masquerade, an instant game over if you violate it too many times. Combat is decent for the early 2000s but it's no Half Life. There's a satisfying ragdoll fling when you shoot someone that kinda makes it seem like you're playing an arcade action shooter rather than an RPG, even while there's damage counters popping up each time you hit an enemy. Even clans which just have "vanilla" combat capabilities offer a good deal of specialization since you do have to spend XP points and focus on what you want, whether that be the "discipline" buffs your your regular skills. Gun selection is typical but decent. Other clans will allow you to transform into a Were-bat, be a blood mage, conjure insects and rodents, or go invisible. Personally that's what I went for my first time. pretty good

Bloodlines is one of the best RPG's ever made. At launch it was plagued with bugs, but in the years since then it has become a timeless classic and the vast majority of the bugs have been fixed. You are given the role of a brand new vampire who is suddenly thrust into a strange and politically complex underworld you never knew existed. Will you join the Camarilla, or start a revolution with the Anarchs? At the start of the game you choose a class, mostly are fairly similar but they focus on different stats, for example you can have a class focused on combat or a class focused on using dialogue to charm other characters. One of the most unique things about this game is it has two special classes, the Malkavian and the Nosferatu. The Malkavian is a crazy vampire, every single line of dialogue in the game is rewritten to be unique for this class, it's almost like a whole new game. There's also the Nosferatu, these are hideous and have to sneak around and stay in the shadows. Both Malkavian and Nosferatu have unique scenes and dialogue not seen in the other classes. You can basically play the game three times with these different classes and it'll feel like a new game each playthrough. The main gameplay consists of you exploring a hub location, visiting different buildings around town and talking to NPC's to get quests, the game doesn't point you in the direction of where to go and you're expected to figure it out yourself. The levels are all small but dense, so you never feel lost even when you visit a new location. There is combat but it is quite janky and not very fun, however the exploration and dialogue is where you will spend most of your time. If you're looking for an immersive RPG to sink your fangs into this is the game for you, the game does go slightly downhill in the final act, however the "Plus patch" mod adds several shortcuts letting you skip most combat heavy portions of the game near the end which makes it a much more enjoyable experience. 5/5

So much choice in an amazingly atomospheric RPG, very few games can even hold a candle to this masterpiece.

Hoping for more community patches to add more content

It's sad to say, but more than 20 years have not improved this game despite the work of fans and modders. It's a buggy, crash-filled mess of a game that was too ambitious for it's own good. The writing is frequently very good, even if it has it's weak spots, and there is a level of immerson largely unparalleled in games with the sheer variety of choice, but crashing every few minutes, random glitches, and worst of all save-destroying bugs that can set you back hours of progress at times, it's a real hassle to actually play.