Vampire®: The Masquerade - Bloodlines™

The game aged well. With the obvious patches, it's my personal favorite game and a gem altogether. The premise of the game is you're a fresh Vampire, and need to figure out the Vampire society politics. Running on an early Source engine, it's great looking and plays well, though a bit buggy at times, it's flaws are not something to worry about.

Finished this game for the first time yesterday - can say one think - it's breathtaking. It's like classic Deus Ex with vampires instead of cyber-humans. The game scenario and gameplay design is on completely different level - the thing that hit me most - vampire races - they can affect whole gameplay e.g Nosferatu can't be seen by humans - you need to be stealth whole game and use canals 95% of the game. I was playing Malkavian - the Madness Ones - they are pure craziness - developers prepared whole separate dialogues only for this race - they are metaphorical in they senteces and some time NPC's have problems with telling "WTF you player want?". For me this game is pure blood.

And again, a game I missed originally, but found time to play during Covid lockdowns. Pros: - good quality, smart and stylish dialog - ambient surroundings - very... coherent? The developers knew what they wanted, and everything supports their idea. Voice acting, color palettes, game systems, etc. - compact city blocks, minimal travelling and backtracking - actually unsettling and scary at places - voice acting is one of the best ever - clever use of animation: they are outdated, but they convey the personality of the NPC exceptionally well - modern day, not fantasy, sci-fi or post-apoc. This makes it really stand out. (maybe Alpha Protocoll is the other, and that's it?) Cons: - the grand finale was rushed. It is combat only, while the game as a whole usually offers sneaky or peaceful options. Even as a pacifist, start to build up your attack and defenses from about Hollywood. - there are some links which I think only possible to reveal with a walkthrough - choices and consequences are mostly cosmetic. (But! I have to admit that a main theme of the game and the V:tM in general is that characters don't really have agency, decisions are made by elders, PCs don't have the info necessary to make thought out choices, etc.) - Nosferatu playthrough is underwhelming. In theory everyone shoud freak out because of your looks, but - for plot reasons - all quest givers ignore that you look like a monster from a slasher movie. To be fair I have to admit that Malkavian dialogs are different than the rest, and lots of work went into them. This is not an open world game, as it deals with simulating the world with a different solution. Open world elements are ignored, but the important bits are fleshed out exceptionally well, which results in a laser focused experience. And to be honest this proved to be a much more enjoyable experience than what I anticipated. This game is still really unique, and every rpg enthusiast should try it out.

When I first played the game many moons ago I only knew a little about the RPG it was based on. It is a deep game, with clever dialogue, a huge array of characters, missions that range from quick and simple to nigh on impossible (some impossible without the unofficial patch). It explains a lot about the vampire clans and their relationships with each other and humans. If you like building your character, you'll probably enjoy it. If you relish having to work your way up the ranks of (vampire) society you'll love it. It *is* flawed. You may not notice the flaws, you may encounter game breaking ones. Get the Unofficial patch and it sorts out most of it. If you want better models and some more mature themes, (the game is pretty much 18+ already, which is why it's dialogue is so good) hunt down Tessmages Gold Patch. (If you can, it's not as easy as it used to be) All in all a great game, and it's long. There aren't enough games outside of Elder Scrolls that have stories so varied without the massive expanses of Skyrim or Cryodil. Get this version. The steam version is (unfortunately) janky as hell. Even with the patches.

Absolutely wonderful! But since I can't tell you anything that any other reviewer hasn't said already, I'm just going to tell you to get this GOG version (with the patches included in the download) because the base game is unfortunately broken - this GOG version is no fuss terrific. Just install it and you're ready to kick ass. Or suck blood. Or talk to stop signs. Don't worry about it.