Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines

I quickly came to know this game as VTMB through the hours that I had to spend searching postings from other fans who had struggled before me - just to play the game. This game is without the question the worst that I have ever seen. As released in both the boxed and via Steam versions the game is unplayable. Fortunately there is a small but dedicated community still releasing patches for it that just about make it acceptable.

Having said that VTMB is one of the best games that I have ever played. Duh?

Built using the Valve Source Engine and released the same day as Half Life 2 clearly the comparison must be made. VTMB has far the better story, great atmosphere and is much more immersing than HL2. VTMB is personal! HL2 has better graphics and has been implemented with great professionalism. You get the feeling with VTMB that the bean counters just wanted the darn thing in a box and out of their hair even though it didn't work.

Get the patches, get the walkthroughs, be prepared to use no clip and god mode in places then turn out the lights and play. You will not regret it.

Storyline: immersive, well sculpted, and supprising for a vampire tale, really good. If i said more, i'd spoil it.
Graphics: Good and bad. character models: awesome... except the ones you can choose to play as. HOWEVER the enviroment modeling could really have taken a little more effort - its almost like the terrain was an afterthought.
Bugs: Yes, many, many, many. but they are mostly small. (mostly, NOT ALL) however, go to any good file mirror, and you'll find the official 1.2 patch and the un-official v2.6 (and counting) patch, made by fans after troika stopped.
RPG elements: good, you get experience NOT for wanton killing, but for completing quests, (often involving killing, dont worry) this is a far better system (allowing true 'theif/assasin classes, as well as shotgun weilding beserks.) I for one hate the idea behind MMO's, where you run out into the wilderness, vanquish a thousand beasties, and go up a level. HOW this this give the player experience? meanwhile, in vampire, as you play, you experience so much more of the world and learn more and more about the 'world of darkness' as you complete the many side quests. so much better.

I'd give this game 5 stars if it wasn't for the bugs.

Do you like RPGs, vampires, sexy scantily clad women? Then you'll probably like this game.

Chock full of quests, excellent voice work, value for money as it's quite long although only four main areas to explore, at first seems a little limited, but there's other locations that quests lead you to.

A small complaint would be the limited number of melee weapons, armour, and magic items. All the new stuff becomes available to buy as you progress to the next location. You'll never find any cool weapon or bit of armour or something by exploring or killing a particularly tough enemy like you would expect to do in most other rpg type games. I got a knife early in the game, and was stuck with it until a katana became available about two thirds of the way through, and that was the weapon I used until the end.

Other than that though it's very enjoyable especially if you like hot chicks, coz there's more than you can shake a stick at.

Here's a tip that will come in handy, in conversations you can use the "1" key to skip dialog.

White Wolf's amazing Vampire franchise has always suited digital gaming perfectly, and although Troika Games "Bloodlines" is a worthy attempt, it hasn't received the care and polish is deserves.

Everyone is talking about the Source engine, by Valve, used in Half-life 2. It was used brilliantly in HL2, but in Bloodlines it is mostly wasted. And although Bloodlines oozes style and character, in the end, just isn't that pretty.

Bloodlines is buggy, with glaring cutscene script errors, showstopping bugs and memory leaks. Hopefully a patch will address these soon, but until then, it greatly detracts from the overall experience.

But although they are big problems, Bloodlines as a whole is a lot of fun, and well worth any time spent playing it. The voice acting is excellent, the story is good and the gameplay is fun. Troika has a reputation for buggy games, but also fixing their mistakes, so don't let that put you off to much.

Highly recommended, it has problems, but if you suffer though, you will be richly rewarded.