Wow, this game is great. I meant to play it a while ago but I never got around to it. For those of you interested in getting it you can subscribe to IGN for a year (priced at $19.99) and get the game for free with it, or buy it off Steam for the same price but with no IGN subscription.
Basically, for fans of Deus Ex this game has a ton of similarities. I'd say I'm maybe 25% of the way through the game right now and while it isn't quite as good as the original Deus Ex, it is MUCH better than the sequel to Deus Ex (Invisible War). This is definitely a fantastic game.
You choose to be a male or female out of a number of different vampire clans. Depending on what clan you choose they have inherent benefits and drawbacks. I just picked the one that looked and sounded coolest. You have a ton of different skills that are raised via experience points (just like Deus Ex) though the stats are actually more complicated, similar to System Shock 2 where you have a lot more to choose from. You get experience points for doing the main quests as well as the many side quests. It has huge dialog trees just like Deus Ex where your decisions affect what you're doing in the game. It is built on Valve's Source engine (Half-Life 2) so it looks and runs pretty well. You definitely have a lot of choices like Deus Ex, multiple paths to take, a ton of optional content, you can be stealth, direct, etc. I'm generally not too into vampires but if you are this game is even better since there is tons of storyline and shit revolving around the vampires. Your abilities (which depend on what kind of vampire you are) use blood every time you cast one so you need to feed off of people (but don't get caught). I invested in the seduction skill so you can go to night clubs and feed in public if you seduce them, which makes people think you're just making out or something so you get away with it.
The game is really bad ass. There doesn't seem to be much ammo for the guns so melee (at this point) seems much more viable since it does just as much damage and doesn't take ammo. Deus Ex had pretty vanilla melee, you didn't really do much. It's a little bit different in this game, you can perform stealth kills, and when you are in a regular battle you just kind of mash on the button to do combos and it's almost like a hack and slash game. It's a little better than what Deus Ex had for melee but not by a lot. You can play in first or third person. I play in first person except when fighting with melee, in which you are required to be in the third person, I would prefer it that way anyway though.
The guns (the few times I've used them) work similar to Deus Ex. Your accuracy is pretty bad until you raise your firearms skill, so I haven't used it much yet due to limited ammo. For the price you really can't beat this game, if you're a fan of Deus Ex definitely pick this up, it's low priced, fun, and I love all the great dialog options. Honestly at times it feels like you are playing Deus Ex, this game has a ton of similarities and even looks like it sometimes. This game is a real treat and I'm savoring every moment.
Oh, and it has a scary ass level in it...I nearly shit my pants, but what's new? Also, be sure and get one of the two patches available. The developers went out of business before they could patch it up completely properly so fans have made a massive patch for this game, you can find them both on the Wikipedia page.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire:_The_Masquerade_-_Bloodlines
There is one patch that just fixes everything returning it to the way the developers intended, while the other is a massive patch that includes removed content the developers left on the disk (voice overs, quests, etc.). So one patch is the regular game working flawlessly, while the other is almost like a "Director's Cut". I'm going to save the "Director's Cut" for my second play through.
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I love playing as a Malkavian, especially when the television reporters start addressing you directly.
I chose to be a Toreador but I'm kind of regretting it since it seems some of the other clans get way cooler spells. The Toreador spells are kind of boring. I'm hesitant to restart though since I've completely cleared the first area with all side quests but who knows...
Any word on whether or not these patches work with the Steam version of the game? I lost my old copy, and I like to support Steam.
assbees: Good question, I was wondering the same thing. I am 99.9% sure they DO work with the Steam version but I can't guarantee it. I'll see if I can find an answer.
assbees: According to anonymous posts from various places on the internet those patches WILL work with the Steam version.
I've given it a good go, but an unreliable PC has meant I've only been able to get about a third of the way through. Once I get a much more stable PC up and running, I'll give the rest of the game a try as what I played was fun.
Sweet! Thanks a ton, man. Great game, great post. I'm just about to sink my teeth into Arcanum, another Troika game (Fallout w/ a steam punk theme.) I'll be sure to post how it goes.
I started the game but haven't played it in months. I do remember leaving an innocent soul in unrest for all eternity so that I could eventually hook up with the above vampiress.
Despite the bugs, this is one of my favorite rpgs. Gangrel ftw >.< I'm playing it through for the fifth time, waiting patiently for the world of darkness mmo Crowd Control/White Wolf has in the wings.
Speaking of the scary level, was it the hotel (which is pretty scary the first time around) or the Way of Kings (which is scary every fricking time for me....
Played this game ages ago when it first came out, bugs and all was a fun game back then, although I wasn't a huge fan of the first game from vampire, but bloodlines was good. I'll probably fire it up again and see what those patches do I saw the patches but never bothered to find out what they did, my loss I suppose.
Was a similar recommendation that led me to play it a while ago but it's a far cry from Deus Ex IMO. I'm a sci-fi fanatic, which is great for Deus Ex but VTMB sits more neatly in the gothic/horror genre. I could live with that though.
What I couldn't live with were the story and combat system. The narrative seemed to go nowhere to me, partly due to the Fable effect of implied freedom (siding with the Camarilla or the rebels, multitude of sidequests,etc) with no real outcome on the game as a whole - although, this may be a gripe with recent Western-RPGs in general, of which I'm generally not a fan.
As far as the combat goes, I don't understand how you can compare it to Deus Ex. One has standard FPS controls, albeit with the ability to improve the steadiness of your aim and damage amount through skills, contrasted against an RPG configuration of level up your stats as much as possible and then just point and click with little to no control during the actual fight. Again, this is a problem I have with this genre of game (KOTOR, Fable, etc) rather than this specific title but nonetheless I'm sure a lot of FRS fans who enjoyed Deus Ex for its marvellous mix of gameplays might be a little underwhelmed after reading this recommendation.
You sold me. Good job! This is the next one I snag off Steam.
Budr: Deus Ex barely had melee combat...you just point at the enemy and click to do the same swing every time. It worked but I think this combat system is slightly more interesting though I said even this one isn't that great.
As for gun play it works just like Deus Ex where you must stand still to steady your aim so I'm not sure what you meant by point and click with no control during a fight.
And for the record I'm comparing the game play, not the settings, though this world doesn't really feel that different than the sci-fi world of Deus Ex. And for the record I HATE sci-fi, Deus Ex and System Shock 2 are some of the few exceptions I have.
I can't comment on the story as I'm not far enough but I don't really see your problems with the combat system.
Bloodlines was an awesome game alright, but I don't see the deus ex comparisons. While both games do have awesome stories, bloodline's gameplay was nowhere near as good. The classes are really imbalanced(cerelity >*) and gun combat is so much worse than melee, it's kind of stupid to use them. Also, even with the patches, it's glitchy as living fuck. If you're willing to live with those flaws though, it is a tremendously fun game. Word to the wise though; play as malkavian. Not because they're better, they're just shitloads of fun.
niakori: I've only played through the hotel, knowing that there is an even scarier level waiting for me is AWESOME.
brad drac: I haven't really encountered any glitches with the complete patches. And I did say that Deus Ex had better game play but they are both still very similar in my opinion. I haven't used many guns (due to low ammo) but it appeared very similar.
Maybe I came out swinging a little too hard as my memory of the gameplay is slightly hazy. At the end of the day, it's different strokes but I remember finding the combat hugely frustrating due partly to the third-person perspective but mostly to what felt to me like a lack of control. I recall giving up on guns almost from the offset and just using mêlée attacks, which was only slightly less dissatisfying.
As far as the story goes, my point about Fable was more that it promises freedom without delivering. Personally, I much prefer a linear game as they seem more polished and refined. I can understand simulation or god games where there is no story as such and so the infinite direction of play makes sense but open-ended, story-driven play seems futile to me as what story there is will be spread too thinly. I would rather be fed a riveting, concise narrative than have to make one up myself not to mention the frustration of being shown alleged freedom only to explore and find your path barred at all but a select few roads.
Sorry to rant away from your main point.
I play the majority of the game in first person. I only use melee in third person.
Sure I like games with a "concise" narrative as you say but I also like games such as this that let you make your own decisions. Sure you still go along a main path, but it also makes you feel like you're making decisions, and to a certain extent you are. You can make a variety of choices that affect the game, though they are on a smaller scale rather than in the grand scheme of the story generally but I enjoy making the little decisions that affect how I'll tackle my next objective.
Right now I'm on the last level of Deus Ex. It's pretty sweet, though the graphics suck, and so does the AI. I'll look for this on isohunt, cuz I got no money.
Well I think Deus Ex's graphics are pretty good still the A.I. definitely had some issues but was still great. This game isn't nearly as good as Deus Ex as I said, but it's way better than Deus Ex's horrible sequel.
Mmm... you remember me I still have to play Bloodlines. I bought a couple years ago and couldn't play it because my PC was very very crappy. But now is time to give this game a good chance.
By the way, Deus Ex is a F*CKING GREAT game
Deus Ex is good, but still overrated. The AI is one of the worst I've ever seen. If they don't see you, they patrol around a set route. If they do see you, they run toward you, and shoot when they're in range. That's about it. Also, the graphics are just as bad. Even Half Life 1 has better graphics. It's still a great game though.
I disagree that it's overrated...I feel it's underrated if anything, it only has 91% on GameRankings which is heresy.
And I think it had better graphics than Half-Life, though Half-Life had nice graphics too.
Deus Ex AI had problems, yes. One thing I really, really liked was that you could make a sound, attract an NPC, then duck behind a pillar. They'd run to where they last saw you, walk around a bit, confused..and then you could burst out and whack 'em.
Granted, even Deus Ex has it's problems, and I'm finally starting to get annoyed with it's quirks. V:TM might replace DE as my weekly play-through shooter.