Remembrances of Games Past, Part # 33 - Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines
10Despite its unbalanced combat, obtuse skill system, uneven level design and numerous graphical shortcomings Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines still manages to be one of the most atmospheric and immersive RPGs out there. Troika really captured the sense of mystery and foreboding which every vampire story needs, and the game's great dialogue ensures that interacting with the seedy underworld of Santa Monica a consistently enjoyable experience. Indeed, VtM's atmosphere is thick enough to make exploration of even the least compelling locations (such as the objectively dreadful sewers) into an undeservedly compelling and unsettling experience.
Although its superficial realtime action elements and FPS engine might suggest otherwise, Bloodlines also qualifies as a really deep, meaty roleplaying experience with a very ambitious class system and several different endings. Indeed, one of my favorite aspects of playing through the game for the first time back in 2004 was just how royally screwed I got for playing it safe and blindly trusting the powers that be. Clearly, the World of Darkness is no place for naive and trusting Swedes like me...
Although my own personal favorite game from this short-lived developer is the sublime D&D dungeon crawler Temple of Elemental Evil, there's no question that VtM:B has given rise to a very dedicated cult following which 7 years after the release of the game shows no sign of giving up the ghost. Wesp5's latest unofficial patch (7.6) came out just a few weeks ago, and as usual it adds more bug fixes and restores additional lost content which Troika had to cut during Bloodlines' troubled development cycle. Playing a thoroughly patched version of the game which also supports widescreen resolutions (the footage was captured at 1920*1080) is really nice, especially for those of us who bought the game on day one seven years ago and know just how rough it used to be.