244: The Last Masquerade

[Logan Westbrook]

The Last Masquerade

If there was ever a game that exemplified the term "flawed masterpiece," it's Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, a 2004 PC title that aimed high and very nearly made it. Logan Westbrook looks at what went wrong - and right - with Troika Games' swan song.

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[BlueInkAlchemist]

I love Bloodlines, warts and all. Few games have built the sort of atmosphere this game excels at creating. You touch on all of the important points that make the game great, and also point out places where it could be shored up.

Great article on a great game that, sadly, was too good to live. Yet it does, on my hard drive, persistent and refusing to die.

Maybe it's the whole vampire thing.

 

[Void(null)]

I am sad now, I really miss Troika. Perhaps I should fire up Bloodlines or Arcanum this week.

 

[DarkSaber]

It truly was a fantastic game. I loved the dark, brooding and downright depressing atmosphere, the whole feeling that no matter what you were doing the only person benefitting was someone pulling your strings and not you, and of course, Smiling Jack (voiced by John DiMaggio no less!)

Probably high time to play through it a fourth time...maybe as a Nosferatu, not tried them yet and I'm interested in seeing just how much having to get about using sewers as much as you can will change things.

 

[GiantRedButton]

Troika was a major force when it came to creating these fan patches
They had enough freetime after activision fired them for their mistake.

 

[LiquidGrape]

Remains the finest RPG I ever played.
- And my benchmark for good vampire fiction.

 

[unacomn]

I liked the article. It's funny really, just last week I started to reminisce about the game and made a segment about it. Guess it must be the weather, something just whispers Vampire the Masquerade in the night.

 

[Orcus The Ultimate]

personally it's one of my best time favorite for great ambiance/music/voices/characters, and a good vision of vampirism + the comunity patch is incredible !


too bad games aren't made that way anymore...

 

[Hiphophippo]

This game is amazing. Truly amazing. For that matter, so was Elemental Evil.

RIP Troika

 

[DaxStrife]

Always good to see someone bring this game back up into the light. There are still some small groups of modders who work on an "unofficial update" project to fix a lot of bugs and restore some of the unfinished content, and it's been over 5 years since the game went out. Now that's dedication.

 

[Bobbovski]

Bloodlines is/was awesome. And it got even better with the fan patches. It would have been so awesome if they would have finished the game the way they had planned to. Even in its unfinished state I consider it one of the best RPGs I've ever played. I've must have played it through 4-5 times by now.

 

[Bobbovski]

ps: i don't remember fighting a wereshark, but if you mean fighting the chinese Kuei jin woman i get it.

No, there's a side mission that you can get from a Japanese monster hunter girl that you can help. She wants to take revenge on "Hengeyokai" a fish demon/wereshark.

 

[Royas]

Not many RPG's even today match Bloodlines. Flawed as it is, modern RPG makers should take notes from it before being allowed to create anything. Given White Wolf's buyout by EVE Online maker CCP, I have high hopes for seeing more Vampire games in the future.

 

[TheBlackKnight]

ps: i don't remember fighting a wereshark, but if you mean fighting the chinese Kuei jin woman i get it.

No, there's a side mission that you can get from a Japanese monster hunter girl that you can help. She wants to take revenge on "Hengeyokai" a fish demon/wereshark.

Hilarious if you play as Malkavian and somehow "spoil" the future encounter.

And you find the japanese Demon hunter in the front portion of the Ramen noodle shop

 

[johnman]

I may have to check this game out, what has actually been modded back in?

 

[TheWallsofJericho]

This game, despite it flaws (which were greatly helped by those unofficial patches), is definitely one of my favorites of all time. It just has so much re-playability, variation, and style that few games have been able to match. Whoever has not played this game, and loves RPGs, for the sake of all that is good in the world, GET IT NOW! It's only 19.99 on Steam. Quite a bargain for a game that can be played and re-played over and over again. Just make sure to check online for the latest patch.

 

[RanD00M]

I don´t really care for any of it's flaws.It was still one of the best RPG's,if not one of the best games that I have ever played.

 

[Marsell]

I was a Toreodor.
most irratating bug was when I was in the graveyard fighting zombies and the game crashes.

HOLD ON!
have Valve make a vampire masquerade game!
can you say "Awsome!"?

 

[MisterStaypuft]

I could never bring myself to play as anything but the malkavian chick. Maybe I just don't go for dark settings, but I needed that batshit humor.