Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines, what a masterpiece

[Augustine]

DoPo beat me to it. I second the link he provided.

I'd love to play with the clan quest mod one day, but I'm gonna wait until it's updated with newer versions of the unofficial patch.

Played though the whole thing last year without a hitch. I can't imagine patch fixed something critical. You'll be fine.

 

[Bleidd Whitefalcon]

snip

What if you have the latest version of the UP installed already? Would that cause problems?

 

[Therumancer]

I recently replayed this game too. As well as the unofficial patch, I added a "hard mode" mod that largely ruined the combat gameplay, as well as drastically altering the weapons (which by itself, I could have lived with). But poor choice of mods aside, it really is a very good game. A flawed masterpiece, alongside Alpha Protocol and other similarly ambitious, deep and engrossing games which simply failed in their execution.

I've played it through as Toreador once and Tremere once, properly, experimenting with different approaches and builds and had a great time with it. Since then however I discovered Malkavian clan and now cannot play anything else. I really want to try Nosferatu which, from what I hear, is a vastly different game. But Malk's are just too much fun and, as far as I can tell, the only clan none of whose abilities break the masquerade. The dialogue options, the Dementia ability, obfuscate all add up to a wonderful class to play.

The best thing about VTMB is that it makes you want more. It was good enough to suck us in, immerse us in a wonderful, grim world of undead and magic and had an interesting story, which according the wiki I spent a lot of time on reading up on the ins and outs of the WoD, is actually part of the canon leading up to gehenna. The biggest tragedy is that we'll never, ever see a follow up, there'll never be another offline, single player WoD RPG. It's very sad that we get CoDs and AssCreeds rehashed and regurgitated annually ad nausea, but the days of deep, single player, PC, story driven RPGs are over.

Hmmm, well CCP is still working on a "World Of Darkness" MMO, though not a lot has been said about it. As far as "deep, story driven RPGS" the first "Dragon Age" had it's moments, and I've currently got my eyes on this "Cyberpunk" game being made by the guys who did "The Witcher".

I wouldn't totally write out the possibility of there being a single player WoD game in the future, CCP seems willing to leverage the property, they just take forever to do anything, and seem to like focusing on one thing at a time.

If you must blame someone for not seeing more games of this quality, you should probably blame Atari. The developer of "Bloodlines" was a group called "Troika" which spun off from Black Isle. They produced a number of games all of which had massive depth to them, Bloodlines, Arcanum, and Temple Of Elemental Evil are all their work. Their big problem was that they usually hired on as developers of "mature" games and with an agreement that the publisher would take a hands off approach. They had a habit of finishing a game and being told "you can't do that!?!" and then made to cut the game to the bone and break it in the process in order to get it out on time. The last straw for them that broke the company was with "Temple Of Elemental Evil" where they were forced to release the game with an earlier build and they pretty much just said "F@ck it" and disbanded with some black marks on their record. Not sure where the various members wound up or if they are still working. Still they are the guys behind a couple of the greatest (and still played) RPGs of all time.

Honestly though if I had to pick I'd much rather have another "Arcanum" than another Bloodlines. "World Of Darkness" is okay as a setting, but for reasons I won't get into I'm none too fond of White Wolf.

 

[UltraPic]

I absolutely blame Activision, for it, though - I really despise them over everything that happened with Bloodlines and is still happening to it.

I blame valve for holding back the release a whole year while they cobbled together half life 2. And for the poor support for their poor engine.

 

[The Madman]

Welp, now thanks to this topic looks like I'm re-installing Bloodlines again. Figure I'll give this Clan Mod a try. I'd heard about it previously but obviously never installed it, having (Unfairly it seems) dismissed it as only another of those kinda creepy mods out to focus the ghoul aspect of the game.

Lesse, I've played Toreador, Tremere, Malkavian and Nosferatu. This time I think I'll go for either Brujah or Gangrel. Hmmm....

 

[viranimus]

Personally I have pretty much detested almost anything vampyre related. This is one of the very few things out of the collective mythos (along with Bram Stokers origin) are among the only things I personally considered tolerable. It certainly was an interesting game that conveyed an impressive world(lore) and surprising depth and detail in it.

However as good as it was and what it tried to be I would be very hard pressed to call it a masterpiece. While the good of it was outstanding, the bad of it was equally outstanding. It was one of the first games I had ever played that I encountered a bug that not only broke the game but ended in the loss of all of the content forcing a restart from the very beginning of the game, which was enough for me to not bother considering how close I had been to the end.

It was definitely a wonderful attempt and perhaps the biggest problem was that it was not followed up with a proper sequel that would have allowed the devs to capitalize on all the good that had been built up, and iron out all the wrinkles to present something truly special.

While I (and I think just about everyone) would rather have a proper full fledged sequel or successor than the MMO.However with the extensive effort and care that has been put into the World of Darkness MMO being crafted for the better part of a decade now, perhaps it might be able to give players more of what was so wonderfully presented in Bloodlines and serve as at least a moderately worthy heir to that legacy.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

Yes it does have a larger combat focus, but at that point, you should have something like firearms or melee/unarmed at a high level, while still having a high social stat for everything beforehand. It also doesn't have a section where having a ranged build over a melee build, or vice versa puts you at a disadvantage. Nor does it take away stealth as an option.

I actually disagree with lots of this. The game absolutely prefers that you use melee weapons any time you are forced to fight any supernatural creature. Fights that are trivial with a melee build become incredibly tedious when you're forced to whittle away at your foes with guns that do just slightly more than nothing to your foes. Thankfully, there are relatively few encounters with supernatural foes and most of your targets are just run of the mill mooks.

As for stealth, I'll simply say that entire segments of the game are all but impossible to stealth through and the final missions of the game are designed such that I have to assume combat was the only option the designers considered.

Yes, you could play MOST of the game stealthily and you could easily beat the game using guns if you wanted though the latter does cause a few sharp difficulty spikes.

 

[The Madman]

Yes, you could play MOST of the game stealthily and you could easily beat the game using guns if you wanted though the latter does cause a few sharp difficulty spikes.

Guns are fine once you've put enough points into them, in fact I prefer using them over the clumsy melee combat that the game has. That one automatic shotgun you can get later on, I forget its name, pretty much makes mince-meat of every enemy in the game and bosses are rendered trivial by the flamethrower so long as you have enough ammo.

I'd even go so far as to say guns become overpowered past a certain point, but considering I hardly consider Bloodlines combat to be the best to begin with I hardly see something that makes it easier as a downside.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

Guns are fine once you've put enough points into them, in fact I prefer using them over the clumsy melee combat that the game has. That one automatic shotgun you can get later on, I forget its name, pretty much makes mince-meat of every enemy in the game and bosses are rendered trivial by the flamethrower so long as you have enough ammo.

I'd even go so far as to say guns become overpowered past a certain point, but considering I hardly consider Bloodlines combat to be the best to begin with I hardly see something that makes it easier as a downside.

That is the catch though - for guns to be reasonable viable in every fight, you have to invest lots of points across multiple areas and even then you are still relegated to the incredibly slow payout of new and better guns. By contrast, some of the clans have access to claws that do staggering damage to anything in the game with just a few points of investment leaving you free to invest points in other areas. Even if you opt for melee weapons, you quickly gain access to weapons that are more than sufficient for any problem you will face early. Better still, investment in melee stats also makes it easier to grab people in combat adding another hidden layer of offense and defense given any mortal is little more than a walking snack as a result.

But, I should reiterate, guns are perfectly and easily viable as long as you aren't fighting something supernatural. I can only recall perhaps half a dozen combat encounters with supernatural foes (that you can actually kill) in the whole game. Using guns only becomes tedious because those specific foes are, like you, highly resistant to the damage from guns.

 

[lapan]

I wouldn't say masterpiece.

It's definitely one of my favourite games with the opening chapters having brilliant atmosphere, characters and so on however (as the Devs will even admit) you can definitely see how it was getting more and more rushed towards the end.

Still recommend that everyone gives it a whirl though.

I just started playing the pencil and paper version of masquerade and it's been a lot of fun. I didn't realize there was a video game inspired by it. Is this available on GoG?

No.

GOG does sell "Vampire the Masquerade: Redemption" but that's basically a Diablo clone with none of the freedom of Bloodlines.

Steam does sell it however it is sold literally broken.

You can apply the fan-patch on the steam version.

EDIT: Ah, you meant Redemption, not bloodlines, not sure about that one

 

[DoPo]

snip

What if you have the latest version of the UP installed already? Would that cause problems?

Yes, unfortunately. Any two mods are by default unocmpatible unless specifically mentioned in at least one of them. And the UP, including different versions of it, count as "different mods" here.

I absolutely blame Activision, for it, though - I really despise them over everything that happened with Bloodlines and is still happening to it.

I blame valve for holding back the release a whole year while they cobbled together half life 2. And for the poor support for their poor engine.

Erm...not sure if serious... If the game was released earlier, it would have been in a worse state. And the engine that was used was literally a beta which was supposed to be replaced, however, due to rushing the release that didn't happen. The release was rushed due to Activision. Activision are also the ones who put it for sale on DD services without providing any support. It's wesp5 and others who do the support for them, and Activision are literally making money on their backs - the game would hardly be playable if it wasn't for all the non-Activision people who tried to fix it.

 

[Joos]

One of the best 1st person RPG's there is. I've played it through multiple times and I'm only now checking out the mods for it.

 

[Bleidd Whitefalcon]

snip

What if you have the latest version of the UP installed already? Would that cause problems?

Yes, unfortunately. Any two mods are by default unocmpatible unless specifically mentioned in at least one of them. And the UP, including different versions of it, count as "different mods" here.

I absolutely blame Activision, for it, though - I really despise them over everything that happened with Bloodlines and is still happening to it.

I blame valve for holding back the release a whole year while they cobbled together half life 2. And for the poor support for their poor engine.

Erm...not sure if serious... If the game was released earlier, it would have been in a worse state. And the engine that was used was literally a beta which was supposed to be replaced, however, due to rushing the release that didn't happen. The release was rushed due to Activision. Activision are also the ones who put it for sale on DD services without providing any support. It's wesp5 and others who do the support for them, and Activision are literally making money on their backs - the game would hardly be playable if it wasn't for all the non-Activision people who tried to fix it.

...i didn't say the whole 'blame Valve' thing. Could I possibly PM you over some issues I'm having with the mod installation?

 

[DoPo]

snip

What if you have the latest version of the UP installed already? Would that cause problems?

Yes, unfortunately. Any two mods are by default unocmpatible unless specifically mentioned in at least one of them. And the UP, including different versions of it, count as "different mods" here.

I absolutely blame Activision, for it, though - I really despise them over everything that happened with Bloodlines and is still happening to it.

I blame valve for holding back the release a whole year while they cobbled together half life 2. And for the poor support for their poor engine.

Erm...not sure if serious... If the game was released earlier, it would have been in a worse state. And the engine that was used was literally a beta which was supposed to be replaced, however, due to rushing the release that didn't happen. The release was rushed due to Activision. Activision are also the ones who put it for sale on DD services without providing any support. It's wesp5 and others who do the support for them, and Activision are literally making money on their backs - the game would hardly be playable if it wasn't for all the non-Activision people who tried to fix it.

...i didn't say the whole 'blame Valve' thing. Could I possibly PM you over some issues I'm having with the mod installation?

I'll be happy to help, if I can - PM or here.

 

[IrenIvy]

I still remember those two elderly gentlemen assassins in Chinatown rather fondly, because after much back and forth I made them talk to each other and it was very touching. I played as a Tremere with anarchic side, running Prince's errands like an obedient little soldier but remembering every nasty or arrogant thing he said about me or asked me to do. And so saying 'Funk you' at the Prince's face at this very end was extremely satisfying.