V:TM - Bloodlines

Wow, great replies people... as long as I can patch it with the steam version, I think i will be OK with trying out the unofficial patches, as it is the easiest to buy it from there (plus i hate physical media cluttering up my abode - i just wanna play the game)
 
<Patches>
http://www.patches-scrolls.de/vampire_bloodlines.php
Official and unofficial

<Skins>
http://www.vampire-network.net/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewdownload&cid=12
French but easier to browse than any other place. Just go to "Skin"
/recommend reskin of VV (or other NPCs of your choice)
reskin of your character's race, reskin of cars.

<Mods>
http://vh.noirscape.org/files.php?cat=18

At the time of it's initial release it got slated (a lot) for the bugs, so I was reluctant to play it for many years.. but I tried it last year using both patches(o&uo) and it was a smooth game.

The atmosphere is top notch in this game, largely due to the characters. The good voice acting and great dialogue make almost every NPC interesting.
It's a game where you talk about politics, sex, history. And they don't shy away.
Long story short, Troika managed to make real adult NPCs. :clap:

I would just sit down and talk with NPCs for hours if it was possible.

One tip is, save the Malkavian for the 2nd run. Getting girls was never so easy.
Second tip, listen to "The Deb of Night".


This game shall forever be praised for one thing, and that is that it actually used its technology to improve the characters in the game. It still has the best NPC "acting" I've ever seen in a RPG, no contest. The facial animations are *great*, the characters themselves are intriguing and very well written and the voice acting is awesome.
/
Still, it's really a unique game that every RPG fan should play. I still play it every now and then (though yeah, I almost never make it past the middle of the game). Mass Effect was praised for its characters and acting, but make no mistake, Bloodlines absolutely stomps all over it in every way whatsoever.

I agree with Starwars. Although Mass Effect has great camera work etc to make it a cinematic experience.
 
Great game, my first play through I used a male Brujah, they were good as a starter class, nothing special, the second time I used Tremere who are thus far my favorite clan, blood missle and blood shield become so useful, there was many a time I would've gotten beaten terribly if it wasn't for blood missles used in conjunction with the blood shield, plus, it's just always awesome to see your enemies explode into a big red cloud from blood boil.

I've started playing it again after quite a while and I'm playing as a Malkavian this time, it really is quite a bit more fun playing Malkavian though because of the funny dialogue and reactions you generally get by speaking with it, plus dementation is a pretty cool discipline as you get further along.

The one clan I've really not been able to pick up on though are the Nosferatu, I do like the clan itself, I like the whole hideous faced, stick to the shadows kinda style they have, but I just can't get around without breaking the friggin' masquerade so much from getting spotted, obfuscate does help alot, but I usually mess myself up from general anxiousness, they're a fun clan, but you need some patience and good timing.
 
This is an amazing game, I just finished it and started my second playthrough immediately.

Bloodlines has
-great graphics for its time,
-unprecedented NPCs and voice-acting,
-the best soundtrack i've heard in a game,
-brilliant dialogues,
-great horror b-movie style writing,
-interesting first person shooter fighting gameplay, that's your basic FPS only dominated by character skills,
-and most importantly: a well-thought out roleplay system that basically implements the Vampire pen and paper RPG.

I would count it in my all time favorites if it didn't feel so... unfinished.
There are many times in a playthrough when you can't help thinking "why doesn't the game let me do that". Quests that can only be solved in one way, unskippable combat, factions you can help but not completely ally with, drugs you can't consume, ammo and armors you can't trade, very little variety in items, stuff like that made me think that the developers didn't get to implement all they had planned.

Still, Vampire the masquerade-bloodlines is an amazing experience and a high recommendation.
 
Rev. Layle said:
I still haven't bought it... I can't bring myself to play a vampire game

I hate vampire settings as a rule. Vampires in the modern world? Please, fuck off with your emo Anne Rice shit.

But I love Bloodlines. Unless you really passionately hate vampires to the point where you can't touch it, the story and characterization, and even the execution of the setting, are enough to ignore the setting.
 
zag said:
Bloodlines has
-great graphics for its time
while i'm a huge fan of V:tM-B, i don't think you should say it had great graphics. sure, the characters were damn neat, but the surroundings were mediocre at best for an FPRPG/FPS...
 
The Raging Russian said:
The one clan I've really not been able to pick up on though are the Nosferatu...
The Nosferatu are my favorite clan. You get some funny dialogues while playing as a nosferatu, you also get some nice special powers and also a place to stay in the sewers!
 
Tech-wise the graphics were nothing special.
Artistic-wise, i think they were neat in the very least.

and i hate romantic emo/goth vampire stuff too.

But bloodlines' vampires are the Tarantino kind, not the Anne Rice kind.
 
That explains a lot of things... i was speculating something like that might had happened, but hadn't read anything relative.
 
As far as I know, the game was planed to get canceled.
 
Rev. Layle said:
I still haven't bought it... I can't bring myself to play a vampire game

Same as Brother None, i hesitated many times, hearing only great things about this game on one hand, and being reluctant to the genre on the other hand.

But this game is ace. It's even smart enough to take in account the stereotypes that surround the genre and have npc question it or mock it completely. Many dialogs are about how vampires make use and make fun of the beliefs and superstitions that accompany them for thousands of years.

It's a really interesting take on the genre, and i'm yet to see such alive characters in another games.
 
zag said:
But bloodlines' vampires are the Tarantino kind

I believe you meant Robert Rodriguez here, even if Tarantino did have something to do with that movie. :) Although they are like minded directors in many aspects.. I'd say vampires in Bloodlines are much more interesting than in "From Dusk Till Dawn" however.

Soviet Travolta said:
But this game is ace. It's even smart enough to take in account the stereotypes that surround the genre and have npc question it or mock it completely.

Jack: "The cross? Pff.. shove it right up their ass!"
 
Serge 13 said:
Lets also not forget that Activision didn't gave Troika enough time to finish the game.
yes & no. there are multiple versions of the same story.

Activision wanted to release it even sooner than it was, but that was postponed because HL2 was not hitting the shelves yet. since V:tM-B used Source, it could not be released before HL2 was, since they were afraid it might damage the hype (since V:tM-B isn't aimed at awesome graphs or physics).

so thanks to HL2, Troika got a tiny bit of extra time before release.

still, V:tM-B was released with a gamestopping bug that affected like 50% of all players. that's just inexcusable, regardless of how rushed you are...
 
well, don't know, i just Love Arcanum and VTMB so much that i act very Fanboyish towards them sometimes :D
 
Haha

"Water? Naw, I bathe... sometimes. A cross? Pfff.. shove it up their ass!"

"Ah vampire hunters, stakin fer jesus!"

Man that game had some fun characters.
 
yup, i really miss those funny dialogues, i would do anything to see Tim Cain, Leonard Boyarsky and Jason Anderson make another RPG.
 
I really wanted to pick this up when it first came out.
Unfortunately I did not have a computer capable of playing it at the time nor do I now. I know, lame.
Maybe my laptop can play it.

It....just appeals to me.
 
i'm playing it smoothly on an AthlonXP @1200 MHz, 1GB PCI2300 RAM,
Ati Radeon 9550 w/128 MB. WinXP SP3 (DirectX 9.0c). If you can't run it, then you can run few things.
 
Back
Top