Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines

if i was jeanette's dad i woulda hit too tbh

Gods vanilla is buggy

Fantastic with the patch plus, wouldn't even run without it. Too bad the 2nd game isn't like this.

lecroix my love I'll die for you

I play this game at least once each year. It has become a tradition. VTMB is as much a flawed gem as it is a part of video game history. It was the first game built on the source engine and the last game by Troika (a pill as bitter as the cancellation of Firefly). It stands virtually alone in the field of satisfying vampire games (which is baffling in and of itself). It adapted the World of Darkness into an immersive, engaging, and deliciously stylized vehicle that kept true to the lore and themes in the source material. Impactful choices, freedom to play as you like, and a wealth of solutions to most problems made it a uniquely freeing experience in a time when most games were extremely linear. A balance of crude humor and scathing social commentary as delivered by a politically underinformed friend ranting on your couch at 1AM who you love enough to enjoy his company and laugh along, the narrative is comfort food for the rebellious underdog inside us all. It is a paradoxically beautiful and ugly game. A time capsule of the era, caricaturing the fashion, sound, and style of the early 00's and creating a venue closer to a dream or fleeting memory than reality. The levels are often winding or crafted without a sense of flow, leaving the player endlessly oscillating between immersion and awareness of the hands that made these unreal spaces. Stiff animations, clumsy cutscenes, and buggy physics scream "this is a video game" at every opportunity and sometimes feels as if this game was simply ahead of its time; a victim of inadequate technology in the face of wild ambition. The story is good, the characters are intriguing, and there are very few quests that aren't worth engaging with. The drama is there, but a little pulpy. The action can be repetitive, but it doesn't ruin the experience. The Clans have meaningful impacts on how you play (Malkavian and Nosferatu especially so). I love this game for all its flaws and for all the beautiful heights it sought, but barely fell short of. It has become part of nostalgia for many, myself included, and in that rose colored retrospective I will always recommend it. Play it and play it again.

Jannette my beloved

Currently can't open the game. Kinda sad. I LOVE THIS GAME