Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines - A Retrospective Hall of Fame

Today, Troika games enters with Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines.

Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines was one of the very first PC game to use Valve's source engine. It was also so buggy and literally unfinished that you couldn't get past a certain part in the story without a patch. This was figured out by fans first then patched in by the developers. Shortly after release, the studio folded, which is disappointing.

So how can a broken game get into the hall of fame? On account of the fact that it was utterly brilliant at storytelling, character development, and atmosphere. The dialogue in the game was second to none, and was completely unique based on the type of character you played. NPCs would even react to you in a vastly different manner based on your vampiric race.

The quests were interesting. The pacing of the plot was excellent. There were characters you could love (literally) and for the sheer humanity that they displayed, even as vampires. The voice acting had a large part in ensuring the characters were believable, coupled with; for the time - impressive animations. It seemed like you never saw the same animation more than once in the game, and coupled with the different reactions you'd get from the engine based on how you played, no two play throughs were ever quite the same.

You could use stealth. You could be a melee powerhouse. Or, did you want to use guns to shoot things? Alternatively, how about using your powers as a vampire to weave seduction and subterfuge into your game? Or, play a Malkavian and beat people to death with a severed prosthesis, then immediately try to romance them.

There was also the in-game late night talkback radio. It rivals the quality of Grand Theft Auto’s in game talkback for its relevance to the game world, the universe, and atmosphere. Brilliance.

It is very difficult to believe that such an impressive, deep, and fantastic experience was developed entirely by a relatively small group of people. There is no other game like it. It is a classic in its own right; but deeply flawed. Even now, with numerous fan patches, the game isn't the easiest to get to run a modern operating system, which really makes me pine for a remastered version of the game. I feel like the only studio that would be capable of such a thing would be CDProjekt Red.

From the moment you start up Bloodlines, you’re thrust into a world that is dark, seductive, and at times, truly terrifying. Early in the game, the Ocean House Hotel treats you to the finest way to do horror in a video game. The atmosphere is incredible, the voice acting is remarkable, and you’re constantly moving. In fact, most of the quests in the game evolve organically to form a reasonable tether, and what makes the game so damn good is that you never feel like you’re on a fetch quest.

Even with its flaws, Bloodlines makes it into my hall of fame simply because of its attention to detail, storytelling, and the fact that it does not feel like an RPG where you are running around pointlessly. Every action you take in the game has a consequence, and the copy paste / quantity over quality quest systems of modern games do not exist here. If it did, the game would not be the gem that it is. A flawed gem, but a gem, nonetheless. The fact that mods are still being made for this game shows how much of a cult classic it truly is.