Vampire: Bloodlines Reviews
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All things considered, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines is one of the finest RPGs I have played in years. It has an ever-present "Just 10 more minutes..." feeling that is the hallmark of a classic. Troika's mastery of the genre is simply undeniable. I cannot overstate just how intriguing the characters you meet are. If only real people were half as interesting, we wouldn't need games like this. Despite my lengthy rant about the number of flaws, 90% of them have already been fixed in an unofficial patch and it only stands to get better still once the official one arrives. I'd heartily recommend trying it unless you absolutely abhor the first-person perspective. And even if you do, to shun a title as potentially rewarding as this based on the way you view it would be doing yourself quite a disservice.
The second is at Silicon Fusion with an overall score of 8/10:
Everything is geared towards atmosphere. The graphics reflect you are working at night, combat is gritty and deadly but reflects you are superior to any human that exists. There are many possible moves, dependant on how you direct your on screen character, a jink to the left will deliver a different manoeuvre to one where you dart back and then forwards, swinging a variety of lethal implements. Yet at no time do you get the sense of easiness, there is always an edge behind the darkness and whilst everything looks nice and polished until you peek further and notice the grime. Animation is smooth and languid, distinguishing yourself from humans and providing a visible cue that you are different.
And the third is at CGNO with an overall score of 4.0/5:
Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines is a great game, but it could've been better. Inexplicably poor framerate, horrendous load times, frequent subtitle typos, and the odd bug indicate a rush through the quality assurance phase. Luckily, all these problems are patchable and Troika is rumored to be hard at work on one (and, by the time you read this review, it may have already been released). Hopefully the patch will elevate the game to what it could have been one of the most compelling, memorable RPGs of 2004, and of all time.
