Vampire the Masquerade - Bloodlines Retrospective
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ก.ย. 2024
- A look back at Troika Game's final title: the cult classic rpg Vampire the Masquerade - Bloodlines. A game full of good looking goth girls, succulent sewer rats and general depravity, but most important of all... good rpg design.
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Someone once said that VTMB is a testament to how good writing can hard carry a game.
honestly tho
Pyre is another recent example of it
@Yousef Ghaneemah LOL no. Bloodlines is a janky as hell game. Even when it was released it was a mess. That said, it's still one of my favorite games, and it's all due to the writing.
@Shurryy Namegenerator Agreed. The more I play the game recently, the more I like the firearms skill, the stealth kills and the disciplines. These are the only things that keep the combat going honestly. But melee combat itself is rubbish. They might have as well made it turn based and it would not be worse by not one bit.
IMHO, the problem is that the game never figures out if it wants to be an FPS or a third person game. It constantly forces you either into third person with melee combat, feeding NPC's or to first person when going in an elevator, climbing stairs, talking to someone in dialogue. That is really weird and inappropriate. I think it kind of kills not only the atmosphere but also the gameplay. But maybe that's just me. Technically Deus Ex Human Revolution also had cinematic takedowns. But it still seems more consistent than Bloodlines in this respect.
It's far from just good writing. The atmosphere, level design and attention to detail is at a masterful level. The game is great on most fronts really, with combat being the exception.
The malkavian is a unique experience because going through it fresh you sound like you are off your rocker, and going through it once you know what you are heading into makes your realize you are foreshadowing EVERYTHING so hard you might as well be wielding a lamp as a weapon....
@Ghost in the Shell That's priceless gameplay! I wonder if the new game is as bold as the original
Yup. A certain character even says to you at one point that if you had half a clue on just *how much* you actually know, they'd have to kill you on the spot.
My first playthrough, as a malkavian, was one of my favorite gaming experiences. If you pay attention, you can actually pick up on the foreshadowing, but it's really subtle. I had a great time trying to find the meaning in my own babbling. The nicknames you call people by can be good hints. For example, you call Jeanette the white daughter of Janus and Therese the black one (iirc), and Janus is a two headed Roman god. I don't think there's anything like it, and I'm not sure they can replicate it in a sequel.
Malk was my first play through and it's so much fun. I barely feel it necessary to try other Clans except for the disciplines.
My first play through was Malkavian and it was so bizarre in the best ways. I constantly felt this odd separation, like I was never on the same page as the other characters. Sometimes I was several pages ahead, sometimes I was in a totally different book. But I LOVE the foreshadowing.
[ REINSTALLING INTENSIFIES ]
Why delete it in the first place?
@@JC-kl3uc Desperate, your turn....
You cant re-install if it never leaves your Hard Drive 😉👈
You know it
yup...been playing this since this pandemic.
“Something polished enough to put many recently released rpg’s to shame” - That aged like fine wine
"And soon, after many years of waiting, this RPG classic will finally have a sequel."
And that aged like milk.
@@benl2140 sequle is now in the works again - so not really. see new update.
I still own the DVD I originally bought. And for me, that DVD sums up this game:
When you look at it, it's just a mess.
It shouldn't possibly work.
But somehow, 16 years later it still does!
Same. In my CD/DVD case right next to the original Deus Ex and my POD CDs. :P
@MR.C&A Video911Game The fans have made a good job fixing the game.
What the heck? I don't remember fighting a sharkman.
@@fosty. Yeah, in Chinatown...
Unless you never found the question that has him in...
I'm honestly scared for bloodlines 2. As a huge fan of the original, i want the 2nd to be similar. Problem is, todays games aren't like that anymore. It's so much more about combat and rpg-ELEMENTS.
I was seriously going to post something incredible scary similar to that post. Its the power of blood. It has Cara Ellison on board nuff said its fucking dead.
Sorry folks but unless you love feminazi and sjw bullcrap then well...... prepare for disappoinment something horrible fierce.
@@temudzjin And with how absorbed many game companies are now about being *politically correct*(putting it nicely), i doubt they can truly capture the feel of the original. They certainly weren't pulling punches in the dialogue
@@kopicat2429 i also hope it will be decent at least.
As we said in the infantry hope for the best but expect the worst.
Maybe a bleak philosophy but it never let me down.
There is absolutely no way the sequel is going to be good.
The best thing about Malkavian is when you meet another vamp for the first time, and they realize what you are, and they're just like "oh shit you're a Malkavian"
3:32 The toilets are an issue with Bloodlines, but not specifically the Plus Patch. There's a memory leak bug when you've been playing a long time, which can crop up anywhere, but most often manifests in the Skyeline Apartments. A random object will start replacing other objects: in this case, it was toilets. I've had doorknobs, TVs, and in one particularly striking case, the entire giant LUCKEE STAR MOTEL sign replaced the doorknob to Tawny Sessions' apartment.
We've been unable to fix it in the Unofficial Patch, so the best solution is to save, quit the game, relaunch, and come back. It should clear the memory and get everything back where it's supposed to be.
LMFAOOO honestly I even love this bug, it's something like - "What am I gonna get here next?", you know? 😂 I remember this one time it changed the doorknobs in Skyline apts to a... Lying body of a woman from the 5th floor (the one that is suffering from the plague)! I swear to God I almost shat myself 😂 And as if that wasn't enough, she followed my every movement with her eyes!! Gee, what a perfect addition to a Malkavian gameplay, with the STOP signs and everything 🤣
Odd. I've been playing this game for years and never had this problem.
@@mr.battle20 It only happens when you play the game for long periods of time. And only in Skyline Apartments and Luckee Star Motel. To get rid of the bug, just save in the hub, quit the game, then play again. This will empty the memory and temporarily fix the memory leak.
This is the best glitch. It made the Skyeline Apartments unnervingly haunted and spooky.
i had a giant severed leg appear in the sky above hollywood. and many smaller severed legs lining the streets. freaked me the fuck out.
With me it wasn't toilets that appeared, it was random Chinatown ornaments, but I was role-playing as a pretty batshit insane childe of Malkav, so I wrote it off as that, and a bug basically increased my immersion.
Exactly what I thought when he mentioned the toilets.
Also, the soundtrack is amazing. The ending was also extremely satisfying for me and “Swamped” by Lacuna Coil fading in for the end credits just nailed it.
I always liked Smaller God.
Yeah I was going to comment that he failed to mention the soundtrack, it's really great n adds to the atmosphere soooo much. Love that Isolated track too ;)
i checked out the album the song is from and now i’m a fan of the band ✌🏻❤️
VTMB + 2000s emo/goth/electronic songs = perfection
18:56 Tseng is a treasure. How dare you insult him! He is definitely now an American citizen. GOD BLESS THE ALLEGIANCE FLAG!
I actually kinda love the goofy Chinatown section. Then again, I love every second of this game. I even found effective ways to take down The Sheriff and the asian squid lady who's name escapes me atm.
@@edwardzignot2681 lol the Asian squid lady. Her name is Ming Xiao.
@@Robin1996ify almost as generic a name as cho chang in harry potter.
What I fear for VTMB2 is a bit why I love Arcanum from Troika.
It's EXTREMELY racist and unnerving sometimes too comical and sometimes too realistic.
But these topics need to be discussed.
And I don't think Paradox devs want to play around racism and only create Brujah into a social justice caricature, when your race is a huge part of VTMB.
Was chinatown tasteless at times? Yes.
Could it be improved? Yes.
Will Paradox do so? No, they will completely shrug it under a rug.
@@edwardzignot2681 I did too. I just kinda cringed at Yukie first.
She just seemed like a weeb presenting as a Japanese girl. And then the Hentai references and self awareness saved the whole thing lol
This has always been one of those games you can just pick up at anytime and get lost in the world no matter how many times you've played it. The endless charm and atmosphere really helps with that. I've got no clue if Bloodlines 2 will be good or not, but if they at least try to recreate that dark and engaging yet zany world the first had, it'll hopefully at least be fun. Good vid.
What I like about this game is that you started as a no one and doesn't become the Chosen one. It makes everything more, natural and realistic.
Good review of one of my favorite games, but while you mentioned Bloodlines' great atmosphere, you gave short shrift to one of biggest factors in that: the music. Bloodlines is one of the few games that managed to use licensed music to great effect in setting a mood. As did the incredibly memorable original soundtrack by Rik Schaffer, who is also doing the soundtrack for the sequel.
Have been listening to it on repeat for the last month now!
I hope they put how Drumpf is literally Hitler in the new game and make an anti-police zone since it takes place in Seattle
J H Hey I know you wanna preach about how the devs are "le SJW trash" but can you at least do it on a comment that's somewhat appropriate for it?
Bevvvy All in all this game will be an utter failure perhaps worse than Last of Us 2, any game that tries to insert modern politics into a videogame has not worked. No matter how many nostalgia attempts like rehiring old composers, it won’t ever live up to the original (As the uploader states) it is not only an impossible task to replicate the quality of the original in a modern rpg, but they’ve set themselves up for failure by inserting their own political bias where it will rot the game to the core. I’m excited to see what kind of dumpster fire this game will turn out to be, but I have more hope for Cyberpunk as the developers have refused to insert modern politics into a videogame and thrown out advice saying they should to be on “right side of history”
J H But CD Projekt have given in for the woke crowd though? Have you not seen that you can customize your junk on each gender? Oh I forgot, you don’t choose genders but „appearances“.
I love how we could see your thought process when you saw the toilet apartment. You went to check if there was a proper toilet in the bathroom itself.
that apartment is really bugged luckily for most of my issues reloading helped expect with the elevator buttons which I had major issues with on my first playthrough. On my second playthrough part of the computer disappeared so I could not interact with it and I also had a similar problem to the toilets but it looked like there were rocks everywhere instead of toilets. I saw someone else had this exact issue when researching it.
Very clever, high inspection skill :)
Everyone should take the time to thank Wesp5 and their associates for their undying and singlehanded bugfixing crusade. Without them, we would be stuck in the never ending ground glitches and CTDs.
oh god yes.
^^
All these people reinstalling the game. I'm over here having NEVER uninstalled it.
It's always one of the first things I install whenever I get a new computer.
Dude, it's from 2004. Since your computer already can launch the TH-cam, I'm pretty sure it will be able to launch VtM:B
@@spbkoon3385 ... I never said it WOULDN'T be able to?
@@Vain737 Oh, right, got you wrong.
Has anyone else noticed how on point the Troika Games logo always was? Look what the arrow is pointing at. Like, their coding was always terrible, the art was subpar but the DESIGN was what Troika truly excelled at. Amazing how they knew what their games were gonna be like from the very start, right?
*Plays Malkavian: tOiLeTs aPpEaReD EvErYwHeRe*
*Me the intellectual:* Did they talk tho ?
They do but they only talk shit to you
Boo! Not funny
@Daniel Martinez That's not what irony is
@Daniel Martinez You should leave your house and go help the less fortunate. Maybe then your ego would deflate and you wouldn't be so offended by offhand TH-cam comments
@Daniel Martinez k
5:16 Malkavians breaking the metaphor completely is totally in character for them
You forgot to mention how GOOD THE SOUNDTRACK IS! The story behind the making of the soundtrack is also really worth mentioning.
By the love of Caine, research is the most valuable skill! Can you imagine missing out on all those occult items and skill books? At the bare minimum you get 12 skill points for having your research high enough.
Plus it gives you unique dialogue options with Beckett, clearly the best character in the game.
I never had a problem with the endings, in fact I love them, for me they fit the setting. My favorite ending is the solo ending, where you finally decide to stop being used by everyone around you, kill every major player in the town and then flip off the Nines, while you walk away as the most powerful and bad-ass wild card in the whole power struggle.
"sequel in not so distant future" - oh boy, the intro didn't age well.
Another thing you didn't mention that I loved was the Deb of Night. I thought she added so much flavor and atmosphere to the game with all those late night weirdos calling. You really get a sense of all the crazies roaming the streets of L.A. and I hope the sequel has someone similar or she makes some sort of cameo appearance as I really enjoyed listening to her voice.
Out of all the games that have this kind of radio DJ element (mostly the recent Fallout games) she is my absolute favourite.
VTMB mixes seriousness and comedy well.
I think saying it’s mostly comedy is ignoring the serious moments.
It has both, and does both well.
I've always said that it's "pulpy, but in a good way". It doesn't take itself so seriously as to come off melodramatic, but it's also not so silly that it loses impact.
My first playthrough was as a Malkavian. It was one of the most unique, entertaining and mesmerising experiences in gaming for me and the thing that made Bloodlines an instant favourite.
Same here. I've only every played as a Malkavian from then on lol... such fun!
I did Nos first no regrets wish I could forget and replay as Nos again this is one of those games that gets a-lot right only other game that comes close is portal.
Hey! Me too! Glad someone shares this first time experience
I did the questionnaire and popped Nosferatu for my first playthrough. No regrets.
I'm just now playing it on GOG since yesterday and despite the in-game character quiz designating me to be a Temere or whatever it's called, I started over and read the descriptions of each Clan and found Malkavian to seem better. It's so cool seeing that it's so unique and ideal for the gameplay experience. I have been looking for "Morrowind but a different game" and I think this game + picking a Malkavian has made that as close to possible as possible!
I don't know if it's just me, but the level with the 'Mandarin', and his tests reminded me of the first two _Blade_ movies.
You hit something that many developers miss these days. Whether it comes to quest or dialogue options in an RPG, quality/depth of choices is more important than sheer quantity of choices. Always happy to see your videos brother, keep up the good work :)
When i did my first playthrough as a Malkavian i was contantly like wtf. When i did my second playthrough i was like Oh now it all makes sense. Absolutely brilliant.
Toilets everywhere and I see you are playing a Malkavian female. Are you sure that is a a bug, because it sounds like a feature? :)
It's a bug, but at least it could be explained away like that. I was playing Toreador and it did a similar thing where it would randomly place assets everywhere in the apartments.
Its a known bug, unfortunately. It's a memory leak from the programming. It is solved by turning the game on and off, and will happen after playing for a certain length of time, regardless of clan.
That building is bugged like hell. It is like a severly haunted house.
In one of the playthroughs I had, instead of toilets it was sofa's. Couldn't even get through doors.
Robert Hansson I heard of it happening with guitars too
@@johnturtle6649 It's really bizarre, but I've played for years and NEVER had this problem. I've heard so many people complain about the bug, but it never ever happened to me.
Maybe I'm just lucky.
Bruh, the Ming Xiao was a nightmare for me on my first playthrough, i played a gangrel that used brawl, protean, and fortitude and 99% of the fights were a cake walk...but that tentacle biatch was so hard to put down. I aint even ashamed to admit that i had to console in more blood packs just to beat her because of how little damage i was doing with my strongest attacks, then after that fight i curb stomped the actually final boss. TLDR if you fight Ming with brawl or melee you are gonna have a bad time.
Kill it with fire, always
It is possible... I started with tremere, so basically battle mage. I unloaded all my weapons I had at the time into her and didn't even make it half through the health bar. Then I just focused on melee with blood buff and blood spike and killed her off pretty easy. It always depends on abilities and situations. I found the ambush in Chinatown much harder to survive than any of the boss fights since my health and strength wasn't very good as a tremere and multiple targets that can hit decent leaves just retreat and striking from the shadows. That is not possible in a closed warehouse. Ah... This game made me swear at it and praise it. It is flawed, but still a masterpiece to me, in big part because of the good writing and characters
I always cheesed it out with Celerity... then I played a melee Malk.
Ming is a cakewalk with a gun-slinging Toreador.
I recall bypassing that fight entirely.
One of the things I appreciate a lot about Bloodlines is how much focus it puts on its social and political elements and that every character seems to have motivations of his own, you're never in the clear and are always questioning their motives, which is something no RPG has done as well outside of maybe Pathologic. Chinatown and the end game stuff suck, that boss fight you were talking about in particular, but the game has so much personality and is in many ways still unmatched compared to games that came after it or the ones coming now that it's easy to forgive Troika for that. It's one of my all time favorite games and the community is amazing.
You gotta try disco elysium if you are into this aspect of this game. Gameplaywise its less engaging, but if you got through pathologic, yer gonna love it
VTMB is one of those games I will forever have installed on my pc. Right now I have the clan quest mod as you can play as a sabbat. I definitely recommend!!
Yeah, it's one of those games I never delete and always install first on my new rig.
You can't reinstall something that you never uninstalled. LOL
Correction : You never delete this masterpiece you just repatch it.
Yes, when someone mentions the game, I am overcome with nostalgia and want to give it another play. It is quite a masterpiece for its time.
Masterpieces are not bound to their time.
It wouldn't be a masterpiece if it was.
Like a great novel with a twisted spine it's still a goat
To any new players who have Unofficial Patch installed (which you should have): tick the "Automatically renew disciplines" option in the settings. It is essential to any clan that depends on a passive blood powers. Toreador, for example, with this and Celerity, Auspex and Presence activated is a death machine and you dont have to erratically scroll between your powers to re-activate them.
As a new player with the patch installed, i have no idea what you just said but goddamn i will tick that box ☑
@@-pressxtostart- Don't worry, you will understand very soon. Tutorial, i think, makes the distinction between active and passive disciplines (your vampire powers). Passive have a little timer next to a discipline icon and last as long as timer tics. Active is just an instant effect. And the problem with passive is that you have to manually renew them. In a big combat sequences manual renewing can be a pain (especially if you have access to several passives) that was my first comment all about.
This game felt really refreshing to me when I played it earlier this year and I will come back to it in the future. Great video and much love to the people patching it over the years.
I am a storyteller/GM in a big VtM LARP group (we consist of a bunch of smaller groups all over Germany). My father, aunt and uncle were all active in this group when I was a kid so I always dreamed of joining them someday. Now I am 26 and helping players younger than me get into the world of VtM. It's a lovely hobby but it wasn't just my family who got me into the WoD, it was mainly this game. I just loved the idea of running around in a city and exploring it as opposed to needing a fantasy world to play. This is something I always try to explore in our larp as well. We are currently unable to play because of the pandemic and I miss it a lot. So I guess I will replay Bloodlines again
That's actually pretty cool, except for the covid putting a halt to your LARP sessions bit, of course.
@@zlodrim9284 Thank you. It is a very intense hobby and I'm really happy that this exact group survived for such a long time (I think they started playing in the late 90s?). I think that's also why we have a very diverse age range of players. Our oldest players are around 60 and the youngest are around 20 (our larp is 18+). Of course a lot of things changed and the older storytellers are driving me insane sometimes lol. But it's still such a unique experience, I haven't found anything like it despite trying many differents kinds of larp the past years.
(I have an IG where I post my personal VtM stuff, didn't manage to create an account for our chronicle yet but at least it gives a small glimpse. IG:librinaut)
@@Aleera616 Damn, that's fucking impressive.
I only played this for the first time this year and absolutely adored it. This is how good of a game it is, still a fantastic true RPG in 2020.
I get spooked every time you play Vesuvius theme in the video because it's been my ringtone for years and react to it differently
Interesting. I've never played this game but it seems a bit more like an immersive than your average RPG. Like you're in a real space not just a box holding NPCs or enemies.
If the setting and atmosphere click with you, the immersion this game creates is out of this world. It's kind of hard to explain, but the experience is weird, surreal and sometimes distressing, but all that in the best way possible.
It's one of the best rpgs ever imo but of course it has a lot of technical issues and I'd definitely use the unofficial patch.
@Arempy 58 just get it mate.
I recommend the GOG version.
You don't know what you're missing, you would LOVE it.
Be ready for jankyness like cancer on a supermodel.
Still a supermodel though. This is my most played game of all time. I put more hours into replaying this 25 hour game than I did into Skyrim.
Ah, Bloodlines. I went in as Nosferatu, and man, did I get stories to tell. Mostly about beating bosses by exploiting the game's rough edges.
I took out the Tzimisce by trapping him behind a pillar. And I got Ming with melee by saving and quitting in rapid succession. Every time I got a hit in I saved and quit, starting the game back up again and exiting whenever she got me. Took a while, but spamming save let me defeat her with hand tools. And I beat the Sheriff's first phase by hiding under the stairwell to heal whenever he swiped at me. I'd pick away at him, he'd catch me, and then I'd stealth under the stairs and get a sandwich.
Good times. I don't expect the new game to be as perfectly broken, but I hope it's still worth my time.
This is a master class rpg, albeit a buggy one.
They usually are. Kinda the nature of RPGs I recon.
What do you think about Cyperbug 2077
"posing a setting that uses all these creatures of the night and trying to pass it off as realistic seems doomed to fail anyway"
gotta disagree. "Urban fantasy" is an entire genre of literature. Not all of its writers are great but some of them are down right impressive in making fairy tales and horror elements blend with the mundane. I point to "the dresden files" book series as a prime example of this
I don't know this channel but when I opened TH-cam and saw a fresh video about Bloodlines, of course I watch it immediately.
On the combat: I remember the first time I played Morrowind, I died to a tiny little bug in my first hour because i didnt have high enough skill to hit it with my sword. I went on to play the whole game and love it but that one fight I think laid out my bottom line for what I can tolerate. In short: missing shots with a ranged weapon bc of low stats sounds annoying but I'm sure I'd still enjoy the game.
"you will spend most of your time in first person anyways" someone doesn't know about the "z" key, perspective is changeable at will, occasionally even in conversation.
imo, the source engine (even an unfinished build version) holds up very well visually. Source games overall just hold up well with the lack of detail being the most noticeable
TOILETS!!!!! In my playthrough, during the museum mission, hundreds of pink plastic flamingos spawned all over the place, and I thought it was something the modders did or maybe a dev joke?!
I loved it and thought it was pretty banannas, but your "toilet incident" explains SO much XD
I would recommend downloading the clan quest mod, which adds a new district, east LA, which replaces that grueling hotel level with the option to infiltrate the sabbat and destroy their leaders, and you also get to join the Sabbat earlier in the story which comes with its own endings. It's really well voiced for the most part.
15:46 i love that he mentioned this!! i was just thinking how many horror or dark side quests and moments there are it makes the whole city vibe really heavy
Wait toilets everywhere? Were you playing Malkavian female?
Ya look at footage.
3:34
I wish you'd have played some dialogues. As you said they are pure gold, and people who didn't play this game will have no idea what they are missing
Good evening fellow human
The stop sign scene really is one of my highlights of gaming. The level of creativity they put in to make the Malkavian and Nosferatu routes different is still absolutely stunning, and it pushed the replay value of the game immensely. Still having high hopes for the successor, even more so than for Cyberpunk honestly. I also enjoyed Vampyr quite a lot which at least came close regarding atmosphere, so there's chances I will enjoy the second game even if it's just half as good.
This is my favorite game of all time. I got into tabletop RPGs because of it. A true brilliant gem of a game.
This is bizarre, I legitimately just gave this game a try about a month ago, nearly a decade after learning to play the tabletop. I've already preordered 2
Disco Elysium now is giving me that same sort of Malkavian vibe
I recommend you refund your preorder and wait til it's out... not sure if you keep up with the developers/writers of the 2nd one, but it's not looking good... I was so hyped hearing about the 2nd one's announcement, then I started checking out all of the leads, and it's looking dreadful.
@@H41030v3rki110ny0u I've been keeping up with it. It definitely seems different but if they can capture even a fragment of the magic they originally had then I'll be impressed. There's no reason I'd refund it
@@clous081 I'm quite against Pre-ordering games is my thing, I guess. It just appears to me a strange concept that gamers would pay $60 for something before it's even released. I'm of the opinion to wait until it's out, to make sure I don't get scammed. It happens all too often these days, games not delivering on promises, or being completely different than marketed. After Dragon Age 2 screwed me over, my perspective on pre-ordering changed forever lol.. what a shit game.
Gamers are one of the few demographics who will do this... pay for something so long before it's even released. Still a strange concept to me. Hopefully it lives up to the hype, VTMB2, but I just doubt it will.
Your review convinced me to buy this game. Enjoying it so far. Thanks!
I can no longer even remember how many times I re-played this. Curious to see what they'll do for Bloodlines 2, but at this point I don't have my hopes up.
Thanks for this trip down memory lane. It would be great to see your videos on Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic...
VTMB is a special game. One of the best RPG's i have ever played.
Man, still remember my Ventrue. A powerhouse, i beat the crap of maguilla gorilla, but the sewer was a nightmare....
Back here with Never Knows Best vampire Masquerade bloodlines this is going to be a throwback and good one a lot better than this Last of Us Part 2 bullshit let us get back to some real games stuff that really made a mark on the gaming landscape as a whole
the +patch with the toilettes appearing actually scared the hell out of me.
"Toilets suddenly appeared everywhere" This could legitimately be a feature for Malkavian characters.
In my opinion the best way to play this game is a little cheating: max persuasion and seduction at the beginning and use xp for fighting/sneaking/supernatural skill. Doing this makes possibile to explore entirely the game-world without putting yourself in annoying situations
1:00 I never see it mentioned, but dancing actually has a function within the game. No idea if people are unaware of it, but has yet to see any video mentioning that bonus to dancing. If you dance long enough (3-5 minutes'ish) you will regain one point of humanity. It can only be done once per nightclub that has dancing enabled however, so you can't abuse it.
I so wish more modern games something like the clan choice for race/class options. Imagine the depth added to Skyrim if it actually stuck to the "Khajiit aren't supposed to be in _most_ cities" and the game play that could be derived from that (like siding with the Stormcloaks early on got you into Windhelm regardless of race). Or other games didn't just make you a god in all skills despite picking an ill-suited class
but but DA RACIST
Lorewise I loved Gangrel, so that was my "normal" class playthrough next to the mandatory Malkavian one. However I tried the other "blander" clans and oh boy how much I underestimated Toreador. You can solve so much through social interactions and Toreador turns every nightclub into willing blood donors. Why lockpick, when you get guards to open doors for you? It is truly unique, without being clan unique, as for fighting ability an automatic shotgun is deadly even in the hands of Toreador, which tends to have a lot of cash to buy ammo.
Here's a tip: Don't open it!
By my canon it's locked away safely in a Tremere vault. :)
Even a Malk isn't crazy enough to open it.
* opens it *
Whether or not you win the game... matters not. It's if you bought it.
And I am so glad I did buy it.
Tbh I hate the ending as I took the one man army path and I just wanted to destroy the damn key, no option for it though and then the game flipped the virtual bird with the ending.
This is, hands down, the best reflection I have ever seen on the first VtM:BL game, and I have watched a few. I haven't seen anyone, yet, speak so clearly to what exactly made this game so great, and so flawed. I really hope the designers of the new game have the same nuanced understanding of the original that you do.
Let me tell you, this is one of the best video essays I have seen on Vampire. Your writing is superb. I really enjoyed this, thank you very much. Subscribed.
The long sewers section with the big monsters was the point where I turned on cheats. God mode and all stats maxed out made these sections much more bearable as Brujah. It still took me 10 minutes to take down that slimy tentacle monster in Chinatown.
I was nearly soft-locked in the game when I got to the slug-boss. I was a close-combat focused character, and no matter what I did I could only get the fucker down to about ~50% health. I was ready to give up, but then during one of my attempts I found that I could jam the player model into a space where the slug could hardly hit me (on top of one of the braziers). From there I could unload with all the random ranged weapons I had collected before (I'd just collected them mindlessly to sell or something), and after having spent every single round with my COMPLETELY unskilled-at-range character, and it was a lot of rounds, the slug was down to about 50% health, and I could just about manage to win now in melee. Shit was tense.
Wait wait, whats the name of the slug u r talking about exactly?
@@harryormus6263 Probably Ming-Xiao, if I had to guess.
24:08 An hour ago I would have had no idea what that phrase would mean, thanks Trosky.
Relevant in 2020 too lol
The Queen of the Damned movie actually shows the Masquerade being broken and how other vampires react to it. When Lestat is on stage about to reveal himself as a vamp, a bunch of others from the crowd begin attacking him and he has a wee fight. Just a fun sign that the guys making the movie might not have understood the Anne Rice book but they WERE vampire fans.
Imagine CD Projekt Red getting their hands on this game series... whoa
@White-Van Helsing I mean...Sucker Punch went from something like inFamous and Sly Cooper to something like Ghost of Tsushima
My first playthrough was as a Ventrue because that's the clan I played the few times I was able to try out the tabletop version. It was fun and I did feel like a silver-tongued devil with a will of iron able to convince anyone to do what I wanted them to do. The second time I played through as a Malkavian and I was blown away how different the game felt. I wonder if there's an alternate timeline where Troika Studios was given the time and money to finish the game and bring their creative vision to life without having to worry about greedy corpos and impractical deadlines.
Last time I was this early, Troika Games studio was still alive and making RPGs
Have I watched probably every analysis video on this game? Yes. Will I still be watching this video? Fuck yes.
Yes!
HELL YEAH!
My favorite game of all time.
My favourite ability is forcing the enemy to start dancing. Yes, it is the same dance that was shown many times during the video :-D
I just noticed, but Bloodlines has done realy good job on eyelids for its time. Few look a bit over the top, but most are very expressive, which is a lifeblood for social focused 3D RPG.
You had toilets? When I was at the museum, there were zebras everywhere!
100% agree with the lack of mini maps and prompts. I was watching Maven of the Eventides epic playthrough and her partner (and resident gamer) moaned about how not obvious the level solutions were all the time. As frustrating as it was watching them figure it out, I still think it was the way to go. It deffo rewards exploration and talking to other characters.
"Suddenly toilets appeared everywhere". If you play a Malkavian and consider that a bug, you're doing it wrong. All part of their... "insight" ;)
This channel is really underrated.
Man I was waiting for a new upload from you! I haven't played this game but I'm watching the whole thing regardless cuz I love your writing and your voice relaxes me. Keep up the good work dude, it's very appreciated and I hope you'll soon get as many subs as you deserve!
Man, feel bad for those who missed out on this amazing game.
Every Bloodlines or Morrowind retrospective I come across always gets a look from me. This video will make a fine addition to my collection.
loved the house greyjoy reference at the beginning
*Plays Video* "There is an old meme about vampire the masquerade bloodlines that says every time you mention it someone will reinstall it"
*Reinstalls VtM:B with all the mods, and start up the game*
*Looks at Character creation for 3 minutes and plays as Malkavian for the 100th time*
not gonna lie as you brought up the meme was already reinstalling
This my first time hearing of this game and I'm on the steam page thinking of buying it
@@Christian-oi7sd go for it you wont regret it but as he says the patch is a must to play this game Edit: also not very hard to install the patch either and if you look for some mods after I would recommend vtmb clan quest mod has a whole new set of content for u
@@joshuagonzalez8235 that's what I've been thinking about is the mods, ive heard some people had issues with the steam version so think im gonna get it from GOG. Its $10 cheaper on GOG too itll be my first time using it. For the mods do I just use nexus mod manager and get them that way like skyrim or fallout?
"There's one quest where you team up with a katana wielding Japanese school girl to fight a shark-monster in a fish market, and there's no doubt in my mind the writers know this isn't very original"
No there's one of those missions in every damn game...
Hahahahhahahahaha that little "Don't open it" flash was a nice touch.
Played this game finally last May. Really, really good. Great characters. Great dialogue. Phenomenal macabre, dark atmosphere. Great choices and story pathways. I keep thinking what it would've been like with another 6months to 1 year of development. Such a shame. Combat is WONKY as HELL. Both melee and FPS combat. Some phenomenal level design. I especially love the crazy mansion you go to. Very, very clever level design and just overall feel. If the combat and character customization was up to par, it would be infinitely replayable.