The writing in this game is hysterical. My personal favorite is the fluff text on the fire axe: “clearly the weapon of a madman, for who else would attack fire with an axe?”
At the time it was akin to Fallout 1, with the absurdity. Both an absolute master class of what I guess is a bit edgy these days, but 100% I don't care. My personal favourite was the jaded tellers in every convenience store basically knowing what they were doing was shady, but hey it's midnight and it's really not worth caring about. Also, Loved the Malkavians, and p[laid one the first time through. Damn, but all the clans had their thing. Omg or the ghost hunters! Vs the actual haunted house which ngl did scare me like the first 3 or 4 times.
@@D64nz I was a little shit kid when the game came out and I had to put the game on hold for years 'till I grew some guts, just because of the haunted house.
@@DJJordG check out some games from the indie scene if you haven't. Not necessarily all edgy, but you can find some really unique and interesting stuff
There's a fortune teller on the beach at Santa Monica at the very beginning who will spoil all the twists in the main questline for 50 bucks if you decide to talk to her. I love this game.
VtMB is like an ancient eldritch being: at the mere mention of its name, anyone who's played it before is compelled to bring it back from the depths and reinstall it
I uncovered my original copy from release day back in 2004 and it's the primary reason I built a maxed-out XP rig. The other games, like F.E.A.R. and Crysis, as well, but mostly for this one.
Lmao and chuck pots and pans at you. Oh and the damn chandelier. I loved the ambience of the hotel quest, I played at night and was actuality on edge the whole time lol. Even on 2nd and 3rd playthroughs
I love how the wife's ghost whispers to you, "Be careful!" as you jump into the elevator shaft, seconds before her demented husband sends the elevator crashing down!
Hi! I'm one of the dorks who contributes to the Unofficial Patch, and I also work for the tabletop publisher. Glad you enjoyed the game! Few notes, some of which have been picked up by others. 17:25 Harley's modern look ultimately came from her appearance in Batman: Arkham Asylum, and Arkham Asylum used Jeanette as a reference when they were building her. Some people call her a Harley rip-off, but it'd be more accurate to call her a proto-Harley. 24:09 As others have pointed out, Beckett's a Gangrel, not a werewolf. You'd KNOW if you met a werewolf (1:16:35). Beckett and Smiling Jack were the only canon characters from the pre-existing tabletop material to make their way into Bloodlines. 40:24 The Unofficial Patch dev, Wesp5, added subtitles for some random NPC barks. He decided to use "puppy" here because that theoretically worked for either a male or female PC, even though she's clearly saying "papi." 46:00 Although the sexual drive is gone once you're dead, the drive for attention and companionship remains. VV's manipulative -- perhaps subconsciously so -- but those manipulations are still effective on many vamipres, despite the lack of libido.
52:35 The Tremere did indeed create the Gargoyles. I saw at 30:24 you were looking at the book you picked up in the Tremere chantry about the creation of Gargoyles. I don't want to spoil much but it might be worth your while to talk to Strauss before confronting the Gargoyle. 52:57 "I have no idea what this is." Andrei is a Tzimisce, one of the two vampire clans strongly associated with the Sabbat. Their signature Discipline is Vicissitude, aka fleshcrafting. He used it to make himself more monstrous, as well as creating the szlachta, those creepy little Geodudes. 53:21 If you play the Plus version of the Unofficial Patch, a Sabbat option has been added. You won't be able to talk it out of Andrei unless your Humanity's already pretty low, though. 54:00 You'll be pleased to know that the Plus patch offers a shortcut that bypasses most of the entrance to the Nosferatu Warrens. If the requirements are met, there are also shortcuts to avoid most of the Hallowbrook Hotel, most of the Golden Temple, and most of the assault on Venture Tower. Basically anywhere there's a combat slog. 59:50 Bloodlines' development was cut short, and they didn't get to finish it the way they wanted. Chinatown's when you really start to see it: there's what I call a "combat funnel" where more and more solutions rely on fighting your way through instead of dialogue or hacking or sneaking. It's especially egregious by endgame. 1:09:37 Hunters can walk through the lasers because they're set to trigger on vampires. The computers which control them can be turned off (what it looks like you did) or they can be set to trigger on humans instead. Safe for you, deadly for them. 1:33:00 There's a werewolf easter egg earlier on at the Luckee Star Motel (look in the filing cabinet behind David Hatter for a clue). Seeing that easter egg will unlock the ability to see the werewolf ending. It used to be Malk-only but it's been open to all the clans for a long time, as long as it's properly unlocked first.
Thank you, Wesp5 and everyone else who patched the game! Its my all time favorite game :) I hope this video will help with more people discovering and trying vtmb and enjoy its awesomeness ♥
"Harley's modern look ultimately came from her appearance in Batman: Arkham Asylum" - As an actual comic nerd, nope, that's wrong, she had started to look like that in the comics before those games existed... though you are right Jeanette's look precedes Harleys. The arkham games however are not responsible for Harleys modern look.
1. Thank you for working on the patch of one of my favourite games, the work you and the fellow patch makers do has made the game so much more fun and accessible. 2. Thank you for the list of corrections. As I fan of the game for over a decade, hearing the small mistakes had me super nit picky!
@@BobTheBob9 Source indeed. The game had to wait for Half-Life 2 to come out because they had an agreement with Valve, which is presumed to be the reason VTM flopped commercially.
@@wampyrelli I think the engine is in the perfect spot where it can be really emotive but also far enough from photorealism that it doesn't trigger the uncanny valley aspect inherent in modern games. It's like a well drawn cartoon.
The Kuei-Jin are barely explained in this game, but they're really a different type of supernatural creature than Vampires. Vampires are basically soulless corpses animated by a powerful curse, Keui-Jin are more like a Ghost possessing their own dead body. The only real similarities are that they're both humanoid, undead, and drink blood. Most everything else works differently for them in the original game.
@@Microsoft-Excel-2010 *extremely old and enlightened* Kuei-jin can feed off breath. the most enlightened can simply absorb yin and yang from the earth itself. Less enlightened Kuei-jin still need to drink blood as a medium to absorb an individuals yin and yang. The most youngest, feral form of Kuei-Jin, the Chih Meh must eat flesh to gain yin and yang.
Vampires in the WoD have souls, unlike almost all other storytelling companies conception of vampires. They just... uh... are really bad material to become immortal and inevitably go mad somewhere at no more (but sometimes much less) than 1000 years or so. Reading about the confirmed elder vampires in the red list (the kill list of the camarilla) in the table top is kind of funny. The highest in the list is a crazy 5000 year 4th gen setite that actually hates vampires and wishes she was a mummy because they're the superior undead form (she knew set and osiris). She's also completely right, except the many times she went wassail (humanity 0) mean that no one cares. Even her supposed natural allies, the priesthood of the mummies that helped her learn the salubri discipline are all dead at her hand when she went crazy. This is the same company that made exalts become crazy assholes too and they're alive and empowered by a power designed for them by benevolent deities. White wolf just hates old people, and the older they are, the crazier. Ironically, with all the drama that the tabletop tries to make about superpowerful elder vampire gods destroying the world, WoD vampires could also not last much longer because each generation is weaker than the last and they can't increase the numbers of the 'highest available' generation. Generation 2 already doesn't exist, so once all 'generation 3' vampires are gone, no more generation 4 can be made, etc. Logically, if the WoD earth had about 5000 more years, vampires might have gone extinct just from the 3 and 4 and 5 generations, etc, being murdered. Best part is that when they die they're just dumped into the (horrible) wraith afterlife, like anyone else, with no advantages at all (except if they can understand how the afterlife can function, like the giovanni). The big difference between the kuei-jin and vampires is just different original monster leading to different thematics. Vampires are pretty closely connected to a kind of edgy semite 'faith' (pretty apparent in the darkages sourcebooks and in the suggested alternate morality systems to humanity), while the kuei-jin are connected to the idea of the 'thousand hells' in some eastern religions. Basically, they're escaping a pretty 'normal to be sent to' hell and yes, they indeed possess their own body if they can. So the main main difference is a different afterlife and the fact that vampires never did crossover, and that vampires have less agency (by thematics).
Well, originally originally, they were just an offshoot of the Kindred; foreign and distant, their relation to Caine being mysterious (Like the Followers of Set, they have an alternate mythology for their creation). But this was retconned after the first edition and Eastern Vampires were described as wholly separate beings from the the Kindred. This was further enforced in the new line Kindred of the East, firmly establishing Keui-Jin to be more akin to the Mummies than to the Kindred. But then the 20th Anniversary edition makes scant mention of them across all its books and whenever they are mentioned, their existence is merely postulated, not confirmed, and fifth edition omits them entirely. It seems they have come and gone in the canon of the World of Darkness. Which begs the question, are there just no vampires in east Asia or are there some but they are all Cainites?
@@vexedlex8230 I'm familiar with the history. The reason they're Not part of the recent editions is because they're... problematic. Whether or not they exist is currently an exercise for the ST, and likely something they're not likely to answer.
Legends says everytime someone said *"Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines",* people are reinstalling to play it again... as Malkavian And then fight the nemesis... the *_Stop sign_*
I'm kind of salty that it never showed up as a proper boss fight later in the game. It would certainly spice up the Warrens a lot if Malks had to fight imaginary enemies along with the ones actually there.
@@sunnyletom Anchor: Los Angeles citizens were left shocked today following a vicious gun battle between the LAPD...and you. They were all like, "BANG! BANG! Ya filthy varment!", and you were all like "POW! POW! Oooh, you wascaly wabbit! You got me!"
Velvet, the woman giving you the job in Vesuvius aren't pretending. That sultry way of talk is who and what she is. It's one way Toreadors can get. That's why both Bertram and Gary calls them out for playing pretend. Other vampires can really only understand the very abnormally emotional humanity-centric nature of the Toreadors as pure delusion. With a Malkavian you have access to dialogues with Velvet revealing that her persona is a coping mechanism to having been pretty much seduced into this world then abandoned when her lover got bored of her so she had abandonment issues, been traumatized by the hard reality of being a vampire, and the core of it all because of being a Toreador she is not only almost inhumanly emotional, she is incapable of being desensitized. Talking to Isaac about her also reveals that she's his adopted daughter, he adores and cherishes just how specially "human" she is and her club is a gift from him basically enabling her to even exist. Isaac himself although mostly a calm, logical and professional man is shown to be un-vampirically emotional and impulsive in the inside, and as neglectful for his own childe as Velvet's boyfried was when telling the story of turning the ex-actor chased by hunters into a vampire when he was dying from overdose and he was overwhelmed with the feeling of not wanting to let this amazing and talented actor go despite logically this is the end of him as an actor either way, and now wanting nothing to do with him because hunters are serious business. So yeah Velvet is actually a curveball by appearing obviously fake in a setting where you gotta double guess everybody while she is actually honest, she's just very odd. This game is a goddamn rabbit hole man...
and just like the real world. Nobody that matters cares about it. Because it's about f*cking vampires and vampires are f*cking boring, bland & the champion of the most unimaginative consumers around the world. 😂 Sorry just came by to piss on the grave of a game you love. Didn't mean to get any on your shoe hahahaha
Her words seem clearly intended to manipulate us, especially when we are Nosferatu, the first thing she does is she makes an attempt to get closer to us and express her understanding of our condition with affectionate words. Also when we are Malkavian we calling her a doll, suggesting artificiality. In turn, her poems that she sends us by email suggest sincerity. Perhaps both things are true.
@@llYuki0okami the Malk calls her a doll because her existence is entirely sustained by the conditions created by Isaac with her being unable to survive outside and she made herself into who she is by denying everything she was and being this ideal form of hers. So yes it has artificiality but not for the reason you thought it is. She's a Toreador. They are well adjusted in the midrange of humanity but if it swings in either direction it swings hard and the result can be a very dysfunctional person.
@@elixxon she is "well adjusted in the midrange of humanity" but "her existence is entirely sustained by the conditions created by Isaac with her being unable to survive outside", I do not follow this theory. Dance club was just a gift for his beloved stepdaughter. And the dialogue is quite readable; Velvet Velour: Mmm-hmm... Malkavian: What is your fable, doll? Velvet Velour: Mmm-hmm... Malkavian: How come you hide your true name behind a fabric, Susan? Velvet Velour: There's only one part of my body I don't want anyone entering and that's my head. That other name... never say it again, it belongs to a dead girl. Malkavian: Why are you hiding your past from me doll? Velvet Velour: I'm not hiding, I'm not that girl, she was flawed, she was naïve, she was nobody and now she's dead. Let the dead rest in peace. My name is VV, show yourself out, I'd like to say a prayer for someone I used to know. If I were to believe in a theory, it would be that VV is a strong alter ego created to protect the weak Susan.
One extra little nugget: LaCroix is using Domination on you the WHOLE time up until the last moments. It's a Ventrue discipline which allows them to easily subjugate kindred of lower generations and make them do whatever they want. So you wouldn't have been able to really oppose him even if you wanted to. It's subtle but that's what's happening. I say until the very last moment because it stops working towards the very end...which means you have been gaining power like CRAZY over the course of a couple of nights, *someone* has been seeing to that...You're mostly a pawn throughout.
Well, it's subtle if you don't directly go against LaCroix, otherwise he has the whole hypnotic glowy eye effect and reverb as he repeats to you what he wants you to do.
Could be from the player being 8th generation , we are new so at the start we were a bit weak at the very beginning but thanks to our generation our power grew to that of a young 8th generation with maybe a little boost from cabbie for certain bosses
Implying that Jeanette Voerman is a rip off of Harley Quinn is akin to implying Ocarina of Time ripped off Demon Souls. When this game came out, Harley Quinn was still depicted in her full proper harlequin costume.
@@halcyoned it was actually the Batman Arkham games. Supposedly one of the designers involved in that game was a VtMB fan and based the Harley Quinn in that game on Jeanette.
@@DIEGhostfish yeah, I'm not a big batman fan but I've seen enough of the cartoon (ugh, and suicide squad) to get the general idea behind her character. I can tell at a glance, though, that the old cartoony jester outfit design is way more fun and sinister than the coked-out juggalo look. The goofy innocence of the jester outfit is a brilliant way to contrast and mask the real fucked up, psychotic sadism that's driven by a really sick obsessive infatuation with the Joker that's hiding underneath. The juggalo look is just... an outdated reference that completely reduces her character and design to that of a crazy bitch thug girlfriend who looks like she _probably_ knows where to get pretty OK molly? Edit: which, you know, actually fits for the OG character in VTM considering that her character is a club-rat with a unpredictable violent streak and a dash of FREAKY ;)
@@pohateos9394 The second one right? The last time I've heard about it was from 4 years or so , I didn't play the first one yet tho I'm a little bit concerned about the gameplay
The game completely changes when you play as a Nosteratu. For a Malkavian, every single line of dialogue in-game gets re-written with hilarious results.
Plus, it's very very quiet, but you can hear voices occasionally when talking to certain NPC's, typically warnings, like "Lllliiiiiaaaaarrrr" when talking to Lacroix. Also sometimes the telephone wires shake around violently for no reason as a Malk.
"There was an explosion at the dockside in Santa Monica tonight. Police have given the statement that the suspect is most likely you." Wait now what was that TV man?
29:30 You lose humanity because you betray her, not because woman good russian mobster bad. 59:08 Its actually faster to break into the janitorial area and using the vent shaft to enter your house. 1:08:50 Beckett isn't a werewolf, he's a vampire that can transform into an animal form (a power in the Tabletop game, but not on the videogame). 1:14:10 You can save Heather by telling her to NOT leave the house before doing the Giovanni quest.
Yeah, I feel like going back on your word and agree to betray the person you're working for for more money seems pretty inhumane. Also the one that you lose humanity from killing is an almost innocent woman who couldn't make ends meet with her finances, the other is a Russian mobster that probably orders the death of people for a living. So yeah.
@@masterblaster2678 Also, don't you eventually end up with more money being her partner in the business than the mobster guy gives you? So it is a waste to betray her and lose that humanity.
@@TheMbangel You absolutely do. Narrator missed the ability to dance in clubs for a point of humanity too. This gives you options to fuck people over and recover from it, if thats how you want to roleplay.
My favorite part of this game is when you arrive in Hollywood and you meet that Samantha girl someone from your past before you got turned that part gave me chills and stuck with me It felt like I actually lost a friend I feel like that moment is when I really started to love this game. Like it took you right out of the experience of being this badass vampire and right back into reality.
I loved that part. I actually felt the dread when she recognized me, I thought it was really gonna change my game with her taking me home and trying to help or something. Would've been much cooler if it didn't just cause a masquerade loss but still a profound moment for sure
Also, it just came to me, but the reason that hunter in the monastery sounds like a Skyrim NPC is because he's voiced by Micheal Gough. Who is the same guy voicing Beckett, incidentally. He voiced Jarl Baalgruf and Ralof and half the male nords in Skyrim. He also voiced many NPCs in Fallout 3, and if you want a bit more nostalgia he's the same guy who voiced Deckard Cain from the Diablo series.
I appreciate you slogging through the several loading screens and walking back and forth AND THEN just compiling the best bits for the two hit men who want each other dead, not all heroes wear capes.
58:03 He would have been very understanding and loving and even gives you a home in sewers later. I'm not kidding. Nosferatu all stick together like a giant family, because of their curse. And yes, Gary despises Toreador and you got his unique lines expressing that sentiment.
As a Nosferatu on the first playthrough, I did appreciate their kindness. Because EVERYONE and I mean EVERYONE constantly rips on your looks and smell. Constantly referring to Nosferatu as rats scurrying in the sewers, but when meeting them they're a surprisingly lively bunch. So I enjoyed my time there with my people.
The reason they band together and have historically hid in sewers, crypts and catacombs is not only their looks and the subsequent pariahood, but also the fact that they are universally hunted by the original bloodline of the clan, the Niktuku. Most Nosferatu in VtM are from an offshoot bloodline descended from the World of Darkness version of Baba Yaga (the witch, not Keanu Reeves), as opposed to the original bloodline sired by Absimilliard, the Antidiluvian. It's also why they are secretive information and computer nerds. They built their own version of the internet (aproprietely called the "Schrecknet", after the actor for the Nosferatu movie) to share sightings of Niktuku and keep themselves safe.
I played this game for the first time a few weeks ago and got given a Malkavian as my first character and I don't think I've ever laughed so hard at written dialogue. Also I adore the 'whispers' you hear in certain environments and when talking to characters which gives you a secret sort of hinting insight, it really sells the Malkavian clan as absolute madlads that know all.
Also characters and NPCs keep saying that they have no idea what the fuck I am talking about often. The way they handled the Malkavians is fucking awesome.
Do NPCs treat you weird or call you ugly or anything? Like do they comment on your race? Like how everyone is racist against khajits in skyrim. First time i ever played skyrim i picked khajit and i still always do. But god damn if every NPC from Makarth to Wibterhold doesnt talk shit to me the entire game. Even when i become a famous godlike savior people will still make comments when i walk by. I found it very... immersive🤣 Anything similar happen in this game depending on the race you chose?
@@ethanride3203 Everyone comments on how horridly ugly you are as a Nos before you even talk to them, assuming they aren't frozen in abject fear. If you're a malk it takes you opening your mouth for people to go, "Oh, huh, you're kind of loony, aincha?"
I've done the Ocean Hotel level so many times now, but each time, even when I'm fully, mentally prepared, it never fails to scare the goddamn shit out of me.
Full on horror levels in non-horror, gothicy games are just shudder inducing. I still get nightmares of the Moira Asylum from the Thief remake. You just never expect this level of scary after playing through however much of the game prior, & it hits you like a train at full speed
Highly agreed. I dont know if it's just me or an issue with the way Bethesda designed them or what, but despite the highly detailed character creation system in Fallout 4, almost every single female NPC and main character ends up looking like the default for the wife character/female PC to me
@@pixi7633 for real though! I think it’s the head shape and way the nose and eyes are positioned. From my 300 hours of playing the game it’s the main features which seem to stay the same and consistent. Square head, long or upturned nose, and almond eyes. Sounds specific I know- it’s just what I’ve noticed. I have seen far better improvement in Fallout 76 though!
Elder Scrolls games are some of the worst for every character looking similar. Fallout 4 wins the prize though, although Oblivion comes close. I think the absolute worst is Kingdoms of Amalur, a massive rpg that uses the same 10 faces for everyone.
I'm honestly surprised you went all this way thinking Beckett is a Werewolf. He's actually a Gangrel vampire and just uses Protean to turn into a wolf.
Same here, loved this game through the early 2000's and played many times; but couldn't tell you any facts about it to this day; too many other games have mutated my memory.. .
Yeah man, I guess it never clicked that that was a thing since I (stupidly) never bothered to read through every ability for other clans. Sorry about that, that had to be grating when I kept insisting he was one haha
46:20 - As it happens, vampires aren't COMPLETELY devoid of sex drive in Vampire: The Masquerade, but they have to expend blood to get the biological components working, so it's a strange situation that's a bit divorced from normal concepts of a human libido. So a vampire can absolutely choose to do the nasty. They just lose some blood and have to feed a bit more.
In tabletop, you need to have a very high humanity (8-9 points), which makes you actually a damn Saint. In other cases, you can drive blood into your genitals to at least simulate libido, but you will not get any pleasure from sex. So no, vampires are completely asexual in this regard, because they are corpses. But there was a case when one vampire made a deal with a demon so that he could get himself vitae through sex and fluid exchange
You remember correctly, she starts in her normal clothes and you can order her to either turn in to a big titty goth gf or to walk around in thong and not much else.
@@meris8486 I think when she starts getting paranoid about being followed you have the choice to let her go, stay inside from now on, or keep looking for goodies. If I remember correctly the first two will save her.
Admittedly, I'm surprised you never mentioned how this game was in a rushed development near the end, purely because Troika Games ended up going bankrupt. So all the combat heavy stuff is mostly because they didn't have the time to flesh out more quests.
yes and it didnt sell sooo much cause it was not allowed to released BEFORE HL2 i think they was done one or 2 months before release, rest of the time they used to debugging
Troika Games were amazing back in the day, the first game of theirs I played was called Arcanum, and GOG has an upgraded version that runs on modern hardware and it looks and plays great with all the patches applied. If you liked this game, then you’ll probably like Arcanum, if you’re into isometric turn-based or real-time RPGs set in a Steampunk world where you have to choose magic or engineering gadgets.
@@beemot4110 I think it was more they sold well but slowly. As they didn't get the cash in quick enough, and being a small company, they had to go under sadly.
@@beemot4110 you can have a successful product and still go out of business. It happens all the time, because of mismanagement at the top level businesses that have been around for over 100 years just disappear. I don't know exactly what their particular issue was, but with any small startup it comes down to cashflow, and even if you have a great product, it's not always possible to get it to market, because you don't have enough money to pay distributors, or your employees etc... That was also back in the physical media era of games, so they actually needed more than just a finished game to ship, they had to have the gold master ready to be duplicated and shipped out. Total fucking bummer, but at least we still have the games they finished, and they're flawed masterpieces in my opinion. Thankfully they had a strong following of people that liked what they did, and the community put out patches to fix they stuff they couldn't.
@29:30 Honestly, the Venus/Boris humanity thing made a lot of sense to me for a few reasons: 1. He's not an innocent, if you don't make that social check his people will happily try to kill you for telling them that she can't make the payment, and they're doing that in full compliance with his orders. He's, very straightforwardly, the leader of people who try to kill you, and has definitely ordered the deaths of others before. Backing out of a loan is bad, but not nearly at the same scale. Speaking of that loan, the terms of it almost certainly aren't legal, they are the mafia after all, and given how much money Venus is able to give the PC and how she still can't make those payments, they're probably never intending on her being able to pay it off. That combined with the explicit threat of violence when she fails to comply means that just on a functional level 2. He's using this loan to r*pe her, she very clearly does not have the option to say no. And there's also the fact that someone else already pointed out, killing Venus would be a betrayal because she trusts you, whereas Boris doesn't trust you (and has good reason not to since, y'know, probably his goons tried to kill you).
It is and is not all at the same time. There are good points and bad points. The main quest is about as split as a Malk in how some parts are really good and some are just bad. There are some good side quests and a lot of go here and kill or take X. I had some genuine good interactions with some NPCs. I would not put it as an avoid at all cost level, but waiting for it to go on half off levels of sale is not a bad idea. Above all else do not get the PS4 or Xbox One, since I doubt any amount of performance fixes will ever really make it work to an acceptable degree on those consoles.
Exactly. Same with there werewolf. It tells you straight up, no matter how powerful you think you are as a vampire, you're not the most dangerous thing in the room.
God didn't actually give Cain the powers, though. That was Lilith that did that. And the immortality wasn't really as much of a blessing as you'd think.
@@FalenDragmire Tsk. Tell me... how was this a better choice than God just doing literally anything else? How about, say... smite Cain on the spot and let his eternal punishment commence in Hell? Why make Cain live forever when eternal punishment is *precisely* Hell’s purpose? Then again, this was Old-Testament God. He was a bit more knee-jerk in in that book. Man... this sounds stupid.
His punishment from god was to walk the earth forever, and remain unseen(?), quite a slow burn punishment. Keep in mind hell was pretty vacant of human souls at that time. The other things like burning in sunlight and shit was from the other angels. Super powers came from the woman god made from scratch rather than from adam's rib, and blood sucking became a thing because of his dealing with a witch (baba yaga i think?). Its been years since I read Vtm Book of Nod so I aint accurate, but shit's a very interesting read.
Beckett isn't a werewolf, though it's easy to confuse him as one given his abilities. He's actually a vampire called a "Gangrel" which is a clan that can turn into animals, he just happens to choose a wolf. He's like, really important to the overall lore for one reason or another. He collects knowledge and is called the "most learned of all Kindred regarding their condition and history" by the books if memory serves. Basically, he's an exposition dump in the form of a creature of the night
The best part of this game is discovering it in the first playthrough with like a Toreador or whatever and then playing as a Malkavian for your second playthrough... It's like you're having a dialogue with your in game brain 0.0
My first game was as a Tremere which didn't prepare me for combat at all (Blood magic is very OP). Malkavian dialogue made it worth it though as everything was different. Convincing the lady who recognizes you as her turtle is memorable.
Salt, when you mention the "weird writing" of V.V you're missing a big point of the World of Darkness universe. The Vampire Clans embody sins, V. V being a Toreador she is very vain, self centered and her flirtation (despite being vampire on vampire) is an act of that flaw. In the lore an example given of a Toreador giving into their flaw fatally is how a Toreador got lost in the visage of their own reflection in a pond until the sun rose.
Also Toreador vampires in their lore have way more attachment to humanity then other vampires and as they can keep body tempreture and even pump blood making them practicaly look alive, and lore for them says it`s not rare that Toreador vampires have erotic encounters
...yeah, and besides, vampires can use Blush of Life to make them appear alive (...and to have certain functions work as they would in case of a normal human 👀)
Bloodlines is one of those incomplete masterpieces. Oddly enough, the development cycle of Bloodlines 2 seems to be following the original. Give me a fantastically imperfect single player game.
He missed how much damage stacks with skills, comparing a fully optimized ranged build to middling melee, while trying to face tank one of the 2 bosses in the game where that is not a good strategy. Firearms are, on average, better by the time you get to the Society of Leopold quest, but any min-maxed build is godlike by that point irrespective of combat type.
I still remember my first playthrough as melee Brujah. You think celerity with guns is op? Wait till you see celerity, potence and a bush hook, my sweet boy
In the tabletop game I believe toreador can actually have normal sex with the ability called "blush of life" or something along those lines. It basically makes their skin warm and their heart beat again for a limited time
Blush of life is available for all clans, though if I recall correctly, low humanity vampires or vampires following the alternate morality paths can't use it, as they are to far removed from their humanity to mimic life.
There are a combination of merits that, if taken, mimic human bio functions in the tabletop. If you take blush of health, baby face, and eat food and drink you can pass for human in most instances. You look human, you breath, your heart beats, you can eat regular food (although you gain nothing from it), and overall you can blend in perfectly. This also means that your blood flows during specific activities such as sex. A vampire can still not reproduce in the human way (except for fifteenth gen but that's not important here), but they can still enjoy sex.
If i remember the rules, you spent a number of blood points equal to 7 minus your humanity to "be human" This allowed you to breath correctly, sweat, and even have sex correctly This means that once you hit 7 humanity you could always appear to be human
I'm actually surprised to learn that this is apparently a common misconception. When I first played I assumed he must be a vampire since the game is called vampire the masquerade and they all have unique magic and the gangrel clan logo was a wolf head. What really surprised me was when an actual werewolf showed up.
@@artur6912 because in the world of darkness everything is real, including wizards, vampires are the biggest population, but aren't even the stronger species in this world
@@devforfun5618 I was more or less aware of the whole world of darkness (vampire, werewolf, mage ect.) when I first played, not the nitty gritty with all the Kindred and Garou lore, but I just assumed that since this is VTM, only vampires will be involved, hence I probably never thought to suspect Becket of being anything other than "the vampire that have the wolf logo", so the actual Werewolf was a shock, as is learning that this is a common misconception about Becket and probably the Sherif.
Couple things 1. the sabbat are vampire fundamentalists who believe that vampires should follow the dictates of Cain literally and are organized like the catholic church. 2. Backett is a Grangal, not a werewolf 3. in VtM Werewolfs HAtE vampires 4. The primogen tend to be the eldest of their respective clan in the city and represent their clan in the court of the prince 5. Antideluvians are vampires sired before the flood of Noah but more specifically the 13 surviving vampires of the 3rd generation who sired the thirteen clans who founded the Camarilla and Sabbat 6. Garry doest like salts character BECAUSE he's specifically Toreador 7. the Kuei-jin are not descended from Cain
Primogen do have responsibilities as leaders of their clans in a city they are responsible for them why they are not always the eldest, sometimes those are just not interested in the position
@@vivithegr8389 correct term is clan, Bloodlines are something different in that setting, well not very different but still, they are clans without a 3 generation ancestor. Usually those Bloodlines are created by experimentention on higher generation vampires.
@@chillhour6155 No, that's the Anarchs by all standards. The Sabbat are more like... Well, it's hard to make a comparison that isn't super innacuruate, but they're religious extremists who are fighting a holy war against the third generation.
53:20 There's actually a mod called the Clan Quest Mod that adds the choice to join the Sabbat. That route introduces a new area, new fully voiced NPCs, a quest chain, the ability to diablerize some of the other characters, and a new ending. It's all pretty well-done too in my opinion.
There are stealthy ways to complete the warehouse in Santa Monica. Secret entrances. You don't have to fight your way through it if you don't want to. It took me years to figure that out. And you get extra exp in the end if you're not detected during the process. This games replayability is awesome just because of little things like that.
This video has literally been made two dozen times by different content producers, and every time it's done again, hundreds of people reinstall the game.
Yeah honestly I could listen to him talk about anything and be fine, he could make an 8 hour video about discussing pointless crap and I could listen to it contently throughout my work day
19:23 I always got serious The Shining vibes from the Ocean View hotel quest. It is also one of my favourite quests because of the mood and atmosphere it creates.
53:40 in the tabletop Vampire game, each dot of celerity gives either an extra dot in ALL DEXTERITY rolls (dodge, shoot, attack, lockpick, sneak) or ANOTHER TURN. So at 5 celerity you have either +5 attack or + 5 extra turns. That is way more OP. Kuei-Jin lumox was too hard because you didn't have skills in melee, and Sheriff was too easy because you had skills in guns. Could have been the exact opposite with a different build.
They nailed it though. Cyberpunk reminded me a lot of Bloodlines. Less for the bugs but more for the story and character quality. And CDProject are in the business of fixing the bug issues. Not in the clean release business. So it will become a well polished diamond. Now it is a diamond in the rough.
@@lesfreresbogdanoff7863 the combat in cyberpunk are nothing like Skyrim, and while the IA in Skyrim is a bit better (for civilian npc at least) vtmb is the worse of the three by far. I know it's trendy to shit on the game but at least play it before, the game as a lot of flaw stop inventing new one.
This ! One of the best reviews ever made for this game so far . Simple , honest with a little bit of sense for the right humour . Loved to watch it aaand subbed . Respekt , Junge - Einfach Klasse !!!
Every clan gets special dialog with npcs that are also members of that clan. In a few cases this does result in extra quests. Tremere actually have their own special haven, so do Nossies. Definitely worth replaying the game to find all the hidden goodies n stuff. If you don't want to replay as every single clan, I'd highly recommend Nossies, Malks, and Tremere. Tremere mostly just cuz blood magic is cool, but the other two really change stuff up throughout the entire game for ya.
Those 3 yup. :) Also, you get treated differently by factions and individual vamps depending on your type, since they all have their inner disputes, comradery and clan pride. Tremeres and Nosferatu also get unique safehouses.
It pissed me off every time he’d say it. I understand why he thought it at first but then he saw an actual werewolf and they looked nothing alike. But he did look like The Sheriff’s spectral wolves so you’d think he’d put two and two tougher and figure out its vamp magic
You're right this particular fact flew over his head completely. To be fair it happened to me in exactly the same way first time I played ages ago. I got it on my second playthrough only. Embarrassing but true. Idiots exist and they live near you - we're everywhere.
but isn't that part of what makes this game so great, especially for people who don't know the lore? you detect something new every playthrough and can get apretty solid understanding of the lore, by simply experiencing everything from a first person perspective.
it's a crying shame that Troika games went bankrupt, I really would have loved to see more games from them, but I suppose a lot of them left to work at obsidian afterwards which explains why FalloutNV was so damn good
Honestly, this game is one of my favorites. One thing I REALLY love about this game, is actually typing in the controls on the computers in-game. That immersion is the best.
There's a shortcut for the Hollywood Sewer that's part of the Unofficial Patch. Honestly that patch is a godsend. Also Good Old Games will always have my support just for making old games playable on new machines.
Beckett isn't a werewolf my man, he is a Gangrel which is a clan of vampires. The Gangrel just take more inspiration from the classic version of vampires like Dracula, where vampires could shapeshift into bats, wolves, and mist.
Or he's an old malkavian, whose insanity manifested in him thinking he is a gangrel. Most disciplines are not gated behind the clan, just harder to gain and upgrade for clans without aptitude for them.
Ah, one of the few games, that I actually completed. I'm really bad at playing trough a game completely, but this storytelling was just so good and the characters so captivating, I wanted to know more. Love the voice acting and absolutely fell in love with Beckett and Strauss xD
VtM Bloodlines is one of the few games I played to the end. Another one was Wizardry 8 and a new one is Baldur's Gate 3. I liked Malkavian best. I still hope for Bloodlines 2. THQ Nordic, I payed you long time ago for the game, now finally deliver!!!
The best ending is when you put the explosives in the sarcophagus and it ends with your character walking away as it explodes and you are flipping everyone off.
Concerning the gargoyle questline: if you go and ask Strauss about Gargoyles you can eventually get him to fess up that the one hiding in the theater is his creation, as well as go into more detail about their creation and intended purposes. The one in the theater hates Tremere especially because he feels as if he was created just to be a slave to the Tremere.
Gargoyles were created through blood magic by mixing Gangrel, Nosferatu, and Tzimisce blood. Honestly, the Tremere being in the Camarilla is one of the big reasons that the Tzimisce are Sabat.
@@chesterstevens8870 that is the reason they exist in lore, not why they are part of the "bad" vampires, but i think the fact that they create monstrosities on purpose is enough for them to hate the Camarilla, their powers just break the masquerade
You missed some exposition from Nines or maybe Smiling Jack where the Kuei-Jin originally slaughtered tons of cainite vampires when they first arrived in Chinatown- it was a biiiig anarchs vs Kuei-Jin battle, that the Anarchs lost, which I believe is one of the reasons there are so few in the game.
Yes, in the Bloodlines lore it seems that MacNeil's Free State really did get muddled up by the Wan-kuei's plotting, resulting in the Camarilla coming in and the Wan-kuei having a foothold more and more.
played this game a few times, was quiet fun. Playing as a Malkavian, you can actually call out some of the plot before they happen, like you can say "The face of" some two faced Roman God, to Therese when you meet her for the first time and she realizes you already have seen her split personality.
And if you talk to Jack enough times, he straight up says the only reason he hasn't killed you is because you don't understand half the things you're raving about.
@@rebellyanmagic6409 My first playthrough was as a Malkavian. I literally did not understand half the things I was raving about which was pretty darn fitting.
As I always say, Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines' gameplay is borderline unplayable without certain mods thanks to it's unfinished state. That said, it's easily one of the most atmospheric RPGs of all time. It's story and characters are the true reason why I played it three times in a row.
Yeah, I have played through every clan and wish there were more to try. GOG is the way to go with pre-installed mod to fix the graphics bugs, but it's still buggier than a PBJ sandwich left on the sidewalk in June. The story and dialogue are worth it though.
I don't know, my first playthrough was just with the fan-made patch and I found it playable enough. Maybe next time I can motivate myself to play, it'll be modded.
Heyoo, just wanted to let you know that the common "fan theory" that explains why you always follow LaCroix command is because he is a Ventrue, who has Dominate.
I love the voice acting in this game so much. If you listen carefully, the vampires and Becket have a slight lisp from their bigger teeth. So much detail in this game. Love it!!
Heather, your scantily clad ghoul house-servant, didn't die on my playthrough. In fact, there are two different ways of saving her! **Sigh** Great, now I'm reinstalling this game AGAIN.
@@alexandraionica7036 The first way is to send her away prior to the Vampire Hunter base quest. The second is only available in the plus patch. I haven't played for a while so I checked the interwebs and this is what I found (you may want to double check). Apparently you need to go to her after the museum but before reporting back to LaCroix and get the scene where she's kidnapped that dood, then report to LaCroix, then go back to her and tell her to stay inside. She won't give you the combat armor, but you'll be able to buy it from Mercurio during the blood hunt.
58:00 My first playthrough was as a quiz-given Nosferatu. He's a lot less condescending and hostile against you and gives you a new crib if you're chill with him.
I tried the questionnaire my first playthrough and it recommended the Malkavian clan. It was the best and worst choice ever for a first-timer. It was a hell of a ride and made future "normal" playthroughs feel completely different.
Aww man, so stoked you covered this game. Glad to see you’ve been covering all my favourite games. Aaand a Toreador fam as well. Aww man, things can’t get any better :)
That Vesuvius Vampire Chick is a Toreador, the whole clan is similar in the way that they want to pretend they're still driven by human passions. The Sexual vibes of Jeanette on the other hand come through her rebellious nature and the fact that she's batshit crazy. Your Clan is a bloodline that affects your personality quite a bit.
I don't think Toreadors pretend that they are human I think, they FEEL more human now then when they when they were alive. LIke Malkavians get craze, Nosferatu become ugly and Toreadors become more humane, for better or for worse
'which means VTM Bloodlines basically did in 2004 what Cyberpunk 2077 is doing this year' Considering both games are broken and unfinished, this statement hits harder post-cyberpunk release.
I already own it on Steam. Would buy it again anyway, but I’m broke as fuck. Thanks for the “roughly hour and 35 minutes of unbridled wordage”, always appreciated!
Not 'presumably'. If you refuse, he just dominates you. With animation and all. And all of your dialogue options become "yes, I will do it". Of course, you can forget about getting a flat from him, if you do that.
Especially the writer. Hiring some creative lead who used to work for Assassin’s Creed, Rainbow Sox and For Cry series doesn’t make it look any better in the perspective. Fingers crossed it’s not “another open-world” game that all of the mentioned games were, while having god awful, nigh non-existent stories, tons of dull characters and no fucking dialogues. Looking at The Outer Wilds and how some stuff is similar to what we saw in all these games (and Fallout NV), that share the writer (L. Boyarsky), I’m guessing he’s one of the biggest creative writers. Since he is in Obsidian now, it couldn’t be as cool anyway.
@@adaptorperish1322 It's ganna be like the new assassins's creed witcher wannabes. They will make it LOOK right without realising that the writing and characters are what would make it FEEL right.
@@adaptorperish1322 not only that, but the new lead has history with working on post-release monetization, which is probably the reddest of flags when it comes to the dude. Firing Brian Mitsoda for no discernable reason was already a weird move, considering that they used him to market the game because he was also the lead in the original game, but now both lead writers are out of the project and nothing makes sense at all. Also: wrong "Outer", but I get what you meant
Yeah they would have been better off never announcing it since I was hyped during the announcement. Then literally almost every piece of news about it since then has been very bad. If the game comes out, and is actually good it would be a miracle at this point. It was funny though after the first demo looked bad, and it had that SJW writer saying out right she hated the original game everyone just said "Don't worry it's got Brian Mitsoda were good". Then next headline is they fired him lol
Hey man, love your videos, especially the exhaustive, thoughtful replays of the Elder Scrolls games. Think we're about the same age and had a lot of the same gaming experiences as kids. Really great content and hits that nostalgia nerve just right. Keep up the great work! 10/10
For anyone planning on getting into this game, I'd recommend playing Malchavian in a second playthrough. They always speak in an old tongue that can make understanding what you're actually saying kind of a hassle
Honestly if you don´t mind being confused and dig the feeling of going mental and existential horror than going for Malchavian first is pretty darn fun and a very unique experience to find. For example just sitting in your safehouse starts making you paranoid due to the newscasts or the taxi scene near the end becomes terrifying since your character goes nuts due to the nature with whom you are driving and you get this massive feeling of dread that things are about to go south. Since you don´t know on your first playthrough what can happen you start getting the felling that some eldritch horror could just pop up midconversation at any moment and take with it the rest of your feeble mind.
That stranger who stops you in Hollywood is a friend you had before you were turned. I think it was to give the illusion of you having a life before then. And a patch has made it possible to skip the whole sewer section.
"The bad suck after the good suck" lol thank you My anxiety was driving me insane all day that made me laugh so hard it gave me some relief I appreciate that that was funny wordsmith.
The occult blade wrecks Ming Xao. Yes, it spawns a lot of clones, but they die instantly when she does. You can get a bunch of supernatural buffs in various places that make your abilities better. You also want to trigger blood buff and celerity when fighting tougher enemies. And there are a number of "hidden" quests that only happen when you do certain things in certain ways. I like being Tremere, because blowing people up is fun. Also you can make others fight for you. It also bears repeating that the cab driver is Cain, the first vampire. The gargoyle was created by Strauss, and you can ask him about it if you grab the book in the chantry on gargoyles. This sets up a double reward, strauss rewards you for keeping the chantry's secret, and makes the fight with the gargoyle easier with a talisman that he gives you, but you also get the main reward for the quest, double XP, double payment, and you can betray strauss after anyway, if you like. So kill gargoyle, report back to the hollywood dude and tell him you don't know anything, then report to strauss, get the reward, then go back and tell the hollywood dude that strauss made the gargoyle and get another reward. Also the webcam quests allow you access to places to pick up trinkets that you can trade for posters in your haven. The game is so much deeper than you think.
The writing in this game is hysterical. My personal favorite is the fluff text on the fire axe: “clearly the weapon of a madman, for who else would attack fire with an axe?”
At the time it was akin to Fallout 1, with the absurdity. Both an absolute master class of what I guess is a bit edgy these days, but 100% I don't care. My personal favourite was the jaded tellers in every convenience store basically knowing what they were doing was shady, but hey it's midnight and it's really not worth caring about. Also, Loved the Malkavians, and p[laid one the first time through. Damn, but all the clans had their thing. Omg or the ghost hunters! Vs the actual haunted house which ngl did scare me like the first 3 or 4 times.
@@D64nz I was a little shit kid when the game came out and I had to put the game on hold for years 'till I grew some guts, just because of the haunted house.
Or the tire iron description (from memory): "Could be used for fixing a flat, sure..."
@@D64nz i want games to go bit edgy again and try new shit as lately has been slow
@@DJJordG check out some games from the indie scene if you haven't. Not necessarily all edgy, but you can find some really unique and interesting stuff
There's a fortune teller on the beach at Santa Monica at the very beginning who will spoil all the twists in the main questline for 50 bucks if you decide to talk to her.
I love this game.
DONT OPEN IT
Open it
“It matters not whether you win or lose, it’s if you bought the game” makes me laugh every time
*$20
And Malkavian MC will add to it
VtMB is like an ancient eldritch being: at the mere mention of its name, anyone who's played it before is compelled to bring it back from the depths and reinstall it
I literally wrote a novella based on the characters of the game after I played it the first time
I uncovered my original copy from release day back in 2004 and it's the primary reason I built a maxed-out XP rig. The other games, like F.E.A.R. and Crysis, as well, but mostly for this one.
@@donniex509 Can I see it?
Its still happening, merely saw a pfp of vv and got dragged back here.
"every time you mention it, SOMEONE will reinstall it."
Fun fact. If you use console commands to give yourself the Sheriffs sword the description tells you 'You're not supposed to have this!'
Wow! Didn't know this! Thanks!
I need this game
@@HassanAhmed-rf9xr Pretty cheap on steam
@@kreb9721 really! But is there a remake cos I went on yt an found this modern looking one. I want this old looking one.
@@HassanAhmed-rf9xr if you look this one up it'll be pretty obvious. There was a sequel that got delayed/canceled, and a battle royale.
"You're never really in any danger from the ghost"
*seconds later*
"The ghost tries to crush you with an elevator."
Lmao and chuck pots and pans at you. Oh and the damn chandelier. I loved the ambience of the hotel quest, I played at night and was actuality on edge the whole time lol. Even on 2nd and 3rd playthroughs
@@kikiza123 lmao played at night my first time too on a school night at like 12 am ngl i was scared shitless at some points
I love how the wife's ghost whispers to you, "Be careful!" as you jump into the elevator shaft, seconds before her demented husband sends the elevator crashing down!
haunted house, abandoned hospital, the vampire hunters hq, all are pretty freaky.
@@Rikard_Nilsson Dont forget the Hollywood video rental store..
'No viability for Melee builds at all.'
Me as a Brujah punching my way through everything: "I agree. Brawl is the way to go."
I was a Nosferatu utilizing a Ninja build where I'll stealth/stealth kill as much as I can, but will absolutely use my axe to kill everyone left.
My Tremere was pretty damn good with fisticuffs when folks were too close up for Thaumaturgy. And Brawl also helped my ability to combat-feed.
Me, as a Ventrue with a fireaxe: "Bullets feel more like suggestions."
I liked melee, it was a bit harder near the end but with a guns build all the challenge went away once you got an AUG
Or me as a Protean Gangrel. Max that out and you're armored as fuck with claws
Hi! I'm one of the dorks who contributes to the Unofficial Patch, and I also work for the tabletop publisher. Glad you enjoyed the game! Few notes, some of which have been picked up by others.
17:25 Harley's modern look ultimately came from her appearance in Batman: Arkham Asylum, and Arkham Asylum used Jeanette as a reference when they were building her. Some people call her a Harley rip-off, but it'd be more accurate to call her a proto-Harley.
24:09 As others have pointed out, Beckett's a Gangrel, not a werewolf. You'd KNOW if you met a werewolf (1:16:35). Beckett and Smiling Jack were the only canon characters from the pre-existing tabletop material to make their way into Bloodlines.
40:24 The Unofficial Patch dev, Wesp5, added subtitles for some random NPC barks. He decided to use "puppy" here because that theoretically worked for either a male or female PC, even though she's clearly saying "papi."
46:00 Although the sexual drive is gone once you're dead, the drive for attention and companionship remains. VV's manipulative -- perhaps subconsciously so -- but those manipulations are still effective on many vamipres, despite the lack of libido.
52:35 The Tremere did indeed create the Gargoyles. I saw at 30:24 you were looking at the book you picked up in the Tremere chantry about the creation of Gargoyles. I don't want to spoil much but it might be worth your while to talk to Strauss before confronting the Gargoyle.
52:57 "I have no idea what this is." Andrei is a Tzimisce, one of the two vampire clans strongly associated with the Sabbat. Their signature Discipline is Vicissitude, aka fleshcrafting. He used it to make himself more monstrous, as well as creating the szlachta, those creepy little Geodudes.
53:21 If you play the Plus version of the Unofficial Patch, a Sabbat option has been added. You won't be able to talk it out of Andrei unless your Humanity's already pretty low, though.
54:00 You'll be pleased to know that the Plus patch offers a shortcut that bypasses most of the entrance to the Nosferatu Warrens.
If the requirements are met, there are also shortcuts to avoid most of the Hallowbrook Hotel, most of the Golden Temple, and most of the assault on Venture Tower. Basically anywhere there's a combat slog.
59:50 Bloodlines' development was cut short, and they didn't get to finish it the way they wanted. Chinatown's when you really start to see it: there's what I call a "combat funnel" where more and more solutions rely on fighting your way through instead of dialogue or hacking or sneaking. It's especially egregious by endgame.
1:09:37 Hunters can walk through the lasers because they're set to trigger on vampires. The computers which control them can be turned off (what it looks like you did) or they can be set to trigger on humans instead. Safe for you, deadly for them.
1:33:00 There's a werewolf easter egg earlier on at the Luckee Star Motel (look in the filing cabinet behind David Hatter for a clue). Seeing that easter egg will unlock the ability to see the werewolf ending. It used to be Malk-only but it's been open to all the clans for a long time, as long as it's properly unlocked first.
Thank you, Wesp5 and everyone else who patched the game! Its my all time favorite game :) I hope this video will help with more people discovering and trying vtmb and enjoy its awesomeness ♥
I can't express the amount of respect for you and your team for making this game a playable and enjoyable experience. Thank you.
"Harley's modern look ultimately came from her appearance in Batman: Arkham Asylum" - As an actual comic nerd, nope, that's wrong, she had started to look like that in the comics before those games existed... though you are right Jeanette's look precedes Harleys. The arkham games however are not responsible for Harleys modern look.
1. Thank you for working on the patch of one of my favourite games, the work you and the fellow patch makers do has made the game so much more fun and accessible.
2. Thank you for the list of corrections. As I fan of the game for over a decade, hearing the small mistakes had me super nit picky!
Thanks homie
why is nobody talking about the fact that the facial animations arent complete garbage for a game this age?
im quite pleasantly surprised.
For me the F.A.s are better than most games nowadays.
source engine innit, still has pretty good facial animations
@@BobTheBob9 Source indeed. The game had to wait for Half-Life 2 to come out because they had an agreement with Valve, which is presumed to be the reason VTM flopped commercially.
@@wampyrelli I think the engine is in the perfect spot where it can be really emotive but also far enough from photorealism that it doesn't trigger the uncanny valley aspect inherent in modern games. It's like a well drawn cartoon.
@@wampyrelli Source? I thought this game was made in the Unreal 2 engine?
The Kuei-Jin are barely explained in this game, but they're really a different type of supernatural creature than Vampires. Vampires are basically soulless corpses animated by a powerful curse, Keui-Jin are more like a Ghost possessing their own dead body. The only real similarities are that they're both humanoid, undead, and drink blood. Most everything else works differently for them in the original game.
I thought they feed on breath rather on blood, due to Ying and Yang thing.
@@Microsoft-Excel-2010 *extremely old and enlightened* Kuei-jin can feed off breath. the most enlightened can simply absorb yin and yang from the earth itself. Less enlightened Kuei-jin still need to drink blood as a medium to absorb an individuals yin and yang. The most youngest, feral form of Kuei-Jin, the Chih Meh must eat flesh to gain yin and yang.
Vampires in the WoD have souls, unlike almost all other storytelling companies conception of vampires. They just... uh... are really bad material to become immortal and inevitably go mad somewhere at no more (but sometimes much less) than 1000 years or so. Reading about the confirmed elder vampires in the red list (the kill list of the camarilla) in the table top is kind of funny. The highest in the list is a crazy 5000 year 4th gen setite that actually hates vampires and wishes she was a mummy because they're the superior undead form (she knew set and osiris). She's also completely right, except the many times she went wassail (humanity 0) mean that no one cares. Even her supposed natural allies, the priesthood of the mummies that helped her learn the salubri discipline are all dead at her hand when she went crazy.
This is the same company that made exalts become crazy assholes too and they're alive and empowered by a power designed for them by benevolent deities. White wolf just hates old people, and the older they are, the crazier. Ironically, with all the drama that the tabletop tries to make about superpowerful elder vampire gods destroying the world, WoD vampires could also not last much longer because each generation is weaker than the last and they can't increase the numbers of the 'highest available' generation. Generation 2 already doesn't exist, so once all 'generation 3' vampires are gone, no more generation 4 can be made, etc. Logically, if the WoD earth had about 5000 more years, vampires might have gone extinct just from the 3 and 4 and 5 generations, etc, being murdered.
Best part is that when they die they're just dumped into the (horrible) wraith afterlife, like anyone else, with no advantages at all (except if they can understand how the afterlife can function, like the giovanni).
The big difference between the kuei-jin and vampires is just different original monster leading to different thematics. Vampires are pretty closely connected to a kind of edgy semite 'faith' (pretty apparent in the darkages sourcebooks and in the suggested alternate morality systems to humanity), while the kuei-jin are connected to the idea of the 'thousand hells' in some eastern religions. Basically, they're escaping a pretty 'normal to be sent to' hell and yes, they indeed possess their own body if they can. So the main main difference is a different afterlife and the fact that vampires never did crossover, and that vampires have less agency (by thematics).
Well, originally originally, they were just an offshoot of the Kindred; foreign and distant, their relation to Caine being mysterious (Like the Followers of Set, they have an alternate mythology for their creation). But this was retconned after the first edition and Eastern Vampires were described as wholly separate beings from the the Kindred. This was further enforced in the new line Kindred of the East, firmly establishing Keui-Jin to be more akin to the Mummies than to the Kindred. But then the 20th Anniversary edition makes scant mention of them across all its books and whenever they are mentioned, their existence is merely postulated, not confirmed, and fifth edition omits them entirely. It seems they have come and gone in the canon of the World of Darkness. Which begs the question, are there just no vampires in east Asia or are there some but they are all Cainites?
@@vexedlex8230 I'm familiar with the history. The reason they're Not part of the recent editions is because they're... problematic. Whether or not they exist is currently an exercise for the ST, and likely something they're not likely to answer.
Legends says everytime someone said *"Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines",* people are reinstalling to play it again... as Malkavian
And then fight the nemesis... the *_Stop sign_*
Screw that thing.
NO! You stop!
Man, you ruined the quote. Oh well.
I sure love to be interrogated by my own TV
I'm kind of salty that it never showed up as a proper boss fight later in the game. It would certainly spice up the Warrens a lot if Malks had to fight imaginary enemies along with the ones actually there.
You absolutely owe it to yourself to replay this someday as a Malkavian.. You will not be disappointed.
I especially loved the difference in the news casts.
i have the Malkavian clan symbol tattooed on my arm because of this game XD
Arguing with a stop sign was definitely a highlight.
@@Grinlathak ngl those scared me the first time I heard them lol
"You seen any vampires around here?"
@@sunnyletom Anchor: Los Angeles citizens were left shocked today following a vicious gun battle between the LAPD...and you. They were all like, "BANG! BANG! Ya filthy varment!", and you were all like "POW! POW! Oooh, you wascaly wabbit! You got me!"
Velvet, the woman giving you the job in Vesuvius aren't pretending. That sultry way of talk is who and what she is. It's one way Toreadors can get. That's why both Bertram and Gary calls them out for playing pretend. Other vampires can really only understand the very abnormally emotional humanity-centric nature of the Toreadors as pure delusion.
With a Malkavian you have access to dialogues with Velvet revealing that her persona is a coping mechanism to having been pretty much seduced into this world then abandoned when her lover got bored of her so she had abandonment issues, been traumatized by the hard reality of being a vampire, and the core of it all because of being a Toreador she is not only almost inhumanly emotional, she is incapable of being desensitized.
Talking to Isaac about her also reveals that she's his adopted daughter, he adores and cherishes just how specially "human" she is and her club is a gift from him basically enabling her to even exist.
Isaac himself although mostly a calm, logical and professional man is shown to be un-vampirically emotional and impulsive in the inside, and as neglectful for his own childe as Velvet's boyfried was when telling the story of turning the ex-actor chased by hunters into a vampire when he was dying from overdose and he was overwhelmed with the feeling of not wanting to let this amazing and talented actor go despite logically this is the end of him as an actor either way, and now wanting nothing to do with him because hunters are serious business.
So yeah Velvet is actually a curveball by appearing obviously fake in a setting where you gotta double guess everybody while she is actually honest, she's just very odd.
This game is a goddamn rabbit hole man...
some parallels to real world.
feels heavy
and just like the real world. Nobody that matters cares about it. Because it's about f*cking vampires and vampires are f*cking boring, bland & the champion of the most unimaginative consumers around the world. 😂 Sorry just came by to piss on the grave of a game you love. Didn't mean to get any on your shoe hahahaha
Her words seem clearly intended to manipulate us, especially when we are Nosferatu, the first thing she does is she makes an attempt to get closer to us and express her understanding of our condition with affectionate words. Also when we are Malkavian we calling her a doll, suggesting artificiality.
In turn, her poems that she sends us by email suggest sincerity.
Perhaps both things are true.
@@llYuki0okami the Malk calls her a doll because her existence is entirely sustained by the conditions created by Isaac with her being unable to survive outside and she made herself into who she is by denying everything she was and being this ideal form of hers.
So yes it has artificiality but not for the reason you thought it is.
She's a Toreador. They are well adjusted in the midrange of humanity but if it swings in either direction it swings hard and the result can be a very dysfunctional person.
@@elixxon she is "well adjusted in the midrange of humanity"
but "her existence is entirely sustained by the conditions created by Isaac with her being unable to survive outside",
I do not follow this theory.
Dance club was just a gift for his beloved stepdaughter.
And the dialogue is quite readable;
Velvet Velour: Mmm-hmm...
Malkavian: What is your fable, doll?
Velvet Velour: Mmm-hmm...
Malkavian: How come you hide your true name behind a fabric, Susan?
Velvet Velour: There's only one part of my body I don't want anyone entering and that's my head. That other name... never say it again, it belongs to a dead girl.
Malkavian: Why are you hiding your past from me doll?
Velvet Velour: I'm not hiding, I'm not that girl, she was flawed, she was naïve, she was nobody and now she's dead. Let the dead rest in peace. My name is VV, show yourself out, I'd like to say a prayer for someone I used to know.
If I were to believe in a theory, it would be that VV is a strong alter ego created to protect the weak Susan.
One extra little nugget: LaCroix is using Domination on you the WHOLE time up until the last moments. It's a Ventrue discipline which allows them to easily subjugate kindred of lower generations and make them do whatever they want. So you wouldn't have been able to really oppose him even if you wanted to. It's subtle but that's what's happening.
I say until the very last moment because it stops working towards the very end...which means you have been gaining power like CRAZY over the course of a couple of nights, *someone* has been seeing to that...You're mostly a pawn throughout.
Well, it's subtle if you don't directly go against LaCroix, otherwise he has the whole hypnotic glowy eye effect and reverb as he repeats to you what he wants you to do.
Little typo but it allows you to subjugate higher gens. Dominating lower gens would mean LaCroix dominating the antediluvians
Maybe Taxi Driver Caine temporarily buffed your generation.
Could be from the player being 8th generation , we are new so at the start we were a bit weak at the very beginning but thanks to our generation our power grew to that of a young 8th generation with maybe a little boost from cabbie for certain bosses
@@mayalewis2956 Theres also always been the theory that the vampire executed for embracing the player wasn't actually the one that did it.
Implying that Jeanette Voerman is a rip off of Harley Quinn is akin to implying Ocarina of Time ripped off Demon Souls. When this game came out, Harley Quinn was still depicted in her full proper harlequin costume.
so childish lol... Jeanette is nothing like Harley.
so suicide squad ripped off Jeanette's design.....
@@halcyoned it was actually the Batman Arkham games. Supposedly one of the designers involved in that game was a VtMB fan and based the Harley Quinn in that game on Jeanette.
Yeah the Arkham games absolutely used Jeanette as their model for Harley, and fucked up Harley forever.
@@DIEGhostfish yeah, I'm not a big batman fan but I've seen enough of the cartoon (ugh, and suicide squad) to get the general idea behind her character. I can tell at a glance, though, that the old cartoony jester outfit design is way more fun and sinister than the coked-out juggalo look. The goofy innocence of the jester outfit is a brilliant way to contrast and mask the real fucked up, psychotic sadism that's driven by a really sick obsessive infatuation with the Joker that's hiding underneath. The juggalo look is just... an outdated reference that completely reduces her character and design to that of a crazy bitch thug girlfriend who looks like she _probably_ knows where to get pretty OK molly?
Edit: which, you know, actually fits for the OG character in VTM considering that her character is a club-rat with a unpredictable violent streak and a dash of FREAKY ;)
Fun fact about the "scuffed Harley Quinn" character, Jenette. She's actually the inspiration for pretty much every modern Harley Quinn design.
::holds up the VA's autograph::::
A remake/expansion of this game with today’s technology would be amazing.
@JaiOnline there is one SUPPOSEDLY coming out this year or next year... they are revealing more in September
@@pohateos9394
The second one right? The last time I've heard about it was from 4 years or so , I didn't play the first one yet tho I'm a little bit concerned about the gameplay
@@Syrian-guy no it's not, no it's NOT! yes it is, yes it IS!
The game completely changes when you play as a Nosteratu. For a Malkavian, every single line of dialogue in-game gets re-written with hilarious results.
Also you get to talk to the tv and other inanimate objects
@@catnium The news anchor repeatedly and cheerfully informs you that the authorities know it was you.
Stop sign ..........no you stop!
Nasty dude!
Plus, it's very very quiet, but you can hear voices occasionally when talking to certain NPC's, typically warnings, like "Lllliiiiiaaaaarrrr" when talking to Lacroix.
Also sometimes the telephone wires shake around violently for no reason as a Malk.
Malkavian kinda ruins the rest of the clans. Once you're given the "but there were dinosaurs, so I had fun" line, nothing else tops it off.
Aw comeon,give the old sewer dwellers some props.
Freaking NPCs out with your dastardly handsome looks is always good for a laugh.
"There was an explosion at the dockside in Santa Monica tonight. Police have given the statement that the suspect is most likely you."
Wait now what was that TV man?
I dunno. Pretty hard to pass up making people pop like meat ballons as a Tremere.
Or getting into an argument with a Stop sign.
*You've made a powerful enemy today, sign!*
Malkavian has by far the best ending, too.
29:30 You lose humanity because you betray her, not because woman good russian mobster bad.
59:08 Its actually faster to break into the janitorial area and using the vent shaft to enter your house.
1:08:50 Beckett isn't a werewolf, he's a vampire that can transform into an animal form (a power in the Tabletop game, but not on the videogame).
1:14:10 You can save Heather by telling her to NOT leave the house before doing the Giovanni quest.
o man I jumped to that first time stamp that's a real hot take on that quest
Yeah, I feel like going back on your word and agree to betray the person you're working for for more money seems pretty inhumane. Also the one that you lose humanity from killing is an almost innocent woman who couldn't make ends meet with her finances, the other is a Russian mobster that probably orders the death of people for a living. So yeah.
@@masterblaster2678 Also, don't you eventually end up with more money being her partner in the business than the mobster guy gives you? So it is a waste to betray her and lose that humanity.
@@TheMbangel You absolutely do. Narrator missed the ability to dance in clubs for a point of humanity too. This gives you options to fuck people over and recover from it, if thats how you want to roleplay.
I had no idea I could save Heather she always dies in my playthrus!
My favorite part of this game is when you arrive in Hollywood and you meet that Samantha girl someone from your past before you got turned that part gave me chills and stuck with me It felt like I actually lost a friend I feel like that moment is when I really started to love this game. Like it took you right out of the experience of being this badass vampire and right back into reality.
I loved that part. I actually felt the dread when she recognized me, I thought it was really gonna change my game with her taking me home and trying to help or something. Would've been much cooler if it didn't just cause a masquerade loss but still a profound moment for sure
Felt extremely bad using my dominate as a Venture to force her to forget she ever saw me. Pretty impactful
Also, it just came to me, but the reason that hunter in the monastery sounds like a Skyrim NPC is because he's voiced by Micheal Gough. Who is the same guy voicing Beckett, incidentally. He voiced Jarl Baalgruf and Ralof and half the male nords in Skyrim. He also voiced many NPCs in Fallout 3, and if you want a bit more nostalgia he's the same guy who voiced Deckard Cain from the Diablo series.
I didn't play Diablo or Skyrim in English, but imagining the same guy voicing Cain & Baalgruf in Polish is really damn hilarious
I appreciate you slogging through the several loading screens and walking back and forth AND THEN just compiling the best bits for the two hit men who want each other dead, not all heroes wear capes.
It was hilarious lol
58:03 He would have been very understanding and loving and even gives you a home in sewers later. I'm not kidding. Nosferatu all stick together like a giant family, because of their curse. And yes, Gary despises Toreador and you got his unique lines expressing that sentiment.
hmmm well i never played as nosferatu.....ohhh shit here we are again......need to reinstall xD
As a Nosferatu on the first playthrough, I did appreciate their kindness.
Because EVERYONE and I mean EVERYONE constantly rips on your looks and smell. Constantly referring to Nosferatu as rats scurrying in the sewers, but when meeting them they're a surprisingly lively bunch. So I enjoyed my time there with my people.
The reason they band together and have historically hid in sewers, crypts and catacombs is not only their looks and the subsequent pariahood, but also the fact that they are universally hunted by the original bloodline of the clan, the Niktuku. Most Nosferatu in VtM are from an offshoot bloodline descended from the World of Darkness version of Baba Yaga (the witch, not Keanu Reeves), as opposed to the original bloodline sired by Absimilliard, the Antidiluvian. It's also why they are secretive information and computer nerds. They built their own version of the internet (aproprietely called the "Schrecknet", after the actor for the Nosferatu movie) to share sightings of Niktuku and keep themselves safe.
I played this game for the first time a few weeks ago and got given a Malkavian as my first character and I don't think I've ever laughed so hard at written dialogue. Also I adore the 'whispers' you hear in certain environments and when talking to characters which gives you a secret sort of hinting insight, it really sells the Malkavian clan as absolute madlads that know all.
Talking with street signs o talking to the guy on the TV is the best 😂
Also characters and NPCs keep saying that they have no idea what the fuck I am talking about often.
The way they handled the Malkavians is fucking awesome.
Do NPCs treat you weird or call you ugly or anything? Like do they comment on your race? Like how everyone is racist against khajits in skyrim.
First time i ever played skyrim i picked khajit and i still always do. But god damn if every NPC from Makarth to Wibterhold doesnt talk shit to me the entire game. Even when i become a famous godlike savior people will still make comments when i walk by. I found it very... immersive🤣
Anything similar happen in this game depending on the race you chose?
@@ethanride3203 no, that's the nosferatu. The Masquerade already knows Malkavians are weirdos
@@ethanride3203 Everyone comments on how horridly ugly you are as a Nos before you even talk to them, assuming they aren't frozen in abject fear. If you're a malk it takes you opening your mouth for people to go, "Oh, huh, you're kind of loony, aincha?"
I've done the Ocean Hotel level so many times now, but each time, even when I'm fully, mentally prepared, it never fails to scare the goddamn shit out of me.
Maybe it's just because I'm a jaded horror fan but I always found that bit more annoying than scary
Same, over 21 years of playing this game it still get me, every time.
Full on horror levels in non-horror, gothicy games are just shudder inducing. I still get nightmares of the Moira Asylum from the Thief remake. You just never expect this level of scary after playing through however much of the game prior, & it hits you like a train at full speed
I'm actually impressed by the large variety of faces, so many modern RPG's have faces that more or less all look the same.
Highly agreed. I dont know if it's just me or an issue with the way Bethesda designed them or what, but despite the highly detailed character creation system in Fallout 4, almost every single female NPC and main character ends up looking like the default for the wife character/female PC to me
@@pixi7633 for real though! I think it’s the head shape and way the nose and eyes are positioned. From my 300 hours of playing the game it’s the main features which seem to stay the same and consistent. Square head, long or upturned nose, and almond eyes. Sounds specific I know- it’s just what I’ve noticed. I have seen far better improvement in Fallout 76 though!
Elder Scrolls games are some of the worst for every character looking similar. Fallout 4 wins the prize though, although Oblivion comes close. I think the absolute worst is Kingdoms of Amalur, a massive rpg that uses the same 10 faces for everyone.
I'm honestly surprised you went all this way thinking Beckett is a Werewolf. He's actually a Gangrel vampire and just uses Protean to turn into a wolf.
I've played through this game two or three times and even I didn't know that. Damn I'm slow.
Same here, loved this game through the early 2000's and played many times; but couldn't tell you any facts about it to this day; too many other games have mutated my memory.. .
In vtm lore that makes a lot of sense since gangrel are often mistaken to be werewolves
Right? He's the only character in the game that appears in the novels and source material
Yeah man, I guess it never clicked that that was a thing since I (stupidly) never bothered to read through every ability for other clans. Sorry about that, that had to be grating when I kept insisting he was one haha
46:20 - As it happens, vampires aren't COMPLETELY devoid of sex drive in Vampire: The Masquerade, but they have to expend blood to get the biological components working, so it's a strange situation that's a bit divorced from normal concepts of a human libido. So a vampire can absolutely choose to do the nasty. They just lose some blood and have to feed a bit more.
And blush of life
In tabletop, you need to have a very high humanity (8-9 points), which makes you actually a damn Saint. In other cases, you can drive blood into your genitals to at least simulate libido, but you will not get any pleasure from sex. So no, vampires are completely asexual in this regard, because they are corpses. But there was a case when one vampire made a deal with a demon so that he could get himself vitae through sex and fluid exchange
@@evanlavery9788 they are talking about blush of life most likely
1:14:22 "my scantily clad bloodbag"
Salt, if I remember the game correctly, she wasn't scantily clad by her own choice you rascal
You remember correctly, she starts in her normal clothes and you can order her to either turn in to a big titty goth gf or to walk around in thong and not much else.
@@artur6912 Big titty goth gf all the way. Gotta remember next run to save her from getting killed by the Sabbat.
@@12345678900987659101
I thought you couldn't?
@@meris8486 I'm sure you can though I don't remember how
@@meris8486 I think when she starts getting paranoid about being followed you have the choice to let her go, stay inside from now on, or keep looking for goodies. If I remember correctly the first two will save her.
Admittedly, I'm surprised you never mentioned how this game was in a rushed development near the end, purely because Troika Games ended up going bankrupt. So all the combat heavy stuff is mostly because they didn't have the time to flesh out more quests.
yes and it didnt sell sooo much cause it was not allowed to released BEFORE HL2 i think they was done one or 2 months before release, rest of the time they used to debugging
Troika Games were amazing back in the day, the first game of theirs I played was called Arcanum, and GOG has an upgraded version that runs on modern hardware and it looks and plays great with all the patches applied.
If you liked this game, then you’ll probably like Arcanum, if you’re into isometric turn-based or real-time RPGs set in a Steampunk world where you have to choose magic or engineering gadgets.
Did they really go bankrupt? I think they made some pretty good games, I guess they didn't sell well then
@@beemot4110 I think it was more they sold well but slowly. As they didn't get the cash in quick enough, and being a small company, they had to go under sadly.
@@beemot4110 you can have a successful product and still go out of business. It happens all the time, because of mismanagement at the top level businesses that have been around for over 100 years just disappear. I don't know exactly what their particular issue was, but with any small startup it comes down to cashflow, and even if you have a great product, it's not always possible to get it to market, because you don't have enough money to pay distributors, or your employees etc... That was also back in the physical media era of games, so they actually needed more than just a finished game to ship, they had to have the gold master ready to be duplicated and shipped out. Total fucking bummer, but at least we still have the games they finished, and they're flawed masterpieces in my opinion. Thankfully they had a strong following of people that liked what they did, and the community put out patches to fix they stuff they couldn't.
@29:30 Honestly, the Venus/Boris humanity thing made a lot of sense to me for a few reasons:
1. He's not an innocent, if you don't make that social check his people will happily try to kill you for telling them that she can't make the payment, and they're doing that in full compliance with his orders. He's, very straightforwardly, the leader of people who try to kill you, and has definitely ordered the deaths of others before. Backing out of a loan is bad, but not nearly at the same scale.
Speaking of that loan, the terms of it almost certainly aren't legal, they are the mafia after all, and given how much money Venus is able to give the PC and how she still can't make those payments, they're probably never intending on her being able to pay it off. That combined with the explicit threat of violence when she fails to comply means that just on a functional level 2. He's using this loan to r*pe her, she very clearly does not have the option to say no.
And there's also the fact that someone else already pointed out, killing Venus would be a betrayal because she trusts you, whereas Boris doesn't trust you (and has good reason not to since, y'know, probably his goons tried to kill you).
This game is like a Vampire, never gets old...
If ever there was a more fitting comparison, this is it.
*random antediluvian wants to know your location*
Boooooo..... just kidding that was pretty good ☺️
'VTM did in 2004 what Cyberpunk 2077 is doing now.'
You didn't know how right you would be.
If Cyberpunk is as good as VTM, I'll buy ad install it right now, bugs and all
@@GodwynDi it isn't
It is and is not all at the same time. There are good points and bad points. The main quest is about as split as a Malk in how some parts are really good and some are just bad. There are some good side quests and a lot of go here and kill or take X. I had some genuine good interactions with some NPCs. I would not put it as an avoid at all cost level, but waiting for it to go on half off levels of sale is not a bad idea.
Above all else do not get the PS4 or Xbox One, since I doubt any amount of performance fixes will ever really make it work to an acceptable degree on those consoles.
@@GodwynDi Arguably it is.
@@Orshabaal Sadly learned my computer is too old for it. Got to upgrade my processor first
Playing as Malkavian is the ultimate experience akin to low int character in older fallouts. Brilliant writing.
It is perfect for second gameplay, i don't recommend this clan for newcomers :)
@@avishnevsky7394 Yeah, once you're able to get the story, then the Malk dialogueswill make better sense. LOL
@pepethefrog6809 I played this game as a kid and chose malk and absolutely loved it, that being said I am not the best example of mental health
Exactly how I felt in the mansion. Playing as a vampire and still afraid. This game is a masterpeice.
Exactly. Same with there werewolf. It tells you straight up, no matter how powerful you think you are as a vampire, you're not the most dangerous thing in the room.
@@dragonheart1236 Didn't know you could kill him till my 2nd run. LOL My first run against the Garou was just panic.
Cain: Murders his brother, Abel.
God: “DAMN YOU, but here... immortality and some superpowers, bro.”
Ah, yes, Sseth jokes.
Dont forget - immortality isnt THE punishment.
Watching your sons and daughters repeating your crime over and over for eternity is.
God didn't actually give Cain the powers, though. That was Lilith that did that. And the immortality wasn't really as much of a blessing as you'd think.
@@FalenDragmire
Tsk. Tell me... how was this a better choice than God just doing literally anything else?
How about, say... smite Cain on the spot and let his eternal punishment commence in Hell?
Why make Cain live forever when eternal punishment is *precisely* Hell’s purpose?
Then again, this was Old-Testament God. He was a bit more knee-jerk in in that book.
Man... this sounds stupid.
His punishment from god was to walk the earth forever, and remain unseen(?), quite a slow burn punishment. Keep in mind hell was pretty vacant of human souls at that time. The other things like burning in sunlight and shit was from the other angels. Super powers came from the woman god made from scratch rather than from adam's rib, and blood sucking became a thing because of his dealing with a witch (baba yaga i think?). Its been years since I read Vtm Book of Nod so I aint accurate, but shit's a very interesting read.
Beckett isn't a werewolf, though it's easy to confuse him as one given his abilities. He's actually a vampire called a "Gangrel" which is a clan that can turn into animals, he just happens to choose a wolf. He's like, really important to the overall lore for one reason or another. He collects knowledge and is called the "most learned of all Kindred regarding their condition and history" by the books if memory serves. Basically, he's an exposition dump in the form of a creature of the night
The best part of this game is discovering it in the first playthrough with like a Toreador or whatever and then playing as a Malkavian for your second playthrough... It's like you're having a dialogue with your in game brain 0.0
Playing a Malkavian for your first playthrough is the funniest and most bizarre experience
@@mattpinkerton6562 that's the route I went, too. I've always loved playing Malks in tabletop/larp.
@@mattpinkerton6562 yeah I was confused as heck
Don't play as Nosferatu on the first playthrough though, don't make my mistake
My first game was as a Tremere which didn't prepare me for combat at all (Blood magic is very OP). Malkavian dialogue made it worth it though as everything was different. Convincing the lady who recognizes you as her turtle is memorable.
Salt, when you mention the "weird writing" of V.V you're missing a big point of the World of Darkness universe. The Vampire Clans embody sins, V. V being a Toreador she is very vain, self centered and her flirtation (despite being vampire on vampire) is an act of that flaw. In the lore an example given of a Toreador giving into their flaw fatally is how a Toreador got lost in the visage of their own reflection in a pond until the sun rose.
That simultaneously sounds like clever writing and the imitation of cleverness
How exactly would a vampire be able to see his reflection? Aren't they NOT supposed to have one? Or is that aspect different in this universe?
@@krishanubanerjee6955 Only Lasombra Clan vampires don't have relections. They also fuck with electronics.
Also Toreador vampires in their lore have way more attachment to humanity then other vampires and as they can keep body tempreture and even pump blood making them practicaly look alive, and lore for them says it`s not rare that Toreador vampires have erotic encounters
...yeah, and besides, vampires can use Blush of Life to make them appear alive (...and to have certain functions work as they would in case of a normal human 👀)
Bloodlines is one of those incomplete masterpieces. Oddly enough, the development cycle of Bloodlines 2 seems to be following the original. Give me a fantastically imperfect single player game.
'No viability for melee builds at all.'
Me *ran through the whole thing as a stealth/brawling Gangrel with Warform*: Puny little Toreador says what?
My first playthrough I went melee with Toreador. Just turn on Celerity and have fun
He missed how much damage stacks with skills, comparing a fully optimized ranged build to middling melee, while trying to face tank one of the 2 bosses in the game where that is not a good strategy. Firearms are, on average, better by the time you get to the Society of Leopold quest, but any min-maxed build is godlike by that point irrespective of combat type.
Quite possibly the most ignorant thing said in the entirety of this video, lol.
I still remember my first playthrough as melee Brujah. You think celerity with guns is op? Wait till you see celerity, potence and a bush hook, my sweet boy
* laughs in Brujah *
In the tabletop game I believe toreador can actually have normal sex with the ability called "blush of life" or something along those lines. It basically makes their skin warm and their heart beat again for a limited time
Blush of life is available for all clans, though if I recall correctly, low humanity vampires or vampires following the alternate morality paths can't use it, as they are to far removed from their humanity to mimic life.
There are a combination of merits that, if taken, mimic human bio functions in the tabletop. If you take blush of health, baby face, and eat food and drink you can pass for human in most instances. You look human, you breath, your heart beats, you can eat regular food (although you gain nothing from it), and overall you can blend in perfectly. This also means that your blood flows during specific activities such as sex. A vampire can still not reproduce in the human way (except for fifteenth gen but that's not important here), but they can still enjoy sex.
@@alistairgrey5089 Thank god for that haha.
Not limited to Toreador. Mostly high humanities one
If i remember the rules, you spent a number of blood points equal to 7 minus your humanity to "be human"
This allowed you to breath correctly, sweat, and even have sex correctly
This means that once you hit 7 humanity you could always appear to be human
As someone who played the game as Malkavian in my first playthrough, I have to say Therese and Jeanette are the best examples I can give as to why
Ah, the old classic Beckett = werewolf mistake. Here come the comments.
I'm actually surprised to learn that this is apparently a common misconception. When I first played I assumed he must be a vampire since the game is called vampire the masquerade and they all have unique magic and the gangrel clan logo was a wolf head. What really surprised me was when an actual werewolf showed up.
@@artur6912 because in the world of darkness everything is real, including wizards, vampires are the biggest population, but aren't even the stronger species in this world
@@devforfun5618 I was more or less aware of the whole world of darkness (vampire, werewolf, mage ect.) when I first played, not the nitty gritty with all the Kindred and Garou lore, but I just assumed that since this is VTM, only vampires will be involved, hence I probably never thought to suspect Becket of being anything other than "the vampire that have the wolf logo", so the actual Werewolf was a shock, as is learning that this is a common misconception about Becket and probably the Sherif.
Demon: The Fallen > All of WoD
Grimbeard fell for this meme too. I remember my first time going through the game as a gangrel and therefore never assumed he was a werewolf.
Couple things
1. the sabbat are vampire fundamentalists who believe that vampires should follow the dictates of Cain literally and are organized like the catholic church.
2. Backett is a Grangal, not a werewolf
3. in VtM Werewolfs HAtE vampires
4. The primogen tend to be the eldest of their respective clan in the city and represent their clan in the court of the prince
5. Antideluvians are vampires sired before the flood of Noah but more specifically the 13 surviving vampires of the 3rd generation who sired the thirteen clans who founded the Camarilla and Sabbat
6. Garry doest like salts character BECAUSE he's specifically Toreador
7. the Kuei-jin are not descended from Cain
Primogen do have responsibilities as leaders of their clans in a city they are responsible for them why they are not always the eldest, sometimes those are just not interested in the position
and Malkavian is best blood line
@@vivithegr8389 correct term is clan, Bloodlines are something different in that setting, well not very different but still, they are clans without a 3 generation ancestor. Usually those Bloodlines are created by experimentention on higher generation vampires.
Aka Vampire antifas
@@chillhour6155 No, that's the Anarchs by all standards. The Sabbat are more like...
Well, it's hard to make a comparison that isn't super innacuruate, but they're religious extremists who are fighting a holy war against the third generation.
Playing as a Malk is a joy to behold…definite must for a second play through!
"A fucking nuclear rocket flies out of the ground and hurdles it's way towards Nevada."
Lonesome Road intensifies.
Ulysses:ah fuck here we go again
53:20 There's actually a mod called the Clan Quest Mod that adds the choice to join the Sabbat. That route introduces a new area, new fully voiced NPCs, a quest chain, the ability to diablerize some of the other characters, and a new ending. It's all pretty well-done too in my opinion.
The Sabbat ending is actually cut content that gets restored with the plus patch. You do need low humanity (
There are stealthy ways to complete the warehouse in Santa Monica. Secret entrances. You don't have to fight your way through it if you don't want to. It took me years to figure that out. And you get extra exp in the end if you're not detected during the process. This games replayability is awesome just because of little things like that.
This video has literally been made two dozen times by different content producers, and every time it's done again, hundreds of people reinstall the game.
I could listen to you talk about literally anything
yeah, he could literally talk about some concept and I’d listen to it. He’s got that voice it makes it easy to listen to it.
Same
"the fitnessgram pacer test is a"
Plus, the humour is just nice. Not too overbearing, not too absent.
Yeah honestly I could listen to him talk about anything and be fine, he could make an 8 hour video about discussing pointless crap and I could listen to it contently throughout my work day
19:23 I always got serious The Shining vibes from the Ocean View hotel quest. It is also one of my favourite quests because of the mood and atmosphere it creates.
Pretty sure that was intentional
“Yeah, we’re going to be playing this in third person now” XD I spit out my soup
That was SUCH a good line.
ACTUALLY, Beckett isn't a werewolf, he's a dedicated furry.
Reinstalling in 3...2...1...
Accurate statement
Protean heavy Gangrel :p
@@dr.mikizzletherapist8294 I just don't delete it since I installed it in 2018, saves time needed for reinstalling and has a stable patch.
@@VetkinaOlga same
53:40 in the tabletop Vampire game, each dot of celerity gives either an extra dot in ALL DEXTERITY rolls (dodge, shoot, attack, lockpick, sneak) or ANOTHER TURN. So at 5 celerity you have either +5 attack or + 5 extra turns. That is way more OP.
Kuei-Jin lumox was too hard because you didn't have skills in melee, and Sheriff was too easy because you had skills in guns. Could have been the exact opposite with a different build.
I hate Kuei-Jin boss fight even as male, as where sherif can be even more as male
It was kinda nerfed in v20 (or was it DAV20? where the extra actions are half your rating in celerity round up)
"Alright we're playing this quest in third person now"
I have never felt more called out
"...what Cyberpunk 2077 is doing *this year*" - oh, you optimist.
More like realist ;-)
@@NotUnymous
I want to like it but its Skyrim Combat in almosr 2021 and worse AI
Hell vtmb has far superior ai
@@lesfreresbogdanoff7863 how is it skyrim combat 😭😭
They nailed it though. Cyberpunk reminded me a lot of Bloodlines. Less for the bugs but more for the story and character quality. And CDProject are in the business of fixing the bug issues. Not in the clean release business. So it will become a well polished diamond. Now it is a diamond in the rough.
@@lesfreresbogdanoff7863 the combat in cyberpunk are nothing like Skyrim, and while the IA in Skyrim is a bit better (for civilian npc at least) vtmb is the worse of the three by far.
I know it's trendy to shit on the game but at least play it before, the game as a lot of flaw stop inventing new one.
This ! One of the best reviews ever made for this game so far . Simple , honest with a little bit of sense for the right humour . Loved to watch it aaand subbed .
Respekt , Junge - Einfach Klasse !!!
I love how the character models are semi realistic, but still stylized. Feels like studios are way too lazy for that most of the time these days.
why be artistically ambitious when you can throw $50 million at photogrammetry machines
Style ages better then realistic.
Honestly the amount of time I've heard it be called "a flawed masterpiece" it might as well be called "The flawed masterpiece
Imagine what kind of a true masterpiece the game could have been if the studio had enough funds and time to finish the game properly.
Imagine what the world would be like if Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines, New Vegas, and Knights of The Old Republic 2 were given time.
@@vogonp4287Sounds like paradise.
Every clan gets special dialog with npcs that are also members of that clan. In a few cases this does result in extra quests. Tremere actually have their own special haven, so do Nossies. Definitely worth replaying the game to find all the hidden goodies n stuff. If you don't want to replay as every single clan, I'd highly recommend Nossies, Malks, and Tremere. Tremere mostly just cuz blood magic is cool, but the other two really change stuff up throughout the entire game for ya.
Those 3 yup. :) Also, you get treated differently by factions and individual vamps depending on your type, since they all have their inner disputes, comradery and clan pride. Tremeres and Nosferatu also get unique safehouses.
Beckett Is a Vampire of the Gangrel clan. He was using advanced Protean to turn into a wolf.
It pissed me off every time he’d say it. I understand why he thought it at first but then he saw an actual werewolf and they looked nothing alike. But he did look like The Sheriff’s spectral wolves so you’d think he’d put two and two tougher and figure out its vamp magic
You're right this particular fact flew over his head completely. To be fair it happened to me in exactly the same way first time I played ages ago. I got it on my second playthrough only. Embarrassing but true. Idiots exist and they live near you - we're everywhere.
Vampires and Werewolves hate eachother with a passion in VTM
but isn't that part of what makes this game so great, especially for people who don't know the lore?
you detect something new every playthrough and can get apretty solid understanding of the lore, by simply experiencing everything from a first person perspective.
Yeah I feel you man you can even ask him if he's a werewolf first time you meet and he will tell you no he's not
it's a crying shame that Troika games went bankrupt, I really would have loved to see more games from them, but I suppose a lot of them left to work at obsidian afterwards which explains why FalloutNV was so damn good
Honestly, this game is one of my favorites. One thing I REALLY love about this game, is actually typing in the controls on the computers in-game. That immersion is the best.
I can pretend to be a smart hacker(emphasize on pretend)
@@eldridgecharles1313 we joke but it honestly feels just so god damn good imo. Like, idk I wish it was something more games had.
@White-Van Helsing Prey 2017 from Arkane does that, too.
@@eldridgecharles1313 there's actual games built on that premise, Hacknet and Uplink.
There's a shortcut for the Hollywood Sewer that's part of the Unofficial Patch. Honestly that patch is a godsend. Also Good Old Games will always have my support just for making old games playable on new machines.
I love this game, played it a lot back in the day. Details like each bloodline having different outfits are a nice touch.
I swear facial animations peaked with this game.
even the eyes are captivating. Still better than Mass Effect: Andromeda xD
Beckett isn't a werewolf my man, he is a Gangrel which is a clan of vampires. The Gangrel just take more inspiration from the classic version of vampires like Dracula, where vampires could shapeshift into bats, wolves, and mist.
You literally can ask him that first time you meet and he will tell you no he's not
Or he's an old malkavian, whose insanity manifested in him thinking he is a gangrel. Most disciplines are not gated behind the clan, just harder to gain and upgrade for clans without aptitude for them.
Yeah I loved that that this was a Vampire game that showed respect to werewolves...when they finally appear oh man
And a so so wrestler with one of the better entrances ever
My dead Tzimisce heart just died again.
Ah, one of the few games, that I actually completed. I'm really bad at playing trough a game completely, but this storytelling was just so good and the characters so captivating, I wanted to know more. Love the voice acting and absolutely fell in love with Beckett and Strauss xD
VtM Bloodlines is one of the few games I played to the end. Another one was Wizardry 8 and a new one is Baldur's Gate 3. I liked Malkavian best. I still hope for Bloodlines 2. THQ Nordic, I payed you long time ago for the game, now finally deliver!!!
The best ending is when you put the explosives in the sarcophagus and it ends with your character walking away as it explodes and you are flipping everyone off.
What ending is that?
@@everythingpony non aligned
Concerning the gargoyle questline: if you go and ask Strauss about Gargoyles you can eventually get him to fess up that the one hiding in the theater is his creation, as well as go into more detail about their creation and intended purposes. The one in the theater hates Tremere especially because he feels as if he was created just to be a slave to the Tremere.
All gargoyle where created by Tremere as slaves
Gargoyles were created through blood magic by mixing Gangrel, Nosferatu, and Tzimisce blood. Honestly, the Tremere being in the Camarilla is one of the big reasons that the Tzimisce are Sabat.
@@dojoisdead
And NOT because someone at White Wolf had a fetish for H.R. Giger?
@@chesterstevens8870 that is the reason they exist in lore, not why they are part of the "bad" vampires, but i think the fact that they create monstrosities on purpose is enough for them to hate the Camarilla, their powers just break the masquerade
"He pay you in dagger. Make direct deposit to you in the back!" I've been laughing at this particular line for years now.
You missed some exposition from Nines or maybe Smiling Jack where the Kuei-Jin originally slaughtered tons of cainite vampires when they first arrived in Chinatown- it was a biiiig anarchs vs Kuei-Jin battle, that the Anarchs lost, which I believe is one of the reasons there are so few in the game.
IIRC Its also what allowed the Camarilla to move into LA
Yes, in the Bloodlines lore it seems that MacNeil's Free State really did get muddled up by the Wan-kuei's plotting, resulting in the Camarilla coming in and the Wan-kuei having a foothold more and more.
Alright, you convinced me to try this again!
Hey it's my favorite challenge TH-camr!
YES!!!
Two of my favorite TH-camrs in the same place? What is this, a crossover episode?
Honestly, this game is fantastic, the character builder is super flexible, loads of replay value.
LETS PLAY
played this game a few times, was quiet fun. Playing as a Malkavian, you can actually call out some of the plot before they happen, like you can say "The face of" some two faced Roman God, to Therese when you meet her for the first time and she realizes you already have seen her split personality.
And if you talk to Jack enough times, he straight up says the only reason he hasn't killed you is because you don't understand half the things you're raving about.
Janus, she of alabaster and ivory ❤️💜
@@rebellyanmagic6409 My first playthrough was as a Malkavian. I literally did not understand half the things I was raving about which was pretty darn fitting.
As I always say, Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines' gameplay is borderline unplayable without certain mods thanks to it's unfinished state. That said, it's easily one of the most atmospheric RPGs of all time. It's story and characters are the true reason why I played it three times in a row.
Yeah, I have played through every clan and wish there were more to try. GOG is the way to go with pre-installed mod to fix the graphics bugs, but it's still buggier than a PBJ sandwich left on the sidewalk in June. The story and dialogue are worth it though.
I don't know, my first playthrough was just with the fan-made patch and I found it playable enough. Maybe next time I can motivate myself to play, it'll be modded.
Heyoo, just wanted to let you know that the common "fan theory" that explains why you always follow LaCroix command is because he is a Ventrue, who has Dominate.
He actually does if you try to ignore his commands.
I love the voice acting in this game so much. If you listen carefully, the vampires and Becket have a slight lisp from their bigger teeth. So much detail in this game. Love it!!
Becket's a vampire too.
@@jeremiahwarden5959 thought he was the Werewolf…?
Heather, your scantily clad ghoul house-servant, didn't die on my playthrough. In fact, there are two different ways of saving her!
**Sigh** Great, now I'm reinstalling this game AGAIN.
Could you expand on those ways? I couldnt find anything other than send her away when she first brings up being followed
@@alexandraionica7036 The first way is to send her away prior to the Vampire Hunter base quest. The second is only available in the plus patch. I haven't played for a while so I checked the interwebs and this is what I found (you may want to double check). Apparently you need to go to her after the museum but before reporting back to LaCroix and get the scene where she's kidnapped that dood, then report to LaCroix, then go back to her and tell her to stay inside. She won't give you the combat armor, but you'll be able to buy it from Mercurio during the blood hunt.
58:00 My first playthrough was as a quiz-given Nosferatu. He's a lot less condescending and hostile against you and gives you a new crib if you're chill with him.
He is actually MORE condescending to you if you are a toreador because torries and nossies hate each other
I tried the questionnaire my first playthrough and it recommended the Malkavian clan. It was the best and worst choice ever for a first-timer. It was a hell of a ride and made future "normal" playthroughs feel completely different.
Aww man, so stoked you covered this game. Glad to see you’ve been covering all my favourite games. Aaand a Toreador fam as well.
Aww man, things can’t get any better :)
Now you too will be struck by its curse.
To reinstall it, whenever it is mentionced hencefoth.
That Vesuvius Vampire Chick is a Toreador, the whole clan is similar in the way that they want to pretend they're still driven by human passions. The Sexual vibes of Jeanette on the other hand come through her rebellious nature and the fact that she's batshit crazy. Your Clan is a bloodline that affects your personality quite a bit.
There's also the fact that the girl in Vesuvius was probably just putting on an act to not draw suspicion from the humans around her.
"pretend"?
@@CErra310 I'm sure you've heard the word before and know what it means
Could also be that she’s so used to acting like a human that it’s become a habit and she doesn’t even realize she’s doing it.
I don't think Toreadors pretend that they are human I think, they FEEL more human now then when they when they were alive. LIke Malkavians get craze, Nosferatu become ugly and Toreadors become more humane, for better or for worse
AH yes...That might sound a bit strange but you gave me a new "podcast" for sleep time XD
You're not alone with that :D Looking forward to have a closer look at the video tomorrow, but for now...
Same
You could try the soothing sound of rain over the criticism of salt, haha.
The way you started this, I thought it might end up being a Jojo reference.
@Moist Tony sound a bit f-up I hope that you still taking enough sleep to even function like a living being :D
Okay is it just me, or are the facial animations actually kinda good?
Better than fallout 4 lol
It's a source engine game, having facial animations that don't look like molten plastic was one of the selling points for HL2.
'which means VTM Bloodlines basically did in 2004 what Cyberpunk 2077 is doing this year'
Considering both games are broken and unfinished, this statement hits harder post-cyberpunk release.
Deal's over people. I appreciate the view though!
Ohhh this is why it's a masterpiece lol
I already own it on Steam. Would buy it again anyway, but I’m broke as fuck.
Thanks for the “roughly hour and 35 minutes of unbridled wordage”, always appreciated!
Do you get benefit for each purchase from GOG?
Thanks for the discount! Had this game on my radar for a long time but didn't want to pull the trigger at $20.
Well I guess I'm playing Vampire now. Thanks!
Presumably LaCroix is Dominating you whenever you talk to him, hence the inability to say no
If you're a dick to him he does Dominate you, so
Not 'presumably'. If you refuse, he just dominates you. With animation and all. And all of your dialogue options become "yes, I will do it". Of course, you can forget about getting a flat from him, if you do that.
One of the best games I ever played was highly addicted to this back in college!
I have such low expectations for bloodlines 2 with how there just firing lead roles left and right.
Especially the writer. Hiring some creative lead who used to work for Assassin’s Creed, Rainbow Sox and For Cry series doesn’t make it look any better in the perspective. Fingers crossed it’s not “another open-world” game that all of the mentioned games were, while having god awful, nigh non-existent stories, tons of dull characters and no fucking dialogues.
Looking at The Outer Wilds and how some stuff is similar to what we saw in all these games (and Fallout NV), that share the writer (L. Boyarsky), I’m guessing he’s one of the biggest creative writers. Since he is in Obsidian now, it couldn’t be as cool anyway.
@@adaptorperish1322 It's ganna be like the new assassins's creed witcher wannabes. They will make it LOOK right without realising that the writing and characters are what would make it FEEL right.
@@adaptorperish1322 not only that, but the new lead has history with working on post-release monetization, which is probably the reddest of flags when it comes to the dude.
Firing Brian Mitsoda for no discernable reason was already a weird move, considering that they used him to market the game because he was also the lead in the original game, but now both lead writers are out of the project and nothing makes sense at all.
Also: wrong "Outer", but I get what you meant
@@adaptorperish1322 wdym bruh fallout new vegas was amazing
Yeah they would have been better off never announcing it since I was hyped during the announcement. Then literally almost every piece of news about it since then has been very bad. If the game comes out, and is actually good it would be a miracle at this point. It was funny though after the first demo looked bad, and it had that SJW writer saying out right she hated the original game everyone just said "Don't worry it's got Brian Mitsoda were good". Then next headline is they fired him lol
Hey man, love your videos, especially the exhaustive, thoughtful replays of the Elder Scrolls games. Think we're about the same age and had a lot of the same gaming experiences as kids. Really great content and hits that nostalgia nerve just right. Keep up the great work! 10/10
This video came out incredibly well. Your presentation style plays to this game's strengths. Good luck
Beckett isn't a werewolf, he was a Gangrel clan of vampire that turn into animals and live in the wilderness.
This is the first video of yours, I am stumbling over.
Loved it. Good stuff, nice analysis and critique.
Looking forward to binge your backlog.
For anyone planning on getting into this game, I'd recommend playing Malchavian in a second playthrough.
They always speak in an old tongue that can make understanding what you're actually saying kind of a hassle
Honestly if you don´t mind being confused and dig the feeling of going mental and existential horror than going for Malchavian first is pretty darn fun and a very unique experience to find. For example just sitting in your safehouse starts making you paranoid due to the newscasts or the taxi scene near the end becomes terrifying since your character goes nuts due to the nature with whom you are driving and you get this massive feeling of dread that things are about to go south.
Since you don´t know on your first playthrough what can happen you start getting the felling that some eldritch horror could just pop up midconversation at any moment and take with it the rest of your feeble mind.
A hassle = skipping the entire tutorial by accident. Love this game, but wasn't prepared to pick unofficial hard mode for my first playthrough
That stranger who stops you in Hollywood is a friend you had before you were turned. I think it was to give the illusion of you having a life before then.
And a patch has made it possible to skip the whole sewer section.
"The bad suck after the good suck" lol thank you My anxiety was driving me insane all day that made me laugh so hard it gave me some relief I appreciate that that was funny wordsmith.
I hope you're feeling better 💜
The occult blade wrecks Ming Xao. Yes, it spawns a lot of clones, but they die instantly when she does. You can get a bunch of supernatural buffs in various places that make your abilities better. You also want to trigger blood buff and celerity when fighting tougher enemies. And there are a number of "hidden" quests that only happen when you do certain things in certain ways. I like being Tremere, because blowing people up is fun. Also you can make others fight for you. It also bears repeating that the cab driver is Cain, the first vampire. The gargoyle was created by Strauss, and you can ask him about it if you grab the book in the chantry on gargoyles. This sets up a double reward, strauss rewards you for keeping the chantry's secret, and makes the fight with the gargoyle easier with a talisman that he gives you, but you also get the main reward for the quest, double XP, double payment, and you can betray strauss after anyway, if you like. So kill gargoyle, report back to the hollywood dude and tell him you don't know anything, then report to strauss, get the reward, then go back and tell the hollywood dude that strauss made the gargoyle and get another reward. Also the webcam quests allow you access to places to pick up trinkets that you can trade for posters in your haven. The game is so much deeper than you think.
I love that the hotel changes the mood for every person that ever plays it.