What would you do if you were a vampire caught between a war in the streets of Los Angeles?

Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines is a role playing game published in 2004, the game it resembles most is Deus Ex which was released in 1999. It also plays similar to Deus ex, you are given quite a large hub map to move around in, explore and complete various quests to increase the level of your abilities. The difference is you are given more freedom where to go and you are not constantly hiding from enemies

You play as a vampire of a clan that is of your choosing. The different clans are:

Nosferatu – are the most hideous vampires in appearance. This is due to their clan curse, which transforms them into vile creatures during their embrace. They rely mostly on stealth and cunning and prefer not to take hostiles head on. They usually cannot engage in dialogue conversations for they will automatically be considered as hostiles on sight. Playthroughs with a nosferatu character are very different from others. I suggest to only choose Nosferatu on your subsequent playthroughs.

Bruja – are the premiere melee fighters of this game. The lore states them to be quite violent as they always pick fights and tend to disagree with the Camarilla. For me, they are the most boring clan to play, even if you are quite strong in combat the focus of the game is the dialogue and the story.

Toreador – My first playthrough is of the clan Toreador, I picked it because you are able to sway various people like speech checks in the modern fallout games, and those dialogue conversations will usually lead to a more interesting path. They are quite weak in combat though so keep that in mind when facing against bosses.

Ventrue – almost the same as Toreador, you are also able to sway people to your side. The difference lies in the clan weakness, you are not able to consume the blood of hobos and rats, this will cause your character to vomit and lose quite a lot of blood in the process.

Tremere – Tremere’s have quite the interesting playstyle. I have yet to start a playthrough with a Tremere character. They possess additional abilities through blood magic and potencies.

Malkavian – The most interesting clan in my opinion. Because the clan curse of Malkavians is their insanity which manifests in different ways per individual, the dialogue options are remarkably different and can give insight to different story elements of the game even coming close to predicting the future of the NPC’s.

Gangrel – My opinion of them is the same as bruja’s, they are really strong with their beast form but lack intelligence.

There is only one bar that you need to keep a close eye on and that is your so called “blood bar”. When you use your various disciplines you draw blood from the blood bar, it can be replenished by feeding on unsuspecting people (you cannot feed on other vampires) or animals or by buying blood packs from dealers. Warning, no one must see you when you are feeding or they will be alarmed and call the authorities. There are usually strategic feeding places on every hub, usually in dark corners and alleyways.

If you ever played Deus Ex or any open hub RPG you will quickly get the hang of this game. You are tasked with a certain quest that you need to complete and left to your own devices. There are usually multiple ways to complete the quests, you can either speak your way through the obstacles, sneak around them or just confront the enemy face to face. This increases the variety of the game and prevents it from turning monotonous.

Your stats will usually determine which play style you are more effective in.

If you want to be more along the lines of stealth, you need to put points on the Covert section, which includes hacking, lockpicking, sneaking, inspection and research. If you want to be a sweet talker then you need to put points in the Public section and lastly if you want to just decimate your enemies you need to put point in combat and soak to do it effectively.

Various disciplines will also help you in your task, they are basically active powers that allow you to increase your stats in some way. Auspex increases some of the Covert stats, bloodbuff increases combat and Fortitude increases Soak. Different clans have different disciplines. In my opinion, these is the most important element of the game as it gives the player so much choice and makes future playthroughs more interesting.

The graphics holds up in my opinion, you will not run into any performance issues as the game does not need to render too much. The soundtrack is quite the killer especially when you get to downtown. However, I would suggest that you download from http://www.patches-scrolls.de/patch/4647/7/74148 or the latest that you could find, as without these patches the game becomes quite unplayable with all the bags and it also allows you to skip the worst and the most unnecessary level in the game.

Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines is a classic, it’s a must play, pick it up from steam when it’s on sale.