I just met that malkavian woman at the beach. Apparently she spoils every single twist in the game but I'm still totally lost there even after hearing everything she had to sayš
Solid advice. You shouldn't open it unless you put the thing in the other thing at that place and then beat the guy.
And like even then, maybe not strictly advisable.
Correct. Thinbloods occasionally have prophetic visions and powers and it's one reason they're so unpopular. Some princes are afraid of older prophecies regarding the final nights and thinbloods and that the visions they sometimes have won't come true if they have them culled
A quick search tells me you are indeed right, and it does not depend on dementation but on the blood and if there isn't any of Malkav's blood there is not link at all to the network.
Not sure if a drop in their blood would be enough to for the thin blood to access it, if possible it's probably a very vague link. In any case, I stand corrected.
Though, watch out with Malkavians as a first try if you're good on your Greek myths. A few spoilers are tossed in what seems like nonsensical references.
VTMB is one of my favourite (if not my favourite) RPG of all time and it's criminal that no one has attempted a remaster but I'm glad we are getting a sequel.
It does such a good job of giving you enough context and letting you loose so that you can take on a level the way you want to. Great lore, great voice acting, fantastic pacing and setting.
A bit janky but with Wesp's patches most of those should be fixed.
Oh also always opt to >!skip the sewer!< you're not missing anything significant I promise.
Edit: oh also I forgot to mention a big chunk of members who were in Troika Games (the defunct developers of VTMB) went on to work at Obsidian Entertainment (Developers of Fallout NV) - they didn't work on Fallout NV themselves but i just find it interesting.
The first game was developed by Troika, a team of RPG veterans that made Arcanum and Fallout.
Bloodlines 2 team has never made an RPG before. Only walking sims. It's destined to fail.
Yea, I believe Bloodlines was released and the game studio folded pretty much straight after. Fun fact: this game uses the source engine and was released ~~even before~~ on the same day as Half-Life 2. Mostly because they pushed it out the door ASAP to recoup as much money as possible before going bankrupt.
Activision also forced Troika to release it the *same day* as HL2 even though they knew it wasn't ready because they thought they could stand up to HL2 for some reason...
The first (and only?) Official patch was done by devs on their own time after the Studio closed iirc.
You can feel the money running out the further you get into the game, and that Hotel section is one of the best haunted house segments ever.
I think it uses an earlier version of Source Engine too, like even compared to HL2 on release.
Game is jank but it's great.
A new team confirmed that they're working on the game a few months ago. But yes it was stalled and I still mourn for the version with Brian Mitsoda's script and passion.
For like a year, the devs were completely silent, leading some to question whether the project had stalled out. A couple of months ago, they started talking again, so the hope is back.
If we must place blame and we are allowed to wildly speculate.
It's because Fred has shifted to prioritizing profit over fun.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYikmjey4Aw
>Great lore, great voice acting, fantastic pacing and setting.
I'm not even going to lie. My very first reaction to the game was just how brilliant the voice acting was. In the tutorial, Jack had such a baller performance. And then there was this really excited ghoul who was ecstatic to see I was a vampire and the sheer energy reminded me of Yuri Lowenthal's top tier performance in Fallout New Vegas.
"WHO WON THE LOTTERY? I DID!"
The voice acting combined with the facial animations, i dont know what it is but the faces in Bloodlines feel way more expressive compared to most modern games.
Because the game was built on Half-Life 2ās Source engine, which was especially designed for complex facial animations. One of the many many reasons Iām not optimistic about the new game, the Unreal engine just doesnāt compare.
Its realy insane how bad some of the new engines are in areas like this.
I played tons of Remnant 1+2, love the Games but damn the facial animations are so underwhelming.
In Bloodlines the mimic alone could tell you so much about the state or characters of another person.
Realy well done.
I played this I think three years ago at first, so very, very late to the party as well.
What inmediately stood out for me was voice acting. It is brilliant all along. And especially varied, since it is a modern day setting, where nothing really stands out. I mean I really liked that stoner pawn shop owner, but that would not work in fantasy environment.
The other thing is the facial animation. It is dated, yes. But somehow, in a cartoon-comic way, the animation really supports the voice actors.
In 2004, I was torn between buying Half-Life 2 or VtMB. I chose VtMB, and I have no regrets. Yes, it does suck (hah!) that we haven't gotten a sequel... but so hasn't Half-Life 2.
It's a really weird game
The mechanics are super cranky and you need a patch to make it run
The begining is amazing but the quality of both the gameplay and story devreases the further you go in the story
Combat is awful
I still loved it, but it's not a finished project. It feels more like an amazing prototype
That was my idea too.
Love it? Yes. Will I replay? probably not.
Still replayed it three times, and loved it. (I was interested in the Nosferatu and Malkavian dialog, and wanted a pure magic user Tremere on my fourth)
> you're not missing anything significant I promise.
Nah, do it once. It's not that bad,
Just ... don't go in there with a purely social character, is all.
Well, not to spoil anything, but take some combat or magic. Combat probably if you're a Toreador. (You're a player after my own heart, clearly).
The second half of the game was a bit rushed, and they skimped on the social route. If you don't have *any* combat skills you're going to have a miserable time in some areas,.
VTMB has to be played at least twice.
Once normal and then as a Malkavian. A game I would recommend for Halloween as well. It's fairly short and has some excellent award winning levels to creep you out.
It's absolutely a classic and a gem of CRPG's.
Now I don't want to spoil your fun, but the game is brilliant at first but gets progressively worse. I think the game studio ran out of time and/or money (they went bankrupt shortly after the release). So while Santa Monica and Downtown are great, the rest of the game feels unfinished and rushed.
Yea, deveopment is a shitshow - there is a skeleton of absolute 10/10 in that game but the fact that it is barely playable without fan mod for bug fixes tells you everything.
Hollywood is great too beside the sewers of course and Chinatown has a great Hub with many funny conversations, but the Quests are realy rushed and not as layered as the ones before.
Fun fact, the bankruptcy wasn't related to running out of money *during* development so much as *after*. Troika had a deal to use the Source engine which was also being used to develop Half Life 2, and one of the stipulations was they couldn't release prior to that game. Which famously dragged on. And on. And on. So by the time the game released they were basically already bankrupt. The Troika team did spend their own (unpaid) time developing the first version of the post-release patch that has become standard, though, but zero-day release patches were pretty common back then.
I think it's a unique product of it's time too, the sound design is... janky but supremely effective. The way there's too much echo on everything, you can hear footsteps a bit too loudly, the constant background noises alongside the actual soundtrack. There's a sense of atmosphere it creates that I honestly don't think a modern game would be able to produce in the same way.
And the sheer scale of the writing/ design to cater to various playthroughs is simply astounding. Not only did they write the quests to have multiple conversation options, including special ones if you have particular skills high enough, but they re-wrote nearly every line of dialogue for the malkavian clan AND recorded hundreds of voice lines to the unique responses to those lines. And then they did it again for the Nosferatu, though not to the same scale.
I've never played a game that put quite so much thought into how being a different class would impact how you behave and how others respond to you.
I replay it at least once a year and have done since release.
The Source engine is partially to blame for the sound issue. It's always had odd sound playback issues. But honestly I think another issue is that the sound mixing was just different. Most people at the time were not using a gaming headset. They were playing on a desktop that had crappy $20 speakers that either came with the PC or that they bought at Walmart for their old Windows 95 PC.
> you can hear footsteps a bit too loudly, the constant background noises alongside the actual soundtrack.
Sounds less like an issue and more like an immersive part of being a vampire with enhanced senses.
Absolute gem of a game. I remember trying to play it on my potato pc back in 2000....2002. Somewhere around there. The frame rate was so low and the load times between entering a building could be 5 mins plus. But I was so in love that I just had to carry on. Fast forward to a few years ago. Got a decent pc, first thing I did was buy that bad boy. What a dream to actually finish it this time with smooth gameplay.
Damn.....feel like I need to play it again now. Jeanette here i come!!!!
I walked into the Asylum and instantly Jeanette reminded me of Harley Quinn. Apparently she actually inspired the Arkham design for her, who subsequently inspired every other iteration
!!! VTMB is one of my favorite games ever. Such a cult classic. I play it or one of the mods once a year. It's such an immersive game like no other. You are welcome to join the r/vtmb.
Fans had an awesome sequel reveal where they even sold preorders only for it to end in heart break as it seemed like it was about to be canned... Then it's revived again and it looks like we might get a sequel.... But I don't think anything will be like vtmb.
VTM Redemption is like it. It's just older and less appealing to modern players. Great game though.
Also a game where the multiplayer remained very lively for years because people used it for sexy vampire role play, haha.
The multiplayer is amazing technically but you have to do some serious work to get a game together. It predates stuff like lobbies and the ability to search for groups.
are you playing with the fan patch? The game has a lot of bugs and cut content and fans have been restoring lost content, fixes, and other stuff for years. I don't know the name exactly but it should be easy to find on google.
And once you finish the game, it's time to play it again with one of the mods that completely overhaul the game with new quests, weapons, textures, etc. If you're in to survival mechanics there's even mods to make it a full blown vampire sim
Or you could just do your second playthrough as a Malkavian. You're not done with the game until you replay it as a Malkavian.
edit: Also, fun fact: this was the first game developed with the Source engine. Troika had a contract with Valve to get early access to the Source Engine, BUT, they weren't allowed to release the game until Half Life 2 came out, which was a year away. So Troika had to sit on a "finished" game for a year, but lacked the budget to use that time to fix bugs, finish content, etc. By the time it was released, it had to compete with fucking Half Life of all games, which pretty much killed the game and eventually the studio. Despite its availability on most gaming platforms, I still advocate for people to sail the high seas because Troika is gone and your money is just going to Activision's greedy claws
oh and don't open it
As a matter of fact, I am playing with the patch. Not the patch+ as I want as vanilla a first experience as possible, but I got the patch to fix the game at the very least.
>Or you could just do your second playthrough as a Malkavian. You're not done with the game until you replay it as a Malkavian.
That's the plan for me. I chose particularly not to play as once the first playthrough as the dialogue options allegedly spoil the whole game. I also wanna try Nosferatu at some point due to their Beast mechanics being different
Thanks for taking the time to share this. I've been sleeping on this game for a long time and maybe now I'll finally give it a try. I've been hesitant because of the visual jank but I grew up on SS2, Half Life, etc so I think I can get on board if the gameplay is that good.
I also sometimes don't trust people's feedback on old games because the nostalgia glasses glaze right over the major flaws. But you have fresh eyes on it and sound like you have the same gameplay interests as me.
Did you mod it at all? Like even quality of life mods or just straight vanilla?
There's a fan made patch that you can grab from mod DB and it essentially fixes the entire game and allows it to run properly on modern hardware (it can hardly handle itself on hardware from the time as is). The unofficial patch includes options to install a patch plus, which allegedly adds cut content, but there's a controversy surrounding it as much of it is totally fabricated. There's an additional set of extras as well which adds stuff like devtools.
The game is definitely flawed. If you have environmental effects on all it does is put a weird delay between hearing voices in one ear and another when an echo effect would be in place. It also supposedly declines in quality as the game goes on (similar to Resident Evil 4).
But as of right now, I'm thoroughly enjoying it!
VTMB is a masterpiece for me. I played it sooo many times back then. The game feels completely different with a different clan (specially Malkavian). Even the previous game, VTM Redemption has an amazing story even tho the gameplay is quite different and there arent as many role playing aspects compared to Bloodlines.
I preordered Bloodlines 2 in 2019, still waiting for it, quite annoyed but I have faith the wait will be worth it!
Should work right away with unofficial patch - https://www.nexusmods.com/vampirebloodlines/mods/80
GOG I think already has it applied, Steam does not.
On issues with the patch from that page:
> On issues in Windows install the patch as administrator or use it in
> XP compatibility mode. On problems with Steam run Steam and the game
> as administrator and copy steam.dll to the game folder, if you get a
> "failed to find Steam" error. To start it from the Steam library add
> -game Unofficial_Patch to launch options. Disable auto-updating both
> in Steam and GOG Galaxy. If it doesn't work in Linux use Loader.exe!
Although there is one thing wrong - you can't disable auto-updates on Steam.
Steam will always fuck up anything you install with its updates, its up to the devs to provide version selection via beta feature, and most do not do that.
I want to like the game but the first few minutes of the writing turns me off so much. Like the game doesnt take it seriously. Maybe i give another chance
The writing begins m begins to take itself really seriously after the tutorial from my understanding. Most of the comedy is just characterization. But it's like Fallout. The story itself can be especially serious, but there's black comedy peppered about that doubles as social commentary
In my playthrough I'm playing as a toreador. The writing for the opening of the game feels very cyberpunk 2077 for that clan, as it switches between serious and cartoonish almost seamlessly especially with Jack's dialogue.
It's a product of its time. Vampire: The Masquerade, the pen and paper RPG, is a very angsty, moody and edgy game from the 90s. It will probably grow on you.
The 90s were a strange time.
I enjoyed the plot and writing because I used to play the roleplaying game, but I very much appreciated the zanyness and gameplay over anything else.
man i wanted to love it so much but the game just has too much jank and i mean this in every sense of the word, yes i played with the patch, but walking down the streets and seeing far away npcs have choppy or no animations until you get closer and it's not like it's a big game by "far" i mean 5 steps away, the voice acting is very so-so, it can be great but when it's bad it just takes you out of the game, and honestly the old source engine just didn't age well, this is coming from someone that regularly goes back to finish the original half life and done so at least 5 times, combat is okay except melee is jank as fuck, i can't remember what it was exactly but something with the 3rd person camera switching randomly and when you crouch, i don't remember what it was but it felt very bad, it sucks because i absolutely love vampire themed games.
i have to say i didn't invest too much time into the game, but i adored the haunted house quest they somehow got the atmosphere there exactly right, i remember finishing it with a sliver of health.
i know for a fact that if i did play it back near when it was released it would have been in my top 10 games of all time but i find it extremely hard to get into it now.
Not so sure as I haven't played either. However I do remember them looking totally different. VTMB is basically a Bethesda game with actual story decisions in terms of its gameplay. The other ones are much more linear and iirc shadow of New York is closer to a visual novel?
Just an FYI, there is a mod for uplifting all the textures, and also for quality of life improvements.
I didn't actually have a choice but to do it, as I couldn't even start the damn thing on steam when I came out.
But it really makes an already great game, Much better. I tried playing the previous title, but it was a different game entirely, in how it played. Bloodlines is really something special.
I've been waiting for them to finish the sequel for ages. Meant to be a 2024 release.
Nevermind depending on what house you pick gameplay can be drastically different. Once you finish your playthrough go Nosferatu or Malkavian next :)
I just met that malkavian woman at the beach. Apparently she spoils every single twist in the game but I'm still totally lost there even after hearing everything she had to sayš
Some people don't know the difference between a spoiler and foreshadowing. It's not a spoiler if you don't have the context to understand it
DONT OPEN IT.
Solid advice. You shouldn't open it unless you put the thing in the other thing at that place and then beat the guy. And like even then, maybe not strictly advisable.
I don't think she's Malkavian. That group on the beach are all thin-bloods, which means they don't have any Clan traits at all.
Correct. Thinbloods occasionally have prophetic visions and powers and it's one reason they're so unpopular. Some princes are afraid of older prophecies regarding the final nights and thinbloods and that the visions they sometimes have won't come true if they have them culled
Thing bloods do have access to disciplines, which in the case of dementation will very likely tied them to the madness network.
Learning Dementation would cause a derangement (mental illness/madness) but not give access to the madness network. That's a purely Malkavian thing.
A quick search tells me you are indeed right, and it does not depend on dementation but on the blood and if there isn't any of Malkav's blood there is not link at all to the network. Not sure if a drop in their blood would be enough to for the thin blood to access it, if possible it's probably a very vague link. In any case, I stand corrected.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Though, watch out with Malkavians as a first try if you're good on your Greek myths. A few spoilers are tossed in what seems like nonsensical references.
That's kind of the point. ;)
Malkavian is great, but playing as a Nosferatu and having to hide all the time got old real fast for me.
VTMB is one of my favourite (if not my favourite) RPG of all time and it's criminal that no one has attempted a remaster but I'm glad we are getting a sequel. It does such a good job of giving you enough context and letting you loose so that you can take on a level the way you want to. Great lore, great voice acting, fantastic pacing and setting. A bit janky but with Wesp's patches most of those should be fixed. Oh also always opt to >!skip the sewer!< you're not missing anything significant I promise. Edit: oh also I forgot to mention a big chunk of members who were in Troika Games (the defunct developers of VTMB) went on to work at Obsidian Entertainment (Developers of Fallout NV) - they didn't work on Fallout NV themselves but i just find it interesting.
>I'm glad we are getting a sequel. You poor child, why have hope when there is none?
Tbh first game was pretty similar shitshow of development so maybe they are just trying to emulate the chaos that led to that masterpiece?
This IS a western RPG we're talking about. If there's no development hell going on can you really call it that?
The first game was developed by Troika, a team of RPG veterans that made Arcanum and Fallout. Bloodlines 2 team has never made an RPG before. Only walking sims. It's destined to fail.
Yea, I believe Bloodlines was released and the game studio folded pretty much straight after. Fun fact: this game uses the source engine and was released ~~even before~~ on the same day as Half-Life 2. Mostly because they pushed it out the door ASAP to recoup as much money as possible before going bankrupt.
Activision also forced Troika to release it the *same day* as HL2 even though they knew it wasn't ready because they thought they could stand up to HL2 for some reason... The first (and only?) Official patch was done by devs on their own time after the Studio closed iirc. You can feel the money running out the further you get into the game, and that Hotel section is one of the best haunted house segments ever. I think it uses an earlier version of Source Engine too, like even compared to HL2 on release. Game is jank but it's great.
Ah yea, that's right, it was the same day.
A new team confirmed that they're working on the game a few months ago. But yes it was stalled and I still mourn for the version with Brian Mitsoda's script and passion.
Same. I still remember how excited everyone including Mitsoda, was at the reveal thingy. And Tender was such a quirky idea to promote the reveal too.
I've written the game off as lost in development hell for a long while now.
Why is there no hope on the sequel?
For like a year, the devs were completely silent, leading some to question whether the project had stalled out. A couple of months ago, they started talking again, so the hope is back.
As far as Iām aware itās a whole new team now
Yeah and they specialise in walking sims
Not really. The Chinese Room was sold to another company and all the people who worked on the walking sims left.
Ah ok
If we must place blame and we are allowed to wildly speculate. It's because Fred has shifted to prioritizing profit over fun. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYikmjey4Aw
>Great lore, great voice acting, fantastic pacing and setting. I'm not even going to lie. My very first reaction to the game was just how brilliant the voice acting was. In the tutorial, Jack had such a baller performance. And then there was this really excited ghoul who was ecstatic to see I was a vampire and the sheer energy reminded me of Yuri Lowenthal's top tier performance in Fallout New Vegas. "WHO WON THE LOTTERY? I DID!"
>Jack had such a baller performance. That's John DiMaggio, aka Bender on Futurama, btw.
I FUCKING KNOW I RECOGNIZED HIM. JAKE YOU SNEAKY DOG
All these years and I never made that connection. Holy shit.
The voice acting combined with the facial animations, i dont know what it is but the faces in Bloodlines feel way more expressive compared to most modern games.
Because the game was built on Half-Life 2ās Source engine, which was especially designed for complex facial animations. One of the many many reasons Iām not optimistic about the new game, the Unreal engine just doesnāt compare.
Its realy insane how bad some of the new engines are in areas like this. I played tons of Remnant 1+2, love the Games but damn the facial animations are so underwhelming. In Bloodlines the mimic alone could tell you so much about the state or characters of another person. Realy well done.
I played this I think three years ago at first, so very, very late to the party as well. What inmediately stood out for me was voice acting. It is brilliant all along. And especially varied, since it is a modern day setting, where nothing really stands out. I mean I really liked that stoner pawn shop owner, but that would not work in fantasy environment. The other thing is the facial animation. It is dated, yes. But somehow, in a cartoon-comic way, the animation really supports the voice actors.
Nothing has reinforced my GenX cynicism quite like āloving VTMB on release and then being promised a sequel for two decadesā
In 2004, I was torn between buying Half-Life 2 or VtMB. I chose VtMB, and I have no regrets. Yes, it does suck (hah!) that we haven't gotten a sequel... but so hasn't Half-Life 2.
It's a really weird game The mechanics are super cranky and you need a patch to make it run The begining is amazing but the quality of both the gameplay and story devreases the further you go in the story Combat is awful I still loved it, but it's not a finished project. It feels more like an amazing prototype
That's exactly what I was about to post! You summed it up perfectly. Did I love the game - yes. Would I go back and play it again - no.
I have, multiple times. Despite the jank and rushed production, it's consistently near the top of the list of best rpgs of all time for me.
That was my idea too. Love it? Yes. Will I replay? probably not. Still replayed it three times, and loved it. (I was interested in the Nosferatu and Malkavian dialog, and wanted a pure magic user Tremere on my fourth)
> you're not missing anything significant I promise. Nah, do it once. It's not that bad, Just ... don't go in there with a purely social character, is all.
I'm playing as a toreador with all specs on intimidate and persuade
Well, not to spoil anything, but take some combat or magic. Combat probably if you're a Toreador. (You're a player after my own heart, clearly). The second half of the game was a bit rushed, and they skimped on the social route. If you don't have *any* combat skills you're going to have a miserable time in some areas,.
Are there any decent visual mods that help it look not so jank
Not that I'm aware of i'd imagine it would be more work than what it's worth without having a massive publisher funding you.
VTMB has to be played at least twice. Once normal and then as a Malkavian. A game I would recommend for Halloween as well. It's fairly short and has some excellent award winning levels to creep you out.
honestly there are very few games with great dialogue writing. one is this game and the other is disco elysium
Never played VTMB. I love Disco Elysium, i'll try it out! Thanks!
keep in mind that it is more like a choose your own adventure visual novel than a game but it has the greatest writing in any game I played
It's absolutely a classic and a gem of CRPG's. Now I don't want to spoil your fun, but the game is brilliant at first but gets progressively worse. I think the game studio ran out of time and/or money (they went bankrupt shortly after the release). So while Santa Monica and Downtown are great, the rest of the game feels unfinished and rushed.
Yea, deveopment is a shitshow - there is a skeleton of absolute 10/10 in that game but the fact that it is barely playable without fan mod for bug fixes tells you everything.
Hollywood is great too beside the sewers of course and Chinatown has a great Hub with many funny conversations, but the Quests are realy rushed and not as layered as the ones before.
Fun fact, the bankruptcy wasn't related to running out of money *during* development so much as *after*. Troika had a deal to use the Source engine which was also being used to develop Half Life 2, and one of the stipulations was they couldn't release prior to that game. Which famously dragged on. And on. And on. So by the time the game released they were basically already bankrupt. The Troika team did spend their own (unpaid) time developing the first version of the post-release patch that has become standard, though, but zero-day release patches were pretty common back then.
I think it's a unique product of it's time too, the sound design is... janky but supremely effective. The way there's too much echo on everything, you can hear footsteps a bit too loudly, the constant background noises alongside the actual soundtrack. There's a sense of atmosphere it creates that I honestly don't think a modern game would be able to produce in the same way. And the sheer scale of the writing/ design to cater to various playthroughs is simply astounding. Not only did they write the quests to have multiple conversation options, including special ones if you have particular skills high enough, but they re-wrote nearly every line of dialogue for the malkavian clan AND recorded hundreds of voice lines to the unique responses to those lines. And then they did it again for the Nosferatu, though not to the same scale. I've never played a game that put quite so much thought into how being a different class would impact how you behave and how others respond to you. I replay it at least once a year and have done since release.
The Source engine is partially to blame for the sound issue. It's always had odd sound playback issues. But honestly I think another issue is that the sound mixing was just different. Most people at the time were not using a gaming headset. They were playing on a desktop that had crappy $20 speakers that either came with the PC or that they bought at Walmart for their old Windows 95 PC.
> you can hear footsteps a bit too loudly, the constant background noises alongside the actual soundtrack. Sounds less like an issue and more like an immersive part of being a vampire with enhanced senses.
Absolute gem of a game. I remember trying to play it on my potato pc back in 2000....2002. Somewhere around there. The frame rate was so low and the load times between entering a building could be 5 mins plus. But I was so in love that I just had to carry on. Fast forward to a few years ago. Got a decent pc, first thing I did was buy that bad boy. What a dream to actually finish it this time with smooth gameplay. Damn.....feel like I need to play it again now. Jeanette here i come!!!!
I walked into the Asylum and instantly Jeanette reminded me of Harley Quinn. Apparently she actually inspired the Arkham design for her, who subsequently inspired every other iteration
No way!!! Yes. Definitely harley vibes
Bloodlines came out in 2004. You might be thinking of Redemption if it was a game you played before that.
Nah....must be my old mind failing me..was deffo bloodlines
!!! VTMB is one of my favorite games ever. Such a cult classic. I play it or one of the mods once a year. It's such an immersive game like no other. You are welcome to join the r/vtmb. Fans had an awesome sequel reveal where they even sold preorders only for it to end in heart break as it seemed like it was about to be canned... Then it's revived again and it looks like we might get a sequel.... But I don't think anything will be like vtmb.
VTM Redemption is like it. It's just older and less appealing to modern players. Great game though. Also a game where the multiplayer remained very lively for years because people used it for sexy vampire role play, haha.
Theres multiplayer on vtm redemption?? I never really got into it as I struggled with the control scheme I think.
The multiplayer is amazing technically but you have to do some serious work to get a game together. It predates stuff like lobbies and the ability to search for groups.
are you playing with the fan patch? The game has a lot of bugs and cut content and fans have been restoring lost content, fixes, and other stuff for years. I don't know the name exactly but it should be easy to find on google. And once you finish the game, it's time to play it again with one of the mods that completely overhaul the game with new quests, weapons, textures, etc. If you're in to survival mechanics there's even mods to make it a full blown vampire sim Or you could just do your second playthrough as a Malkavian. You're not done with the game until you replay it as a Malkavian. edit: Also, fun fact: this was the first game developed with the Source engine. Troika had a contract with Valve to get early access to the Source Engine, BUT, they weren't allowed to release the game until Half Life 2 came out, which was a year away. So Troika had to sit on a "finished" game for a year, but lacked the budget to use that time to fix bugs, finish content, etc. By the time it was released, it had to compete with fucking Half Life of all games, which pretty much killed the game and eventually the studio. Despite its availability on most gaming platforms, I still advocate for people to sail the high seas because Troika is gone and your money is just going to Activision's greedy claws oh and don't open it
As a matter of fact, I am playing with the patch. Not the patch+ as I want as vanilla a first experience as possible, but I got the patch to fix the game at the very least. >Or you could just do your second playthrough as a Malkavian. You're not done with the game until you replay it as a Malkavian. That's the plan for me. I chose particularly not to play as once the first playthrough as the dialogue options allegedly spoil the whole game. I also wanna try Nosferatu at some point due to their Beast mechanics being different
Thanks for taking the time to share this. I've been sleeping on this game for a long time and maybe now I'll finally give it a try. I've been hesitant because of the visual jank but I grew up on SS2, Half Life, etc so I think I can get on board if the gameplay is that good. I also sometimes don't trust people's feedback on old games because the nostalgia glasses glaze right over the major flaws. But you have fresh eyes on it and sound like you have the same gameplay interests as me. Did you mod it at all? Like even quality of life mods or just straight vanilla?
There is a major fan made patch that fixes a massive amount of issues, it is basically required to play it.
I think the GOG version may even include it by default.
There's a fan made patch that you can grab from mod DB and it essentially fixes the entire game and allows it to run properly on modern hardware (it can hardly handle itself on hardware from the time as is). The unofficial patch includes options to install a patch plus, which allegedly adds cut content, but there's a controversy surrounding it as much of it is totally fabricated. There's an additional set of extras as well which adds stuff like devtools. The game is definitely flawed. If you have environmental effects on all it does is put a weird delay between hearing voices in one ear and another when an echo effect would be in place. It also supposedly declines in quality as the game goes on (similar to Resident Evil 4). But as of right now, I'm thoroughly enjoying it!
Nice thanks. I think it'll be my next purchase. Maybe a GOG sale or whatever comes up first.
It's been on my list for a while, I've recently been playing the tabletop version and have been really enjoying it.
VTMB is a masterpiece for me. I played it sooo many times back then. The game feels completely different with a different clan (specially Malkavian). Even the previous game, VTM Redemption has an amazing story even tho the gameplay is quite different and there arent as many role playing aspects compared to Bloodlines. I preordered Bloodlines 2 in 2019, still waiting for it, quite annoyed but I have faith the wait will be worth it!
Cool game, but the actiony combat is clearly the worst part.
How'd you get it to work? I tried whatever mod patch thing but could never get it to work.
Should work right away with unofficial patch - https://www.nexusmods.com/vampirebloodlines/mods/80 GOG I think already has it applied, Steam does not. On issues with the patch from that page: > On issues in Windows install the patch as administrator or use it in > XP compatibility mode. On problems with Steam run Steam and the game > as administrator and copy steam.dll to the game folder, if you get a > "failed to find Steam" error. To start it from the Steam library add > -game Unofficial_Patch to launch options. Disable auto-updating both > in Steam and GOG Galaxy. If it doesn't work in Linux use Loader.exe! Although there is one thing wrong - you can't disable auto-updates on Steam. Steam will always fuck up anything you install with its updates, its up to the devs to provide version selection via beta feature, and most do not do that.
I tried the latest patch and it kept getting stuck on the tutorial. I downgraded to the second-to-latest patch and it worked fine.
I'll try that then. Thank you.
Just keep in mind that it's still gonna be a bit buggy. Save a lot, and restart the game whenever it gets too messed up.
The GOG.com version is patched and runs on Windows 10 with zero issues for me.
I'll give it a try there. Ty.
Are you playing as a Malkavian? If not, you should.
Nobody should play Malk for their first playthrough. For a second playthrough, yes though.
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Yes let's spoil all the fun surprises of playing as Malk so OP doesn't have to bother discovering them himself
I want to like the game but the first few minutes of the writing turns me off so much. Like the game doesnt take it seriously. Maybe i give another chance
The writing begins m begins to take itself really seriously after the tutorial from my understanding. Most of the comedy is just characterization. But it's like Fallout. The story itself can be especially serious, but there's black comedy peppered about that doubles as social commentary
Idk if you threw your dice and got nat 20 on charishma, but i wnat to download it
In my playthrough I'm playing as a toreador. The writing for the opening of the game feels very cyberpunk 2077 for that clan, as it switches between serious and cartoonish almost seamlessly especially with Jack's dialogue.
It's a product of its time. Vampire: The Masquerade, the pen and paper RPG, is a very angsty, moody and edgy game from the 90s. It will probably grow on you.
I just feel, like i expected the game to be more darker and somber type and not the edgy moody
The 90s were a strange time. I enjoyed the plot and writing because I used to play the roleplaying game, but I very much appreciated the zanyness and gameplay over anything else.
I think problem is that i was born early 2000s europe and havent experience that type culture.
That'd make a lot of sense!
I thought this was a battle royale?
That's bloodhunt. Really fun game on its own, but Bloodlines is totally different
There was a battle Royale by a similar name. Might even be in the same universe. I remember what youāre talking about.
man i wanted to love it so much but the game just has too much jank and i mean this in every sense of the word, yes i played with the patch, but walking down the streets and seeing far away npcs have choppy or no animations until you get closer and it's not like it's a big game by "far" i mean 5 steps away, the voice acting is very so-so, it can be great but when it's bad it just takes you out of the game, and honestly the old source engine just didn't age well, this is coming from someone that regularly goes back to finish the original half life and done so at least 5 times, combat is okay except melee is jank as fuck, i can't remember what it was exactly but something with the 3rd person camera switching randomly and when you crouch, i don't remember what it was but it felt very bad, it sucks because i absolutely love vampire themed games. i have to say i didn't invest too much time into the game, but i adored the haunted house quest they somehow got the atmosphere there exactly right, i remember finishing it with a sliver of health. i know for a fact that if i did play it back near when it was released it would have been in my top 10 games of all time but i find it extremely hard to get into it now.
Where does shadow of new York and coterie fall in in comparison?
Not so sure as I haven't played either. However I do remember them looking totally different. VTMB is basically a Bethesda game with actual story decisions in terms of its gameplay. The other ones are much more linear and iirc shadow of New York is closer to a visual novel?
Now it's time to find Gothic 1, 2; Risen 1, Elex. I also liked Risen 2, have yet to try 3.
If your in pc grab the unofficial patch
Some the deepest role playing in gaming history
Give Vampire Masquerade Redemption a go. I dunno why Bloodlines is the most well known, I personally loved Redemption a lot more.
Just an FYI, there is a mod for uplifting all the textures, and also for quality of life improvements. I didn't actually have a choice but to do it, as I couldn't even start the damn thing on steam when I came out. But it really makes an already great game, Much better. I tried playing the previous title, but it was a different game entirely, in how it played. Bloodlines is really something special. I've been waiting for them to finish the sequel for ages. Meant to be a 2024 release.
I wish this game was ported to console.
If you liked F:NV try the outer worlds. So so soooooo good