Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines - A very flawed masterpiece, finished at last.

Yesterday was the day that I finally finished one of my favourite games. It only took about 12 years. On the 16th of November, 2004, Troika games released their swansong title, before being a victim of its failure on release.

Being an early Source engine game, Bloodlines has aged nicely, and in particular, character animations remain convincing and emotionally believable. There's a certain point however, where the game falls of the rails, where the options of stealth are just no longer viable due to the way in which many of the later levels have been designed.

The atmosphere, however, in all regions is still, in my opinion, unmatched in any title I've ever played. Wandering around Santa Monica, downtown LA, and Hollywood makes you feel truly a part of the Nightlife, without the need to wave wads of cash at the bartender in order to get service.

The dialogue options, the humour that is wrapped into the entire game, among weapon descriptions, books, emails, notes left lying around, hell, even the radio shows that are on in the background in some areas all helps to bring the game from mediocrity to truly immersive.

Playing a vampire, and having a mission to complete is just a bonus. You could play Bloodlines as a walking simulator, and you'd still be engrossed in the world completely and totally. Context is everything, and as crazy and outrageous as melee combat animations are, and as useless as firearms are; the game is a complete package from top to bottom.

Until you get to the pointy end of the plot that is; where increasingly powerful foes block your way, and the focus on combat (instead of role playing and stealth, which you can use in droves early game) starts to overwhelm your poor health indicator, and blood supply.

Violating the masquerade (making mortals aware of the fact that you are a vampire) is handled well, and you genuinely feel bad when you betray vampire society. Even though you've got to uphold some semblance of normality, you can make poor choices, like stealing a charity donation box, or leading an innocent to their doom (but not killing them yourself!) which leads to you losing the tenuous grip on humanity.

It is chaotic evil on a cool down timer, and a great concept. Sadly, games like this, where the choices you make impact the relationship you have with a character, combined with their excellent facial animations leads to a real emotional attachment to characters, leading you more towards good, instead of being a complete dick, as I was in my recent play though of Pillars of Eternity.

There's the classic meme of whenever you mention this game, someone goes out and installs it, so go forth and do so. I just can't believe it took me over a decade to finally sit down and finish this game.