Great Graphics, Great Story, Great Atmosphere- A shame about the bugs
User Rating: 8.4 | Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines PC
I don't think that a computer game has ever given me the shivers before. This one managed it within a few hours. The great graphics (courtesy of the Source engine), moody lighting, and dark story set the stage perfectly for the world of vampires. The faces look AMAZING, the storys and quests are dark; dialogues are well scripted and very racey and/or vulger at times- this game certainly works for it's 'M' rating, which is a plus in my book- the 'World of Darkness' is a gritty place where the worst side of humanity (an the undead) is on constant display. If Troika had pulled a lot of punches on this front, the game would have lost a lot of it's immersive and intruiging qualities. In one early mission you are asked to look into a haunting at a burned-out and abandoned hotel. I have to say that that mission is by far the creepiest thing I have ever experienced in computer gaming; it's worth the price of the game in my books just to play that mission. By the end of it, I was actually frantic just to find a way out of the place because it was starting to really freak me out, and I don't freak easily. Note to players- make sure to read the old newspapers you find lying around the hotel- they won't actually help you much in completing the quest, but add immesurably to the experience of being trapped in a haunted house. That being said, the controls aren't as smooth as you'd expect for a game based on the HL engine- I'm a CS player of many years experience and the control interface was a bit of a dissapointment to me. Ranged combat is weak and a little pointless; melee is about as overpowered as it was in KoTOR. The combat animations are far more varied and enjoyable to watch than KoTOR's though, and the ability to move around the environment like you were in an FPS is a welcome change from the standard 'can't jump, can't really travel in 3 dimensions' feeling of most CRPGs- I really hope that more CRPGs adopt this kind of playstyle, it in a lot of ways it blends the best of say, JK II and KoTOR- JKII's shooter-type perspective and ability to move around the envoriroment, and KoTOR's lavishly crafted environment's and compelling story. I've occasionally experienced very annoying CTD bugs, and once it even crashed my whole system- hopefully this will be addressed in an upcoming patch. As long as Troika puts out a few major patches for this game, I expect it to be one of the best CRPGs ever made. If major patches aren't forthcoming, then this game will remain only very good, not great. 
