Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines is undoubtedly a game full of charm... but also full of bugs!
Premise: I suggest playing this game with Wesp's latest unofficial patch (6.0 when I write this review and still in development) which includes the official bug fixings as well. There are two choices: Basic and Plus. The first focuses on fixing bugs without practically altering anything else (for purists) while the latter introduces several tweaks and restored content.
Since I start with this premise I can as well tell you that my final vote to this game (8.5) refers to a fully patched game according to my recommendations above. The same unpatched game would be rated 6.0. You can then easily conclude that Troika's game needed more than just some extra polish when it hit the shelves. And the sales suffered greatly because of that. Troika's former products (Arcanum and Temple of Elemental Evil) shared a fate so identical that I can't help thinking of an evil curse looming over every project these talented developers have been working at until the company's final demise.
It's a very sad fate because Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, even more than the previous efforts, is an impressive game. Troika could succeed at what the competition fails at: they can create vivid characters that leave deep tracks in anyone's mind and offer a tantalizing, believable worldbuilding. In a way, I am reminded of another group of genial developers: Looking Glass.
Vampire - The Masquerade: Bloodlines uses a Beta version of Valve's source engine and the limitations are pretty evident when we note how the AI can be considered rather weak compared to the Source engine that powers Half Life 2. In fact, Troika had acquired the license from Valve but had to rework their game whenever an updated version of Source was made available, up to a point when they had to put a stop and work on a specific build even if Valve'd continue to perfect their revolutionary game engine.
The so-called "presentation" of the game itself is by far the weakest point of this production: countless bugs (some of them critical), an unpolished game engine and difficult working conditions contributed, together with weak marketing choices (Troika was bound to hold the release until Half Life 2 was completed), to an inevitable failure. It's a tragic fate that this little pearl didn't deserve. There was (is) a strong community that never wanted to accept the destiny towards which this game seemed to be drifted to and thanks to a joint effort, people can today enjoy a pretty much bug-less game which I strongly recommend buying second-hand (the final sales didn't reach the 75.000 units). It's pointless to speak about the game. I can only say that I can hardly imagine it could ever disappoint anyone.
Technically we are before a very well made product which is mostly limited by the early version of the engine. The music quality varies: the best pieces can be heard at disco/pubs while some others are pretty much uninspired/disturbing or straight out of place (ex. in the Tutorial phase) and the voice acting is superb. Unfortunately when visiting loud environments, it becomes almost impossible to hear what the NPCs say (the menu system doesn't allow for different volume controls for music and sound effects).
The visuals are also inspired: colorful, remarkable environments are found at any corner, never failing to impress. The NPCs are equally stunning, with strong personalities and realistic, coherent developments.
The dialogues are very good although I didn't like the fact that it's sometimes possible to trigger the same dialogue advancement through different choices (a weak point, in my opinion), The numerous typos and dialogue-related bugs are accounted for in the unofficial patch.
The difficulty level is also well calibrated. The game is never frustrating and the combat system does a good job. My only complaint is that the selection of the weapons via keyboard in the middle of a fight is not really practical (the game should automatically pause while the player makes a choice).
Overall, Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines is a great CRPG which should have deserved much more attention from the gamers. I blame the gamers but I can not but also blame Troika for having always released very buggy games... and for not having continued doing so.