Pretty cool... in a dark kinda way.
You start off as a pretty crappy vampire, with no really great skills, apart from being able to suck blood from humans and rats. You have to work your way up in the different factions (whichever you choose) following the games storyline.
Gameplay: You see you character from behind when you run around (you can view in 1st person, but I wouldn't recommend it) , and it plays a lot like other actiongames, albeit the controls are a bit clunky. You explore L.A. at night, and do battle with thugs, monsters and other vampires. To do this, you have some weapons at your disposal (weapons are found or purchased). Baseball bats, katanas and a variety of firearms (The katana is by far the best weapon in the game, and almost all the firearms are vastly underpowered).
Combat is pretty tricky in this game because of the difficult controls. When you melee-attack someone, you are going to have a hard time keeping track of where they are, and most of the time you just smash around, hoping to hit them somehow. This kinda ruins the illusion of the classic graceful vampire. That being said, combat is still pretty fun with the katana, especially when you're fighting weaker opponents. They tend to fly quite a distance when you slash them open, which is always good for a laugh or two.
When you're not fighting the creatures of the night, you are conversing with people, which is also a major part of Bloodlines. A lot of conversations are really cool, not to mention funny, and depending on what clan and political faction you are, you will recieve different reactions and answers from the people you talk to.
There is also a double-stealth side to Bloodlines. The first is the obvious one, where you sneak around in the dark (although this is seldom required) killing enemies and stuff. The other is that which is call The Masquerade. The Masquerade is basically what keeps the vampire community a secret the humans. The masquerade can be broken if you do some cool vampire stuff infront of humans, and doing so will be punished by other vampires from close and afar.
Graphics: The game utilises an early version of the Source-engine. Which means that the graphics are allright, but far from being spectacular. Apparently, the fact that it is only an early version of the source engine, causes stability problems on some systems, although I haven't had any, yet. There are some nice textures in the game, but there are also quite a few mediocre ones, which really don't belong in a game from 2004. There are also significant slowdowns, even though my system is far above the recommended requirements.
Sound: Pretty good voicework, and some cool licensed music make the game shine here. Although some of the sound effects are not really that great, the quality is overall pretty good.
Final comments: Bloodlines is a good game, but it misses a few aspects that could have been added to great effect. For example: Why can't you dress your own vampire? This would have been really cool. I was horrified when I saw that my badass gangrel vampire wore a hockey shirt, which read Sycosis on the back. I want to be able to dress my vampire so that he looks like one, dammit! Also for an RPG the storyline is rather linear, you first really make a choice on where you belong in the last hour or so of the game.
If you like vampires and RPG's you should definately check this out. However, be prepared for a game that feels like it was rushes a little to much and could have done with some deeper gameplay.