Grimbeard - Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines (PC) - Review
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- Опубликовано: 10 сен 2024
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Beckett isn't a werewolf, he's Gangrel.
fuck
@@GrimBeard And to just rub a little salt in the wound, you do end up fighting against an actual werewolf later in the game too.
Grim Beard i liked your video and subscribed, but for that werewolf-fail you are on thin ice buddy
@@DepravedMorgath I even show a clip of it twice.
Yeah...i paused the video and was running to the comments to correct the sacrilege. Heck your character even has the chance to ask if he's a werewolf and be corrected "Not acquainted with the creatures of the night yet, are you? Well for future reference you might bear in mind that werewolves aren't in the habit of..introducing themselves." XD
Bloodlines is a testament to how great writing can hard carry a game
Great writing - yes, but not only that. Bloodlines also have great game design and art direction + soundtrack. Quests are varied (well, in 3/4ths of the game), there are usually multiple ways to complete them, different character builds can influence your experience in meaningful manner.
Game design is maybe not as obvious as writing or graphics, but it should not be overlooked. It's a backbone of the game. Bloodlines would doubtfully have such a cult following if it was a visual novel.
@@TheKhamuhl
Yeah fair point, though I'd say the variety of quests and the options for doing them come under writing, same with the different character builds, it took a ton of work to do all the different dialogue and special interactions for Malkavians and Nosferatu I hope the same amount of detail if not more goes into the sequel.
It's a pretty amazing world, huh? To be fair, they had the entirety of the P&P game to pull from, but they did a great job of writing the characters and making them feel full and lively. Or, err, unlively.
@@driftercarbon
Yes quite; Jack is definitely one of the funnest tutorial guides, I love Dr. Grouts bizarre mansion and his monologue, the encounter with Gary Golden is a particular favourite of mine that dude has an amazing voice and his jabs at the player cracked me up. Then there's Maximilian Strauss, The Tzimisce, Jeannette, Cain (?) and more.
@farenheit041
Yeah well said, I am worried that shiny graphics and high production values will get in the way of telling a dynamic story with lots of options for approach.
2 years later... VTMB 2 is in development hell and paradox has pretty much fired the entire team. that is why you never EVER pre-order games
2 years and 7 months later. Still little news on VTMB 2. Time to pack it up gamers, the Bloodline has ended.
@@viderevero1338 2 years 8 months later, food is running out. The men are desperate. They still sing and banter but the joy has gone out of them. One gets the feeling that any day now, discipline will fail. They will turn on each other... and I will be forced to wander alone as before, the stars in the sky growing heavier and heaver with my every step
Yeah, at least it's spawned a bunch of other games using the source IPs.
@James Sunderland There've been a couple good ones, but yeah they're mostly kinda shit. It's a shame.
Regardless of waiting I simply have my faith in it and simply won’t bother myself of give myself a bad thought, we will eventually get VTMB 2 soon. And we will eat the elders my brothers and sisters in Caine.
GrimBeard doing VTMB feels like Goku finally arriving to fight Frieza. It felt like it was never gonna happen but of course... it was destined to.
Just like TheGamingBritShow reviewing Devil May Cry 5
One of the things I love the most about the game is how stuck in time everything looks, I'm all in for the 2000s aesthetic of scantily clad women, goth underground and questionable fashion choices, its very authentic and genuine. One would think that this aesthetic just makes the game more dated and it some ways it does but overall, the game is so comfortable in its own skin that just makes it timeless in my opinion.
You can reject the prince fairly early on, but if you do he will use the vampire power called dominate on you, his clan's (the Ventrue) specialty and you will be compelled to do it like you were asked by Killgrave from Jessica Jones.
Yup, also you're a fledgling vampire without a Sire... you're literally the bitch of every vampire with a week of seniority of you (as Jack so delightfully put if when you talk to him after santa monica).... There's a reason you cannot just go do what YOU want. You're the wimp in a gang you don't just leave... and if you decide to join the Anarchs, then you're still the newbie and you need to stay where you are and be a double agent for them.
You're not a Mage, or a Promethian, or a regular ol' Mortal. You've been Embraced and is now in another world.... fully in the world of darkness, if you wish :p
@@kinagrill yeah seriously the thin bloods somehow got more freedom than a newbie embraced with no sire.
Always loved that story and gameplay integration as it makes sense and makes the prickly prince all the more loathsome for it.
"..Cain. Who you might have seen in his breakout role: Christianity." - Awesome. Definitely a laugh out loud moment.
I’m a Christian and Jewish and hearing that did make me laugh too.
I came down here to comment the same thing. This made me subscribe :D
thought he was going to say soul revar.
Hits hard like, "I'm The Devil. You might know me from classics such as The Bible".
I know this video is super old, but I'd figured I'd kinda explain it down here anyway.
LaCroix is a particular clan of kindred called Ventrue. Ventrue are really, really good at something called Domination. In fact, it's arguably their primary skill. What Domination allows a Ventrue to do is give you orders and force you to follow them. The reason why LaCroix is the primary questgiver, and why the real good guys of the story are working around what you're doing, is because LaCroix is forcing you to obey his orders through Domination. By the end of the game, the Fledgeling has swallowed enough resonant blood and grown their skills enough to be able to resist LaCroix's Domination, which results in you going against him (in most endings.)
One of the reasons that the Fledgeling is able to so quickly adapt to their newfound undeath is because they are an 8th Generation. LaCroix, judging by his date of embrace and his clan, is more than likely 10th generation, possibly 9th if he got lucky. In simpler turns, the Fledgeling is stronger at their embrace than LaCroix was, and in some really obtuse manner could be considered 'more of a Kindred' than LaCroix.
A bit late, but Dominate cannot be used on vampires of a lower generation. So the character cannot be 8th Generation if Lacroix is at best 9th, because Lacroix does explicitly use Dominate on you if you refuse to do the quests for him after you're out of Santa Monica.
@@langolyers9103 that is fair but that's also a bit strange. The player character is explicitly 8th generation but LaCroix is way too young to be much earlier than a 9th. He could potentially be an 8th generation vampire, which would be the only one to make sense, but he is absolutely not a 7th generation or the Anarchs would be relatively easy pickings for him to dismantle.
This is the game that I wanted to see reviewed the most since I subscribed!!
I Feel the same!
Damsel called me “Cammie” and I never felt so insulted before
"Sabbat chased you in here cammie?"
For me, the biggest achievement of this game is introducing me to lacuna coil.
Chasm - Isolation was pretty great as well. Spend like hours in that stupid club just for the music! But you're right. Swamped and Lacuna Coil in general are pretty awesome. Saw them live as support for Bullet for my Valentine. Good days. edit: my spelling is fucked beyond all repair....
My cell phone ringtone! I adore it and sit through the ending credits just because!
Lacuna Coil, Genitorturers, Chiasm, Kidney Thieves, Darling Violetta, and Tiamat were all introduced to me from this game. I'm so thankful for that lol
Thank you, Mandalore, for bringing attention to this video!
?
Same
That's lord mandalore to you
RIP VTMB2 and RIP Grim Beard who no longer has a reason to live.
And US who being in VTMB long waiting lover fans
Wrong. Play this MOD for #VTMB: www.moddb.com/mods/vtmb-prelude/downloads/bloodlines-prelude-i-17
The security guard (from 31:30) was found in the files with his dialogue, but no actual audio tracks, so a fan stepped in to record it. It was a great early showcase of some content that the Unofficial Patch had restored, but... well, the UP is a much bigger thing these days. Although it's just the Basic version, GOG includes the patch by default. Nearly everyone acknowledges that the UP is necessary to play. I think it's time to get someone more professional to lay down a replacement track.
On the other hand, the upcoming final release of the 10.3 patch should have that teleporting phone handset issue finally taken care of.
(Also thankful you didn't call out any of my own additions to the UP as bad.)
You worked for the UP thing? God bless you man.
I still think you are the bomb and am grateful to you. You made some of my favorite portions of the UP and Plus games. Thank you.
The way a game is meant to be played on a first run is never with fan patches.
@@kingstarscream320 Bloodlines can get tricky in its vanilla release. There are many portions of the game, particularly in Chinatown, where it’s basically a coin flip whether or not you are allowed to progress. An important section in the main quest was completely inaccessible during my second play through, screwing up 10+ hours of progress, at which point I just installed the patches and never looked back.
I REALLY want them to remake the first one with good combat and better balancing of content at the end!
and fix that one sewer level, without modding
they really could just do that instead of making a sequel.
So a finished remaster re release
@@quarreneverett4767 They did it for FF7? Why not BL1?
@@Knight-of-Sarcasm Because FF7 was given enough time to be a masterpiece in the public eye celebrated for decades while the rushing of this one by garbage higher ups forced it into underground hit category that most people probably only heard about a couple times.
I know that the lack of branching paths was frustrating, but I actually enjoyed how unabashedly the game depicted you as a pawn of much stronger and smarter vampires. You don't become a saint or a god in the vein of Ultima or Deus Ex, you survive and carve out your own niche in the social ladder. The most you can hope for is getting a safe place to feed and hide, and having some form of protection from Sabbat and Hunters. Of course, I also sided with Camarilla from the beginning, so I probably would have felt far more constricted if I'd tried to remain neutral or sided with the Anarchs (ugh).
Agreed. I had the same experience though I, too, sided with the Camarilla. Lacroix was a dick but hardly a villain. He was selfish sure, but no more so that the other clan leaders. His biggest fault was incompetence rather than some evil scheme - which is why even other Camarrila leaders like Strauss wanted to get rid of him. In fact he was somewhat of a anti-villain; instead of him having a ultimate scheme of his own the entire story was about how everyone else had a scheme to get rid of him.
@@GepardenK (SPOILERS) I read him as a villain to my character. As not only was he using you, more than once he was actively scheming to have you framed and killed, probably surprised that you made it through the last suicide mission he sent you on. He operated like a mob boss that saw you as muscle to get his sarcophagus and (at least in the ending I got which was I believe the "independent" one where you let him open it) once he thought he won he shows how much of a nutcase he is, yelling about how his unstoppable power will crush you and the city like paper. I absolutely felt like he always had an ultimate scheme (using a secret alliance with the Keui-Jin to spark a war with the Anarchs and then taking you out of the picture) But thats based on my play through/my brain and generally not trusting him or his motives from the beginning.
@@GepardenK Yeah, LaCroix was definitely a villain, my dude. He sought to diablerize (a process that's a big no-no in Camarilla and even Anarch society) an Antediluvian and take its power for himself, using everybody as a pawn to further that goal and trying to get rid of anybody that bothered him too much. If that weren't enough, Grout's audio logs mention that the voices in his head (his Malkavian insight) were warning him about LaCroix's evil schemes (though the recordings don't name LaCroix outright, it's obvious on the second playthrough). This is why LaCroix wasn't respect even by his Camarilla peers - they could see him for the power-mad schemer he was, with no interest in actually caring for his fellow kindred. That's why Strauss is the man to ally with for the Camarilla ending. So in pretty much every way, the game says, "LaCroix is a villain."
I told LaCroix to jump in a lake, but I still sided with the Camarilla (in one play-through). Strauss always treated my PC well even when we were at odds. My favorite ending is when you tell them all to go to hell and walk off on your own. The game caught the "elders will always mess with you" aspect of VTM quite well.
I played a Tremere on my first playthrough, so backing Strauss was a no brainer for me.
You CAN try to resist Lacroix's orders, but he's a Ventrue, you know? He has access to 'dominate' discipline.
As a Malkavian there's a few times you see stuff that isn't actually there. It's a fun way to play through after playing once already to see what gets changed
even in 2019 that damn hotel is scary.
that hotel level was the first time I ever got scared while playing a video game.
caught me by surprise, it was 3 am and all the lights were out when i played this mission for the first time. Jumpscares and spooky things have little effect on me but that atmosphere sent shivers down my spine
I think it's an awesome level because you're kinda pumped up that you're a badass vampire. You've got all these super awesome moves and disciplines no matter what your vampiric nature... and they don't mean shit to combat ghosts. You're as 'frail' against them as you were in life.
I think that's why that level worked so well and is so memorable even now, 15 years after the game was released.
Was fun the first time, modded to skip since then, always seemed out of place and cliche. Credit where credit is due however, it was well made.
After playing that level endlessly I wish there was a bit more to the quest, I even tried to find some eecret to freeing the wife's spirit by putting the neckless in every container I could
Toreadors built for firearms use (with celerity and auspex) are absolutely deadly in combat.
i know im late to the party, but you can try to defy LaCroix to his face but he immediately dominates you.
given the very "brainwashy" effect dominate has it is very possible that he is genuinely forcing you to actually be on his side.
So the choice is:
A. just be on his side
or
B. get mind controlled to be on his side
this could explain why you cannot really do anything against him until the point you can resist his domination (which is right at the end)
The coolest people always show up late to the party...
So I randomly found this video while on a nostalgia trip over the first game and now I've watched like half your videos and I think I'm in love with you.
So yeah.....enjoy that.
"Nobody should teleport it's not safe!"
Mage coughs in the distance
Elderscrolls 2 would definately have a say if we going there :p
God damn it Grim.
Now i have to reinstall again.
My love for this game mirrors my love for Grim. It bites but for most parts it's pleasant.
Came from Mandalore and watched all 69 videos in your review playlist over three days. Great stuff! Keep it up!
I’m in my first playthrough and hot damn. I was in a room full of people with lights on and the Oceanside Hotel mission still scared the shit out of me
It still creeps me out two years later. So does the whispering in the Nos warrens...I noticed the latter as a Malk and thought it was just the clan, but no. There's still a whispering; it's just not as obvious.
It’s the ghost/poltergeist mission, right? It’s been a while since I last replayed the game.😅 So many little touches and details that change/show up depending on the clan you’re playing as, which also influences the difficulty of early game scenarios and the way NPCs react to you. It amazes me to think how few modern games actually take your character’s appearance in consideration, whereas playing a Nosferatu in Bloodlines forces you to stay out of sight or risk violating the Masquerade.
Vampire 2 announced and a new vampire from Grimbeard, what a way to start the week
*sighs, wistfully and sadly staring at the Steam page for Bloodlines 2 where he preordered the big maximum special edition of the game*
God….
DAMNIT, Paradox!!!
This video counts among your best reviews...and it is about one of my favourite games ever. Needless to say, this feels like Christmas! Thank you.
2:15 Activision AGAIN want to release something to compete with Half Life release, like they did with Sin? They aren't learning animals... oh right, because they weren't affected by their stupid decisions and failures, only devs.
Also - Malkavians do a bunch of foreshadowing and spoilers often what happen further in the game. Doesn't make sense at first but on 2nd playthrough and more you start connecting dots.
This main menu theme case reminds me Macintosh Plus and "It's your move" thing...
Have you played King's Field4 or Abyss - Shadow Tower? They got some oozy atmosphere and OST still plays from time to time.
Oh no it's got nothing to do with the bugs ... the pc exclusivity ... the new ip ... just Activision's fault who without them the game wouldn't exist.
12:57 I think the reason the player character continues working for him is because he was using mind control magic on you throughout the entire game. Saying "no" was never a dialogue option because you were under a spell and didn't even know it.
Near the end, when he tries to tell you to do something but you just say no? Seems like he was surprised his spell fizzled that time. Because it had been working up until then. At least that's how I had always interpreted it.
I guess the player character had matured/levelled up enough at that point to overcome his magic, and you can finally defy him if you choose to.
"Every time VTMB is mentioned, someone somewhere will reinstall it"
I had it on the old laptop. I got a new laptop just two months ago with Income tax and of course WoW and BL1 were the first two games on it!
Came across your channel because I will devour any Bloodlines content. Loved this video, immediately subbed and am now working my way through your back catalog. It's great stuff, man. Glad to have found you.
So there's a channel called House of the dev.. it's a interview style podcast channel run by Peter Salnikov and Raphael Colantonio... They've had quite a few really good interviews, and I think one of the recent ones had Tim Caine, and he talked about the patching situation with the game, they had patches ready to go before the game was even released.. if my understanding was correct or like right on the DOT.. but they were contractually not allowed to release them by Activision.. they asked if they could just release them themselves to it on their own time no funding or anything like that, Activision said no and their contract was very specific that Activision had final approval over patches being released.
Actually wouldn't be surprised if some of the gameplay patches that we saw over recent years were those patches.. or at least with that help, I couldn't quite tell if he was implying that or not.. but he did make it quite clear that in no way shape or form could any of the employees actually release something like that even just on the side according to the contract.. and there's also...I'm not sure if this is what the endgame was cuz it seems ridiculous, that the work was already done it wasn't like consoles where you have to pay a fee..
I guess a lot of this involves setting up developers to seem like problem Childs for the later industry to help negotiating contracts down tree. oh you'll basically go around spreading rumors like oh they were hard to work with you know you don't want to you don't want to mess with them they're real problematic.. or you'll get a developer coming in going okay we want to do this thing here like well you don't really want to do that and you're definitely going to want to give us your IP I mean you don't want to be super toxic and just prickly like troika was, saw what happened to them right.. and I guess like he found out at one point that people had basically been spreading rumors about him being a total ass for 20 years or something like that and it just goes around in the industry..
It's a good interview, I only mentioned that last part cuz I'm pretty sure that might have been connected, it really did seem like somebody was ramping up some ammunition for something else.. and this is just standard I guess amongst many many publishers.. so it's not even consistent either it's not policy it's just internal, this guy's a horrible person and he's making a move for whatever reasons... You'll have two different people at the same company that are completely different and how they're managing the accounts and interaction with the developers... You'll have a developer that has a good experience.. and then you'll have a developer that is working with people that completely drop them off a short cliff.. and then they're gone a month later cuz they're doing something else, they don't care.. but the rumors go with them, cuz that's a feature.
Highly recommend checking out the channel, they post every couple of weeks or so.. and honestly just having the slight subtle variations of Colantonio's permanent too cool for school f everybody face, as these conversations go on.. it's priceless and they're just good interviews, kind of I think that he was definitely not able to do in this particular way when he was lock down under Bethesda at arcane.
Maybe it was me playing as a Tremere that could wreck face with Blood Strike/Blood Boil, but I actually enjoyed the "endgame combat slog" I was continuously warned about. Ming Xiao gave me a teensy bit of trouble, but nowhere near the nightmare comments and wikis were preparing me for. The only thing I do agree with regarding the "downhill in the second half" criticism is the sidequests seemed to dry up midway through Hollywood and I wanted far more out of Chinatown. But I still liked what WAS there.
Haha, that’s pretty much the experience I had on my first play through, too. Clan Tremere is OP like hell in this game.😆
The coolest man reviewing the coolest game.
The game really is flawed as shit, but has an atmosphere unmatched by most games and some really great ideas and some of them even work great.
I wish I could be excited for the sequel and not worried as fuck for another similar story.
Someone in my comments recommended I check out this video and it did not disappoint! Great review. I will check out more of your videos.
In relation to your thoughts at 31:53, after Dark Corners of the Earth and Bloodlines, there's another game that I personally regard as the third wheel in a hypothetical trilogy of "early 2000s almost-hits", and it's not other than the severily flawed and over ambitious Boiling Point: Road to Hell. Ludicrous as it may sound, in my mind Boiling Point is a distant relative to Bloodlines (in the sense that both games share the same unmistakeable "spiritual ancestor": Deus Ex), but where it can be argued that Bloodlines' writing and atmosphere saved the end product from its technical mediocrity, Boiling Point didn't have that luck. But, even knowing this, I still recommend you to give it a try. Even if you end up not enjoying your time with it as much as I did, I think it may give you some interesting insights into that line that divides the hits from the almost-hits and the almost-failures.
In any case, thank you for this excellent critical essay on Bloodlines, I don't know how much work you put in it, but I think the result speaks for itself. Bravo!
Trevelyan Ignotus Tehsnakerer reviewed that game looked pretty interesting.
"I just wish you could start working against him much earlier"
Clan Quest Mod: Allow me to introduce myself
Have you considered doing i have no mouth review? You'll be the coolest man
Well I sure would like to be the coolest! Yeah, I totally will :)
@@GrimBeard cool beans, man! You are already the coolest!
@@GrimBeard Siiiiiiiiick. So looking forward to that. AM is one of my favorite villains from any adventure game.
YEAHHHHH That game is amazing!
And now he did. He really is the coolest!
Yo that"flesh crafter" questline is the darkest, creepiest, and outright scariest thing I've experienced in a game. Especially since I've got a sneaking suspicion it has a real life analog in LA that isn't too different.
The prince is a ventrue, che can control your mind, if you rebel he uses his powers to make you obey, just in the end you can disrupt his spell.
Also, you're literally on probation from a possible death sentence. Sure it might lead to political issues if he kills you, but you're still working under that threat.
So glad Mandalore mentioned your channel. About to binge watch all of your reviews.
FYI that Werewolf at the observatory can be killed through environmental puzzle. Also, props for the Snatch reference.
Ayyy glad to see another video Grimmy. You inspired me to play this game
Awesome! Hope you enjoy!
I am impressed by your production, your persona, and your comedy! And I was also embraced by Bloodlines in 2008. To this very day, I consider Bloodlines to be a gaming masterpiece! One of the very few games that continues to stand the test of time.
Whenever Grim uploads, I get a chub.
So everyone curious about trying the game: there have been an additional 3 years of patching for this game, with the latest patch released in Jan 2022. So things are always tweaked/improved ever so slightly.
The end of the video makes me super sad now.
As excited as I am for bloodlines 2 I still have a hard time believing anyone can do this game quite like troika did, as busted as it is.
Well developers are a bunch of sjw who called Malkavian being offensive, since mental instability is not a laughing matter.
Listening to this video in the background and I truly didn't realize you were cutting between the two intro songs until you said so
I'm genuinely pissed that VTMB2 will most likely fall short given what's been going on in its development cycle. I actually got into VTMB just a few months before the sequel was announced and was elated to find out a polished successor was on the way. It captures the grimy early 2000's feel perfectly and does vampire lore really well. I guess I could try the rest of VTM properties but I'm not really one for table top games.
You start this game as a fledgling vampire, the gopher for just about every other kindred above you; that is obvious from the beginning, and you are reminded of it often. Even those who seem to have your best interests in mind manipulate you to some degree. This is one of the main differences between the typical protagonist/hero archetype and what you are. Really though, this is par for course in the dystopia that is the WoD. Everything has to be controlled within the Masquerade, and this extends to keeping underlings in line. LaCroix, even though he is totally insufferable, is within his rights to off your sire and yourself. I really liked pretending to be a good soldier for him while secretly working against him at every opportunity.
I played through this game a total of 4 times, each replay trying a different approach, mainly to combat: Gangrel, Malkavian, Tremere, and Nosferatu. The Malkavian run was definitely the best experience, and the Nosferatu was the most challenging.
Reading the second paragraph gave me alter ego vibes, like I was peering into the processes of my own mind from an outsider perspective. Are you my doppelgänger?😅
@@Zeburaman2005 If you gaze closely at a mirror for long enough, eventually all else blurs and then fades from sight, until there is nothing else in the void but your reflection, staring back at you. Then it winks, and walks away out of sight, an enigmatic smile of purpose playing across its face. It is then that you realize that you are the one who is within the mirror, the bounds of your world containing only that as what light peers through from the other side into the darkness that surrounds you.
How to: VtMB combat. Pick nosferatu vermin lord, invest all your experience points into stealth, lockpicking, animalism and finance. Spam pestilence vs human enemies, spam bloodsucker communion on supernatural enemies. Ez win.
Bought this years ago on sale, keep meaning to get to it. Thanks to your praise, I'm finally gonna give it a shot.
Awesome video dude. Subscribed, and looking forward to going through your previous uploads.
Thank you for the detailed review! It brought back so many great memories of this amazing game. I can't wait to recreate my Toreador in Bloodlines 2.
Your videos are such high quality, thank you for making them.
4:00 "Well then hang on to your hat, Biiiitch!"
I lol'ed
godamn my dude i really love how you entirely embrace your personality sum pretty good khantent if ya ask me
What a coincidence and perfect timing! I was thinking about Vampire lately.
I was having...the day I was having, and then, boom: Grim Diary entry of a WoD game. Thanks, man, I really needed that.Also, holy crap, congrats on 7k+ subscribers, man! Didn't you just hit 6k like a month ago? You're on your way now!
welp... sorry about there not going to be a bloodlines 2 anytime soon.
Jeanette always reminds me of Harley Quinn. Well, he appearance does.
I love your style and humour and all your videos. Your music ones really help me find new artists. Thanks man.
I never play with the enhancements from the patch. I just have them fix up the game and play it as it is.
Which explains why I never got the dialogue for Yukie. I kept thinking "why does everyone keep saying you can ask for her help" when it turns out that's because they had the full version of the patch. The version I explicitly avoided. It hadn't occurred to me that it was cut content for some reason.
But seeing some of these changes, I remember *why* I didn't want that content. I'm perfectly content with the game in its final state, I just wanted bug fixes to deal with those issues and I can safely say that many of the issues you encountered, I never did. The non-"enhanced" version of the patch is perfectly stable. I had some crashing issues in my first playthrough, but only like once that I can think of (those massive sewers you have to traverse after escaping the Tzimisce seem less stable than the rest of the game). Maybe it happened another time, I'm sure it probably did, but I can't actually recall.
I did try installing the extra content from the patch once, when I wanted to revisit the game some years back, but it didn't take and I had to uninstall the whole game and start fresh. I think when I installed it that time and checked that it was working, I chose to forego the extra content and then I left it installed on my system for whenever I was ready to play again. That time I had no real issues to speak of, although I do quicksave a lot in these kinds of games. You never know.
Sadly the last part didn't age too well
Now 4 years later and Bloodlines 2 is claiming to release in 2024.
Vampire really lives inbetween the story beats; the side missions, the characters, the atmosphere, all genuinely memorable and just the right amount of dark. Yeah combat is terrible, being forced to use it after such a long time of being able to foregoe it even worse, but the first few hours will always stick with me. It's janky as hell, but I love it. Here's to hoping they can recreate this mess of a butterfly
I find combat difficulty mostly comes down to which clan you’re playing as. Tremere are OP as hell and useful in most situations, provided you spec them correctly. Nosferatu and Gangrel are the obvious stealthy vs combat focused play throughs that require you to plan ahead a bit to mitigate their shortcomings. In general the jank wasn’t too obnoxious compared to other games that incorporated stealth mechanics, it work well enough in this.
I’ve never gotten the “toreadors can’t fight” schtick because they get access to celerity which is one of the strongest disciplines in the game
Talking of ambitious RPGs sabotaged by the impatience of their publisher, you should definitely review KOTOR 2. Especially with the restored content mod, it’s something I’d love to hear your take on.
What patch was used at the beginning? I'm curious.
A cult game that also needs a sequel and maybe a remake. I finished this one last month, thank you for covering it. Looking forward to watching it.
16:48 Toreador have Celerity. They are totally fine, combat wise.
I played as a Toreador and it's VERY strong in combat, celerity rank 5 is busted and coupled with 10 point in firearm you rarely die and kill boss in 10 seconds.
i dont think i've been disappointed by any of your videos. love your work
13:20. Yep. That’s exactly how I dance.
Quality work as always good sir.
You guys there's a plot reason to why you have to work for La Croix right? He's been using Dominate on you from the beginning.
16:20 Toreador are one of the strongest combat clans due to Celerity + Auspex! The social butterfly stings like a bee.
LOL @ Grim Beard being excited for Bloodlines 2 five years ago, which at the time was 15 years after the release of Bloodlines, and we still don't have Bloodlines 2.
I just picked this up on GOG and it's super fun, and found no progress-halting bugs, thanks to the fan patch.
Please what are the songs in the beginning and the end of this video??? I need them
The beginning one is Lesser Harm, made by himself.
You’re so effortlessly funny and relatable, I love it. Thank you for the video.
OK your video and Seth's made me want to install and play this.
"SEWERS"!
If you combine Celerity and Firearms it makes the combat much more enjoyable. Being able to zip around while unloading an autoshot gun in to enemies faces and reloading at the blink of an eye, is strangely satifying.
What’s the intro GB, I’ve been looking for this track for a while. Is it on your Bandcamp?
Lesser Harm
I discovered your channel not that long ago and I gotta say I just love your taste in games and commentary style! And to top that off your as big a Bloodlines geek as me? Obsessed.
Melee will be the safer bet to make? Bruh, you're a Toreador. By end-game you can be flying around with Celerity, Auspex and fully automatic weapons like you're in The Matrix.
YES! I just started another playthrough in honor of the announcement of the sequel and then this drops.
As somone who just spent spent the past 2 months binging 5 years of your content I appreciate the split up format
go play Darkwood you good for nothing hack. You'll enjoy it greatly. Also keep making videos, I like them.
I feel there's probably enough to work with with Darkwood he could make a good episode out of it.
When I was younger I played Tremere, now I play Toreador because I relate to being pretentious.
I could point out the Beckett isn't a werewolf but seems like that's been said already. Tho the Antediluvian aren't the Childe of Cain but the Childe of Cain's Childe as they are 3rd gen not 2nd gen.
What is wild is that vampire 2 had an original release date set to come out before cyberpunk's original release date
But now, 1.5 years after Cyberpunk's delayed, delayed and delayed again release date, there is still no sign of Vampire 2
And with the news about it, its not a promising sign either
It's gonna suck.
Sabbat are not a clan. They are a Sect. The Kue Jin are an actual sepparate supernatural being from the Middle Kingdom in East Asia and are vampire/ghost like.
I'm 42
I've been gaming my whole life practically (got my first puter at age 5)
RPGs and P&C adventure games are what I play most, and well-written RPGs are my passion in games (PS:T my favoite game since it came out)
I am finally getting into playing this game, and I started it the other day
I also chose Torreodor, and got inclined to play a female at that - am excited, and find it interesting you've played at it a decent amount and also like them
they were the definite option for me based on all the things except for maybe Malkovian but I knew not to start with that
3 years later and Bloodlines 2 is essentially vaporware :(
I love VTMB - it's a fun story that, despite some issues caused by its rushed development, is a fantastic game. An immersive sim in the veil of Deus Ex, Bloodlines does make the world feel like a living breathing thing. In the Patheon of great games, Bloodlines sits next to Deus Ex happily, along with the different but also great Disco Elysium.
Edit: I sincerely hope Bloodlines 2 a) does release and b) is a great sequel inspite of the behind the scenes drama that happened.