Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

40 to 100 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Guilty pleasure"

Before anything, I'd like to warn you about the most lethal problem this game has. Bugs. Game-stopping bugs. Random game-stopping bugs. Yes it's by luck, without the official v1.2 patch, you could have a 50% chance to get stuck within the first five minutes of your game, and that is seriously ridiculous. I bought Bloodlines six years ago and two weeks earlier this is the first time I'm playing it and lucky me, I waited six years to find that the game still has patches coming up. Even till now, the unofficial v7.0 patch still can't solve every problem the game has, although it has made sure players would have no issues with the main quests in order to complete the game. But being an RPG game, you would still find disappointments in bugs that causes missing items, inaccessible points and random glitches that prevented you in completing some of the most interesting side quests. So, it's sad to say that without the patches, Bloodlines would not have been a great game.

Well, irritating bugs aside, Vampire - Bloodlines is one of the most sexiest, seediest and raunchiest games in the RPG genre comparing to Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Deus Ex and the Fallout series. Here, blatant visual displays of sex industry icons like street prostitutes, strip clubs, caged dolls and lap dances are more than suggestive in a video game, so throw in a bunch of vampires and everything seems legit.

Putting the glorious graphics and animated characters aside, Bloodlines offers a lot of interesting side quests and informative ideologies, in a style similar to Deus Ex. Combat is very well organised, with a very good blend of sneaking, melee and ranged. Then, about half of the quests involve non-combat objectives that range from detective work to persuasive negotiations to computer hacking to heist, effectively utilising most of the skills available, which in turn makes character building engaging and fun. Through these quests, Bloodlines discusses about the vampire society much like how Deus Ex discusses government conspiracies, thereby bridging their similarities. So, if you're a Deus Ex fan, you'd definitely love Vampire - Bloodlines despite the patching issues.

With the latest patches, you'd notice the great voice work as well as nice character animations. The sound design is a little lackluster safe for some good weapon sounds, but most of the music is great, if you're into cyber punk and gothic rock. To conclude, I would say Vampire - Bloodlines rocks my world, but most importantly, with the latest patching.

KingLim