I am about to play V:TM-Bloodlines for the first time - what do I need to know before I start?

Finished it for the first time lately. 1.2 and True Patch. What can I say? It's good, but I expected more from so much lauded game.

What I liked:
- Quests. Really interesting and variative stuff. Troika at its best.
- NPCs. Voice acting is decent. Facial models and facial animations really impress me. So much games today have creepy or uncanny valley NPCs, but here, people look like people. In terms of facial animations and gestures this game is still ahead of many games, even modern. Jeanette/Theresa confrontation or Vandal talking to you at the end of Thinned Blood quest as good examples.
- Writing. Good dialogs, interesting main plot and all.
- My favourite weapon - beat people to death with torn arm!
- Different clans play really differently. Shame that you can't play as Tzimisce

What I disliked:
- Bugs are everywhere. Source game with such incredible amount of bugs reminds me of Postal 3 and this is not good. AI is bugged, physics are bugged, quests bug out, item's doesn't work, NPC don't act as intended, etc.
- Combat is horrendous. Y'know, people say that Arcanum has bad combat, but I enjoy it. People say that PST has bad combat, bad at least it works. Here, it's just awful. Yes, you could talk away or stealth away a lot of it, but late game leaves you no choice. Gunplay is shit. Melee system is shit. The only Source game that has worse combat is aforementioned Postal 3.
- Inventory is something out of FPS game, with ammo and weapon limits instead of weight. But ammo isn't interchangeable. You can't use 12 gauge shells from Ithaca in SPAS15, or 9mmPara from Glock in Uzi. It's because this weapons have different magazines? What is this - Armed Assault?
- 80% of dialogs are railroaded. You have options 1,2,3 that lead to same outcome. Sometimes one choice adds flavour, like responses to annoy Lacroix, but it rarely leads to significant consequences. Most of the choices in the game - kill or not a guy whom you'll never see again. One real choice - is to give up Mercurio, who will become one of the best traders in the game. Who chooses to give him up anyway? Choice between Jeanette and Theresa is just whom you like more. Your choices in the main plot are literally non-existent, you just choose your ending in the conversation with Caine.
- Level design. While hub-areas look and feel nice, indoor areas are often bad. Empty rooms everywhere, fake doors, copypasted rooms and corridors. Game has dozens of toilets placed in every building which serve zero purpose game-wise. And some levels - Hollywood Sewers, HellBrook Hotel, MinXiao lair remind me of late 2000-s Polish FPS games - and this is not good at all. Most missions are heavily scripted. Often feels like an FPS, not as RPG. And the best of all - infinitely respawning enemies in some locations! So much fun!
- Every melee enemy in the game has leaping attack. Maybe I did something wrong, but playing as Tremere every goddamn creature (except zombies - thank g-d) in the game was faster than me.
- Ming Xiao boss fight is one of the worst that I ever seen in my life.

Want to replay as Malkavian, but awful combat kills all my desire to do so. Any mods to improve it?

 

This is what you get for not just playing with the Basic patch like everyone says you should, dumbass.

 

I use "true patch gold edition" for it doesn't change as much stuff as unofficial patch does. Could as well load up my installation with mods and shit, and probably do it, but later

 

Forget about the mods, just proceed and use their cheat invis to get through any annoying combat section.

 

Also, forgot to add: Tremere's Blood Strike is OP as fuck. It is first level spell, requires one blood, and you can spam it like crazy. Any boss goes down easily with it. Could as well just name it "harm". Could be a pattern here: Troika adds first level spam-prone spell to their every game? Does TOEE has one like this?

 

I'd say just play it unmodded first time. I played the CD version on my first playthrough and I did come across a game breaking bug at a certain point, but looking up a console command fixed it.

Edit: Just noticed how long ago this thread was posted. OP has probably finished the game by now.

 

YES, I've finished it by now. Three times already AND I STILL HAVEN'T HAD ENOUGH!

Use Wesp5's patch: https://www.moddb.com/mods/vtmb-unofficial-patch/downloads/unofficial-patch-106

I have finished the game three times now with that patch and I haven't had a single bug. =) Also, since you've already finished the game once, make sure to select the plus patch (as opposed to the basic patch) when installing it.

Yeah, combat is one huge joke. What I can recommend to you is putting points into Sneaking and then try to finish the game by using Assassinate kills only.

Also, make sure to put points into Persuasion, so that you get extra choices, like in the case of Jeanette and Theresa: If you're always nice to the two of them and have enough points in Persuasion, you can persuade them into making up. You even get one more XP point for this option. =)

Ahahaha, yeah it's certainly a unique experience on your first playthrough when you're carefully proceeding from one room to the next of a level, always expecting to be ambushed by horrific creatures of the night only to realize you've ended up in yet another toilet room. xDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

The game makes up for those situations imo, by having the best elevator simulation of any game in existence.

Oh please, please, please replay as Malkavian! It's the best clan of the game! With that said, I am no longer here~

 

Well, why not? I played first time with True Patch Gold for authenticity, now I could use some variation.

3 Dex and 2 Sneaking is enough for stealth for the entire game. And yes, I used stealth as much as possible - Elizabeth Dane mission, Museum mission, Fat Larry's mission, for examples, even the last mission in Lacroix tower allows for some stealth. Often stealth gives you more exp than wholesale slaughter. But some missions are hardcoded for combat only (HellBrook hotel, for example) and by Jove does it gets tiresome.
Also, Trance+feeding is a perfect combo against single human enemies.

Well, I used Persuasion all the time. Game gives you choice of Persuasion, Intimidation and Seduction, but Persuasion is enough to complete 95% of the quests and talk down 95% of the NPC when possible. Intimidation is fun but sometimes it gives you negative result and Seduction is useful only for larping. So, why waste precious skillpoints into these useless skills?

For reference, this is the state of my build after the fight with Ming. Some of this isn't possible in Unofficial patch, though.

Show Spoiler Hide Spoiler

Well, not exactly like this. I like exploring locations looking for useful loot and stuff. Some games reward you for it. System Shock 2 has Cyber Modules hidden in various places, Deus Ex gives you exp for exploring. In VtBM it's mostly empty rooms. And toilets.

 

Two sidequests and many dialogue lines directly determine your endgame options. It may seem like you casually choose your A-B-C-D ending in the cab irregardless of what you do before the endgame, but you were probably locked out of some choices.

The plus patch makes it possible to have your cake and eat it in many instances, like getting the body armor from the orphan AND saving her, but that doesn't count.

 

Don't mind to elaborate on that? I had options to side with LaCroix, Strauss, Anarchs, Ming and no one. I went with Strauss. I guess you can lock out Lacroix if you annoy him too much and I know that it's possible to lock out Strauss as well. Anarchs and independent are always possible, and not sure about Ming.

 

That's not completely true, if you save Heather you need to buy the body armor from Mercurio for a lot of hard cash !

 

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/stay-wicked-presents-blood-lube#/

JarlFrank

 

Play it with the Clan Quest mod which includes the Unofficial Patch (an outdated version of the unofficial patch but it still tackles all of the biggest issues). In my eyes purism is almost always retarded, especially so with Troika games. They could build worlds like no other, but couldn't build a functional engine to save their lives.

 

It's been a while but IIRC you are locked out of LaCroix, Xiao and Anarch endings if you antagonize them before the cab ride. Two are bad endings, but endings nonetheless.

And Max is not an option if you tell on him during the gargoyle quest, this one I'm sure of.

 

Finished the game as Malkavian and I got to say, Malkavian lines are some of the best shit that ever saw in RPG games. They talk in riddles and allegories and this is almost poetic. Though, I think Malkavian is best to be played first time due to their insight, which could add another layer to the game.

Writing-wise, this game is awesome, though it was said thousand times over. Characters and quests are among the best in the genre. I'm not a fan of vampire stuff (though I liked first Underworld and first two Blade movies) but this game is surely can keep you interested.

Combat-wise, you know, second time combat does not look so awful as the first time. Braindead AI, wonky gunplay, unresponsive melee, annoying enemy moves, all is still present, but through this darkness of bad FPS some rays of good gameplay shine through. Alternate paths, mix of stealth and combat, mix of weapons and abilities... though I still glitched or cheesed half of the bosses. If only a little more time was divulged to this aspects.

But frankly, I don't see the point of replaying VtMB too often. While story is good, there's not too much alternatives during various playthroughs, and there is still enough slog to get through.

 

This. You only get one first playthrough so why not fully experience the Malkavian clan?

 

Is this the official thread, now?

Playing a Toreador (that's the initial build):

 

Intimidate is rendered completely redundant by persuasion, unless you want access to different dialogue lines, or maybe if you want high research. In general, focusing your starter points is a better idea than spreading them, because of how XP costs work, e.g. 3 dodge instead of 1 dodge 2 intimidation would be better in your case but if you're way into your run it's not the end of the world.

I also don't see the skip intro button. While you shouldn't check it for your first run, I suggest enabling it and the clan histories. Add these to autoexec.cfg

Code:

vchar_edit_histories "1"
vchar_skip_intro "1"

 

First time playing, 502.

But since people said this game is too easy, maybe I can continue with this build, right? It's kinda normal to let yourself gimp your first builds, because we still are learning the mechanics. I think I will continue with the plan.

I still want to check your opinion so I can revaluate my idea.

 

Yeah. Social skills and ranged Toreador is pretty standard.

 

The skip intro button will only appear if the game finds a saved game, the histories are not really recommended in the original version as they were buggy.

 

Bear in mind: this game has no xp or money grind whatsoever. Amount of possible xp and money is strictly limited, so all build decisions should be careful. It's hard to completely fuck up your character in Bloodlines, but bad builds lessen amount of options available and will make some parts rather painful.
Without saying too much I'll just recommend you to hold on your xp points for a while. Don't spend them instantly, hoard a little and think about possibilities.
As of Bloodlines being easy, it is, but some boss fights are quite punishing, and combat is surprisingly stats dependent.

 

Good call as usual. Didn't know if Atleticano went with basic or plus.

 

Basic.

 

If you play the basic patch the histories are already fixed, only not enabled because they were not in the original game.