I feel compelled to stop lurking since there's finally another RPG I feel like talking about now.
First, I've seen several complaints across different boards about people experiencing slowdown in Bloodlines, and blaming it on memory leaks or that the game is buggy, which I haven't really experienced. Then I saw this thread at Gamespy:
"Troika Get's Copy Protection Right With Bloodlines". Sounds good, although I don't know if it's true or not. If it is, Troika should announce it publicly, so pirates don't go around bitching about the game for that reason.
I don't get the complaints coming from reviewers about combat either. Combat is usually one area in most RPGs I can't get into, since the Fallouts at least, but I love it in Bloodlines. There's no pause, order issuing, real-time hybrid, snoozefest bullshit (KOTOR).
Smashing guys up against a wall with a baseball bat and knowing stats are at play never gets old. I've got no problems with ranged combat either, it just reminds me of Deus Ex. I think, as a few have mentioned, stats in general in FPS games just throw some people completely off.
So far I'm having a great time with the game, and Troika has managed to garner a newfound respect from me for it. It's like a spiritual sequel to Deus Ex that doesn't suck, only with vampires and more dialogue.