Chinatown suffered from a lack of things to do (as well as game-breaking bugs in my experience). The cheesy triad stuff, accents, samurai fish monsters etc. were also a bit much for me. The game didn't take itself 100% seriously but some of those went overboard into derp territory. Gameplay-wise it wasn't awful, but it still felt rushed and you kind of just went from one set piece/level to the next without much opportunity to really explore. I don't even remember if there were any side-quests, probably not.
Still, worst part of the game for me was how the Sabbat was resolved (or wasn't, really). You just... sort of show up there, and then kill everyone, and that's it. No big mysteries revealed or anything, they're apparently just a bunch of pathetic thugs holed up in a mazelike building with copy-pasted rooms. From what I recall they don't even tie into the endgame plot, they're just there to slaughter until another NPC tells you to do something.
I think the reason why I loved the game so much is because it captured so much of Deus Ex's spirit when no other game has even come close. Broken as it is, Bloodlines at the very least has a ton of replay value, well-designed environments that take multiple play-styles into account, and it does a good job of tying exploration, character interaction and story progress together into one cohesive whole. So many games these days are fight -> cutscene, fight -> cutscene -> wander around -> cutscene that just having the freedom to do things at your own pace and in different ways was a breath of fresh air. Sure, it lacked a lot of the more expansive and labyrinthine levels of Deus Ex, but like Human Revolution, the intention and spirit of it was in the right place.
