"They really don't make them like this anymore" is what I thought my entire time playing this hidden gem.
Now before I recommend this, I NEED to tell you dear reader, this game was released unfinished back in 2004, and the final third of the game is holding on by a thread. It has bugs and glitches in it, and some of them can be pretty substantial (I was lucky and never encountered any big ones). You can find an unnofficial patch for this game online for free, and it fixes the vast majority of these issues. I strongly recommend getting that if you want to play this! You don't need the Plus version as that adds some cut content that was also unfinished, just the one that cleans up the resolution and bugs.
That out of the way, this is my 3rd favorite RPG of all time behind Dragon Age Origins and Baldur's Gate 3. The amount of freedom you have in this game to resolve your quests is insane, and the replayability is really high considering each clan you can play as offers you a different way to play. The Nosferatu can't wander out in the open without causing a panic, so you have to move through sewers all the time and stealth your way through things. The Malkavians are seers who can see through illusions and into the future, and you will literally have the game spoiled for you if you play them lol, they are also insane so the game becomes this really weird and trippy world through the eyes of the Malkavian character, it's one of the coolest things I've ever seen in an RPG!
The combat in this is... Not great. It's clunky, unresponsive, and probably the weakest aspect of the gameplay. Some clans are okay like the Toreador, Ventrue, Brujah, and Tremere who all have easy ways to bypass it or make it trivially easy. While others like the Gangrel are screwed because one of their main powers has hit detection issues making it really frustrating to play. The last stretch of this game leans heavily into the combat, and it's what keeps me from ranking this any higher than I do.
By that same token, the actual roleplay in this game is phenominal! There is so much depth to how you play your character and how you interact with the setting it's wild, there is little to no railroading or hand holding in this game, you have a really good tutorial you can do at the beginning and after that it's all up to you. Even if you find that to be too much, you can skip the tutorial entirely. The voice acting in this game is superb and the right amount of cheesy. Smiling Jack, Lacroix, Maximillian Strauss, Velvet Valour, Fat Larry, etc. are all such memorable characters in their own ways.
You have near total freedom in how you accomplish your missions in this game. For example; you're told to retrieve some werewolf blood that's been brought to a nearby hospital and you can't let them analyze it. They never tell you how to do it, there's no steps you HAVE to do to get it, just go get it however you choose. In one playthrough as a Nosferatu, I was a master hacker and I deactivated the security cameras, stealthed past the security guards, and took the blood without anyone noticing I was there. Another time as a Ventrue I just mind controlled the guards into doing it all for me and left. As a Gangrel, I just tore everyone apart, turned the cameras off with the dead security guard's keys and took the blood. all of them were equally valid.
The atmosphere in this game is stellar as well. It perfectly captures that early 2000's alternative/goth subculture, you'll be hearing liscensed music from bands like Lacuna Coil, Darling Violetta, Genitorturers, etc. and each song plays perfectly into the themes of the game and add to the feel of it. The game also has a dark sense of humor, with some jokes and characters being fairly non-PG by todays standards (it's really up to you if you find it offensive or not, personally I've seen much worse so I don't really care).
I would gladly recommend this to anyone interested in playing a narratively strong RPG or has a passing interest in the Vampire The Masquerade setting. It's by far the best VtM game you can play at the moment (the new one that was announced recently looks really interesting but that won't be out for a while). As I said at the start, get the unofficial patch if you get this! Just google "Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines Unofficial Patch" and it should come right up.
