Troika’s first and only try at making a 3D CRPG, VTMB plays less like the vampire action/survival game you were probably expecting and more like an urban fantasy Deus Ex with even more quests to solve. Make sure to grab Wesp5’s Unofficial Patch (also recommend enabling Plus Patch) as this game has major problems running on modern systems otherwise.
For starters, the game is dripping with atmosphere – whether it’s the stormy streets of Santa Monica, or the gothic skyscrapers towering far above Downtown LA, or the myriad of neon nightclubs and idyllic business (with a touch of depravity) beneath the enchanted skies of Hollywood, or the exotic Chinatown hub that feels like stepping into another world, the artists managed to make even the run-down slums of LA feel so mystical and ethereal. I think the graphics hold up today, and of course, Rik Schaffer’s soundtrack is as peerless as ever.
Set in a 2000s gothic Los Angeles where supernatural entities must blend into human society to avoid extermination, VTMB presents one of the most believable, immersive, and rich worlds in any CRPG. You meet a wide cast of characters from all classes of undead society, including ruthless club owners, Thin-Blooded outcasts, anarchic rebels, megalomaniacal elites, and tons of unaware humans caught in between, all with eccentric personalities, deep backstories, and unique perspectives on the world. The cast is brought to life through stellar dialogue, superb voice acting, and some of the best facial animations in any video game ever, so talking to them never gets dull. The story is engrossing as you get involved with the diverse factions and supernatural races vying for control of LA and excellent supernatural political drama ensues. Granted, the plot ultimately boils down to running a bunch of errands (many dialogue options lampshade this) and remains very linear until one dialogue tree at the end, but the memorable characters and superb quests will give you more than enough reason to replay.
Sprinkled throughout this vibrant world are some of the best and most creative quests in any CRPG. Each quest is discovered through natural dialogue, is internally consistent with the world, and tells its own self-contained mini-story, like an episode in a TV series. Look at the variety: there are combat-focused quests (the plague bearer quest chain, Grout’s mansion, the Gargoyle boss fight); a few stealth-oriented quests (the Elizabeth Dane, the LA National Museum); lots of social-themed quests (resolving Therese/Jeanette Voerman’s rivalry, convincing a food critic to leave a bad review, retrieving the B-writer’s screenplay); plus a few other surprises (Ocean House Hotel, Griffith Park). Best of all, you can be assured that the devs considered and accommodated every playstyle: quests have many solutions; lots of unique outcomes; plenty of skill checks, hidden routes, and secrets that only specialized builds can leverage; and tons of opportunities for character expression (wow, proper GMing!). Sure, there are a few frustrating quests here and there (the Elizabeth Dane, Romero’s graveyard w/o guns, the SchreckNet quest chain…), there’s a bit too much backtracking, and most locations are never visited again once their related quest is completed, but when the quests are this entertaining and reactive, you will hardly notice these faults.
There are plenty of ways to approach a problem, including unarmed/melee, guns, blood disciplines/spells, sneaking around (extremely buggy though), hacking, lockpicking, and talking to NPCs to persuade, intimidate, or seduce them into doing your bidding (you can even use some spells in dialogue). There are also side systems to manage such as the masquerade, humanity scores, and criminal violations for breaking the law to keep you vigilant. Perhaps the most interesting design choice is that there are no health potions in this game – you must instead feed on humans/rats, which is the main way to restore mana and (more importantly) HP. This mechanic definitely encourages you to take more risks with fights, that’s for sure. Most impressively, there are the 7 playable clans (Brujah, Gangrel, Malkavian, Nosferatu, Toreador, Tremere, Ventrue), analogous to D&D classes, with different playstyles, spells, and tradeoffs. Most impressively, the characters and factions have wildly different reactions to each clan, as if the world is being reshaped to fit your character. One of the great strengths of Arcanum was how wildly your race affected character reactions, and I am glad VTMB continues this tradition.
Of course, VTMB is far from perfect. The combat is as awful as it looks in the YouTube videos, and none of the options (unarmed, melee, ranged) are pleasant. Melee forces you into an awkward 3rd-person view and devolves into a boring button-mash fest based around a repetitive 3-hit combo. Unarmed is even worse: it has the same problems as Melee and deals less damage, has no weapon unlocks, and has way worse hit reg. The guns are not much better – early game firearms are worthless, many have unbearably slow reloads, they are all very inaccurate, the ammo system is ♥♥♥♥♥♥, and the automatic guns have the worst muzzle climb I have ever experienced (the MAC-10 is especially abysmal). At least guns become serviceable once you fully max out the feat (it must be 10, it cannot be less), but this often occurs well into the end game. Fortunately, you do not have to engage with the combat too much… for the first 3/4 of the game at least.
VTMB completely falls apart in its last 1/4: it’s all tedious combat challenges in claustrophobic rooms, everyone is armed with automatic guns, enemy density is at least 2x what you can handle, side quests are few and far between, and all non-combat-focused builds become useless here. Take your pick: Nosferatu Warrens, the Chinatown story quests where everyone has MAC-10s, the Society of Leopold, Hallowbrook Hotel, the Ming Xiao temple + boss fight, the Ventrue Tower where everyone has Steyr AUGs - they’re all miserable no matter how strong you are, and they suck out nearly all the joy accrued in the first 3/4 of the game. The boss fights are especially egregious – they all have bloated HP + armor and annoying gimmicks like teleportation or flight. Worst of all, because there is nothing to feed on, there is no way to heal during a boss fight (especially when the boss deals aggravated damage). The worst offender is Ming Xiao, who has obnoxiously high armor and is one of the worst boss fights in any game. The game rushes through the rest of story, too – major antagonists like Andrei and Bach are discarded in anticlimactic boss fights, while major battles like the Sabbat raid and the Kuei-Jin invasion are resolved off screen.
There are other minor issues, too. There are unfinished levels everywhere – the sewers are just a series of empty, bland-looking corridors with no combat or loot, and half of the building interiors look like run-down apartments cobbled together in 15 minutes. The progression system is vastly inferior to the one in Arcanum, and most feats are skill check fodder: the intimidate, persuade, and seduction feats are all different flavours of the same speech check (with persuade being stronger than the other two), for instance. And like in every other CRPG, beware of all the useless feats: melee, ranged, lockpick, computers, and persuasion are essential, while haggle, research, inspection, intimidation, and seduction are underwhelming at best.
Overall, VTMB is a buggy, frustrating, and unfinished mess that is still ahead of its time in world-building, quest design, reactivity, and character expression. These are not minor achievements – I cannot stress enough that the story and worldbuilding are just as important as, if not more vital than, the combat and looting in a proper CRPG. VTMB is certainly the best urban fantasy first/third-person CRPG in gaming, and it’s always a great time to replay it.
8/10
