Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines

Genuinely top tier game, sadly my time didn't register because playing on a mod doesn't

"Flawed masterpiece" is a term I hear often used to describe this game, and I'd say it's pretty accurate. Worth noting: I played with the Unofficial Plus Patch mod, which fixes the game's biggest issues and adds back cut content. Bloodlines excels in its writing, tone, and atmosphere. How it incorporates existing lore from World of Darkness is done in a satisfying way that is respectful to the source material. It even has a "goth-punk" aesthetic that reminds me of late 90's and early 2000's action moves like the Matrix and Blade. I loved going around taking in the sites while doing simple quests with all the cool characters around LA. Meanwhile, the story did an amazing job keeping me hooked, at least for a while. The first 2/3 or so of the game is very strong, but it definitely slowed down after this. Now for the bad. The gameplay isn't the best. I wouldn't outright call it awful, but it got grating to me towards the end of the game. It got unfairly hard, so I enabled God mode and maxed out my stats via console commands. This turned out to be an unexpectedly satisfying way to finish the game. It feels like you're Neo at the end of the Matrix. When I play this again, I will likely play the game on god mode. However, I'm happy I actually played it without these on for a while. I'd recommend playing the game for a while before going that route. Overall, this was a fantastic RPG, and I'm not sure we'll see another like it anytime soon. I'd recommend this for fans of CRPGs, dialogue-heavy games, horror, and of course fans of Vampire: The Masquerade.