Nearly everyone in Morrowind, including the countless humanoid enemies, had a name and some dialogue. Most were just anonymous drones, but you couldn’t know that until you finished talking to them. The master trainer for enchanting was just one of many hostile bandits living in some old fort. I enjoyed knowing that even enemies could have something useful to say. It made exploration and fighting much more interesting. Anachronox was another game where everyone had a name and something to say. VtMB obviously doesn’t do this.

The principal quest givers are universally well done; but the infinite number of nameless, mute, clones waiting for the player to fill their mana bar just grates on me. It could’ve been worse. They could’ve made it like the awful city parts in Thief 3, where the walking potions are all hostile, but it does make the world seem less alive than it could be.

My only complaint about the game itself is that 99% of the population is just walking mana potions without anything to say or do. It makes the game feel too much like GTA and not enough like an RPG. The excellent radio bits, at the expense of ‘human’ storytellers, make the “GTA with vampires” theme more annoying to me.


But that's really the case for any RPG. Baldur's Gate had townspeople who wandered around or populated taverns, Planescape and Fallout had the same, KOTOR, and so on. Most won't respond or just have generic responses. In Bloodlines, the people who wandered around stopped and had cellphone conversations, lit cigarettes, took a whiz behind dumpsters, etc. to provide background while you went around (like any RPG) to speak with the ones you needed to speak with.

And even so, Bloodlines has a pretty large array of speaking roles:

18 speaking characters in Chinatown, 31 more in Downtown, 9 in the Giovanni Mansion, 19 more in Hollywood, 3 in the Warrens, 32 in Santa Monica, plus some generic ones here and there. Which is quite a list all told - particularly when a considerable number of these had multiple speaking roles to move a plot of quest along.

Planescape would probably have the longest speaking roles for non-essential characters - the lectures you could attend in the Festhall come to mind. But even then, Planescape was heavily crowded with non-speaking generic passersby.

This comment was edited on Jul 4, 2009, 13:38.

The patches haven’t really done anything for a long time besides move items around and break-then-fix already working quests.

My only complaint about the game itself is that 99% of the population is just walking mana potions without anything to say or do. It makes the game feel too much like GTA and not enough like an RPG. The excellent radio bits, at the expense of ‘human’ storytellers, make the “GTA with vampires” theme more annoying to me.

Still some of the most superb voice acting I've heard in a game. Jeanette and Gary especially are memorable. And the Deb of Night radio show was a nice touch throughout:

I must've gone through two playthroughs before I caught the Deb of Night broadcast where Andrei calls in. Freaked me out but good since you haven't met him in-game yet, but I already knew who he was.

The thin-blooded seer on the beach, she's a trip, too. I remember reading an interview where one of the devs admitted they consciously decided to have a character early on you couldn't possibly understand unless it was your second playthrough.

Why wont this game just freaking die already!!!

Why won't you just fucking die already?

Why wont this game just freaking die already!!!

...because it's already undead?




*crickets*

Why wont this game just freaking die already!!!

Still some of the most superb voice acting I've heard in a game. Jeanette and Gary especially are memorable. And the Deb of Night radio show was a nice touch throughout:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIH0HAkRlFk

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=the+deb+of+night&search_type=&aq=0&oq=the+deb+of+

I would install the official 1.2 patch, followed by the 6.3 patch (and make sure you use the "plus" version, not basic).

6.x series includes the 1.2 patch.

Just get the latest 6.3 and be done.

I'd love to go through and play this again, as it's been a few years now. Is this, or is there one or two master patches to get this up to 6.3? I can't imagine downloading and installing 43 patches.

I would install the official 1.2 patch, followed by the 6.3 patch (and make sure you use the "plus" version, not basic).

The World of Darkness MMO will probably let you play as a werewolf. Unfortunately, it's an MMO.

I'd love to go through and play this again, as it's been a few years now. Is this, or is there one or two master patches to get this up to 6.3? I can't imagine downloading and installing 43 patches.

And yeah, I never tried a Malkavian, seems like it would be fun. Wish they'd do a good werewolf game. Rise of the Lycans really got my jones on for a badass werewolf game.

That link took me to the main page (English), but I did find the download links from that main page. Only the German download location works, but at least now the patch can be downloaded.

You have to give it a grace period then the links show up.

http://dlh.net/getfile.php?84:1e12b786fc256ab1:0107110f0ae8f69e:Vampire_bloodlines/vtmbup63.exe

Filefront mirror is gone, or never existed.

This comment was edited on Jul 3, 2009, 17:08.

Everytime a new patch for this game is posted on Patch Scrolls the patch scroll page for the new patch is blank. There's a new patch, but no way to download it.

Yup. They work great with the Steam version. That's what I've got, and everything works fine.

Do these unofficial patches work with the Steam version? If so I might pick it up, I've been in the mood for a decent action/rpg game, lately, and replaying Deus Ex again didn't sate me. This game always seemed to get good reviews aside from the horrible bugs, and I guess from what I hear these patches have done a great job fixing the game up.

One day, they will release the final patch and this will be the day i'll start a new game. Not one patch before

I never finished and lost my save. I need to go again as a Malkavian.

Just finished a playthrough with a Malkavian using version 6.2, and it was an amazing experience. I have to agree with Prez, and this is simply one of the most detailed, polished, and immersive games I've ever played now. Thanks, wesp.