VtM:B *Light Spoilers*

[Quigs]

So yeah. Picked up the game at the sponsoring of it by several folks here on these boards.

I dunno.

I fell in love with the games early stages. The atmosphere was tremendous, and there was alot to do. The entire time I enjoyed playing through, and kept thinking how different the game would be should I play again with another character.

Got past the midway point, had a fairly decent character, and it seemed as though when I finally finished leveling up one of my domain skills, I had a mission to basically wipe out an enemy base. Awesome. Used my new skills, kicked some ass. Get back, and wipe out another base.

... Allright.

Go out, kick some more ass. Go back to town, try to move the story along, and its "Go out to another base and kill em all."

I've probably snuffed out about 3 city blocks of population, and I'm now officially bored with the game. I'm "stuck" at the woodhaven? wormwood? The crappy burnt out hotel the sabbat are hanging out in downtown. And by stuck, I mean occasionally for no reason seem to take 5 times the damage I normally do and die before I can do anything about it, and got bored of reloading.

The awesomeness of the early levels, and the multiple paths really fizzled out quickly. It's a shame, because I now *really* dig the universe, where I once hated anything to do with vampfags. I'll try one more time tonight to trudge through the monotony, then Ill just go ahead and start a bad Ventrue/Cammy char for the hell of it.

 

[Inziladun]

Yeah, while personally I'm quite used to the heathen Akshun games and wasnt' too bothered by the monotonous leagues of enemies I acknowledge it as the lowest point in the game.

The worst is the sabbat hideout you're in. Closely followed by the sewers you go through to get to the nosferatu.

 

[Trash]

They spend a great deal of time on the earlier part of the game and trying to get the source engine working. Midway through they ran out of funds and time and just rushed the rest of the game. The ending is still awesome and there are some good parts but basically you can expect one big fight from here on. It kinda ruined the game for me and was utterly typical for troika. Great rpg ideas and a crappy execution marred with horrible QA.

 

[Xor]

Yeah, the game kind of fizzles out around Society of Leopald. It really is worth finishing though, the endings are short but awesome.

 

[Zomg]

There's one more neat part left after the Hallowbrook. Do it, then quit.

 

[made]

The whole source engine thing was a fiasco. Really bad luck for Troika and probably one of the nails in their coffin.

But yea, Santa Monica was the best part of the game, it only went downhill from there, though the latter areas had their moments too.

 

[yes plz]

I loved the game up until the Hallowbrook Hotel. That and everything after was pretty awful compared to the rest of the game. Although the fight with the werewolf is pretty fun the first time you do it. The endings are alright -- I just expected something more.

 

[sportforredneck]

I thought it wasn't bad even with the action parts. You can still try to use stealth to get through, I would guess. My character wasn't stealthy so I wouldn't know. But I did get through the Society of Leopold with stealth. So it's not that big a deal.

 

[Trash]

I got through with a shotgun. My housemate told me that I would miss out with my non diplomacy character. Yet when his charismatic pussy was butchered countless times my rabid psycho butcher got through all right. I must admit that I really was disappointed by this, even though I predicted it and it won me a pack of smokes.

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

Yeah, early on in the game I found myself being purposefully late for work just so I could finish a quest and see what happened. The Haunted Hotel had me creeped out, and the quests were great. I'd say around Chinatown it really started dragging a bit for me, but I still enjoyed it. I had to sit down one evening and tell myself that I was going to finish the game, though, because I didn't want it going onto the pile of games that I enjoyed but didn't finish. The late-middle to early-end were definitely the weakest parts of the game, though.

 

[Quigs]

Finally finished it. Boss fight was tough as hell. Good stuff.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Now it's time for the Malkavian playthrough.

 

[barker_s]

Yeah, the second half of the game turns out to be mostly grindfest, but it also has its highlights (a few quests in Hollywood, some Chinatown quests, werewolf fight) which made it pretty enjoyable to me.

Finally finished it. Boss fight was tough as hell. Good stuff.

You're talking about Ming Xiao, aren't you? During my first playthrough I thought I'll quit playing there, because my character was Gangrel trained for close combat... if you ever tried to slice that bitch with a sword you probably know what I'm talking about :wink: . During my Brujah and Tremere playthroughs I had no problems with her though.

 

[dagorkan]

There's one more neat part left after the Hallowbrook.

What's that?

 

[yes plz]

Only the werewolf bit comes to mind.

 

[bozia2012]

Now it's time for the Malkavian playthrough.

+1

You're talking about Ming Xiao, aren't you? During my first playthrough I thought I'll quit playing there, because my character was Gangrel trained for close combat... if you ever tried to slice that bitch with a sword you probably know what I'm talking about Wink . During my Brujah and Tremere playthroughs I had no problems with her though.

You mean you didn't max Protean? Warform claws are second best melee weapon in the game (they deal the most aggravated damage, but Tal'mahe'Ra is "easier" to use). She's a one tough bitch, but it's possible to defeat her in melee as it's possible to do it with firearms. The problem is that she's regenerating quickly and can make copies of herself (enough for you to run out of ammo) - you have to max at least one fighting skill (and all synergy skills) and have the best weapons/disciplines available. I managed to kill her with a bare-handed Nosferatu (Potence!), though I had to tire her a bit with a flamethrower. Does Thaumaturgy work good on her?

 

[Wyrmlord]

There's one more neat part left after the Hallowbrook. Do it, then quit.

No, he should have quit there and then. Bloodlines has great sidequests, but a terrible main quest. All the tedious fighting in the game after Society of Leopold is not worth it.

The Werewolf bit is just an asinine puzzle which involves luring the thing near a door and closing it. Stuff like this, I expect only from console platformers.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Ming Xao is (like everyone else) completely helpless against Celerity. And the best method is still to stock up on guns (very easy as a Nosferatu, since you will be swimming in ammo and money with all that sneaking).

 

[asper]

Is there any chance of finding a new boxed copy of Bloodlines in Europe ?

 

[bozia2012]

There's one more neat part left after the Hallowbrook. Do it, then quit.

No, he should have quit there and then. Bloodlines has great sidequests, but a terrible main quest. All the tedious fighting in the game after Society of Leopold is not worth it.

The Werewolf bit is just an asinine puzzle which involves luring the thing near a door and closing it. Stuff like this, I expect only from console platformers.

You can just run around until the car comes back - you don't have to kill the werewolf (though you get 5xp for it). How should it be done to not look like a console platformer?

The werewolf bit is one of those moments where my hands start to shake - no matter how many times I played that part. The same is with Ocean House or Kingsway... This game is fuckin' awesome. And just like FO1&2 or Arcanum it will never get old - I can't imagine any next-gen immersive gimmick could top good writing & voiceovers.

 

[Quigs]

You're talking about Ming Xiao, aren't you? During my first playthrough I thought I'll quit playing there, because my character was Gangrel trained for close combat... if you ever tried to slice that bitch with a sword you probably know what I'm talking about :wink: . During my Brujah and Tremere playthroughs I had no problems with her though.

Nah, the freaking Sheriff.

Im playing a totally borked Gangrel build. I had no idea what I was doing half the time, so my skills were everywhere.

I did, however, have the burrowing beetle, which hit the asian slug chickr for 83 damage a shot, which I could multicast. Bag of blue blood later, she's dead.

The Werewolf got trapped in a tree my first playthrough (later died by enemy and forgot to save) and trapped in a door it busted the 2nd playthrough, so, no real tension there.