Playing through Swansong encouraged me to play through Bloodlines again. My original review on here could use some updating. Calling Bloodlines a “hidden gem” or “cult classic” at this point seems a bit disingenuous. Anyone with an interest in RPGs has played this game, or at the very least, heard of it. It's low-key mainstream.
I consider this game created by Troika Games, developed by the fans. The vanilla game upon release was a mess. You need the Unofficial Patch to have a decent time. This playthrough I used the Patch Plus addon, which added in a few bits of cut content. The Unofficial Patch is a living mod with it’s most recent update coming out in 2022. There’s also a selection of other mods available that update textures, fix the tinny audio, add new weapons, and customize the player character.
The one game I always find myself comping Bloodlines to is Fallout: New Vegas. How the game handles dialogue and combat feels very New Vegasy. The RPG skill systems are the only thing not Fallout in nature. You don’t level up and there’s no perks to unlock. You have your character sheet that has a smattering of skills, some are universal, some are class specific. As you complete missions, you gain xp points that you can spend in one of your skill categories, with each level costing more points. You won’t gain enough points to upgrade all of your skills, so you have to decide how you want to spec your character. Each class has 3 vampire skills unique to them. These are powered by your blood meter, which you have to fill by feeding on the living. Of course, you have to be subtle about feeding. Biting a homeless man out in the open is frowned upon, you have to stalk alleys or seduce someone for a "kiss".
Dialogue is also handled like Fallout. The writing goes for a humorous bend with some 2000s flippant irreverence tossed in there. Your responses don’t always matter. I would choose a sarcastic answer only for the character to ignore it and simply carry on their conversation. Characters are very expressive and animated; a feat Swansong couldn’t accomplish. It makes every interaction engaging because you aren’t just talking to a stock-still cardboard cutout.
One thing the Unofficial Patch can’t fix is the combat system in this game. It’s by no means unbearable, but it’s like an early attempt at Fallout combat. The beginning favors melee combat as you only have a snub-nosed revolver to your name and most enemies are melee focused. Melee combat is in 3rd person only and there’s a basic system of doing a different attack based on what direction you move and blocking, but it mostly devolves into whacking each other. Towards the endgame you get access to an array of firearms as well encountering more armed goons. Trying to melee an enemy with an automatic weapon will see you bleeding out a lot. In my first playthrough, it was a sharp difficulty curve when gun goons showed up, but this time around I played a class that had super speed, which once that’s upgraded a few levels you can move quick enough to dodge bullets.
There’s also a stealth mechanic as well that is a sign of the time before every game had an agreed upon, Assassin’s Creed style, stealth system. There is a detection meter that measures how likely you are to be noticed and I think it measures how well-lit you are. If you are in the dark, you can get right up to a enemy most time before they finally spot you. If you can get up behind them with a melee weapon or bare hands, you can execute a stealth takedown. The takedowns got a little more hit and miss towards the end of the game. And I assume this is a Patch addon, but when you get a stealth kill with a sword it plays this rock sting.
Bloodlines is set during the nights of early 2000s LA. It’s broken down into 4 main world hubs. The open world suffered the most from the rushed development. Santa Monica, the tutorial area, is a dense little city block with a lot of accessible buildings and a hefty amount of quests and side quests. The main questline even has several different outcomes depending on how you act that isn’t seen in any other quests. Next is Downtown, it’s the largest location and a pain to navigate, but it’s where all the major factions hang out. There’s a good smattering of side quests and locations to explore. The Chantry is a fun building to get lost in the hallways of. Hollywood, the third hub, is where the world design starts to decline. It’s only one street you run up and down. There’s still plenty of locations along the stretch to explore at least, but the side quests are dwindling, and they aren’t as complex as those in Santa Monica. The final hub is Chinatown. It’s the most visually distinct hub world due to the Oriental aesthetic, but you spend little time in there. I can count the side quests there on one hand. It’s got a few locations to explore but doesn’t have the staying power of the other hubs. The levels also become more maze like as the game goes on. There’s the infamous Warrens sewer level, that Patch Plus lets you skip. Places like the Giovanni’s vault and Chinatown temple are also not fun to hack through, not compared to the Oceanview Hotel or the museum.
The world building is an enjoyable mix of vampire lore and early 2000s angst. For my second playthrough, I chose a “big tiddy goth girl” from the Toreador clan, who are the most social vampires, relying on talking their way out of issues. And holy cow, is this game horny. Every male character I encountered hit on me, it got exhausting. Like I’m not a guy who openly hits on women, but I feel like I need to apologize. While there is some sexiness thrown in to appeal to that teenage boy audience, sexuality has always been a staple of vampire mythos. Mix that with LA, the seedy city of the silver screen and you can’t avoid addressing the sexuality. But besides one occasion in the game, both vampires & Hollywood are more about selling you the idea & allure of sex more than the actual act.
LA is as much of a character as anyone else. As a vampire doomed to stalk the night, you get to see the city’s underbelly where the glitz of tinsel town gives away to the raunchy sex shops and gaudy strip bars. The kind of people awake at 3am are not usually pinnacles of the community. Most of my interactions with humans was giving them a wink and a smile to get my way. LA is also a city of big personalities, and you get some of that 2000s edge in there with characters like Pisha, Nines and most the Anarchs. Then there’s characters like Fat Larry, Yukie, Gary, and Chunk. Looking back at them now, they’re all kinda campy and fun.
What makes Bloodlines the standout RPG game it is, is the story. Playing through it again. The story isn’t as deep as I remember it being. You are a new vampire begrudgingly working for the vampire prince, but you can join the rebel Anarchs or the foreign Kuei-Jin during your nightly adventures. You are on the search for a sarcophagus of an ancient vampire that everyone is worried will bring the end of the world. Throughout the game you are constantly beat over the head “DON’T OPEN IT”. The Prince is obviously a bad guy. They try to flirt with the notion of “heavy is the head…” that he’s got the best interest of vampire society in mind, but he’s willing to break a few eggs. Everyone else despises him, but everyone hates the guy in charge, even if he’s doing the right thing. But it turns out everyone was right and he’s just a selfish brat.
A good dose of subtlety would’ve helped the story. Almost everything the Prince tells you is a lie, maybe have one of his statements be true to sow some intrigue. Instead of constant reminders to not open the sarcophagus, maybe have one or two. And being able to call in favors from all of the people you’ve helped through the night, ala New Vegas style, would’ve made the ending more impactful. If the story had time for one more pass, I think it would really sing.
All in all, this game is always a blast to start up. I’m surprised this game hasn’t gotten a fan remake yet.
There’s a few quests, especially late game that are a bit annoying to replay through, but the wild characters you meet, the world you explore, and the writing helps this game stand the test of time, while also making it an endearing time capsule. At the risk of sounding like a Boomer, if Bloodlines 2 ever does come out, I feel like a lot of the campy charm will be sacrificed at the altar of political correctness, leading to a duller experience overall. There may be a few things that haven’t aged well in Bloodlines, but the over-the-top characters and crass sexuality is part of that charm. Though Bloodlines 2 is set to be in Seattle, which isn’t as seedy as LA.
