First Impressions with Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines

So I recently was itching for some sort of walking simulator that took place in (or featured) a city at night. I initially intended to purchase Grand Theft Auto IV for this purpose, but I opted against it when I saw it required the Rockstar launcher (and thus a form of online-only DRM).

As such, I settled on purchasing Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, which I am going to just simply refer as VTMB as this game's title is a mouthful.

Since I only purchased the game to walk around the city, I found some save files to let me skip the story sections. I also installed the unofficial patch as this game is well known for being buggy and unfinished.

The game world is not the biggest but it is VERY detailed. Almost every building in the game can be entered, something I greatly appreciate.

The vibes in this game are immaculate. The fact the game is set in the early 2000s (the game was released in 2004) is the cherry on top for me.

I do think the game is very lacking in the music department, though. There is also no way to mute the little music there is, so when I play my own music, I often ear overlapping tracks. That's a bit annoying.

Regardless, it served his purpose well as a walking simulator for me. I decided to take a look at the game's story. I was unable to get past the tutorial (probably due to something not spawning properly?) so I used a save game I found to get past it.

The thing that stood out the most is the game's writing. It is excellent, I instantly knew why people regard this game as an unfinished masterpiece.

Speaking of the game being unfinished, people do not exaggerate when they say this. The game in general is very janky and some area (like menus) could use some polish. Even when using the unofficial patch you will still encounter bugs and visual glitches. While exploring the city, I stumbled upon a beach area that was missing many textures.

It should also be noted that the loader for the unofficial patch bypass the DRM for this game, which is useful to remove the game's dependency from Steam.

So in conclusion, VTMB is a clear labor of love. It's a shame it was never properly finished. Perhaps one day I will try playing the game normally, but I am not sure if I have the energy for such a game nowadays. For now I will keep using it as a walking simulator.

Written by manpaint on 07 January 2026.