(desktop) vampire the masquerade bloodlines is the best fucking game ever

theres so much i could write about how much i freaking love this game oh my god. i saw a video from crustbag in like probably early march 2025 and ive wanted it ever since. finally got it like 3 weeks ago and literally oh my god. ohhhhmygodohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh i love love love love love this game. thanks to him ive been granted the blessing of ever knowing such a game (and also have another fav youtuber to watch). i know this game has been around since 2004 and im sure im not the first or only person to feel this way (i mean he literally made a video about it). recently ive had dreams of it but not long dreams. theyre like short scenes in part of a bigger dream if u know what im talking about. its all ive been able to think or post about, im pretty sure i have artblock cuz i cant think of doing anything other than this beautifully cursed amalgamation of pixels. if i were to draw i would only be able to draw my ocs anything vtm related. clan outfits, scenes with the characters....ive already made a list of what clans my ocs would be if they were kindred....OHMYGOD i literally love everyone like u cant hate anyone in this game. maybe except for lacroix. but then again its so funny when he gets pissy cuz hes kind of a spoiled brat who has no business being in LA, or at least downtown, anymore. you have to kiss his ass a LOT.

i have sososososo many favorites i love the storylines and how deep the layers go like there is lore on top of lore and one thing leads to another which leads to a bigger thing that is beyond what anyone knows - maybe except for if youre a malkavian, which i chose to play as and its the best fucking thing EVER i cant even explain it ohmylord. maybe if i replay it i wanted to try toreador or tremere because they are blood mages and toreadors also do something but for the most part i know theyre really hot and thats like a trait of the clan. brujah and gangrel though i think rely more on brute force and stuff, seeing as one of their disciplines just makes their fists stronger or something, but also gangrel can turn into wolves. i like the nosferatu and their sense of humor but i likely wouldnt play as one LOL. peoples reaction when they find out youre malkavian or just dont know what the fuck youre talking about is the best ever i love it so much and it makes me smile every time it happens. from what i understand bloodlines are just sires embracing kine, which makes them their childe. then the childe embraces someone else and so on, so there can be bloodlines within clans. i think. because theres also generations of whatever clan youre part of, which leads to thin-bloods if youre ranked low enough. ok update cuz i just remembered. bloodlines are basically just the clans, actually. but there are still generations within each of them. but not all vampires are kindred because theres the kue-jin and instead of being embraced they just like re-awaken from death or something. ohmygod i love this game i wish i was in it. holyfuckingshit like its literally the only thing on my mind most of the day and if i could i would bring my laptop to school just to play it. ive played it for 5 hours straight before. after i get home i play vampire the masquerade. if i take a break or if im not watching tv or on my phone i play vampire the masquerade. ohhhhhmygod dont even get me started on the ghouls i love them so much and i love the bonds you can create with characters in general, especially VV and jack. and lily's story was really good. 

*!!there is a sequel, bloodlines 2 (based in Seattle instead of LA), but a lot of ummm drama and problems went down in development and a lot of people say it wouldve been fine as its own game, just not a bloodlines sequel. i havent played it nor do i think ill be playing it any time soon, but you could check out reviews or the game itself ..... preferably after you read this. if you even finish it.

all my favorites or ones that bring me happiness are first of all mercurio i love him so much. and jack who is the first person you meet after lacroix is convinced to not kill you. who convinced him? nines, who i also really like but you dont see much of him at least before a certain quest, so hes like the mysterious anarch leader basically. (i cant even talk about the sects or id be writing for another like 45 minutes). so then vandal.!vandal....mmmvandal yes i like vandal. and jeanette i love her so much. shes actually i think the first character i came across when i was looking up things about the game after i saw crustbag's video. i drew her and its unfinished but i think i did really awesome on it ok ^_^ pretty sure i posted it on a bulletin a few months ago. her 'sister' is not very likeable to me as a person but i like how she talks and her clothes, and shes very respectable. and heather!heatherheatherheather shes so sweet. i like how she looks when youre able to tell her to change and shes goth(ish). all the 3 main nosferatu you meet in the warrens are very likeable also, and speaking of nossies, Bertram ^_^b hes cool. next is romero. gone too soon..............ilovehim. hes the only reason i go to the graveyard sometimes just to remember hes like not there anymore (which is actually a bug. the base game is heavily bugged and unfinished which is why savior Wesp5 and community made the Unofficial Patch which makes the game EVEN MORE FUCKING AWESOME. i dont have it however because of a mishap i had on my first playthrough where i had to restart, and once i did, i didnt download the patch for that. oh well.) and theres also Slater from Red Spot in hollywood. he talks like those sleazy stoner dudes and its just so awesome and so funny. and VV!!!!!!oh my darling velvet. . . here is an email that you get from her as you progress in the game. i love her. 

        "Death cannot smother love

         Dead hearts are not always broken

         Plant a kiss on my corpse

         Love blossoms"

                                   -VV

sighhhhhhh. this game is my lifeline. my air...i think whenever i get my wisdom teeth out im gonna come out talking about the game or saying something along the lines of malkav. also, as i mentioned the reactions of ppl finding out youre a malkavian (if you play this clan), you also get nicknames....not epic ones, but.! all the like, sophisticated characters might call you "Child of Malkav." most the main anarchs you meet call you malk, and i think damsel does it in a derogatory way because she refers to the people of the camarilla as "cammies" (VERY hatefully), and from anarch's standpoint when you first meet them, youre basically LaCroix's puppet. and you also give people cryptic nicknames (at least for whoever youre talking to). one line from malkavian when you talk to Strauss is, "the glass is cracked, but strangely clear." so there is definitely a lot of stigma and rumors surrounding malkavians and it's no doubt that they sound crazy, but they understand and comprehend equally, just in a different way. i love them i love my mc

and the music. . . ! ! ! ! 2004 game = best fucking music ever. i already like older music as you could tell on my profile but this sparked within me a newfound (year-old) affinity for Lacuna Coil, which i also got from the video because he talked about how good it was watching the end credits when 'Swamped' came on. so naturally i listened to it and found more songs i liked, then whaddya know, i have the Unleashed Memories cd, which my heart practically stopped when i saw it at half price books. i picked it up so fast as soon as i saw it i genuinely could not believe my fucking eyes. and theres also chiasm, which i dont share the same sentiment, but their song 'Isolated' plays in the Asylum club in santa monica and i think its perfect for industrial dance. theres also darling violetta thats in the game (which i also dont frequent), and a song, Cain, but i forget the band name. it plays in the Asp Hole club of hollywood. and guess what, the talk of the town once the sarcophagus comes into the scene is none other than Caine, Father of all Kindred. the game does mention dracula and says his real name was vlad tepes. i cant remember if there was a clan he belonged to or if it was just mentioned. but he is canonically alive (or undead) in the game. who yields this information? anthropologist Beckett. id add him to that character list, but im not sure if i like him that much. hes like a fun little surprise that swoops in every once in a while, and you enjoy it while hes there. another interesting character is M. Strauss, who is a tremere ^_^

there are barons and antediluvians, barons are people (or maybe kindred) that like.. are in charge of the city theyre in. but theres really only two, seeing as Downtown is a camarilla-anarch mess, and chinatown is not kindred culture, but their own. the baron(s) of Santa Monica is Therese Voerman, Jeanette's twin sister. there is a great great twist with them that i wont talk about. the baron of Hollywood is Isaac Abrams. therese is #CamarillaLover, and jeanette and isaac are actually anarch, but maybe different beliefs or sides of the movement. there are also ghouls. now the ghouls are not ghosts, but kine who have ingested vampire blood (either deliberately or an act committed by the vampire to save a person. but you can also save a person from death by biting them. so im not sure which way goes where in whatever situation). aaanywayyy......the ghouls need blood but not as often as kindred, but a certain few of them do get clingy or needy (there is the option to make heather a ghoul, and if you do that...in her mind we're off in lalaland eating cotton candy on marshmallow clouds). mercurio and romero both mention they get it like once a month. vandal is also a ghoul..heehee. one of the other first characters youll meet is knox, who is also one and can explain it to you.

ok i totally forgot i wrote antediluvians. even though i just got through the part where lacroix explains it, i already cant remember. think of it as like. . . .pillars of the clans. each pillar is a kindred of that specific clan, and each of their blood/generations are closer or closest to caine. there is a lovely malkav quest which digs (kind of) deeper into this.

 so the sects.

there is anarch, camarilla (major two), sabbat, independent, and more that i think is not talked about in the game. there's also caitiff, which isnt necessarily a sect, but it's just kindred who don't know what clan they are. i think it would be safe to say most of them could be thin-bloods. most kindred dont even consider them vampires. camarilla is like capitalism, order, organization, "PROTECT THE MASQUERADE." now obviously all kindred do protect the masquerade, just not under camarilla orders for the ones who are independent or anarch. they do it because it keeps kine (humans) from freaking the fuck out, and like actually finding out vampires are real, hunters show up, blah blah blah. thats why you have to protect the masquerade. sabbat on the other hand dont give a shit and will break the masquerade and/or flaunt and show off their vampirism, and theyre really stupid because thats basically how you die. speaking of dying, since you are already technically dead, when you die (be it mostly in a fight, or from injuries) its called your final death, which i think is cool hehe - im sure you can also die if you lose all humanity and its game over. and there are also levels to how many times you can violate the masquerade and get away with it because hunters show up if its low enough, but you can get redemptions. other than that is your humanity. it goes low enough or youre extremely low on blood, that turns into a frenzy, which im pretty sure you cant control your character during that.

a lot of the kindred say they are living in the Final Nights because of the sarcophagus, which a lot of people believe holds Caine. the final nights lead to Gehenna, the day we all die.

i really relly really really rlyrlyrlylryl realllylylylyyy love this game oh my god. instead of fangirling it turned into an infodump at the end. oops i guess. . . but if anything, this is all just information that would make the game even more interesting to me if i havent heard of it already. thats how i felt watching crustbags video. this is literally how it all started holy shit i love this game. and also go watch his videos theyre freaking awesome and hes funny. since the game is super fucking old no one writes a lot of like stories or headcannons, but if you look on tumblr im sure youll find some. maybe. if you find a lot they might all be by the same person lmao

so im all fangirled out but this is not over yet. . . . . .

please get this game

its $20 on steam, sometimes goes on sale on GOG for $10, but i uhh..got it for free. if u know. 

if you plan on playing, download the UP and dont make the mistake i did,,,if you download the patch after youve already racked up progress in the game, it breaks your saves and they become incompatible, and youll have to start a new game. same happens if you update the patch over a version you already have (but its definitely up to date right now). 

v the video...in the flesh!!!below!!!hes awesome!! v

vampire the masquerade i love you. vtmb if you can hear me....saves us..save us vtmb....

this game has such an amazing community that keeps a dead game living in its afterlife. i love it sosososososo much. and apparently there is also a book????i want it. vampire the masquerade bloodlines is very near and dear to my heart as much as Sally Face is (even if it didn't make me sob myself into misery. ((actually this is how i was with sally face too and all i could draw were the main 4)). and even though ive only been playing it a short time there is SO MUCH OF THIS GAME. so much of it. just watching a playthrough gets you immersed. so anyway i really love vampire the masquerade bloodlines and next time im online anywhere on the internet someone Will be hearing about it. thank you