Finished
Bloodlines for the second time, with Unofficial patch 6.0 plus.
Played a Malkavian chick and had so much fun it´s not even funny.
Based on my previous Tremere run, I´ve already considered Bloodlines to be a really great rpg, but this new experience elevated it into a total classic status in my eyes.
Roleplaying this character has given the game entirely different feeling and it was certainly one of my most unique rpg experiences ever.
Funny armors, dementation in dialogues, hilarious easter eggs (such as TV) or unique npc reactions is already a lot of cool stuff, but the fact that the vast majority of dialogue responses available to Malkavian is completely unique is where it´s really at (a lot of ises, sorry).
Sometimes infantile, sometimes insightful, sometimes just crazy, often downward hilarious and also poetic, in its own fractured way.
Besides the novelty and fun factors and general need to read them really carefully, the most profound effect these responses had on the game is that they added a lot to the protagonist´s depth.
Interestingly, beyond all those laughs, probably the strongest emotion playing a Malk induced in me was compassion. Compassion with the character with confused mind, being put in the confusing world and somewhat having to deal with all that plight mostly all alone.
Having all these extras on top of the game full of marvellous characters, original settings and generally well designed missions and gameplay was the essence of blast.
As for the plus version of the patch, I was glad of going with it for my second playthrough. Restored content fleshes the gameworld a bit more, restored items are by no means unbalancing and new locations for some of other items make generally more sense than in the original game.
Rebalancing elements are change for the better too. Probably most importantly, ranged weapons are a bit more useful and stealth isn´t absurdly overpowered which makes Obfuscate much more useful.
Apart from the unfixable elevator bug, I´ve encountered none, at least none that I´ve noticed. Well, for Malkavians even bugs can be understood as features anyway
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Thanks, Wesp!
All in all, after this second playthrough, I´m giving Bloodlines + patch6.0 10/10.
I don´t care about its flaws, the good stuff more than makes up for it.
I´m no longer here.