History VideoGame / VampireTheMasqueradeBloodlines

** Malkavian Thin-blood Rosa got hit by this pretty hard, she got all the madness of a malkavian, and the vampire's thirst, but almost no benefits of actually being a vampire (Though, she can still see the sun and eat and drink mortal food, for all it's worth).

** Two to Valve Software, who requested the game be delayed so that Half-Life 2 would be the first game on the market using the Source engine, as computer passwords in the museum: valveleaks, steamblows. Kinda ironic given that it's now sold on Steam, but hey.

--> As you are a product of the American public education system, this tome is beyond your comprehension.
--> In the game of life your reading skills are [[VideoGame/ETTheExtraTerrestrial ET for the 2600.]]

* EarlyGameHell: Santa Monica's combat-only sections are rather rare and not usually that difficult, ''except'' you decide to play as TheGunslinger, since the entire stage only has the weakest pistol in the game and the standard shotgun (which is picked up rather late in the stage with next to no ammo) as your options. It's only once the player arrives in Downtown that the guns can be picked up, so unless the player either puts off some sidequests, or puts a few hard-earned XP points into either melee or a combat discipline, Santa Monica will be a rough ride.

* EarlyGameHell: Santa Monica's combat-only sections are rather rare and not usually that difficult, ''except'' you decide to play as TheGunslinger, since the entire stage only has the weakest pistol in the game and the standard shotgun (which is picked up rather late in the stage with next to no ammo) as your options. It's only once the player arrives in Downtown that the CoolGuns can be picked up, so unless the player either puts off some sidequests, or puts a few hard-earned XP points into either melee or a combat discipline, Santa Monica will be a rough ride.

** Due to unpolished nature of the endgame, Bloodlines has one of the weirdest solutions to a deathtrap in gaming history. There are several spinning blade traps in the temple basement which will kill you if you step on a pressure plate below them. They will also be triggered if you jump over the pressure plate, ''somehow'', also killing you instantly. To survive, you need to kneel down so that the giant blades hit you directly in the face, repeatedly bisecting your skull as you pass. This leaves you [[ItMakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext miraculously undamaged]].

Thanks to a ''very'' TroubledProduction, the game had the makings of an ObviousBeta when it was released, suffering from numerous critical bugs and other problems, and although quite a few were fixed by patches, Troika went under shortly after the release, resulting in many of them remaining unaddressed (though some employees did stay on, unpaid, to put out a single official patch to squash some of them). Luckily, a small dedicated modding community around the game has fixed most of these over the years through [[https://www.moddb.com/mods/vtmb-unofficial-patch Unofficial Patches]].

Despite the ObviousBeta aspects, many consider the game to be an incredibly fun, deeply rewarding experience that any fan of PC-RPG's like Videogame/DeusEx would enjoy. So much so that the games community is still active to this day, and is always embracing new players who display an interest in the game.

* ObviousBeta: A solid case of [[ScrewedByTheNetwork Screwed By The Publisher]]. The one official patch was made pro-bono. Thankfully, the unofficial patch remedies this.

** Due to [[ObviousBeta unpolished nature]] of the endgame, Bloodlines has one of the weirdest solutions to a deathtrap in gaming history. There are several spinning blade traps in the temple basement which will kill you if you step on a pressure plate below them. They will also be triggered if you jump over the pressure plate, ''somehow'', also killing you instantly. To survive, you need to kneel down so that the giant blades hit you directly in the face, repeatedly bisecting your skull as you pass. This leaves you [[ItMakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext miraculously undamaged]].

* InitiationQuest: Having been Embraced without official permission, you're technically outside Camarilla membership and granted legitimacy only as long as you continue to impress [[VampireMonarch Prince Lacroix]]. Consequently, most of the game is spent looking for a group to belong to, with the [[LawfulEvil Camarilla]] and the [[ChaoticNeutral Anarchs]] both making overtures and giving you opportunities to impress them. However, the finale kicks this into overdrive by framing you for murder and forcing you to pick one of the factions: the Camarilla, the Anarchs, Lacroix's rogue faction, the Kuei-Jin... or screw all four factions and strike out on your own.

%%

** If downloaded, the Unofficial Patch gives the option of installing "The Unofficial Patch +", which is a mod that overhauls weapons, disciplines, quest rewards, item distributions (several instances of DiscOneNuke), maps, increases the overall XP gain (without significant alterations to challenges), and often removes consequences of making choices (such as with taking sides with the Voerman Sisters, being able to do both quests for Romero and similar) or taking the main challenge factor out of a particular scene (like making minions which respawn in certain challenges not respawn, or adding hitpoints to an AdvancingWallOfDoom PuzzleBoss). It also restores some content left in the data archives and adds a quest in a new location, as well as a pro-Sabbat ending. The pro point of the mod is ultimately that it makes the game significantly easier for the player, but do keep in mind that it is a mod and it does differ from the original game significantly.

** ''[[http://camarillaedition.darkbb.com/c4-the-final-nights-forum Vampire: The Masquerade: The Final Nights]]'', also by Team Camarilla International, includes the ''Camarilla Edition'' changes. It also replaces the playable clans by seven brand new ones, adds new disciplines, new [=NPCs=], new quests, some items are now impossible to find if the inspection feat isn't high enough, a couple of boss fights have been remade, etc.

** The Malkavian PC and Jeanette Voerman both have mismatched eyes. This is a clue to the fact [[spoiler:the Voerman sisters are Malkavians. The fact that their room is split according to the left-right brain analogy or that you never see them at the same time also contribute, as well as the fact that they share a voice actress]].