Troika games holds onto its reputation . . .

. . . as a group who come up with great ideas for RPG's and then completely feth up the implementation.

I'm playing VtM: Bloodlines now.

1. Patch support? Ha! The game's released with glitches starting from the INTRO CUTSCENE! How the hell can you screw up a cutscene? But is there a patch, well finally there is. I guess that's better than the wait for ToEE's patches (a game that I gave up on and uninstalled before the first patch finally came out).
2. They're the first game to liscense the HL2 engine so I can cut a little slack, but why does the game slow down so badly when it rains? I don't have that problem when playing HL2 itself.
3. Play anyway you want my ass. The game does have options for taking a more stealthy/diplomatic approach to your roleplaying. IGNORE THESE OPTIONS. Unfortunately the game is designed with "checkpoints" where you have no choice but to fight some big bad monster and if you haven't been maxing out your combat skills you'll fare poorly. Several battles I was able to complete only due to really bad AI. One I spent 10 minutes running in a circle with the monster chasing me just out of reach while I waited to heal. Another time my opponent got knocked against a wall and got stuck between the wainscotting and the ceiling. What is it with CRPG's these days with the boss monster approach to game design, these aren't FPS. This one does it, KOTOR did it, NWN did it, even FO2 did it.
4. I realize that developing a CRPG with the same level of detail as a PnP one is a herculean undertaking, but could we at least have some dialogue options other than either callous asshole or simpering wuss?
5. The play areas themselves are all right, except there are no areas inside a zone that aren't related directly to some sort of quest (with the usual "you can't get into here without the proper key no matter how good you are at picking locks" locks on the doors) but the people populating it either just stand there or move around randomly, usually bumping into walls.

All in all not a bad little game for those of us who are familiar with the Vtm but I really couldn't reccomend this to anyone else.