The original still holds up in many ways, but it’s less mind blowing now than it was back then - although now it’s actually possible to finish thanks to the Unofficial Patch.

When it came out, it was a breath of fresh air with its writing and voice acting (at least the major roles) and the combination of a cartoony art direction with being an early Source game meant the characters faces were unbelievably expressive.

It’s also a game that absolutely shows the importance of “vibes”. The soundtrack, environment design and general atmosphere is just stellar and probably the single part of the game that truly holds up. From the run-down sadness of Hollywood to watching the rain outside the windows of your Santa Monica apartment and listening to the Deb of Night.

I think the choices-matter part is a little less prominent than some may lead you to believe - it’s a fairly linear game with missable sidequests, not a branching story - but the roleplaying is excellent and pretty much every single clan has unique dialogue and moments that play out differently. Particularly Nosferatu and Malkavian have a lot of unique stuff, enough so that there is probably grounds for 3 playthroughs (normal clan, then Malkavian and Nosferatu) which is fairly impressive.

The Malkavian playthrough in general is one of the best second playthroughs of any game, as your own dialogue choices are littered with spoilers about the story that your character knows before the player thanks to the clan’s madness/insight. There are also unique versions of many TV shows specifically for Malkavian - and more.