That Rik Schaeffer soundtrack is fucking irreplaceable. VTMB oozes atmosphere from its every crevice.

This game also has a stacked voice cast. Dee Bradley Baker, J. Grant Albrecht, Grey DeLisle, John DiMaggio, Steve Blum. If you grew up in the 2000s, you’re going to hear the voices of your childhood.

I think that what I adore about VTMB is how it’s designed to let you play the game with extreme variance depending on your build. I love New Vegas, but if you want to get into a place, you’re either talking your way in or shooting your way in. VTMB lets me complete objectives by finding ventilation systems to crawl through and hacking terminals to get the info I need rather than speaking to or fighting any person. This blend of RPG and imsim elements really scratches that itch for me.

Really, that’s just an indicator of how this game is designed to be Roleplaying-forward. If you play as an ugly bastard monster man, you better get ready for everyone to treat you as such. Luckily, the devs thought of that, so you can also complete most everything as if you were an ugly bastard monster man.

This all falls apart a bit in the end. The game is built upon the Source engine, so combat is really fun. With that being the case, I guess they didn’t have too many issues with making the final stretch of missions a LOT of combat. I don’t think the game falls apart there, per se, but I could definitely see someone not speccing for combat and then suffering the consequences late game.

But that said, the side quests in this game! Holy shit! Whether it’s becoming a bounty hunter, saving people with your vampire blood, or taking out vampire-hunting strippers, this game is memorable as fuck.

Play it. I had not played a game that felt similar to VTMB until the recent release of The Outer Worlds 2, which has that same RPG/imsim design to it. Gems like this are rare, and you’re doing yourself a disservice if you never take them off the shelf and play.