You guys ruined Bloodlines for me!

Ok, I’m pissed. I was playing Vampire: Bloodlines, and I really loved it. Then I got to Hollywood, and I remembered that everyone said the sewer section at the end of that really sucked. Suddenly, the game became less interesting as I started to dread the upcoming sequence. I even put off playing for a few months. Well, this week is nearing Halloween, so I started playing again. SPOILERS I beat up the Tzimisce (whatever spelling) in his basement and immediately went into the sewers. I though…uh oh, here we go.

And you know what!? It just isn’t that bad. It’s not even hard, though I did use a walkthru to get past that one drain where you flip the switch and swim fast to beat the fan. Other than that, the sequence was not hard. There were lots of those damed little monsters, and I was low on bullets. So I punched them…a lot, and they died. I have a strength of one or two (I’m tremere) and I didn’t use boost at all. There were some bigger monsters too, and I used some blood powers and a few bullets on them. But there were plenty of rats to replenish my blood.

So what the fuck? Why does everyone hate that sequence so much? I’m in Nosferatu land now and didn’t have a bad time getting there at all. Oh, I had to sneak past some places because there were baddies on little pipes, but I managed…and my Dex is one.

Why does everyone hate that part of the game so much?

Played as Ventrue - can’t eat rats.

And even with the walk-through, it took me 10 tries to make it through the underwater part.

Yeah, it took me 5 or 6, and it was VERY annoying. But that’s like a few minutes and not the main complaint I’ve heard about the sewers. It’s always been about the monsters and excessive combat.

Played as Malkavian = relies on mental abilities to get past most situations. Unfortunately, the final third of the game relies on combat, combat, combat, so I was fucked and then some.

The first two thirds of the game qualify as one of the best computer RPGs ever, with multiple paths to get through any situation and excellent interpretations of White Wolf’s The Masquerade ruleset. Then it becomes a console beat 'em up for the rest of the game. Report back when you finish the game and we’ll see who really deserves your wrath.

If it makes you feel better that sequence ruined Bloodlines for a lot of other people.[/wit]

Seriously, I remember playing through the sewer and feeling like it would never, never end. I guess it was just to much a change of pace for the game to have all that combat back to back. Previously, most Bloodline “levels” were one loading screen, and just seemed smaller and quicker. Like the ware house. With the sewers, it seemed like 4 or 5 level loads. I was also playing a gunner, and didn’t have nearly enough ammo to fight all the buggers. As a Tremere, you probably had access to Blood Shield. I didn’t, nor had I put any points into defense.

I do have blood shield. But was it really more combat than in the Malkavian house? You can avoid a lot of the combat, and you can heal between fights. I also didn’t notice anything respawning, which I could swear I have heard people say.

No, it really isn’t. I actually like the sewers a lot. The whole Death Mask quest chain is really quite creepy, and I liked the occasional bits of back story (in amongst the combat carnage) in the sewer worker logs.

I’ve finished Bloodlines three times now. First as a Brujah brawler, second as a Tremere swordswitch, and most recently, and spectacularly, as a Malkavian fucknut gun freak. I was using the Batshit Insane history ( enabled with the unofficial patches ) which gives cheaper Dementation powers, and more expensive Obfuscate. None of the sewer runs were as painful as some seem to find it, although it took an evening’s play the first time.

BTW, dunno what you’re playing as, but I think the malk “remix” of the game is best enjoyed after having finished it at least once before as any other clan.

I am no longer here.

You’re fucking joking? Dementation is crazy powerful for combat, and just about any other situation really.

UnicornMcGriddle, I’m still waiting. :(

The sewers isn’t bad at all, at least not from what I remember. Everybody, or the few vocal, who constantly bitch about it just befuddle me. Great game.

I felt the same way Robert. The sewers were a bit repetitive, and not as good as the rest of the game, but they were neither hard nor particularily long. I never could figure out what people were griping about.

I think I did get past the underwater part, then I got to some huge underground tunnel part where things pretty much tore my guy to pieces, I also didn’t make a combat heavy guy. I just got fed up of running thru the same tunnels dieing.

You’ve inspired me to reinstall Bloodlines for some Halloween themed fun. I just don’t particularly want to go through the first third of the game again, since I’ve been through it so often already, trying different classes and such.

Creepy. I (re)played the game exactly like Sam Jones, Brujah - Tremere - Malkavian.

I didn’t think the sewers were all that bad either. That fortress in Chinatown or whatever it’s called was somewhat worse IMHO though. But even that doesn’t come anywhere close to ruining this fine RPG.

That’s the internet for you. Troika has a combat-heavy ending and the game sucks. BioWare puts in identical combat-heavy corridor after identical fucking corridor at the end of KoTOR and it’s the best game ever.

I already know what forum you migrated from.

I didn’t “migrate” from anywhere. The point is there was an overreaction about the sewers in Bloodlines and similar designs are common in even the “best” RPGs.

Like it or not he has a point.

And that would be…

The shit-awful combat in a boring environment against two bland types of monsters in Vampire, with no sense of urgency and a considerable sense of futility and being lost, or the intense (though too long) build-up to the long-anticipated boss fight in Kotor?

KOTOR’s end run was at most perhaps 1/50th of the game as a whole, as opposed to the considerable portion that the sewer run was in Vamp.