A good friend of mine once told me that “Ignorance is bliss”. At that time, I didn’t understood him too well and I was quite amused by his remark, since I didn’t understand how this could be true. That is, until I played Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines. Now I wished I never played Fallout 2, Morrowind, Baldur's Gate 2 or Knights of The Old Republic. I wished I never saw Half-Life 2 and the Source engine in action. Maybe then I could have appreciated the newest game from Troika, makers of Arcanum and Temple of Elemental Evil, a game for which I had high hopes, but ultimately proved to be a disappointment, just like Deus Ex: Invisible War was last year.

Released in a year flooded with First Person Shooters, Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines should have been a breath of fresh air for RPG fans (although it’s a combination of RPG and FPS) especially considering that Knights of the Old Republic 2: Sith Lords was pushed back to February 2005. Being in development at Troika, founded by most of the ex Black Isle members, and having the Source engine as the technical backbone, Bloodlines had all the cards to be a hit. But somewhere during its development, something went terribly wrong.