Besides these various options, the game world itself manages to bridge two other extremes: you get large playable hubs that open up in the progression of the storyline and offer dozens of unique side- and main quests, but the quests themselves are more linear in style and convey plot and atmosphere better than any sandbox game could do.

Still, there are often multiple approaches possible in a quest depending on your character, and other characters will react accordingly to your behaviour, coming alive due to the great facial animations of the Source engine, some of the best voice-overs in gaming history and the witty writing of Brian Mitsoda. He created many very memorable characters and funny dialogues for Bloodlines, especially for the mad Malkavian clan that has entirely different dialogue options. Imagine talking to a TV set or to a STOP sign! Imagine a thin blood making references to the whole story that you can only understand once you finished it!

There are other great moments in the game where a character revelation may surprise you with a depth unusual for a computer game, and some of the different endings may make you laugh out loud, showing at the same time that everything in the plot made sense right from the start, but probably not exactly as you suspected.

The beautiful handcrafted levels push the alpha version of the Source engine to its limits and enable you to visit the greater area of Los Angeles; the windy beaches of Santa Monica, the busy skyscrapers downtown, the fancy streets in Hollywood and even the Far Eastern charm of Chinatown, with excursions to several external locations like strange mansions or dark caverns thrown into the mix as well.

Your adventures will vary from straightforward fights against humans, vampires or other supernatural creatures to solving the mystery of a haunted hotel without any combat, a level that is regarded as one of the spookiest locations in gaming ever!