:Edit, I have now finished the game with one of the five endings. Finished as an individualist. NO ties to any of the four groups:
Now This Game is an old one. I originally discovered VTM when my friend showed it to me way back when i was first getting into table top rpg. My first play was at his house and I didn't even finish the first section of the game, in fact I freaked out on one of the missions and couldn't complete it at all.
Now, years later, after actually playing the table top version of this same setting, I have bought the game for myself, and boy am I glad I did. I've had three attempts to finish the game, this is my third and it looks like i will actually finish this time. The first two play-throughs I hadn't downloaded any of the unofficial patches which meant some parts of the game, due to being incomplete, were obscenely hard, where as others were just too easy. There's multiple patches out there which fix this thankfully.
Like with most RPGs VTM works off an experience point spending system as you progress through the game. At the begining in character creation you chose what clan you wish your vampire to belong to. you can choose between, Brujah, Gangrel, Malkavian, Nosferatu, Toreador, Tremere and Ventrue, Or you can chose to answer some questions that that are designed to guess how you will play the game, and the game will assign you a clan based on your answers. If you are new to playing the game, I suggest avoiding playing the Nosferatu, Due to their appearance, they are forced to sneak in many situations where force is easier, and they miss out on a lot of the social actions and by extension miss out on experience and opportunities for extra money
Once you have a clan selected you will be taken to you character sheet where you assign or reassign (depending on how you selected your character), your very limited amount of experience points. Where you assign your points in the beginning isn't overly important though if you play as a Malkavian I do suggest putting a point into obfuscate as completing the tutorial with minimum obfuscate is very hard, though not impossible. And don't forget to give your vampire a name
Once you are happy with your character, hit the accept button and you will be taken to a cut scene explaining how you became a vampire. There is no way of skipping this cutscene, but for your first play-through it's a good idea to watch it through anyway as it sets up the base for the entire game.
I'm not going to go into detail about game play, though the game does encourage you to min-max your character, it's a good idea to make sure you always have a decent lock-picking or hacking skill, for the side quests and a good sneak skill. Melee or firearms is up to individual choice. I have always focused on being Melee myself. The main quests don't require you to ever pick a lock or hack a computer if you have skills high enough in other areas, though side quests often can't be completed without doing one or both.
For the game play itself, sometimes the mechanics can be a bit clunky and frustrating, though it's forgivable for it's age. The animations can be amusing in some instances, exaggerated swaying of hips when walking and the eye animations always catch my attention and amusement. the graphics, the best way to put it is, the textures are very nice, they've made a good attempt at realism, however the 3D modelling gives away the age of the game. But for everything it lacks in flashy graphics and animation, it makes up for in atmosphere and storyline. By far the best quest in the game for showing how you can freak out your players without actually doing much, is the haunted mansion quest. To this very day i still can't play it with sound on because it freaks me out too much. Well placed flying objects, sound effects, newspaper headlines, dim lighting and glimpses of ghosts all make this particular quest a very tense one.
Overall I love VTM. There's plenty of ways in which you can play, sneaky social or combative. You can decide to for alliances, enemies or simply play to everyone whilst siding with no one. It has a solid story running the whole way through as well as heaps of little side adventures to gain extra experience with. and while I haven't yet completed the game, there are multiple different endings depending on the choices you make. It's a game I have thoroughly enjoyed playing.
Just don't forget if you do get VTM, to download one of the unofficial patches as the game on it's own, does feel very incomplete.
