Recent reviews by Patchouli Knowledge 🌠

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines (VtMB) is one of the best RPGs in terms of interesting and memorable NPCs. Nearly every single person you meet has strong and unique personalities. Even an insignificant shopkeeper could be funny as hell. And when I say funny, I mean HILARIOUS - this game has some of the funniest lines I've ever seen in a game. I'd say it's worth the price just for the jokes (make sure you listen to all the radio programs). The writing of this game is simply brilliant. And the voice acting is SO GOOD I can't believe it's a game made in 2004. While the main story is mostly linear, and the choices in the game is relatively lacking, the game still has an excellent replayability and offers a great role-playing experience - the dialogs have lots of variations in details depending on your gender, race and previous actions, which really adds to the roleplay and makes the conversations feel more natural. Side quests are often more non-linear and open-ended than the main quests (although they are not Fallout level non-linear). They are really interesting quests too. Very few side quests are generic fetch quests. One thing that impressed me is that if you fail a quest (for example, by killing a quest NPC), the game actually tells you how you failed the quest and why it is failed in a seperate "failed quests" category of the quest log. I've tried killing quest NPC at different stages of a quest, and to my surprise, the game actually recognized the difference and had different discription on how the quest failed, even making sarcastic jokes on me since I failed it in such nonsensical ways. (You can't kill main quest NPCs though, which is understandable.)

The atmosphere of the game is fantastic. You really feel like being a vampire roaming the night streets of Los Angeles. The story is focused on the Kindred's secret society and its social structure, complicated politics and conspiracies. You will also meet other creatures of the night as well, and learn about their relationship with vampires. The lore of the game is fascinating. Learning about the various clans of Kindred and their unique traits and powers, the mythologies circulating in Kindred society, the different sects and their history, there are enough to keep you interested while not dumping too much information at the same time.

My main gripe about the game (after properly patched) is the inventory UI is cluncky and clumsy. There is not even an indication of how many items you can carry before your inventory is full. Speaking of which, this game does not have an equipment pannel, but you can collect talismans that you only need to keep in inventory to take effect, which I really like. It's strangely satisfying to look at all the little trinkets I've collected on me. Another complaint is that the stats system is a bit too complicated while not deep enough at the same time. There are too many stats, but a lot of them are not really very useful. Also there are some effects of attributes that do not really make sense to me (why would intellegence increase intimidation, and wits increase defense?). I don't know anything about the VtM pen&paper game. I feel the general idea of this stat system is perfect - there is "attributes" that represents your body's inherent capabilities, and there is "abilities" that represents your prowess in things you learn and practice, and it's the combination of these two that determines the number outcome of your various skills. I also like the idea that skill books and NPCs can only increase your abilities but not attributes, so sometimes you may want to save more XP to increase the latter, but attributes are more expensive to increase than abilities, so there is a trade-off here. In a word, I really like the general idea of the system, but the execution leaves a little more to be desired and ends up a little unbalanced. But again, sometimes it's the unbalance that brings fun. The old Fallouts was much more unbalanced than the newer ones, but there is a certain charm in the lack of balance.

As for the combat, I do not really have much complaint as a lot of people seem to do. Maybe it's because I play a Tremere and the blood magic is hella fun (at least for me). The stealth play is implemented pretty well too. There are active skills (called "disciplines") that is very helpful in stealth, like Trance in the Dominate discipline that incapacitates a guard for a period of time, while not making him feel anything suspicious happened to him when he wakes up. The brightness affects the odds of being seen a great deal when sneaking so you always want to stick to the shadows and turn off lights when possible. You can stealth kill enemies. You can distract guards by throwing things. The stealth in this game actually plays like a proper stealth game unlike most RPGs.

All in all, VtMB is truly a gem in the RPG genre. It's definitely worth picking up for any RPG fan.

Got into top10 of the leaderboard at first try... Never knew I'm so good at typing. 10/10

(Note the actual hours I played far exceeds the display on steam)

The Talos Principle is definitely one of the best puzzle games I have ever played, and as a huge puzzle game fan, I have played a lot. The puzzles are extremely clever and really makes you think out of the box. There are tons of secrets and hidden puzzles. And I've never seen another game with as many hidden easter eggs and references as this one. There's easily over 100 easter eggs and that's excluding the subtle ones. Yet the best part of the game is its deep philosophical discussions. Expect tons and tons of texts in this game (although they are actually completely optional for those only interested in puzzles). The game is not an RPG, yet it managed to have some of the most complicated dialog trees ever appeared in a game, and that’s coming from an RPG fanatic. The game really makes you feel like you are debating with an AI on topics like what is a person (and you will be debating a lot of things with it in this game). The story is superb, and there is actually a really mind-blowing plot twist near the end of the game if you pay attention to the QR codes scattered around the game world – actually one of the best plot twists I’ve ever seen in a game, or movie, or whatever. The DLC Road To Gehenna is just as brilliant as the main game, with even harder puzzles and even more walls of texts than the main game. It managed to present a vivid view of a community/society of a couple prisoners that cannot even see each other and could only communicate through text-based computer network. Even in this small society, there is politics. There are artists, writers, philosophers, even game developers (and you can play their games, all text based choose your own adventure type games - there are quite a lot of these mini text games in the DLC). This is truly a masterpiece of a puzzle game, but it is also more than a puzzle game. This is a game that needs time and a thoughtful mind to truly appreciate.

The game forces the player to wait 7 seconds every time a level is restarted. There is even a count down for it. How the hell would anybody think that's a good idea? "Yeah let's make those b❤❤ches stare at the screen having nothing to do but appreciate our slow as f❤❤k animation we programmed in half an hour, and frustrate them so much that they accidentally fall off the edge so they can watch it again!"