Few things bring forth our inner passion for blood-sucking creatures like Mark Rein-Hagen’s Vampire: The Masquerade.
This gothic-punk take on our modern world is filled with supernatural creatures, and of course, vampires. Calling themselves “Kindred”, these denizens of the night are locked in an eternal power struggle between clans and factions fighting for dominance and survival.
Released in 2004, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines is the second in a series of video games based in the world of the classic role-playing game. And it’s one of the most well-loved vampire-themed games ever released.
With the sequel – Vampire: The Masquerade 2 – coming out at some point, now’s a great time to delve back into this classic title. And even if you’ve already played it a fair amount already, you’ll find a way to keep yourself interested with some of these VTMB mods.
The clinically insane Malkavians are known for their extravagant demeanor and bizarre – and in the case of females, revealing – outfits.
If you’d rather play a more tasteful Malkavian lady, the Subtle Female Malkavian mod has you covered. No longer will the voices in your head also choose your wardrobe.
Now, you can look remarkably dissociated from reality without looking like an asylum inmate.
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines is one of the best vampire-themed games ever created. But after over 15 years, its graphics are well past their prime.
The SilentMasqu Mod is a massive high-resolution texture pack that subtly improves the situation by sprucing up environments, NPCs, and weapons alike.
It doesn’t cover everything, but most unique NPCs such as Skleter and LaCroix have gotten a facelift, along with some of the playable races (Brujah, Gangrel, etc).
Some weapon models have been entirely replaced, and even the main menu interface was updated!
Another pretty unique option for improving VTMB’s look is the Vamp Among Us ENB preset, which overhauls the game’s visual effects to resemble Telltale’s fantastic The Wolf Among Us.
In practice, this means darker shadows and a lot more color saturation.
The creator also plays around with lighting to create more contrast between light and dark.
Overall, the game looks much more modern and eye-catching with this ENB. Just keep in mind that it uses some effects that didn’t exist back in the day, and it can be a bit taxing on some lower-end systems.
A fantastic way to change your next VTMB playthrough is the Playable NPCs mod.
As the name suggests, this mod allows you to begin the game as any of over 100 NPCs, including Nines, VV, Bertram, Damsel, and even Granny Doris.
The beloved Jeanette and Tourette are also included in this fantastic character pack.
Whether you want to use this as a tool for role-playing or to change things up after playing the game several times, this mod remains an excellent addition to your collection.
Once you’ve understood the basics of combat in VTMB, it’s pretty easy to master. Which may make the game too easy for some veteran players.
If you’re the kind that’s always chasing the next challenge, the Bloodlines Extreme mod can revitalize VTMB for you with considerably greater difficulty.
That said, the mod doesn’t stop at some mere stat tweaks.
There are some new features, interesting (and often hilarious) tweaks to dialogue, and even improved textures in some areas.
It may be rough around the edges, but it’s an excellent way to experience VTMB in a new light.
There are countless mods, ENBs, and ReShades attempting to change the look and feel of VTMB – but only one that addresses the game’s somewhat dated audio quality.
Bloodlines Audio Overhaul is a bit of a no-brainer here. And one of the community’s most recommended mods.
So far, it replaces the sounds of guns, melee combat, and even some disciplines for better quality soundbites that’ll do a lot for your immersion once installed.
One of the most popular ENB presets for VTMB is the cyberpunk-looking Dev0lved ENB.
It’s based on the settings applied to Half-Life 2, which is already miles better than the base VTMB settings.
It’s dark, filled with neon lights and more vivid colors that stand out from within the shadows. The smokey bloom effects also give it a very ethereal feel that works wonders with VTMB’s setting and story.
Your game will also look fantastic at long distances thanks to Anisotropic Filtering, and Lumasharpen will make the game’s base textures look crisper than before.
A less intense option that’ll improve VTMB’s look without straying too far from its original art direction is the Atmospheric SweetFX preset, which sharpens textures, uses HDR for more realistic lighting, and more.
With this installed, dark shadows will look colder, while well-lit places will feel warmer.
It also makes dark places actually dark, which fits the somber atmosphere of Kindred society much better than the base game’s somewhat excessive lighting.
Suppose you’ve already experienced most of what vanilla VTMB has to offer in the way of story.
In that case, you’ll enjoy VTMB Prelude – a fan-made expansion taking place right before the game’s main narrative.
You’ll play as a human vampire hunter – a member of the Society of Leopold that functions as a modern-day Inquisition fighting the spawn of Satan (Kindred). There are new models, new effects, and lots of new dialogue to experience in this prequel.
It’s planned as an episodic expansion, and only the first part has been released so far – but it’s something we’ll be keeping an eye on.
If you’d rather experience something entirely new rather than a prequel, consider Vampire: The Masquerade – The Final Nights.
You’ll notice the title is missing “Bloodlines”, and it’s not an oversight on our part.
The mod developers clarify that The Final Nights is its own thing – a completely new experience with a novel story in the VTM universe.
Along with new dialogues and quests, The Final Nights also brings new music, improved graphics, and a new perspective on the idea of “freedom of exploration”.
The Final Nights’ gameplay is heavily based on a previous mod – VTMB: Camarilla Edition, an overhaul that profoundly alters the way disciplines and other variables interact in VTMB.
Its primary focus is to rework most disciplines for a more interesting and engaging survival/combat experience.
It also changes how bloodpoints behave, making you lose them at an accelerated rate. Now, feeding is more of a necessity than a choice.
Other than that, the Camarilla Edition brings many improvements to the graphics, the character textures, and vehicles. It even makes the controls more comfortable, and the UI has never looked this good.
Once you’ve already given each of the seven basic vampire clans in VTMB a go, there’s only one thing left to do – get seven new ones!
The Antitribu Mod adds seven new clans, including the Lasombra, Samedi, Tzimisce, and Nagaraja. Of course, these are all fully fleshed-out, with unique disciplines that include necromancy, animalism, and more!
Along with playing through the base game as a member of either of these clans, you’ll also have access to new main quests with creative foes to fight, maps to explore, and you’ll meet over 100 new characters.
Back in the day, updating your games hundreds of times after release just wasn’t a thing. Bugs were a bit more “permanent” – and VTMB has its fair share of them.
Lights that go through walls, missing textures, broken quests – you name it!
Luckily for us, the modding community has always been there to lend a hand, and dedicated fans aren’t afraid to take a look back at an older game like VTMB and get their hands dirty fixing them up.
The Bloodlines Unofficial Patch fixes so many things, it’s hard to count them all.
But believe me when I tell you that there’s no reason to play without this. Once you try it, you’ll never go back to vanilla.
The Bloodlines Unofficial Patch developers could have stopped at fixing basic bugs, but they didn’t.
Instead they poured their time and effort into bringing forth the game that VTMB could have been, if given more time before release.
This Bloodlines Unofficial Patch Plus not only fixes bugs, but it restores a bunch of content that was originally cut from the game – both by digging it up from the game’s files, and by rebuilding it from the ground up.
Seriously, that’s dedication.
This restoration project includes new weapons, new items, new characters, and even new quests where you’ll meet plenty of characters with unique dialogue planned initially for the official release.
If you want to delve deeper into VTMB, this is a must.
Nelson Chitty is a Venezuelan expat living in Argentina. He’s a writer and translator passionate about history and foreign cultures. His ideal weekend is spent between leisurely playing games of Civilization VI and looking for the next seinen anime to marathon.
