“Incidentally, even though the True Patch does not alter game play, it does affect what you see. You get to see Grout’s wife, for example, which you cannot see with the “official” 1.2 patch.”

I guess that I’m the best person to respond to this… because I’m the guy who repaired that particular issue.

Grout’s wife was always supposed to appear, in that weird glass display case where he kept her pickled corpse. The problem was that in their haste, Troika had neglected to add an important switch to the texture information file (VMT file) that controls the way Grout’s wife interacts with the lighting in that scene. The result was that on some systems — not all, mind you — Grout’s wife would either clip as she spun and partially disappear, or else she wouldn’t be rendered at all.

The changes made to Grout’s wife by the True Patch were legitimate bug fixes in regards to this issue. There were also a few other similar bugs in in various other areas, most of which I managed to track down and repair in version 5.04AT of the True Patch.

All my best,

- Tessera -
Co-author of the True VTMB Patch
Texture Artist and Modder (retired)

Picked it up on Steam the other day and I’ve been putting a worrying amount of time into it ever since. (Though not quite the 5am bedtime kind of effort.)

You describe the moral conflict with Heather perfectly. At the risk of repeating what others have said before, this is what games should do. Make you feel something. Care. Worry that you’re not as good a person as you thought you were. The interactivity of games, when properly harnessed, makes them the most absorbing and engrossing artistic medium there is. Films, books, poetry, music – they struggle to come close.

Love it.

(Slight bug: Mercurio isn’t the only one you can learn about Ghouls from, but even after the other guy spells it out, the option doesn’t appear.)

i didnt notice the game getting worse after 15 hours of play though? how could u not like china town and the crazy facist ex-army “herbalist” who’s rack o’ spices revolved to reveal guns. lots of guns.

i kept heather on to the end despite the fact my gangrel looked stupid with his hood up because of the body armour. when she died i was so pissed my play must have increased as i owned all the rest of the sabbat in that building. its amazing they built up that much emotion.

i think people often forget the sense intruge the game builds. in the end i was faced with the dilema, and since that time its been the only game choice i didnt make instantly. did i choose camerialla, or go with the main bad go or go for my self or go with the qui-jinn? in the end i choose go by my self because i felt i would be used by all of them. but it still took the taxi ride to make up my mind. the irony is the final clip made me feel like i was used anyway…

also who rembers the spaz 15? the pump action shot gun that had 6 rounds per clip and u could fire them all off in a second. “sighs dreamily” you dont get guns like that in games today…

but then you dont get games like this today….

(sorry about the spelling…)

as to Heather – this has been my biggest conscience-searer of the whole game. I’m not too bothered about draining bad guys or killing to maintain The Masquerade if necessary, but allowing Heather to depend on you and then NOT kicking her ass out to save her so that she gives you the body armour – well that feels a bit sh-tty.

OK so her life is there only because the PC saved it – (read her medical records in the trauma unit) – but even so, when you have the foreknowledge that the Sabbat will kidnap and kill her for being your ghoul, you kinda want to save her. I’m annoyed that with level 5 speed enhancement available to my PC, and with her only a few yards away, the game plays a cut scene of her being executed, rather than gives the PC a chance to save her. the Sabbat attacking her would have been sparkly bits in the air facing my PC in a rage, but hey – the game wants to make you feel guilty and succeeds. I don’t sell the ring she gives me – I take it with me as a good-luck charm and to remind me to kill every last Sabbat I come across. Loyalty works both ways…

I played the game all the way through as a Torreador and loved it. I installed the True Patch and am now going through as a Malkavian. Nice change, but I would not recommend Malkavian for the first time through. Incidentally, even though the True Patch does not alter game play, it does affect what you see. You get to see Grout’s wife, for example, which you cannot see with the “official” 1.2 patch.

[Minor spoiler follows]
Regarding the twins, I saved them both the first time through, but the second time I could not; even though I replayed that “final scene” and explored every dialogue option. Apparently, you need to have high enough seduction and persuasion skills (4 each or better?) and need to have chosen particular dialogue options earlier in the game with each twin as well. (It could also be that the choices presented to Malkavians are different since the twins are also Malkavian.) Anyway, I chose Jeanette the second time and later got an email from her. (The result was very nice, by the way.)
[End of minor spoiler]

I also noticed that the clothing you purchase in the game varies depending on your clan–at least it did for Malkavian–very interesting. :-) Small changes like this in appearance and dialogue are what make the game very special indeed.

I played this through the first time after the patch made it playable to the end, as a Tremere. So I sided with the Tremere Elder… in which the box is never opened, it just gets filed away in that warehouse from Raiders of the Lost Ark, and you are left with the impression that there is absolutely an ancient, vampiric horror sleeping inside.

Much later, I replayed as a Gangrel anarch. When I got to that ending and found out what was actually in the box, I laughed so hard I had real difficulty breathing.