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Went to sleep at 2:30 AM last night - the night called to me Vampie is a beautiful, but flawed, game. It is sad because I believe with 6 months of bug fixing and polishing, it would be one of the great games in history. The Good: 1. The graphics are generally quite nice, though not at half-Life 2's level. 2. The voice acting is way above average for a computer game. 3. The variety of quests, and the way they evolve are usually very interesting. Playing from a first person point of view even makes typical retrieve and return quests more interesting than in an isometric view game. 4. The plot is engaging, with believable characters throughout. 5. I actually really enjoy combat. 6. Technically, the game runs well for me, at least compared to the horror stories I have heard. Loading times are very reasonable, shorter than Half-Life 2 area loading times. Many of the bugs are fixed by an unofficial patch - I did not install the official patch because the unofficial one fixes far more bugs, so I have not come across any quests that can't be completed, broken dialogue strings, etc. 7. Executing a perfect bite on a poor mortal human is very fun. 8. The variety of ways to play the game is reminiscent of that glorious experience Deus Ex. The bad: 1. The sound effects have issues. The sound effect for your feet hitting the ground while moving is the same when walking or running. This is very weird when walking. 2. Outside areas can be choppy performance-wise, but I have not had anywhere near the slowdowns that other people have talked about. 3. The cutscenes often spoil the immersion, as people will float instead of walk. Sometimes sound does not match the image. This is the lack of polish I talked about above. 4. Sometimes opening a door is a struggle. You have to be close but not too close. On some doors, I had to open and instantly run away otherwise it would bang against my body and clsoe again. Very frustrating. Also, doors will close on their own very quickly, which spoils immersion. Part of the fun of sneaking is taking care of those issues yourself - magically closing doors is not cool. 5. One character model per clan - big fat no-no for an RPG. Overall, the game is much better than I was led to believe. It could have been a real work of art, which is a shame. Troika needs to learn how to get more time from development studios to make their games. The real blockbusters always have that extra level of care and polish to separate them from the pack - Half-Life 2, anything by Blizzard, Halo.