I'm not knocking it. I just can't get any enjoyment out of it. I probably get too much into it. A more casual no commitment approach is likely better for most. But once I got rid of the Chaos Lord, there's no way he's coming back!

I finished it with the Gangrel clan. Which was awesome because I could transform into an evil vampire bat monster.

Oh. Yes I have.
And that was one helluva game, too. RIP Troika.

I've always wanted to play it and that has grown more and more over the years, like a bad bad itch (not as bad as not having gotten to play Gothic yet, though) but I have never gotten the opportunity. Hopefully it will be here one day (1000th game?)

ARRRGGGhhhh

Question.

Why, when a game is highly sucessful and gets praised as a classic for all sorts of qualities on all levels, doesn't it set some sort of standard, with most later games based on the elements that made its quality, and just raising the average of videogames to its level ?

I mean, how many Fallout or Bloodlines or System Shock 2 or Deus Ex quality games exist, even though they are quite old already and kinda unanimously revered as classics ?

It does. Developers of newer games are fluent in Deus Ex. But, recognizing good level design and producing good level design are different things. Developers try and miss the mark. Or it turns out they prioritize different things than I do, even if we agree that Deus Ex was awesome. Or they want to try something new rather than replicate past successes.

I think in the platforming genre you can see the progression and the standards being set and the general average of quality go up - more easily than in more complex genres like rpgs.

I always assumed games would get even better after Deus Ex. They didn't really.

Yeah I finished it back in the day.

Isn't there a part near the end of the game where you are on top of a building fighting a dragon?

I don't remember any dragons in Bloodlines. Werewolves, vampires and monsters mostly.

Weird, is there a part at all where you go up a building onto the roof to fight something?

I haven't. I tend to get bored 3/4 of the way through and forget about it.

It isn't a dragon, but there is a certain huge flying creature you get to fight come endgame. Recall what happens when you beat the Sheriff.

That thing is the Sheriff actually. In his Zulo form. :-) You get to fight him if you choose to side with the Camarilla, IIRC.
I've beaten the game as Tremere, had more trouble fighting the gargoyle than fending off the zombies (although the gates got half-broken, but still held). Might one day replay it as a Malkavian.

Never said otherwise, just wanted to minimize spoilerization. You fight him if you side against the Camarilla. He is the Prince's bodyguard, after all. Unless perhaps you go to the Tremere primogen and complain about what a bad boy the Prince has been - or so I would think, I haven't tried that.

I found the gargoyle rather easy with both the Tremere and the Gangrel. It was faster with the Gangrel, but I also died a few times, while the Tremere chipped him to death from afar.

I actually started the game as a Malkavian. I went with the Ultima-style character creation, as I wanted to see the questions, got a Malkavian, and then I just couldn't stop playing. Finished Santa Monica, and only then restarted.
In retrospect, the dialogue as a Malkavian is brilliant. Not only is it appropriately loopy, but they actually worked in that "insight of the insane" thing in places. My only complaint is the somewhat difficult to read font.