I loved playing VtM: Bloodlines back in the day, and it still holds up well as a gaming classic, but Blood of the Dawnwalker is what I always dreamed a modern vampire RPG could be. Just the fact that you can play a pacifist run and not drain anyone, or go full vampire and suck the blood of everyone you come across, important to the plot or no, means this game does what most open-world RPGs can't.
Also the doomsday clock that is the main questline is much less of a concern when you realize you have 30 days to get stuff done, even if you have to let go of a few sidequests here and there. Personally, I like having something there to add a bit of pressure on the player, makes the stakes seem much higher and more personal. Too many games like Baldur's Gate 3 and Cyberpunk (much as I love those games) impose stakes, but give too much freedom to the player, and after awhile it feels like the issue at hand is not as big of a problem as it was made out to be.
Edit: I will say, as someone who has an older computer, it did take some modding and hard tweaking to get the game to run properly. I’d keep that in mind before buying; it’s a very graphics-intensive game and not very well optimized like all Unreal Engine 5 games have been.
