Vampire: The Masquerade- Bloodlines (or just Bloodlines) and its predecessor were both based on the widely popular card game/RPG series, Vampire. Don't worry if you've never heard of it. No one has. Vampire, despite being insanely popular is somehow totally unknown. One of life's little mysteries I guess. Anyway, the PC game, Bloodlines (now only available through Steam) was one of those great games that just never got noticed. In fact, it went so unnoticed that the developer, Troika Games, went belly up shortly after its release due to abysmal sales of only 72,000 units. While the game itself got fairly mixed reviews (mostly due to bugs), every aspect of gameplay, narrative, and pretty much everything other than the coding received high praise from all sources. There weren't a whole hell of a lot of fully 3D free roaming RPGs in 2004, so when Bloodlines gave players the ability to stalk the midnight streets of modern day LA, it was a somewhat limited experience. Despite putting a lot of effort into the design of the levels, the technology and funds limited each major section of the city (Hollywood, Santa Monica, China Town, etc) to a few city blocks with mostly empty buildings. Add to that a few crashes, a slew of rendering issues, and a really attractive vampire blood addict that kept disappearing from my apartment (addicts tend to do that I guess), and you wind up with a game that was really quite difficult to get into, since you kept literally getting kicked out of it. But, for those who stuck with it, and didn't give in to the temptation, Bloodlines offered one of the most immersive worlds available in gaming. Players' choice in race/class completely changed the way the game was played, as some races were too monstrous to even be seen in public, while others could walk around in a busy street without drawing an eye. The story did an unparalleled job of introducing the player to a preexisting fictional universe without overwhelming them, guiding them through every aspect of it, and then putting their finger on the trigger and asking how the game should end. And that's really where the game stood out. The characters were alive, even for dead people. The voice acting was superb. The dialogue was fantastic and clever. Everything about the writing of this game drew you back to it, even after the 100th time it crashed.
How The Sequel Could Work...
It would, to be truthful, be very hard to make a legit sequel to the game. The player's choices in the game greatly affect the outcome of the game universe, and it would be impossible to go back to LA without constantly asking yourself why the developer chose ending A over ending B. BUT, the Vampire universe spans the whole globe, and a sequel could be set anywhere in the world. The rich fiction and diversity of characters from the original could allow a sequel to fall in any city in the world. And that's a major draw of the game, the ability to play a fantastical setting (vampires) in a modern day, realistic city. It lands right in the middle of fantasy and reality. There would, however, need to be some major changes; the first of which would be to make sure the game wasn't a buggy, glitchy, maddening crashfest that pisses off every reviewer that plays the damn thing. But, bugs and glitches notwithstanding, a sequel to Bloodlines would be as easy as choosing a new city and reading the fan fiction until they find a story worth stealing.