A modder rather descriptively named TheAudioService has just come out with a mod to improve the audio quality in one of my very favorite games, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines. The pack purports to improve volume levels and quality across 5,500 different voice lines in V:TM-B.
This is one of those thankless tasks, a painstaking exercise in minor improvements that might not be immediately apparent to all players. "Changes are subtle, sometimes even unnoticeable," TheAudioService cautions in the mod's description, though they add that "Sometimes you'll notice a huge difference." A helpful YouTube preview for the mod shows off an early dialogue with Vampire lackey Mercutio as an example of what to expect.
I remember first playing Bloodlines and being struck at how much Mercutio's first dialogue lines sounded like they were being delivered over two tin cans connected with a string, before quickly normalizing into something more acceptable—it's a poor early impression of the game. With the remastered version of the dialogue, things aren't perfect, but they are noticeably improved.
In a Reddit thread about the project, TheAudioService clarified that they didn't use any AI tools in the processing of these recordings. "I've fixed problems with changing recording situations between sessions, volume changes between lines, resonance issues, compression issues, [and] frequency issues," they explained in one comment.
TheAudioService also provided some interesting audiophile theorizing about why some of the original recordings had these issues: "It definitely sounds like the same microphone was used for most of the lines. But it seems like they sometimes took the mic on the road and recorded somewhere else, resulting in a change of quality between lines, sometimes within the same dialogue in-game."
Crucially, the audio remaster mod is compatible with hero modder Wesp5's essential Bloodlines Unofficial Patch, and there's even an optional module to the audio remaster that touches up some of the voice recordings in the Unofficial Patch.
If you've never even played Bloodlines, well, you should fix that immediately. It's one of the best RPGs to ever do it, a perfect translation of the O.G. 2D Fallout games' design into full 3D, like New Vegas but six years before New Vegas. It's all bound up in an impeccable Hollywood noir meets turn of the millennium cybergoth raver vibe too. I skipped my customary Halloween season replay last year, but you better believe I won't make the same mistake in 2024.
