There is an abundance of great ideas: multiple endings, some of which only available if you made specific choices earlier the game the necessity to balance the need between feeding with blood and not losing your humanity, while also keeping a low profile (the 'Masquerade') apparently minor choices developing into neat subplots. To say nothing of the hilariously insane Malkavians. Third, the player can choose between one of seven different clans, and the choice is not just cosmetic: if you pick an aristocratic Ventrue focused on diplomacy or a seductive Toreador, you'll be playing a completely different game from the player who chooses a monstrous Nosferatu, always lurking in the shadows. I love Tolkien as much as the next ninth-level ranger, but it's always refreshing to see a RPG which isn't about orcs and elves in a medieval-like world. Second, it features an original setting, a seedy Los Angeles of the World of Darkness tabletop games, where vampires and other supernatural creatures hide among humans.
First, it's an action/RPG in which quests often have multiple solutions, allowing players to choose between combat, stealth and diplomacy. Bloodlines is an ambitious game, for several reasons.