After my last paycheck i went into insanity and picked up some new sourcebooks for myself. Vampire, Hunter, Antagonists (As idea material) and the core book. I have read (loosley) though them all and here are my thoughts on them.
I personaly am a modern and sci fi nut. So this appeals to me off the get go. Then there is my supernatural liking of it. I like the idea of playing somebody who fights monsters. The reckoning sadly skewed the concept badly; but i like the Vigil much better.
Hunter: The Vigil is a finely written game with plenty of fluff and story involved, and mechanics mixed into it to create a sense of knowing what your doing. One odd thing thought is Hunter has no definable classes just another type of virtue/vice deal called professions. No matter which one you pick; all they will affect is one or two things along with your characters mindset. This can go both ways. Its anti munchkin because the lack of class powers will mean they have no certain class that will always be chosen.
However, this also means most hunters will play pretty much the same for casual players. This is however slightly negated by the inclusion of three "modes" of play. There are two types of organizations that go on large scale. Compacts (local orgs) and Conspiracy's (which go global). Conspiracy's get sets of special abilities for purchase if you be a good little soldier. Compacts are just for story value mainly.
I give hunter my recomendation.
Then theres Vampire: the Requiem. The first thing that irked me is the sheering of clans. Only 5 exist now with offshoots existing. Players who loved the masquerade will cry like wusses. Though i mourned the changed of much of the back stories (The Bruja are now a Gangrel offshoot mexicano biker band, and the Tremere are out completely...*sniff*) I accepted the new rulings. Any vampire with sufficient blood potency can create a bloodline (Offshoot) that allows you to pick another clan discipline line (Which can be unique and custom made)and must pick another weakness. Though this sounds bad, the new power set will pretty much make up for it.
Blood potency replaces the past blood system. The more potent your blood the more refined your tastes. When you past 6 potency, only vampires will sate your thirst. if you can;t feed anymore, you go into torpor; your potency decreases every 25 years of sleep. Which dooms vampires to spurts of activity if they feed off other vamps too much as vamp drinking will jack up your potency.
I approve of vampire; but a few things about it simply bug me. I mourn the loss of the Tremere along with other clans. And i wonder why the Mehket became a main clan when i didn't even know they frakkin existed. Thankfully, the Tremere can easily be made a Ventrue Bloodline; Since the game includes enough tools to design Bloodlines and just about anything else variable such as Clans and Powers if you felt like it. The better your GM, the more of a experience your up to.
Since i am from Santa Cruz; I have a few ideas to write up the Lost Boys bloodline as a Deava bloodline.
And lastly there is Antagonists. Since the book is about putting together great villians; i liked it very well. Demons, Zombies, and even constructs were explained well enough that it because simple to make them. I particularly liked the zombie rules. If your a imaginitive GM looking for ideas on how to make a real bad ass enemy, pick the book up.