The development of Bloodlines was challenging for Troika. First, compared to the relative freedom they enjoyed during the development of "Arcanum", "Vampire"s design choices had more checks and balances as both White Wolf and Activision wanted to validate their decisions. Second, the deteriorating working relationship with Activision and constant deadlines had damaged the morale of the development staff. Cain recalls an embargo being placed on the game. In fact, Troika was not allowed to work on it for several months before the release date, as Activision kept a gold version master until the release date. Any patches and fixes that Troika worked on, where thus not allowed to be included in the game. This also included improvements made to the Source engine such as advancements in physics, modelling and facial animation which Bloodlines did not have. The embargo hurt the morale of the team, who had finished a game that could not be shipped, changed, or talked about. Furthermore, Activision wanted to ship it as soon as possible, resulting in many features being cut and forcing the Troika staff to work long hours. Anderson later stated that the vast majority of Bloodline's development time was spent in 'crunch-mode' . While "Bloodlines" received favorable reviews and praise from RPG fans, its numerous bug and imperfections were flagrant. Anderson reflected that their publishers were not willing to give the Troika team the necessary time to polish their games, pulling an unfinished product from their hands. Furthermore, Cain adds that they never imagined that Activision would ship "Vampire" on the same day as Half-Life 2. He finds that postponing launch day would have given the team time to polish the game using a stable engine, avoiding direct competition with the very popular Half-Life 2.