Vampires get a bit of a bad rap, we think. Thanks to a few rotten apples like Dracula and Kristen Stewart we've grown accustomed to seeing vampires as insidious creatures of the night, but there's lots of fun vampires, too. Count Duckula, for example, and the one from Sesame Street that goes "Ah-ah-ah!" Anyway, what we're saying is, we need to stop treating every person we see with fangs and a cape like they're about to nibble us. It's a stereotype, and it can be quite hurtful.
Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong is an interesting take on vampire fiction in that it doesn't really demonise the vampires, and if anything, it's the devout Christians that are presented in a more nefarious light. In this narrative-heavy adventure game, we play as three honest to god, blood suckin' vampires trying to negotiate their perilous political situation in a clandestine society of supernatural beings living in Boston.
The plot centres around conspiracies and betrayals and coup d'états and an existential threat to vampire unlife as we know it. It's all very serious and perhaps a mite too dry but there's oodles of fascinating lore to absorb derived from the Vampire: The Masquerade tabletop role playing game. The vampires we play as are a mixed bag: the stripper-turned-nightclub-owner is a little bland, but the one that just got out of the vampire insane asylum is fun. The story is mostly pretty engrossing.
Swansong's biggest problem is that at times it's perhaps not as clear as it could be about what you're actually meant to be doing or how to bypass certain problems, and you'll find that it's trial and error that gets you through. There's also a couple of technical issues, including one in which we spent ages wandering around trying to solve a puzzle only to reset the game and discover that the solution to the problem hadn't loaded the first time around. Not cool.
Comments 24
This actually looks good and I've been a fan of Vampire ever since Redemption in 2000 (on PC). Guess I'll add it to my wishlist.
So...is it kinda like Detroit become human/Life is Strange mixed with Vamps?
This sounds cool. Great review, John!
Quite like the look of it, 7/10 games are my new bread and butter. Glad to hear it doesn’t… suck.
Can you customize your character to sparkle?
@CieloAzure It's most like The Council if you've played that. It's a talky game but you have to solve puzzles and find clues and stuff. More involved on the detective side than Detroit etc. Puzzles are the weakest part of the game for sure, and I liked it a lot more when I was just wandering about as a vampire talking to people.
@nessisonett I'm quite enamoured with the classic 7/10 banger. Flawed, kinda naff in parts, but it's got a certain feel, a charm.
Big fan of P&P VtM IP so i will try it even if its meh.... Still beilieve Bloodlines II will become a reality.
Another vampire game? Ok, fine. Put it over there by all those other vampire games, just next to all those werewolf games, in front of the 500 zombie games, but behind those alien/monster games.
Say, where’s a good Medusa game? I want to turn some punk alpha males into stone and shoot ‘em with my fancy longbow.
I’m actually quite a fan of the council and I’ve been keeping an eye on this one. Probably not a day one, but definitely at some point.
@jgrangervikings1 Honestly, I'm waiting for a game about frankensteins or mummies.
Damn, not even some blood sucking jokes made the cut? Ughhh
Woa, I didn't realise the full game was coming out so soon
@johncalmc Eurojank gets a bad name but it can be plenty fun.
@Kooky_Daisuke it's not a spin-off of Bloodlines 2, it's just another game based on the same tabletop RPG. Think siblings, not parent and child. Same publisher, but the studios have nothing to do with each other.
Still radio silence about Bloodlines 2, unfortunately.
Since they've promoted this game horribly, I was wondering how it would turn out and even what it actually was in a sense they hadn't even shown that much gameplay. Glad to see that it's at least solid, but I'll wait for it to go on a good sale before I buy it given how poor the puzzles are in the game.
Humour doesn't have to be in everything and the technical issues will be patched so I guess it's a 9/10 game for me when I eventually buy it.
Bargain bin game for me alas, but glad you had an ok time playing!
I enjoyed The Council, and will pick this one up too, in time, when the price drops. It's ridiculous that a new PS4 game, at this stage in its life, costs as much as it does.
Good monsters and evil christians has been a staple in Japanese entertainment for quite a while now. I'll check this out also.
Thanks for this.
Anyone seeking a longer write up can look on pure xbox which has a more extensive review rather than a mini one, which is also very well written.
Im not convinced I need this, but im torn as there's obviously care and effort gone into creating it, so I hope it does ok.
I purchased the game and will play later this evening. It looks promising and I will try to be paitient with the puzzles!
After an hour in the game I give it a 2/10.
Pro:
loads OK on a Ps5
Cons:
the game has only one type of mouth animated and that's out sync.
since you're mostly watch conversations it's painfull to see the characters jerk around while they talk. Faces (mostly 2015) the rest of the chars would look kinda OK on a PS3.
Gameplay?
At times you can make choices during conversations but most of the time you are forced to pick an answer/question. The unavailable choices are shown from the beginning. Don't bother to explore , the game won't let you , walk into the bar and there is a guard that blocks the door till you have talked to everybody the game wants you to and then he disappears.
Button pushes and choices made with the sticks are often ignored although the related command text will show on the screen.
Story , don't know , so far most of the conversations (99% of the game) are of the kick or kiss variety and not very exciting.
Like I said 2 out 10 because I'm a nice guy
yeah i was looking forward to a v: masqurade game not some game full of puzzles that were intentionally made vague in order to make them seen clever, the problem with tabletop conversions is they try to make them into legend of zelda/resident evil comercial friendly type games look at every game game workshop puts out, if they would do a true conversion of 40k it would sell like crazy even to people who dont like tactical games, instead we get games like werewolf the appocalypse which was complete drek
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