Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong Reviews

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Vampire: The Masquerade – Justice caught my eye, not because I’m a fan of the series, admittedly, but because it looked like a it took inspiration from one if my favorite stealth series, Dishonored. It’s not that I don’t like the Vampire: The Masquerade content, I just never got into it at all. From what I can tell, it has some very deep lore in its own World of Darkness setting. While I may not be familiar with the lore or the vast amount of other games in the series, I love vampires...

I have a long history of playing Vampire: The Masquerade games, from the tabletop RPG and LARP to video games. While Vampire: The Masquerade – Justice on the Quest 3 is not what I expected, I have still had fun navigating the moonlit streets of Venice as the vampire Justice to solve the mystery of my Sire’s disappearance. There are no character creation options here except for being male or female. Developer Fast Travel Games has created a good stealth game, and make no mistake, this is...

An engaging experience to sink one’s teeth into, Swansong may have its faults, but it offers a blood-curdling plot and amazing characters that simply can’t be found anywhere else.

I really wanted to love Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong. I already am a fan of its setting, desperately want AA video games to rise in prominence again, and love slow burns that are focused on character dialogue and interactions. However, there is just too much getting in the way of Swansong’s success. There is no way of knowing exactly what happened, but the final product is one that I can’t even recommend picking up on sale.

A code red has alerted the vampiric council of an unknown catastrophic event so it's up to Galeb, Leysha, and Emem to uncover the truth in Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong. Are you up to the task?

In conclusion, Swansong promised a lot but delivered what I felt to be a severely flawed gaming experience.  Quality cut-scenes alone cannot carry a title and that has been proved out here. With boring, glacially paced gameplay, janky controls and far too many technical issues wiping out any sense of pleasure gained from playing through to the games anti-climax, I was left wanting.  Having spent over twenty-four hours working my way through this title I cannot help but think my time would have been much better spent elsewhere.  If you are a big fan of the ‘Masquerade’ series, it may be worth checking this game out; if you are not a fan, paying full price could prove to be a be a ‘missed stake’.

Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong features an intriguing and mysterious storyline that hooks players but its bugs and restrictive nature prevent it from biting quite as deep as fans may like.

The game is a mixed (BLOOD!) bag. As someone who tends to be a fan of the line, if not the writers introducing edgelord Nazi references and starting international incidents, Swansong was an interesting expedition into the world and a faithful port of the mind-boggling systems. On the other hand, you can’t be a Malkavian wearing a Dr. Suess hat like in Bloodlines, so demerits for that. And please quit with the “cute vampire kid” thing. It’s hard enough moseying around and trying to solve puzzles without a child shrieking “MOMMY!” at me. I already have cats that crash onto my keyboard when they want attention. I don’t need it in games, too.

Should you manage to look past the shoddy presentation and dodgy visuals, Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong will reveal itself to be a mildly engaging tale of hidden bloodsuckers, unravelling a mystery brimming with murder and betrayal. Beauty, in this case, really is more than skin deep.

I think given its replay value and strong narrative foundation alone, this is an easy recommend from me. I just hope that Big Bad Wolf Studio eventually does go in and iron out the evident bugs in the game, both visual and otherwise. I also can’t wait for them to release more narrative games of this caliber. I genuinely think they are a breath of fresh air in an otherwise saturated market.

While the visuals and voice acting didn't sell me, there was plenty else to sink my fangs into. Choices. So many different, split second choices that made me feel that what I did mattered. A story that kept me searching out clues to find what was really afoot, and great RPG elements too. I was a bit unsure how a game would handle three main characters, and while they're all kinda jerks in their own ways, they're my jerks. I was able to overlook any issues I had without having to sacrifice much to do so.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong is a fantastic, yet very messy game. It lacks some desperately needed polish and refining, but the core is so fun and engaging you can put the problems to the side for a time. They’ll rear their head pretty frequently, but pushing past them is well worth the rewards.

We tell you, it’s a good game! It’s not average! It might have some problems here and there, but you have to admit it is a “Good” game.

The Hunger system is a lot more interesting. The vampiric powers that each character possesses are strong, especially the mind control abilities, but it's easy to reach the maximum Hunger limit when using them. The characters can feed on mortals in the game world, as each level has a limited number of designated "Safe Zones", where they can take a single mortal and feed on them, prompting a minigame where they can potentially kill the mortal by feeding too hard. They can also feed on them a second time, but this is guaranteed to kill the mortal. Swansong has a "Traits" system, where a player's actions can lead to passive buffs/penalties that carry over between chapters. An example of this is killing mortals while feeding, which will result in NPCs becoming suspicious of the character and making it harder to win them over in conversation. These concepts combined make for a fantastic balancing act, where the player's actions constantly have consequences. There are dire situations where the player might need some extra blood to power their abilities, but it means permanently marking them for future missions, which is keeping to the spirit of the Vampire: The Masquerade tabletop RPG.

“Vampire: The Masquerade -- Swansong is an intricate narrative adventure game that can be too dense for its own good at times.”

Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong tells an incredible story, one the player can truly influence, but it falls short in many of the efforts to translate the World of Darkness into video game form. A must-play for fans of the universe, but fans of the narrative-driven RPG may find more frustration than enjoyment.

For fans of vampiric tales, dark narratives and grizzly visuals, there’s a lot to love about Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong. You may be thrown straight into the deep end, but once you acclimatise yourself with the fascinating, macabre world around you, you’ll feel right at home. It blends intriguing storytelling with investigation, skill-building and player agency, leading to a game that you’ll most likely struggle to put down.

A tedious choose 'em up with charmless characters and puzzles that miss the point of being a vampire.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong is certainly a super-stylish narrative RPG, and it's one that gets off to a strong start, offering up a truly intriguing premise, before falling victim to tedious investigative gameplay, undercooked conversational aspects and a host of bugs that make progress frustrating at points. There's just too much jank here, levels are too rigid, there's not enough freedom in how you go about your investigations or use your vampiric powers to really make things sing and, as a result, we're left with a game that fails to fully live up to its early promise. It's not a bad effort, but with a little more care and polish, it could have been so much more.

Vampire: The Masquerade — Swansong is a narrative, investigative RPG centered around three vampires in Boston. While the writing and quests are enjoyable, the visuals leave much to be desired. Swansong loses a lot of its charm with its jarring graphics.

Before playing Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong, my experience with nosferatu mostly came down to making fun of Twighlight and having fun watching What We Do In the Shadows. After about 20 hours with the game, though, I was really impressed with how it managed to dominate my attention.

If you’re heavily interested in a vampire-fueled mystery game with some good “a-ha” moments, Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong can deliver. It’ll falter and miss some notes here and there, but it does at least sate my thirst for some vampire storytelling for now.

A complex, vampire-centric role-playing game where conversations replace violence, but whose boring puzzles and undercooked script suggest its budget didn’t stretch nearly as far as its ambitions.

Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong has some novelty as a dialogue focused RPG, but is hampered by mid-production jank and subpar level design.