Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong

Vampire: Swansong starts off by thrusting you right into a mystery that involves deceit, politics, and betrayal, and continues to unfurl through the course of levels that incorporate conversations, puzzles, and lots of exploration. Fans of Telltale and Hitman games will appreciate Swansong’s approach to discovery, but its lore-heavy storyline and questionable design choices can alienate others.

Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong offers a fascinating story and great characters, but pixel hunting and insipid puzzles are really disappointing.

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.

To be invited into such an exclusive circle in Swansong is a frankly riveting proposition—I can’t deny that there’s a thrill, verging on tabloid-level curiosity, in mingling with the distastefully powerful, uncovering their dirtiest secrets, and conniving with the Prince of Boston. But still the most intriguing bit about Swansong is to have all these politicking depicted as layers of conversations and sleuthing, which are exploits that are far more human than the game’s supernatural brethren would believe.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong succeeds in making us feel in front of a board game, bringing all the mysteries, conspiracies and atmospheres of the World of Darkness. Unfortunately, the graphics slow down the enthusiasm, like a script that very often is not particularly exciting.

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.

Gripping supernatural subterfuge meets perfunctory mechanics. Worth it to explore the World of Darkness, though.

Swansong is a good investigative adventure dressed up in vampire finery, but doesn’t quite live up to my expectations due to some overly restrictive design and a disconnect between the third person perspective and the largely text and table top mechanics. Once some of the bugs are patched and there are resources available to support the build choices you make, there is a solid adventure to be found here. It’s not the new Bloodlines, but it’s an authentic Vampire: The Masquerade experience nonetheless.

Despite a myriad technical flaws, Swansong does have a well-crafted world (even though it pummels you with TMI at first), non-linearity, nice vibes and even an air of intrigue.

Vampire: The Masquerade Swansong is a narrative driven game that delivers an interesting plot, through the eyes of three totally different vampires. Sadly the game fails to fully commit to that story and stumbles along the way. While there are some memorable moments of joy and euphoria, there are as many moments that you'd rather just play something else. Many game mechanics work more against you rather than helping you, and on a technical level the game sometimes feels sluggish at best.

Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong perfectly reflects the atmosphere of a tabletop RPG session set in the World of Darkness. Sadly, graphics and animations sometimes spoil the impression, certain gameplay mechanics are hard to master and I couldn’t complete some quests because of the bugs. It’s a shame, because the writers and the voice actors did a commendable job.

Despite some interesting situations and engaging puzzles, Vampire: The Masquerade Swansong fails to get off the ground, much less stick the landing. It’s slow and obtuse where it should be visceral and emotional. The writing is pedestrian and the characters are the dullest vampires imaginable. Whether or not they drink your blood, they definitely suck your ability to enjoy the game.

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.

Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong follows in the vein of narrative games like those of Telltale and Quantic Dream, but cannot reach the same level of quality. The narrative has a tendency to feel too linear and technically wise the game is far from impressive.

While the game’s narrative aspect is truly engaging, it’s difficult to appreciate all the dialogue options and plot twists with so many flaws that plague Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong. With grotesque facial animations, clumsy exploration options, lots of bugs and a lacking introduction to the World of Darkness, Swansong is a game for die-hard fans who are tired of waiting for Bloodlines 2.

Vampire: The Masquerade -Swansong is a narrative-driven RPG that is faithful to the original “World of Darkness” cosmos. It is very engaging, with some brilliant ideas, especially in the dialog challenges, but fails, somehow short, due to its half-baked role-playing system that “punishes” the player’s character build decisions.

The characters move stiffly, the animations look like they are from a game from two generations ago, and there is little atmosphere or tension. The voice actors are either overacting or unintentionally soulless. And that's a shame for a game that consists mostly of dialogue. The game is clearly suffering from anemia, and we can only hope for a miraculous cure when ‘Bloodlines 2’ hits the market.

Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong is not for everyone. Players who like strategic detective games will know how to make the most out of this game, but the lack of action or clear hints can quickly make the game feel long-winded or boring.

Moral murkiness helps preserve the tension across Swansong’s duration. There’s always something at stake – your life, the masquerade, your integrity – and that does a lot to infuse some meaning into all the talking and scouring rooms for notes. I doubt that Swansong is set to become a vampire RPG of legend, like 2004’s Bloodlines, but it nonetheless makes vampires scary again.

Overall, there's a lot here that fans of Vampire: The Masquerade are likely to love, and the wide expanse of skills and choices to make should add a fair amount of replayability to the story. However, newcomers to the franchise would do well to read up on the way the series works as a whole before getting started, especially if they lack experience with tabletop games and the way that experience is rewarded and utilized.

They are far too many structural and functional issues with Swansong, but if you like this vampiric license, the story will give you the strength to face them all.

Vampire: The Masquerade — Swansong can be a compelling experience, especially for those who are already familiar with the World of Darkness. Its RPG mechanics lend depth to an otherwise standard narrative adventure, as long as you can grasp their meaning. But wonky gameplay balance and even wonkier facial animations, not to mention some of the more overwritten and under-earned emotional beats, can make falling in love with its vampires harder to swallow than a mouthful of blood.

Vampire The Masquerade: Swansong, offers a deep gameplay, a rich universe and real consequences to our actions. Unfortunately, the game is counterbalanced by a sluggish pace and technical flaws.

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 has grand ambitious, but its dated presentation, shallow gameplay and uninteresting story make for another disappointing outing from this brooding universe.

Those who enjoy this type of mystery game may like it, but I can’t see many going back, or bringing in new blood with this one, especially when Bloodlines is still around.

Long stretches of treading water and laborious conversations make for an extremely passive and not very fullfilling gameplay-experience...There might be a – well, moderately - beautiful swan hidden in this ugly duckling. However it only reveals itself to those, who are prepared to approach the title with lots of love and goodwill.

I truly wanted to love this game, and beneath the muddled surface lies the bare bones of an awesome detective RPG just begging to be let loose. Unfortunately, it looks like that skeleton will remain in the closet. Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong is plagued by more than just the undead: its systems aren’t fun, puzzles are irritating, and the lack of depth seals the deal. I want to learn more about our protagonists, I want the story to be Criminal Minds but with vampires, however, it simply isn’t. Having waited so long for VTM to return triumphantly, Swansong is quite the letdown. For avid fans it’s a must, but if you’ve been brought here by Bloodhunt we’d suggest just sticking to that.

Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong offers an impressively flexible story, but that can't save it from its mediocre writing and scattershot game design.