Swansong is a spin-off from the Vampire Masquerade series of games. It is a narrative-heavy experience in the same universe as Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines, but it does not require any knowledge of the original game or its world to enjoy. Swansong is not just a vampire story – it is also a detective game where you investigate crime scenes and interrogate suspects using evidence from your phone or laptop. That evidence comes in two forms: raw data (phone logs, emails and so on) and the other is video footage that lets you rewind time to examine events from different angles. This makes for fascinating moments where you question people about events they may not have witnessed.
You’re given some freedom in setting up each character with stat points and abilities but once committed to a particular path; you may find that optimal routes are locked off. This does ensure that your choices have consequences, though the experience feels far more restrictive and limited because of it.
There’s no way to go back and change your decisions once they’ve been made, which can make things frustrating if you fail at something early on and then have to start over again from scratch. While this is not ideal for players who like to experiment with different skill combinations, it does mean that each playthrough feels unique, and something new has been added to the story each time.
You shall play as three characters, Galeb, Emem and Leysha. You’ll find yourself involved in intrigue, diplomacy, assassinations and rudimentary puzzles along the way.
The problem with Swansong is that it lacks any real depth regarding gameplay or storytelling; it feels like more of a walking simulator than anything else. There are no fights in this game; the actual combat you will see shall be through a cutscene. It’s very much like watching a movie or playing an interactive novel, which makes it sound more exciting than it is. Nevertheless, you shall feed upon humans.
Tainted Blood
During discussion or investigation portions, your character can deploy vampiric powers. This, however, will increase your appetite. If your hunger becomes too strong, you’ll assault the next human you come across, perhaps harming yourself and the shared hunger bar. To compensate, you must employ non-vampiric talents such as technology, security, or dialogue to gather information and convince others without utilising your vampiric powers. Non-vampiric skills use willpower points, which consumables or successful dialogue segments can restore.
Before each level (referred to as a scene), you must assign experience points earned. As a result, experience is a limited resource. You can set your points freely or place them in one of three pre-determined archetypes based on various factors. There are no suggestions as to what you would want for a scene, and there is no choice for New Game Plus. This means that you’ll frequently be going in blind, and many investigative lines will be closed entirely off simply because of your character build. You will have to memorise what you did in the last playthrough if you decide to go through it again and want to achieve different outcomes.
There is no real benefit in killing the humans other than for different story outcomes, but for the best gameplay experience, you want to keep them alive. Therefore, you should feed on them just once to replenish your willpower, giving you the best opportunity to succeed in each scene. In Swansong, numerous methods exist to satisfy your hunger without sacrificing life. When embracing Prey for feeding, keep the blood gauge above the halfway mark. Stop biting after you’ve reached that stage. Continuing to feed may result in the death of your Prey. The unconscious individual will wait for you after you’ve finished eating. You may not even have to turn to humans to quench that blood thirst as Emem can fest on rats to quell the hunger.
The three bloodmigos
When starting the game, you must choose what profile you would like your character to have. There are four sorts of profiles in VTM Swansong: Investigator, Jack of All Trades, Veteran, and Free. Consider these four kinds to be attributed to distinct types of players. The Investigator’s primary goal is to gather information. It might be via casual talks, or you could wind up extorting someone into revealing anything you want. You will also be able to steal information. Jack Of All Trades has one point in each characteristic, making it a more generic character with no distinct field of expertise. The Veteran, on the other hand, is adept at chatting to others. Veterans also concentrate on Physical Skills, such as the ability to endure physical discomfort. The Free profile is a blank profile that allows you to customise the character any way you like, distributing attribute points anywhere you desire.
Profiles aren’t crucial in Swansong. Whatever you choose, any character may develop in whatever way you wish. Because experience is obtained by accomplishing tasks, the most significant aspect of Swansong is just playing the game and building your stats. Your beginning Profile can help you get a leg up on the competition, but it’s not a firm decision that will impact the game’s dynamics in the long run. The abilities are; Physical, Social and Mental. The Physical Attribute affects the Intimidation Skill and the Celerity Discipline. The Social Attribute affects the Rhetoric, Persuasion Skills and the Presence Discipline. The Mental Attribute affects the Psychology Skill and the Dominate Discipline. It would be advised as experience is a scarce resource, it is best to invest directly into your skills area as opposed to the attributes part other than at the beginning.
We then have our Skills; these trees branch out to Dialogue, Exploration and Knowledge. The dialogue contains; Rhetoric, Intimidation, Persuasion and Psychology, each used to make conversations easier, causing more manipulation and homing in on their triggers. The Exploration skills allow for the skills of; Security and Technology for better hacking and locking picking getting into areas of the game you may not be able to without levelling these up. Finally, we have Knowledge which leads to; Deduction and Education; this allows for a better understanding of the world with Education and a better way of sleuthing with Deduction.
While the best way to get narrative is through not using the powers (called Disciplines), they do exist and can be fun for our trio depending on the play style you take Leysha and Galeb can use “Dominate”, forcing a conversation to get straight-to-the-point or ensuring someone shall do what you need them too. Emem has one of the most fun abilities blinking across locations, slowing down time and further helping with dialogue. Leysha has a wonderful Jedi mind trick of “obfuscate”, allowing her to have others view them with a different perception and even become oblivious to them to the point of forgetting about them entirely. There is even an element of Hitman with her ability to steal others’ identities. Galeb is the tank of the group, whether in conversations or in the world, with his ability of “Fortitude”. One ability that leads to some rather interesting encounters is that Presence Emem and Galeb are sweet talkers who can charm their way to get what they want. For those who want the easiest straightforward way of playing, levelling up the “Auspex” power of Emem and Leysha shall reveal many hints.
Blood is thicker than water, and so are these puzzles
Swansong can quickly halt if you fail too many interactions, which can happen if you distribute your experience points to the improper abilities before each level. That’s a huge problem since, once you’re trapped in front of a locked skill check, you can’t adjust or re-specialise your talents unless you’re ready to repeat the level from the beginning. To make matters worse, Swansong’s maps are so poorly planned that it’s nearly difficult to predict which talents would be beneficial or not before you begin. Fortunately, all people on each map have access to at least one method for moving the plot along, but the most basic way frequently includes solving a puzzle, which may be more work than it’s worth. The puzzle-solving detective activity that sounded so enticing at first sight gradually lost its lustre when I learned that the plot itself was not ultimately engaging enough to drive me onward. Many of these puzzles, which took multiple levels of logical reasoning to answer, did not fit in with the story’s themes and consequently felt like filler rather than valuable contextual information, more like they are forced on you due to a decision you made on how you levelled.
Bloody good music but clot-worthy looks.
The music of Vampire Masquerade- Swansong truly sets the tone. You have some whispery rock music to get you in the mood for the night, something ethereal to put you in a false sense of security as you walk amongst the streets of Boston, a little bit of jazz and synth-wave and then, of course, we can’t have vampires without some creepy organ music. The looks, however, are unfortunately hit and miss.
The environment in Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong is varied; while not an open world, it is complete with some significant locations, including meandering hallways and doors to open. Choosing the road to take to reach each target added to the sense of choice. With just enough intricacy to keep things exciting. Other sequences can be long, dreary, and drawn-out,
Finally, some scenes can be challenging to see if you are not prepared to see a lot of blood, mutilation, delusions, and so on, though it is a vampire game. What did you expect? In any case, the character models are inconsistent. For the most part, our main characters seem believable, but some side characters appear to be rotting, flat or just expressionless; in fact, most people you meet will appear to be wrong to some degree. For example, their eyes frequently protrude when conversing, sometimes to ridiculous proportions. On the other hand, the voice acting for most characters is rather good.
Summary
If you are a fan of Sherlock Holmes and want a simplified David Cage game style, then Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong is likely to pique your interest even as something to bridge the gap for a more exciting game. Its idea is intriguing, but the characters are uninteresting, and the tepid plot takes too long to heat up to its full potential. Swansong has already reached its conclusion by the time you’ve been sufficiently connected to its three playable characters and their distinct struggles for survival in the politically volatile vampire underground. It may fare better on a second playthrough, as you’ll have some idea of which skills you should specialise in on a given level; then it’s all about seeing those alternative paths that you could’ve taken the first time around; however, due to no new game plus this may feel too much for some people to put their time into.
Developer: Big Bad Wolf Studio
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X and Series S, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 5
Publishers: Nacon, BIGBEN INTERACTIVE
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