14 DAY TRIAL // 
Leysha is hungry, which is a bad situation for a vampire to be in while moving through an apartment filled with very squishy human policemen. I’ve already found a safe zone, a little room tucked out of the way, and fed on one of them once. But the hunger, amplified by some environmental cues, is still there and that puts the Malkavian on a knife’s edge, in danger of exposing herself and unraveling the wider Masquerade.
So I make the difficult decision to feed on a victim twice, which kills the policeman and increases the wider suspicion level. This allows me to spend some of my regain power to activate a vision that suggests the Boston Court has bigger problems than it thinks. I also walk around some more, extracting information from the various officers around and examining the wounds on a very dead vessel.
Leysha is a little clueless for a hundred years old vampire, even after she passed every skill check in this area and harvested more than enough information to understand what the threat is. Incendiary bullets, carefully planned raids, and vampires caught out because their own networks aren’t as reliable as they thought. Boston’s nightwalkers are in big trouble and the efforts of three characters might not be enough to save them.
Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong is developed by Big Bad Wolf and published by Nacon. I played on Steam on the PC. The game is also on the Nintendo Switch, the Xbox Series X and S, the PlayStation 5, and older consoles from Sony and Microsoft. The title is narrative-heavy and mixes exploration with an interesting take on skill checks.
Players will become a trio of operatives for the Boston Camarilla, all reacting to an unprecedented Code Red situation. Leysha is the most interesting of the bunch, a Malkavian who has visions and is seen as an outcast because she spent time in a mental institution. Emem is a Toreador that’s the social and political animal of the bunch. Finally, Galeb hails from Ventrue and tends to play the heavy.
The idea of the Masquerade as a massive conspiracy that keeps vampires hidden remains a great one. The World of Darkness setting is well-developed and players engage with much of its lore in this game. The problem is that the actions of most characters, starting with the Prince, are clumsy and seem almost designed to pierce the veil of ignorance that shields vampires from destruction.
The three vampires will move through scenes, exploring locations that range from one man’s apartment to a big party to a dock, with clear objectives to accomplish. Talking and item interactions are the main ways to find information, clues, and to get hints about the various puzzles.
Gamers can use skills, which are the same for all three vampires, and disciplines, unique and designed to show off the personality of each. The first use discipline, which is very hard to replenish, while the second involves an expenditure of blood. Vampires will have to feed, on rats or humans, to regain it.
Players of Swansong are free to choose which set of abilities to improve but the game offers almost no hints on what might be needed to do well in a coming level. It’s very easy to get into a situation where the character simply lacks the skill required to get important info and there’s no way to respec during a level.
Confrontations, which aren’t actual combat moments, are the most important interactions in Swansong. They determine how the narrative moves and the game makes them tense. The problem is that they don’t flow in an interesting way, mainly because the characters involved seem to throw lines at one another rather than having a complex dialogue with high stakes.
The game also features plenty of puzzles and they can be difficult. Keep a notebook or text file open and make sure to scour any location for information and clues. Their designs are cool and solving one feels good but, again, they feel a little alien given the supposed supernatural powers of the featured characters.
Swansong has enough little problems that playing it can sometimes feel like a chore, even when the conversations are good and the narrative unfolds in interesting ways. I wanted more interactions with the core trio and clearer indications of how to develop them to meet coming challenges.
Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong aims for a lush visual presence but only partially delivers on it. Characters are diverse, with their fashion choices offering some details about their personality, and some of the levels are impressive in scope, with details that will satisfy fans of this universe. At the same time, characters feel lifeless (which might work for the vampires but there are also plenty of humans around) and there are glitches, mostly visible when it comes to movement and the sucking animations.
The game is fully voiced and the three protagonists have plenty of things to say, both in dialogue with others and when reflecting on environmental points of interest. The actors mostly do a good job, although some shifts in tone sound weird. The rest of the sound design is pretty standard for an adventure game.
The Good
- World of Darkness universe
- Solid narratives for all three characters
- Conversation-driven
The Bad
- Repetitive gameplay
- Requires familiarity with World of Darkness
- Limited presentation quality
Conclusion
The presentation is too ambitious for its own good, although there are moments when it makes this vampire-dominated universe come alive. I found that Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong is more enjoyable if I abandon the idea of optimizing my character and the goal of getting the best result out of all situations. Play the game once, accept outcomes, and see where the story of these three vampires and their effort to protect the Boston Camarilla take you.
A review key was provided by the publisher
