Vampire: The Masquerade -Swansong Review

Developed by Big Bad Wolf Studio and published by Nacon and BIGBEN Interactive, Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong is a story-driven RPG with some puzzle detective elements. The game is drowning in lore as it is based on the tabletop RPG Vampire the Masquerade. Vampires are hiding from humans and are operating behind the scenes. But when their survival is threatened the tensions get high and you need to discover who you can trust.

                The story in this game is as confusing as it is obscure. The Masquerade is the hidden unity between vampires to keep their existence a secret from normal humans. The game starts by mentioning a party that was arranged to help cement the relationship between the Boston Camarilla with the vampire warlocks has gone belly up. Many were killed and everyone wants answers about what happened.

You play the game through 3 different viewpoints of different characters. First is Emem, who is a young lady vampire who helped organise the party and is trying to make a name for herself in the Camarilla. Second is Galeb who is a senior member of the Camarilla and seems like a vampire special agent. Lastly is Leysha who is a special vampire who can see the future in visions but also suffers from an illness because of her ability. These three are tasked with unravelling the mystery of what went down at this party and who was responsible.

                My first impression is that this game feels very crime syndicate heavy and the fact that everyone is supposed to be a variation of a vampire doesn’t seem to matter too much. Everyone seems very serious and it is a little unnerving as everyone feels like they are treading on eggshells not wanting to put a foot wrong. It is hard enough to digest all the lore that is thrown at you but it is important to try as it is very easy to feel lost and unsure of what you are supposed to be doing.

                I looked at the trailer and I thought the game was a story RPG similar to the Telltale games but with realistic graphics and based on vampires. It is slightly that, but far more complex and with other game elements. At the start of each episode, you have to allocate points to upgrade your abilities in conversation and detective work. This screen gives you very little information on what to upgrade and there are far too many options. But it’s only when you play you realise how important the upgrades are once it is too late. There are important story-changing conversations you need to have and depending on your skill level you may win or lose the conversations. Each episode consists of a main objective and side objectives. You have to use your special vampire abilities to play detective on each level to find information to achieve the objectives. But your detective ability relies partly on the skills you have upgraded and the energy points required to perform some of the abilities. Lastly, the game has occasional puzzle elements. These range from finding or deciphering a code to getting into a safe or solving a symbol riddle to be able to progress in a level.

                The different characters you play as have different abilities which help you in each level. Emem is the ability to warp to certain areas. Galeb can dominate others to bend others to his will. Leysha has the most interesting skills as she can go invisible and impersonate others by copying their outfit to fool people and gain access to certain areas. The game mentions that you have to be wise when you feed or use your powers as others may get suspicious of you which I think can affect your conversation abilities. It is important to upgrade the skills wisely and unfortunately, you only know the best skills to upgrade after the level is over. The points you gain once the level is completed are a reflection of how well you completed the objectives. So if you didn’t upgrade wisely and fail to achieve some of the objectives you will get fewer points to upgrade which will eventually lead you to a miserly ending to the story.

                I found the game lacking in momentum due to the different styles of levels and just the quality of writing of the story. It does eventually get you invested in the story of unravelling who is responsible for the attack on the party but the build-up around it just feels a bit flat. Partly it’s the conversations that are had between everyone that are so serious and partly the animation of the character makes it look like it’s been badly dubbed.  The mouths are moving differently to what is being said and that’s a minor distraction for me. The other thing that bums me out is that I never felt like I was controlling a vampire. There is a minor element in the game where you can feed on spare NPCs or rats to stem your hunger meter needed for abilities. But that feels like the most vampiric thing you do and even that got massively deflated when I walked into a bathroom on one level and saw my character’s reflection which I thought wasn’t supposed to happen.

                There are some interesting things to be found in Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong. The story-changing conversations that you need to win are delightfully intense and have to be handled very tactfully if you are to succeed. Some of the powers the characters have are quite unique and it adds something new to the detective elements of the game.

Conclusion

Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong feels like a bit of a flat, confused mess. The story has some intrigue about it and the characters are interesting but some of the conversations had in the game are so serious that it sometimes feels mundane. If you like detective games with a twist then there is some joy to be had here but I feel it is a bit of a disservice to vampires.

This game was tested and reviewed on Xbox Series X/S. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.