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Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong - All News

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Thursday - May 26, 2022
Saturday - May 21, 2022
Thursday - May 19, 2022
Wednesday - May 18, 2022
Monday - April 04, 2022
Saturday - October 19, 2019
Box Art

Thursday - May 26, 2022

VTM - Swansong - Review @ But Why Tho

by Hiddenx, 08:58

But Why Tho has reviewed Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong:

REVIEW: Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong Fails to Enchant (XSX)

Vampire The Masquerade - Swansong 1

Vampire: The Masquerade can be boiled down into a few key components: style, supernatural intrigue, and deep social interactions. With all of these elements in mind, the developers at Big Bad Wolf Studio and publisher Nacon made Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong to try and create a unique and deep narrative RPG within the setting. While some of its accomplishments are impressive when considering its assumedly limited budget, there are a few too many issues preventing it from being worth sinking your teeth into (pun intended). 

The narrative takes center stage in Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong, which makes it all the more disappointing that its story isn’t engaging enough to carry an entire game. It takes place in Boston as the council of vampires there has just received a Code Red, an alert that evidence of their existence might have leaked out. 

[...]

TL;DR

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. 

Score: 3/10

Saturday - May 21, 2022

VTM - Swansong - Review @ Gamespot

by Hiddenx, 08:42

Gamespot reviewed Vampire The Masquerade: Swansong:

Vampire The Masquerade: Swansong Review - That Sinking Feeling

Vampire The Masquerade: Swansong is a dialogue-driven RPG that stakes everything on writing that isn't up to the task.

Swansong is a role-playing game that delivers the entirety of its drama through dialogue–there is no combat to speak of. Critical scenes between characters are resolved within conversational set-pieces called "confrontations." RPGs can exist without traditional battles--just look at Disco Elysium, for example--but the dialogue now thrust center-stage needs to sing, or at least harmonize with a deep skill system. Swansong, sadly, delivers neither. Its writing is pedestrian, often incoherent, and its supporting systems are underutilized, adding little flavor to distinguish the three playable characters.

[...]

In moderation these types of puzzles are enjoyable. Skulking around someone's apartment or office, riffling through their files, digging through their secrets; Swansong has these moments that find the right balance between the suspense of espionage and the rigors of a good procedural. But it becomes overly reliant on locking things behind doors and forcing you to find the key. And, worse, much of what you uncover in those emails and post-its and documents you've dug out of filing cabinets is trivial, adding little--if anything at all--to your understanding of the world or the mission at hand.

Swansong ultimately has little to recommend it. Its writing is stilted, its storytelling muddled, and its puzzle design is mostly unimaginative. Sadly, there isn't even any kind of worthwhile payoff if you do manage to see it through to its conclusion. I reached a point where I was thinking I'd hit the close of the second act, and then the game ended. Just like this.

Score: 4/10 - Poor

Thursday - May 19, 2022

VTM - Swansong - Released

by Hiddenx, 11:07

Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong has been released on Epic Games:

Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong | Launch Trailer

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Wednesday - May 18, 2022

VTM - Swansong - Review @ IGN

by Hiddenx, 16:04

IGN reviewed Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong - the game will be released tomorrow at the Epic Games Store:

Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong Review

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Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong constantly threatens to be a competent detective RPG, and it might've succeeded if not for the fact that it tirelessly gets in its own way. Its premise is interesting, but its heroes and villains are bland, and as a result, the lukewarm story takes far too long to rev up to its maximum potential.
By the time you finally become decently invested in its three playable characters and their individual quests for survival in the politically-charged vampire underworld, Swansong has already reached its finale. It might fare better on a second playthrough since even its most brutally obtuse puzzles are only difficult to bypass once and you'll have some idea of which skills you should specialize in on a given level; then it's all about getting to see those alternative paths that you could've taken the first time around. But it takes such a level of patience to get there in the first place that it might just be too much to ask from any mere mortal.

Monday - April 04, 2022

VTM - Swansong - RPG System

by Hiddenx, 14:50

Here's the developers diary about RPG mechanics, character development and lore of 3D vampire adventure-like RPG Vampire the Masquerade: Swansong:

Swansong RPG - RPG system & lore

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Thanks Farflame!

 

Saturday - October 19, 2019

Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong - Announced

by Silver, 20:49

@Bluesnews Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong has been announced and will be developed by Cyanide Studio.

...

"At the studio, we're long-time and passionate fans of the tabletop role-playing game Vampire: The Masquerade. We have wanted to create a video game inspired by this universe for several years now. This project fits perfectly with Bigben’s desire to expand its catalogue of narrative games. We are very happy to be unveiling it together," says Thomas Veauclin, Creative & Art Director at Big Bad Wolf.

"My past experience as an editor and author of role-playing games, and also as Editor-in-Chief of an RPG magazine, is proof of how important this project means to me personally," adds Benoit Clerc, Head of Publishing at Bigben." Just like me, many fans have been waiting a long time for a new adaptation of this cult game, which will be developed by one of the most talented studios of its generation."

In this narrative RPG adapted from the 5th edition of Vampire: The Masquerade, the player takes control of 3 vampires belonging to different clans of the Camarilla, the secret society to which most vampires belong. Weaving between their intertwined tales, the player has to confront the different points of view of his characters to unravel fact from fiction. With whispers of conspiracy, murder and power struggles, the player must protect his clan, discover the truth and above all enforce the Masquerade, the vampire law designed to conceal the existence of creatures of the night from humans.

 

Information about

Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong

Developer: Cyanide Studios

SP/MP: Single-player
Setting: Fantasy
Genre: Action-RPG
Combat: Real-time
Play-time: Unknown
Voice-acting: Unknown

Regions & platforms
Internet
· Homepage
· Platform: PC
· Released: 2022-05-19
· Publisher: Big Ben Interactive