Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong is a supernatural, investigation, dialogue-driven, third-person RPG title set in a dark gothic world in which secretive werewolves and socialite vampires stalk the unknowing humans. It sounds a lot to swallow, but it really isn't.
Set in the world of Darkness, a vampire-themed tabletop RPG which began in the 90s, it has become the basis for several compelling video games like Vampire: The Masquerade – Redemption back in 2000, and Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines in 2004.
More recent titles in the series have included the battle royal game, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodhunt and the much anticipated but delayed Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2.
But Swansong is a very different animal focusing more on dialog, player choices and exploration much like Telltale games the Walking Dead rather than featuring any real combat.
The game follows three main characters whose un-lives become intertwined after a party that was hosting two rival vampire factions negotiations went sour and everyone was murdered. These three are investigating this mystery.
Set in Boston, a group of vampires called the Camarilla, who keep their supernatural existence a secret from mortals and rule their kind with kings and princes, are making peace with another group when (of course) something goes horribly wrong and all the participants are murdered. It's your job to discover who is behind this, and why.
There are three different main characters from different clans with their own unique motivations and backstory.
Each of the three characters has a compelling backstory and reasons for being involved, as well as being from different clans that act as classes. For example, Leysha is Malkavian, these vampires are gifted with foresight but also tainted with madness.
Emem, Leysha and Galeb all have different abilities and backgrounds that will change how others interact with them, as well as give them different skills and gifts that can help in conversations with others, and affect how they investigate.
There is a lot of exposition and lore being thrown around, and as someone who has played a few of the Vampire games even I was lost at times. Thankfully there is an incredibly detailed codex that sheds some light on the characters, history and relationships.
Swansong's graphics are a mixed blood-bag, with detailed and interesting environments as well as excellent character design for the main three, although NPCs can look very wooden and unnatural a lot of the time.
Character animations can sometimes look flat or glitchy, including lip-syncing. It's not bad all of the time, but it's a real shame, as I loved the diversity of the characters and smoother animations with slightly more attention paid to their expressions and mouth movements would really have helped elevate them further.
The attention to detail in the crime scenes looks amazing and really helps set the tone, as well as the moody use of lighting and shadows, making this world feel gritty and lived in.
Framerates were also very smooth and reliable, which is to be expected given there isn't constant action on the screen. I wonder what Nintendo Switch performance will be like? (I played the PC and Xbox versions)
The voice acting does a great job of mitigating some of the weaker animations, and does bring the characters a little bit more to life... well, unlife.
You often begin by investigating and looking for clues while deceiving, manipulating or just mentally dominating any NPC's you might meet.
Given the gothic setting and occasional gore and violence, it's pretty surprising that Swansong doesn't feature combat in the traditional sense, with any aggressive action taken within dialog based on dice roll results.
This doesn't make Swansong easier to pick up and play but it does make it a deeper and slower-paced experience that focuses much more on your choices and information you have learnt through snooping around rather than quick thrills.
While you're not using your dark powers in combat like in Bloodhunt, they are used in more subtle ways to convince or deceive others reminiscent of Disco Elysium.
To do this, however, there are two resources represented by two bars that you'll need to keep an eye on - Willpower and Hunger.
Willpower is very useful but can be easily depleted early on, making the rest of your conversations more limited, unless you manage to find consumables to replenish them. This isn't as easy as it sounds, as they are rare and difficult to find.
Using your vampire skills will increase your hunger, and if this gets too high it will result in your losing control and killing the first mortal you can. This causes all kinds of complications, and raises suspicion.
Of course, being a bloodsucking creature of the night requires you to actually drink blood in order to keep the hunger at a bay.
You can however find mortals while you are exploring and lure them to spots that are hidden or out of the way before draining their blood to replenish your vampire skills. Be careful though, as they can be killed by mistake.
Their deaths will also draw suspicion which makes conversations much more difficult and you'll need to have higher-level skills. This applies to all three characters.
The dice roll system, while a great idea, is needlessly obtuse as it doesn't give you any information other than success or failure. This means you don't know if you even stood a chance, let alone what stats you were going up against so you could try something else if you wanted to start from the beginning.
You can invest more of your willpower into a particular action to increase its chance of success, but this will expend the valuable resource and your target can also do the same.
You can also get into intense conversations called 'confrontations'. These act as much more challenging skill checks and can have particular conditions or limit the number of fails you can sustain. These pit your mental and verbal skills against another character who will adapt and try and stop you.
There is a detailed character sheet for each of the main three that details their clan, attributes and disciplines, this is also where you spend experience points to further enhance your skills.
There is a large and detailed skill tree allowing you to further enhance your abilities and gain the upper hand when rolling against others, while some are more useful for exploring the world, for example by heightening your senses or allowing you to teleport.
You can spend your experience points at the start of an area, but it's very hard to know which skills will be needed yet, and you can't spend points while playing
If you fail too many skills checks and use up all your willpower points the game becomes mercilessly unforgiving as the deck is now stacked against you in most of your conversations.
You will often find notes and information laying about the world or offhandedly mentioned in chats with NPC's and it’s up to you to either remember it or make notes.
Swansong doesn't hold your hand while it's biting into it, it gives you the tools to put the puzzle together which, while frustrating at times also creates an incredibly rewarding feeling when you put all the pieces together for yourself.
This is because unlike many modern games Swansong doesn't make it obvious. This led to me getting stuck on more than one occasion.
There are also some puzzles thrown into the mix as well, and even though I'm not a fan of puzzles in general, some of Swansong's were really clever and enjoyable, while others were just a slog.
Verdict 3/5
The game is thick with great writing, interesting characters, and meaningful choices - however its execution makes it slow-paced and a little overly complex, which takes a while to get the hang of.
It's great to see a vampire game that doesn't play to the exact same old tropes of hissing monsters biting and tearing away at each other, and instead shows them as intellectual, emotional creatures trying to exist while playing dangerous and political games with each other.
You rarely feel like this powerful and terrible creature of legend with even the 300-year-old Galeb able to easily fail dice rolls in conversations, especially when you've burnt up vital resources like blood and willpower to give you every advantage making following dialog an uphill battle.
Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong is a little rough in some places, and mechanics aren't as tight as they could have been, but with an intriguing story, complex characters, and decisions that seem to genuinely change the path events took, it's still well worth taking a bite.
Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong is out now on PC, Xbox X/S, PS5 and Nintendo Switch.
