I can't remember just how many zombie games I have played, but it must be a lot, but the number of vampire games I have experienced, especially good ones, I can count on one hand, so imagine my excitement to learn of the release of Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong, like its predecessor Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines, the game is based on an original pen and paper RPG (yep that is what your grandparents used to play), and as an action RPG is still reliant on the core values of the genre, there is plenty of reading up to do in the codex which is of a quite daunting task, but as with this style of game research is key, it is not a shoot 'em up it is slower paced and more options based, choosing which is the best action to take or which way the conversation should go is vastly more important than your shooting accuracy. You could say that this is a more detective game that is set in the underworld of Boston's vampire community, and I would say it is a very good one.
Track Down Those Responsible and Hand out Retribution
The story follows the events ensuing an event where the top echelons of the vampire hierarchy gathered that turns into a bloodbath, The leader of the Boston cabal, 'The Prince', appoints three of their most loyal members to track down those responsible and hand out retribution. You will assume the role of all three characters, so you must develop each character, enhance their special abilities and upgrade them so that they can each fulfill the tasks that they are assigned, each of our protagonists can use those abilities like Auspex, which allows certain vampires to see things that are hidden to their companions, you can also invest your experience points into various categories, for example, psychology can be used to win arguments, technology will help you to hack and crack computers and safes or education that gives you a lot more information about the objects that you find. Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong has more than one way to skin a cat, for example, a character-heavy on technology can hack a safe, but another can work out the password through deduction and the third can gain the necessary information conversationally.
The Choices That You Make Have Real-Time Consequences
This is a game in which the choices that you make have real-time consequences where each character can live or die as a result of your decisions, a tense psychological thriller, Big Bad Wolf has followed the successful template that they have laid down in their previous games, not every objective is obtainable by each of the 3 vampires, but that won’t stop you from advancing in the game and makes replaying the game more enjoyable as you search for an alternative outcome. Highly stylized and with some fantastically detailed settings to explore and traverse, Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong will impress first-time players with the storyline and excellent voice acting, and for those people that have already experienced the franchise, it is everything that you want it to be.
