World of Darkness Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong - narrative RPG from The Council devs - now on Steam

[Delterius]

The_Mask

Is the "shlock-o-meter" good or bad?

It's always good

 

[HeroMarine]

When you're taaaaaaauuuuught....... through feelings

 

[Infinitron]

Coming to Steam in May:

 

[RaggleFraggle]

https://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/vampire-the-masquerade---swansong

66/100 critic score. 2.9/10 user score.

Can’t wait to see the Steam reviews.

 

[Berengar]

I got this for some insane discount on Epic and still haven't got round to playing it lol. I'm not exaggerating when I say I forget it exists sometimes.

 

[GewuerzKahn]

You still paid. Sucker.

 

[RaggleFraggle]

I’ve been told that Swansong is a more accurate presentation of the IP than Bloodlines. Given my personal experience with the tabletop, I concur. Coincidentally, the accurate atmosphere and tone is mall goth vomit that won’t attract the broader (but still niche) audience Paradox needs to be successful.

As has been pointed out in this thread before, the characters are assholes with no redeeming values. This can be entertaining if you portray them ironically (a la What We Do In The Shadows), but this script doesn’t do that. The monster hunters come across more sympathetic.

Not to mention the jank. The characters all look like mannequins on marionette strings when you’re supposed to connect with them emotionally.

The game requires you to read the in-game dictionary every other word. The IP loves to obscure even the most simple concepts behind layers of nonsensical jargon. Mitsoda at least knew enough to write around that. This shit makes H.P. Lovecraft, J.R.R. Tolkien, and J.K. Rowling look blunt and efficient.

You don’t need to be a marketing major to see there are problems.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[agris]

In contract-speak that reads like:

“Our shit was so broken that we would be in breach of contract with our publisher if we released it now, so we’re going to back it up and patch it up so that we can still get paid for this turd”

 

[Roguey]

In contract-speak that reads like:

“Our shit was so broken that we would be in breach of contract with our publisher if we released it now, so we’re going to back it up and patch it up so that we can still get paid for this turd”

The game's been out for a year and has been patched multiple times, including one released a few weeks ago. I imagine it's some contract thing with Epic that's the "technical issue."

 

[Roguey]

agris

Console and EGS people can play it right now with seemingly no problems.

 

[Modron]

I imagine it's some contract thing with Epic that's the "technical issue."

Don't forget the old standard of didn't/plain forgot to hit the publish button(whatever) on steam early enough for valve to approve it by x date. Seen big and indie studios hit that speedbump.

 

[Infinitron]

Here we go:

 

[Maxie]

looks like a porn game like milfy city or some shit only without the sex and many times more expensive

 

[Rahdulan]

I had no idea this received DLC at some point featuring one of the most beautiful canonical characters ever with Appearance 5.

Spoiler

 

[Roguey]

They made her look like Jessica Chobot who plays her. https://vampire-the-masquerade-la-by-night.fandom.com/wiki/Who_Can_You_Trust?

 

[bertram_tung]

I had no idea this received DLC at some point featuring one of the most beautiful canonical characters ever with Appearance 5.

Spoiler

Day 1 DLC too, just to clarify for those who are annoyed by that type of thing.


I bought it today on steam (without the cashgrab DLC) cuz i'm a sucker for WoD (can you tell by my avatar?) and I liked the council a lot. So I am certainly target audience for this trash. This looks worse than the council but whatver.

One thing to note is at least they had the common sense to release it at a 40% discount on Steam (should be discounted even further, but fair enough)
It's been out for a year on epic so it would have been infuriating to see it released at full price or 10% off, which has happened so often in the past.

 

[Longes]

I bought it today on steam (without the cashgrab DLC) cuz i'm a sucker for WoD (can you tell by my avatar?) and I liked the council a lot. So I am certainly target audience for this trash.

I "obtained" it on the exact same basis back when it released, and the game is absolute shit. I don't know if they have fixed the numerous gamebreaking bugs by now (I sure hope so!) but even without the bugs, the game is just awful. It's lifeless and boring and the story is terrible.

 

[Roguey]

Finished this recently. I didn't dislike it.

While you can build your three characters in different ways and make different choices that result in different narrative outcomes, the three principal characters all have very strong personalities, which can be quite the drag when you really hate the character (specificially Emem). Galeb was my favorite character. The type of vampire I want to play, stoic servant who can't be bothered with the dealmaking and the double-dealing of vampire society anymore, knows he's a monster but doesn't want to be mean about it, trying to build a positive legacy to make up for past mistakes and yet can't succeed on account of what he is. In the middle of the story I made a choice to put the needs of another character over his own and this resulted in a very tragic ending, I liked that, very appropriate. He can also have at least two badass moments where his theme plays, the music rising with the tension, those were great. Being a person of great strength who is still subject to greater forces, that's a melancholy power fantasy that appeals to me.

Leysha I also liked, just not as much. Would have preferred a hairstyle that wasn't so punk rock-anachronistic given that she's from the early 20th century. Her personality's fine though, all about her daughter, difficult to screw that up. I did not like the lisp on her daughter. The disguises were pretty fun. I didn't like the annoying steam pipe puzzle you have to pass to avoid getting captured at one point, but at least it's optional. I also had to go through the werewolf stealth section, wasn't a fan of that either, hate that the werewolf has that echolocation ability where he'll immediately know where you are and go after you and you just have to stay parked in a safe area until he gets bored and goes away. The 10 minute time limit in her final scene is also certainly stressful, I'd rather not have this kind of pressure in a narrative adventure game.

Emem was the worst. Not only is she annoying, but so is her sire and her anarch friends. Also has a series of puzzles rivaling Leysha's steam pipe puzzle when it comes to annoyance, only worse because it's mandatory. They really should have nixed those and stuck to narrative adventure without the gamey crap. If there's a benefit to Emem's presence, it's that her second segment shows that the anarchs have the same political bullshit and backstabbing as the Camarilla, only in far less opulent surroundings. Her final segment also has a time limit, though it's not as stressful as Leysha's since it's purely data diving, and not finding the optional info quickly enough would be the thing that would make you fail.

Ask-Me-About-VTM-fellow up above seethed about how everyone in the game is a monster, and well yeah, that's the point. A society of monsters doing monstrous things and the monstrous humans who hunt them. Don't see the problem there. I was annoyed by the identity quotas, but eh, all these black people, women, and queers are also evil. Can't scapegoat straight white men when they're not the ones in power. It's actually kinda funny in that "hire more female guards" liberal way.