Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong

Bloody vampire tale artfully shows thrilling detective work.
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Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong
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A Lot or a Little?
The parents' guide to what's in this game.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong is a single player narrative RPG (role-playing game) available for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Series S, Xbox One, and Microsoft Windows. The gameplay is based on the World of Darkness/Vampire: The Masquerade tabletop games. After a massive tragedy at a party meant to unify Boston's warring factions sends its secret sect of vampires into high alert, players will need to utilize their powers of deduction to figure out what's going on and prevent vampirekind from impending doom. Violence is at the game's core, featured in many of its various scenes and scenarios. This includes, but isn't limited to, visible decapitated bodies, the handling of harvested organs, bodies with injuries where organs are seen, and quite a lot of bloodshed throughout. References to drug use and recreational drinking also come up, with some characters being referred to as "junkies" and "crackheads." Cocaine is visible in a particularly gruesome, bloody scene. A major objective later in the game includes calming down a person going through aggressive withdrawal symptoms by giving them a drug cocktail. There are many references to and devices tailored toward sexual acts, and while helping restore a character's memory, players may encounter a memory of a sexual encounter the character had that includes sounds of sexual satisfaction and blurry depictions of certain sexual acts. Profanity is also prominent throughout the game, with almost every curse word imaginable featured. The game celebrates many forms of meaningful diversity, highlighting different body types, ethnicities, worthwhile gender dynamics, and even touching upon real-life issues of discrimination, both racial and gender-based.
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What’s It About?
In VAMPIRE: THE MASQUERADE – SWANSONG, what's left of Boston's secret sect of vampires has assembled in the wake of a terrible tragedy that's struck a party meant to unite the local vampiric factions. Hazel, the newly-crowned Prince and acting ruler of Boston's sect, demands answers as the very nature of the Masquerade — the assurance that mortals never discover the vampires' true nature — is being threatened. Soon, it becomes clear that the would-be hunters have become the hunted in a diabolical assault against their kind, and it's up to the three central characters — Galeb, Emem, and Leysha — to get to the bottom of what's going on. Will you be able to uphold the delicate balance of the Masquerade, or will what's left of Boston's sect be subjected to extinction?
Is It Any Good?
While this isn't the prettiest game around, with visuals that feel very outdated, this tale is unique, impactful, and has one of the most masterful gaming narratives of recent years. The story and characters of Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong are so heartfelt and contain so many layers that those strengths easily overpower its minor visual faults. Even though you follow three central characters through various mysteries and scenarios, there's never a mission that falls to the wayside or becomes bland or repetitive. The stakes are always sky high, with every answer you uncover bringing up even more questions. Few games nail the promise of becoming a detective while making the process fun and captivating on a minute-to-minute basis. There are many ways to meet the game's varied objectives, and as you try to uncover as much information as possible, your characters can even approach a conversation differently depending on your findings. On top of that, you have willpower and hunger stats to contend with, both of which are important to manage if you want to remain in control of your urges or maintain the high ground during a tense confrontation. You might choose to burn your willpower on hacking a safe or using a lockpick on a door, then come into contact with a person who's good at being manipulative and sneaky where your willpower would've been better used getting the best of that character in a verbal back and forth. Resources aren't exactly plentiful, so you must pick and choose your actions wisely. Additionally, expertly crafted puzzles are littered throughout the game, and players may have to bust out a notepad, really listen to what people say, and take stock of what they find. Failure doesn't mean that you get a redo. Failure follows you, changing the course of the narrative and characters' opinions of you.
Even though players will control powerful vampires that can make mortals -- or lesser vampires -- do their bidding, you'll always feel a sense of vulnerability. No two interactions with other characters are the same, and you'll never be able to predict which skills will be useful in any given scenario, making the gameplay thrilling, tense, and keeping you on your toes. But once you get an idea of what you're capable of, there's no better feeling than winning a verbal game of chess with a master manipulator, or putting all the clues you found together to solve a particularly challenging puzzle. The three central characters, despite the player's freedom to allocate certain social or technological skills and direct control over their responses, all maintain their own personalities, which greatly adds to every conversation they're a part of. Everyone has their own motivations, wants, needs, and desires, and there are very few games that do this level of legwork to make their characters feel like actual people rather than in-game avatars. Throughout the game, characters will grow, change, bond, separate, and have down-to-earth moments that feel as if you're a spectator in the lives of actual people rather than someone simply playing a video game. Oozing personality, deft detective work, and a phenomenal dialogue system, Swansong has set the stage to be 2022's understated smash hit that players will want to ravenously sink their teeth into.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the importance of visuals in a game. Can a game have graphics that might not be as clean or crisp as others and still be enjoyable? If the game itself is done very well but comes up a little short graphically, what determines whether that graphical difference affects a game negatively or not?
Can making important decisions in video games that affect certain characters help build up empathy? Can games successfully make players invest in the characters within a game knowing that those characters aren't real? What does it take to make believable, authentic characters within a video game? Does the interactivity of video games make gaming the best medium for relating to characters and serious topics that may otherwise be hard for players to grasp? Why or why not?
Game Details
- Platforms: Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Windows
- Pricing structure: Paid ($49.99)
- Available online?: Available online
- Publisher: Nacon
- Release date: May 19, 2022
- Genre: Role-Playing
- Topics: Magic and Fantasy, Adventures, Monsters, Ghosts, and Vampires
- ESRB rating: M for Blood and Gore, Drug Reference, Intense Violence, Partial Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language
- Last updated: May 18, 2022
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