Vampire Swansong Reviews - Narrative Gem, Technological Mediocrity
Early reviews suggest that Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong is a decent game. Its story should satisfy fans of the World of Darkness until the release of Bloodlines 2, provided they can turn a blind eye to its many technical problems.
The Internet sees first reviews for tomorrow's Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong. Many scores are moderately high, although there were a few "8s" and even one "9". There are no extremely negative reviews, except maybe 4/10 for the PS5 version on Metro GameCentral - which means that studio Big Bad Wolf has delivered at least a decent production. "It may not be the new Bloodlines - as stated by reviewer on TheSixthAxis - but it's an authentic experience in the Vampire: The Masquerade universe.
Selected reviews of Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong
- Wccftech - 9/10 (PC)
- Games.ch (XSX) - 89/100
- Game Informer - 85/100 (PC)
- ScreenRant - 4/5 (PC)
- Gaming Nexus - 8/10 (PC)
- God is a Geek - 8/10 (PC)
- GameSpew - 8/10 (PS5)
- Digitally Downloaded - 4/5 (PS5)
- IGN Italia - 77/100 (PC)
- PlaySense - 7.5/10 (PS5)
- TheGamer - 3.5/5 (PC)
- PCGamesN - 7/10 (PC)
- TheSixthAxis - 7/10 (PC)
- Noisy Pixel - 7/10 (PS5)
- IGN France - 60/100 (PC)
- EGM - 3/5 (PC)
- Gameblog.fr - 6/10 (PC)
- DigitalTrends - 3/5 (PC)
- Pure Xbox - 6/10 (XSX)
- PC Gamer - 70/100 (PC)
- IGN - 50/100 (PC)
- GamesRadar - 2.5/5 (PS5)
- Metro GameCentral - 4/10 (PS5)
Metascore:
- PC - 69/100 (out of 22 reviews)
- PS5 - 63/100 (out of 9 reviews)
Meaty story
An element particularly praised by almost all reviewers is Swansong's story. The player's decisions supposedly have a large impact on the course of events, which was also generally considered a plus. More serious reservations in this matter were voiced only by critics from PC Gamer and IGN - which is probably why they rated the game at 5/10.
Many warm words were also said about the atmosphere accompanying the investigation. The puzzles that make up the latter, however, were rated very differently. When it comes down to it, the discrepancy in the reviewers' opinions apparently stemmed from the fact that the individual puzzles were not equally easy or difficult for each of them - which I guess should also be considered an advantage.
Technological shortcomings
Unfortunately, you have to grit your teeth to appreciate them. Technologically Swansong is far behind the competition. Among the criticized elements are the graphics, which are not very impressive, including terrible facial expressions - as well as voice acting, which leaves a lot to be desired. New Vampire: The Masquerade also floods the viewer with numerous walls of text to read, which was not met with a very positive reception.
Moreover, even in positive reviews you can read that Swansong suffers from a lack of polish. There are errors, and due to unclear explanations the player supposedly too often does not know what to do at a given moment. PC Gamer's review, cited above, even remarked on the poor design of the game, and a critic from Gameblog.fr said that the concept wasn't quite right and that it contributed to the slow pacing of the game.
Waiting for Bloodlines 2
Taking all this into account, the following conclusion can be drawn: if you like games focused on the plot and solving puzzles, and at the same time are able to turn a blind eye to the technical shortcomings, you should be interested in Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong. It should do just fine to kill some tile left until the premiere of Bloodlines 2 (which is probably still a long way off). However, it seems that even people with a high tolerance for bugs will do well to hold off on buying the game until the first patches are released. And maybe there will be some sales along the way.
