Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong Review

ign.com:

Imagine compacting the gothic open world of 2004’s Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines into an RPG that is far slower and more deliberate in its execution, dousing it with the same variety of linear, character-driven storytelling made popular in Telltale’s The Walking Dead series, then finally handing it off to receive one last blood injection from the legendary puzzle game Myst. That’s the pedigree that Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong tries to live up to, but it struggles to piece its own identity as a detective RPG together until the very end. It’s rich with decisions that should feel meaningful in theory, but its emotional moments exist in service to a broader story with no clue what to do with them. Meanwhile, its many obtuse puzzles are often too clumsily explained. With all of that working against it, you’d be mortally forgiven for walking out of Swansong’s dark, hazy alcove before its final embrace.

Things kick off as you step into a fancy pair of vampire shoes and head on down to the Camarilla, an upscale vampire court seated in the heart of Boston. It’s always a treat when you get to play the clear villain of a story... but that sadly isn’t the case here. Instead, Swansong quickly positions you as the downtrodden, misunderstood hero of its grimdark underworld. Its villains are a generic group of heavily armed religious fanatics in police uniforms that unironically label themselves the “Second Inquisition.” And if that wasn’t enough to make your eyes roll, it’s headed by Stanford, a guy whose monologues are so predictable and one-sided that he fails to be seen as anything other than a cheesy cartoon villain. In virtually every scene he shows up in, he spouts some euphemism about ending the vampire reign