I have often heard of Vampire: The Masquerade, without ever having tried it until now and without grasping the scope of its universe... Role-playing games, various and varied video games, books and other visual novels... The richness of this world makes you dizzy, but I was still able to immerse myself in his universe, and I come out of it with an insatiable hunger to learn more about the "World of Darkness". Before rushing to buy a few books, however, it is appropriate to share with you my opinion on this role-playing game which emphasizes its narration, to the detriment of the rest.
The atmosphere is quickly set
The 1st lacked blood
After having cut their teeth on the very friendly The Council, the Bordeaux developers of Big Bad Wolf Studio have been commissioned by Nacon to develop a narrative role-playing game exploring the universe of Vampire: The Masquerade.
After a short cinematic, we find ourselves in the shoes of Emem Louis, a woman of power managing the Boston Nightlife, who has been summoned by the Prince after a "Red Code", a critical alert threatening to reveal the existence of vampires in the eyes of the world. We come across a fairly large number of protagonists from the start, with a whole bunch of incomprehensible terms that would ruin any beginner... fortunately, the studio had the good idea to integrate a Codex that explains more or less at length each term of the vocabulary specific to this vampiric universe... Words like "Primogen", "Embrace", "Infant" or even "Camarilla" will therefore be easily decoded after a few minutes of reading. We will also be entitled to a menu dedicated to the different characters that we meet, in order to learn more about them. The universe is rich and teeming with details, at least for a novice like me, and the writing is clearly not to be outdone.
In addition to Emem, we will have the opportunity to direct Galeb and Leysha, 3 very distinct and complementary personalities, which we can customize as we please via a characteristics sheet, or rather two! Indeed, in addition to "ordinary" talents (technology tree, persuasion tree, logic tree and others) that can be improved, there is a sheet that allows you to develop your vampiric talents. Leysha can, for example, make herself invisible or copy the appearance of a character to better interfere in places that are forbidden to access... Galeb, for his part, can use his psychic influence to turn a confrontation to his advantage... in exchange for hunger points. Because yes, each action taken will draw a few precious points from one of the two action bars at our disposal. We have a will bar for so-called "human" actions, and another that generates hunger. Vampire obliges, it's not a Caesar salad that will fill the need, but a good juicy neck. Modulo the place where you are, it will be easier to find a prey, making sure of course to charm it then isolate it... A mini-sequence then begins where you have to keep leaning on the trigger R2 to suck the victim's blood... The longer you hold it, the more you reduce your hunger. Caution, however, because in case of excess of zeal, one leaves a dead dragged, which will increase the suspicion towards oneself.
No glass? Directly at the source!
Vampiric abilities are manifested to varying degrees in the adventure, it can be done in an exploration phase, by isolating a smell of perfume to find the plot of a character you are looking for, or even in the middle of a dialogue, to force a human to obey us, among other things. The heart of the game remains in my opinion the different exchanges that we can have with the other protagonists. The game is damn well written, and requires full concentration to avoid throwing out a bad line that can have consequences on the relationship with a character or on the rest of the game more generally. However, it takes a little time to really get to the heart of the work, which is divided into 2 main parts. The first serves as a long introductory phase to the universe, to take the temperature, get to know our 3 heroes who we play in turn and see all the mess that generated this Code Red. The second part accelerates the pace of the game and sees multiple choices with serious consequences. So be careful to have maximized a skill of persuasion or rhetoric so as not to be dropped on most confrontations, the game being quite difficult to satisfy, with generally only one valid choice without using action points.
Technically, let's cut it short, Swansong clearly does not honor the capabilities of next-gen consoles. At best, we will be entitled to very good work from the artists of the studio who will offer audacious and striking sets; for the rest, we are faced with a fairly poor game that suffers from its AA status. I also encountered several annoying issues where my avatar got stuck in the background, which forced me to return to the last checkpoint and, to be honest, these points are not always very numerous and we almost come to regret that it happens in semi-open areas that sometimes take 2 minutes to be crossed, the fault of interactions that appear when you have to climb an obstacle or "teleport" over a short distance.
Some puzzles will require some thought
Despite good ideas, the staging remains very … static
Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong is a game that convinced me, in the sense that I now want to learn more about this universe that seems incredible and modern. As a game, however, it suffers from quite a few ills. After the initial run, it will be difficult to come back to try other choices, the fault of levels not always very inspired and a staging of a flatness to make our beautiful vampires green.
https://vampire-swansong.com/fr-FR/
