Vampire: The Masquerade — Sins of the Sires

У новели непоганий початок, хоча у авторки, як на мене, занадто специфічний стиль написання, який полягає в частому використанні дуже коротких речень для підкреслення тих чи інших деталей, що особисто мені не дуже сподобалося, бо написане хоче здаватися чимось глибоким, але по суті глибини в тексті нема. На це можна було б закрити очі, якби події розвивалися поступово та рівномірно в плані темпу. Та тут із цим повна біда. Для порівняння, це відчувається так, ніби ви сіли дивитися 5-ти сезонний серіал, глянули серії 3, а в 4-ій, за годинку, вам показали все те, що мало б бути в інших серіях, коротко й уривками, вирізавши майже весь розвиток подій. Але темп - не єдина проблема. В цій історії досить багато персонажів, і вони не розкриваються, я не побачила якогось адекватного розвитку стосунків чи взаємодії. Наприклад, одного разу мені дали вибір стосовно того, як провести решту ночі, і я обрала спілкування з певним персонажем. Але все наше спілкування було зведене до декількох речень про те, що ми з ним поспілкувалися. Ну тут і смішно, і грішно. Фінал у мене залишив гіркий присмак. Якось навіть сумно, що потенціал цієї історії було втрачено. Грецький сетинг дуже колоритний, і це, напевне, єдине, що мені дійсно сподобалося в цій грі. Але якщо порівнювати із Parliament of knives - це просто небо і земля, як в плані драматургії, так і в плані можливостей відігравання свого персонажа.

Non ausim hunc ludum prorsus commendare, sed fatendum est me aliquam voluptatem inde percepisse. Scribendi modus, introspectivus et reflexivus, me alliciebat; electio Athenae ut locus fabulae tam singularis est, quaedam excultissima. Descriptio urbis antiquitatis mirifice evocans est, sensum temporis praeteriti afferens. Gaudium mihi fuit iterum frangere limina WoD, et haec narratio vere videtur pars illius universi fascinantis. Tamen, ubi ad summum momentum et climax fabulae pervenit, exspectationes meae vehementer franguntur. Amor et odium se inter se miscent, c um initio magnas laudes tribuam scriptoribus pro arte narrandi et characteribus, sed c um ad finem veni, sola est tristitia. Quomodo fieri potuit, ut duae paginae totum sensum universi vertant? Quomodo subito brevitas et superficialitas emergant, ubi profunditas et elaboratio esse debebant? Cur, autor, ita festinare voluisti? Modus tragoediae Graecae, qui per totum ludo latet, et sire ignotus, qui initio admodum curiositatem excitavit, haud sufficiunt ad excusandum defectus ceterarum partium ludi. In ludo nihil vere periculi agitur. Nulla administratio rerum, nulla missio lateralis, ac verus characterum progressus admodum inanis. Eventus progressionis videntur sine ordine, absque consilio, ut nimium abstrahantur a narratiunculis quae prius promiserant. Quid gerit fabula? Quid vere significat? Nihil. Omnino nihil. Narratio, quae c um tanta cura initium capiat, postmodum in finem transit quasi nulla cura animadversa. Omnia velocitate scriptoris sublata sunt, qui ulterius ire noluit, ut suum opus plenissime explicaret. Hoc opus non solum exspectationes meas non implevit, sed etiam me irrisit. Me reliquit sensu vacuitatis, quasi incipit in alto lumine, sed subito in obscuritatem ac nihilismum labi. Est quasi visus clarus qui repente cecidit, sicut ignis accensus ac mox exstinctus. Credo hanc fabulam esse fastidium quoddam ex celeritate, ex studio velocitatis, in quo auctor universum suum velut brevi cursu transcurrit, sine vero explorando universo. Quamvis initium arte ac subtilitate perficiatur, et figmentum Greek tragedy et sire mysterii sit alliciens, finis, qui in duabus paginis desinit, magnam frustrationem ac iram gignit QAQ Quod melius fecerim, nec quid potuerim, nec quid pervenire potuerim — omnia quasi in nebulis relinquantur. Quodammodo, c um scripsi Reckoning of New York recensio, sensus Lamentatio et Laudatio in mente meam recurrere coeperunt. In RoNY, tamen aliquid laudis paulum intererit, quamvis me res etiam irata et desperata tangant. Sed in SotS, non restat nisi Lamentatio. Triste est, dolorum laceratio hic nullo modo mitigata, et tamen, hoc accipio. ubi solum Lamentatio perseverat, semel ac semper. Ah, ut scriptor hanc fecerit, verus dolor.

As a White Wolf fan for decades, I play all the World of Darkness games. This one felt more like an outline of a game than a game itself. I like that you have so much customization of your character, but felt it led to very little difference in the overall story. The characters are barely described, leaving you mostly to gather the details from the footnotes on the statistics screen instead of having it described in the narrative. To set the game in such a storied place as Athens, yet give you next to no ability to explore the city is a big missed opportunity. You are given assignments, and you have little latitude on what to do or when, so you mostly just follow orders and move the plot forward. A game with minimal art (portraits of a few NPCs), no music, and very minor game play of stat checks in dialogue choices, the writing has to do a LOT of heavy lifting to make it engaging, and sadly this game fell short there. I never felt the horror of Vampire, nor did the politics of yet another struggle for a prince's crown feel worth the time.

Honestly I feel like this is on the course to being a great story, but after reading the book a few times it just feels more like a "rough draft" than a published literature. If this was rewritten at some point I could probably read it again, but my enthusiasm for this book evaporated after my third read through.

Is this a demo??? Starts promising and then all of the sudden ends.

Honestly, pretty hyped about being a Caitiff and hanging around Thin Bloods (I'm an OG WoD dork; I was collecting the OWoD books starting back in like 2005). 5E kinda blows, but its hunger mechanics just flat-out *THE* best, maybe in all of vampire fiction (grandiose, I know). Not only that, it puts numbers to TB's and a new system for playing Caitiff, you know, I'll ♥♥♥♥ with that. I haven't finished it yet, but I'll tell you right now I'm never not starving. I'm a Caitiff with max Discipline level 3; there's no way in ♥♥♥♥ my blood potency is above 2 (it's not listed in my stats for some reason). I just went to bed starving (no feeding opps), woke up and was given leisure access to a phlebotomy lab, under no rush, and the game specifically pointed out that the blood was unfractionated and unpreserved; 'as fresh as can be'. Told I'm allowed to 'drink my fill', which IS noted as 'not entirely satisfying', but when I open my stats, it's *one* blood point recovered, and then the chapter rolls over and I have to rise another night, and oh, wow, weird, we're back to hunger 5 Starving To Death. Dunno if you're much into other WoD games, tabletop or otherwise, but below BP 2 (and let's be honest, this char is BP 1 at best, given stats), that's not how blood bags work. and even if it was, if it was going to give me one blood point, and then immediately take it away on the next scene, why even ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ bother? I am trying to like this one, but Parliament of Knives eats its lunch and Night Road lives in another ♥♥♥♥♥♥' *star system*. I'll post an update if I get around to finishing it; this would be another game in just such a proud series of same lol. Let's hope this one ends better than the Werewolf novel game. Here's also hoping the upcoming Werewolf game is good. Anyone else think Forsaken is actually way better than Apocalypse?

Writing is extremely stilted to the point of lacking communication. I can't tell what I'm doing because of the odd paragraphs, making this unfortunately a skip for me. It's a shame, because I've enjoyed the other WOD COG games so far :/

Worst ending ever

Reviewing (mostly) every game (or DLC) in my library, part 628: ⭐️⭐️⭐️☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ (3/10) Okayyyyyyy, then. Yeah, yeah, I see why [i]Vampire: The Masquerade — Sins of the Sires [/i](“SofS”) has such a controversial rating in the fandom. Because it’s frankly, uh, not good. Incredibly rushed and disappointing. I finished the game in one hour. One. And while I am a fast reader, most CoG/HG titles are twice that length. I literally checked the word count on the Steam page after finishing the game because I thought no way, is the game over already. While Theodoridou’s writing is as lovely and philosophical as ever, it’s not enough to hide how flat, nonsensical, and lacking SofS is, both as a narrative and as a [i]Vampire: The Masquerade [/i]game. [b]Thank you to the staff for the free copy![/b] [b][h2]Pros:[/h2][/b] ✅ [b]Writing/atmosphere.[/b] I’ve quite enjoyed Theodoridou’s previous games: [i]Rent-a-Vice[/i] and [i]The Odyssey.[/i] I’ve pointed out his flaws as a writer in the past—the narrowing linearity of some choices and abrupt endings—but I’ve always liked the philosophical glimmers present in a usually dark setting. While oddly choppy at the beginning, SofS’s prose is beautiful and hammers home how grim the VtM setting can be. There’s also a lot of Greek myths and allusions that I haven’t quite caught. [b][h2]Cons:[/h2][/b] 🟥[b] Rushed pacing and numerous dropped plot threads.[/b] *Sigh*. Man, I don’t even know what to say or where to begin. Listen, the criticisms were right. I finished one playthrough and thought a draft of the game was uploaded by accident. There’s maybe three good chapters of build-up, but at the climax, everything just jerks forward and collapses under its own weight. First, characters who appear significant—with their own custom portraits, even!—are mentioned once or twice yet never reappear. And here, I’m not fond of the “branching” excuse. Chekov’s gun and all that. Important characters should be present and pay off no matter what route you’re on. Second, some events are hinted at, then disappear from the narrative. I had an encounter with a mortal policewoman who saw me feeding (isn’t that a big no-no?) and wished to team up to hunt worse vampires. Never saw her again. The player being [spoiler]the childe of Markos has literally no emotional impact and is barely considered. The alliance between him and Sofia is also incredibly random. There’s also a strange focus on protecting your friend, Alex, but I didn’t even meet them?????[/spoiler] WHO is this person. You get to pick between having a lover, sibling, or parent you loved, but in my case (the lover), you yearn, see them once, leave them with a promise to come back, and never see them again. RIP to all these ideas. 🟥 [b]Not to beat a dead horse, but I take issue with the climax and endings.[/b] I seriously had no idea what the hell happened—and! I replayed through the endings a couple of times. So, the main climax, I think, is that you get to choose between three claimants to be Prince of the city. The problem is that I did not gaf about any of them and their motivations. All I know is that [spoiler]one woman is trying to manipulate me, so she’s a girlboss? And that the Prince hates women, which is the most low-hanging fruit ever, and he has a mysterious number two that is trying to backstab him.[/spoiler] The best (worst?) thing is that I had a successful rebellion path, a successful loyalty and a failed loyalty path. All three, besides some flavor text, were virtually the same. Win or lose, I was in the same spot in each branch. The conflict itself feels so out of place and shoe-horned in. Also, what the hell was up with [spoiler]Aristovoros? Dude gets a one-line about oh, he was just made up by Sofia????[/spoiler] 🟥[b] The endings also were in the same rushed, disjointed style. [/b]One I remember is sparing the vampire at the end of the game, which allows you to brood mysteriously. I also got an ending where I [spoiler]took on an apprentice, lived with him and his parents, then them staking me and leaving me for dead for centuries. When you wake up, the world is gone: no animals or humans or nature.[/spoiler] Huh??? Now where did this come from. 🟥[b] Because of the above, the characters across the board have no real story to tell. [/b]Sure, the characters could be interesting, but you’re given no time to get to know them or any chance to talk to them to get to know them. I didn’t really understand why Sofia wanted to rebel, nor did I care about Marko’s whole … shtick. I didn’t find anyone particularly likeable, either. There’s also … no relationship stats? Which throws me off quite a bit. 🟥[b] Not a good VtM game. [/b]All the previous WoD games, no matter their flaws, have excellent gameplay. So first, I’m going to take points off for not having a Storyteller mode, making the already scant choices more frustrating. I also didn’t think there were as many choices as expected. There's virtually no resource management, your powers are underused, and there’s no “trade-off” scenarios like in other games, where you have to choose between investigating X or Y. SofS plays more like a visual novel, almost. You’re quite the passive observer, watching time pass. 🟥 [b]Awkward handling of pronouns.[/b] Not going to harp on it too much, but asking for the player’s pronouns came off as quite contrived. You meet an intimidating man who says: “What are your pronouns?” "First you try to threaten and intimidate me, then you ask for my pronouns?"  He shrugs. "I'm a civilized monster, what can I say?"  I suspect the game is trying to lampshade the awkwardness for comedic effect, but the exchange felt too self-aware, and acknowledging how unnatural the question is doesn't make it feel any less contrived. Just … have someone refer to you by the pronoun? Or do the cliché “I look in the mirror to find …” [hr] If you enjoyed this review, please check out my curator page to find more: [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/45814768-Verdict-Play-or-Pass/]Verdict: Play or Pass. [/url] Also, please leave a like and visit [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/Indie_Gems]IndieGems[/url] and our [url=https://www.youtube.com/@IndieGems2]YouTube channel[/url] for more reviews like this one. [/hr]

После игры в Parliament of knives и Out for blood, которые в значительной степени мне понравились, мне было очень интересно познакомиться с другими подобными играми, и обратил внимание на данную игру, как часть серии от того же разработчика. На момент написание данного обзора прошел игру дважды. Если первое прохождение вызвало чувство неудовлетворения, то повторное прохождение его окончательно закрепило. С чего начать? В игре неприятный слог, размытые описания и странный выбор реплик для персонажа, что не только убивает цельную атмосферу, но и не позволяет сформировать ощущение места происходящих событий. Вариантов диалога и действий крайне мало, выбор вариантов часто не соответствует описанию и ведет к случайным и не связанным событиям, которые вместо ощущения ролевого управления персонажем, порождают ощущение, что автор игры тебя наказывает за выборы, которые автора не устраивают. Персонажи абсолютно не раскрыты, в лучшем случае на уровне обертки-клише без существенного наполнения. Их мотивация не ясна, а характер- пустышка. Не последнее, но самое важное из всего перечисленного-длина игры. Из всех сыгранных мной игр серии, эта самая короткая, что делает все негативные аспекты упомянутые в этом обзоре еще более существенными и острыми. С тем, что я отвлекался, делал не один перекус, пару раз делал рестарт и прошел игру целиком дважды, у меня ушло около 4 часов игры- такая длина текстовой игры попросту неприемлема, неприемлема в двойне с учетом остальных аспектов. И наконец последнее, что я хотел добавить, это вопрос политических убеждений автора. Мы все прекрасно понимаем, что вне зависимости от того, нравится нам это или нет, но VTM довольно толерантный сеттинг, в хорошем и плохом смысле этого слова. Я с уважением отношусь к позиции создателя данной серии игр с их тенденцией угодить широкой аудитории для обеспечения им комфорта в их ролевом опыте, но бандит, который на полном серьезе спрашивает местоимения для обращения к протагонисту? Половина из хоть немного раскрытых персонажей представляет из себя антифашиста-борца за мигрантов, феминистку, транса и вульгарного гомосексуалиста-женоненавистника? Если создатели правда хотят приятного опыта для широкой аудитории игры, нужно знать меру в таких вещах, иначе репрезентация превращается в цирк уродов, а игра из игры про вампиров, превращается в игру про политические убеждения автора. Подытожив могу с уверенностью сказать, что я бы не порекомендовал никому пробовать эту игру. Если Вам интересен глубокий сюжет и цельная продолжительная история в VTM сеттинге, попробуйте Parliament of knives и Out for blood, а если вы уже опробовали данные игры и пытаетесь найти игру для получения схожего опыта, то с высокой вероятностью в этой игре вы подобного опыта не получите. After playing Parliament of knives and Out for blood, which I liked to a large extent, I was very interested in getting to know other similar games, and drew attention to this game as part of a series from the same developer. At the time of writing this review, I played the game twice. If the first playthrough caused a feeling of dissatisfaction, then the repeated playthrough finally cemented it. Where to begin? The game has an unpleasant author's style, vague descriptions and a strange choice of lines for the character, which not only kills the whole atmosphere, but also does not allow you to form a sense of where the events are taking place. There are very few dialogue and action options; the choice of options often does not correspond to the description and leads to random and unrelated events, which, instead of the feeling of role-playing character control, give rise to the feeling that the author of the game is punishing you for choices that the author is not happy with. The characters are absolutely not developed, at best at the level of a cliché wrapper without significant filling. Their motivation is not clear, and their character is empty. Not the least, but the most important of all of the above is the length of the game. Of all the games in the series I have played, this is the shortest, which makes all the negative aspects mentioned in this review even more significant and poignant. With the fact that I was distracted, had more than one snack, restarted a couple of times and completed the entire game twice, it took me about 4 hours of play - such a length of a text game is simply unacceptable, double unacceptable taking into account other aspects. And finally, the last thing I wanted to add is the question of the author’s political beliefs. We all understand that, whether we like it or not, VTM is a pretty tolerant setting, in the good and bad sense of the word. I respect the position of the creator of this series of games with their tendency to cater to a wide audience to ensure they are comfortable in their role-playing experience, but a thug who seriously asks for pronouns to address the protagonist? Half of the at least slightly developed characters are anti-fascist fighters for migrants, feminists, trans and vulgar homosexual misogynists? If the creators really want a pleasant experience for a wide audience of the game, they need to know the limits in such things, otherwise the representation turns into a circus of freaks, and the game from a game about vampires turns into a game about the political beliefs of the author. To sum it up, I can say with confidence that I would not recommend anyone to try this game. If you are interested in a deep plot and a solid long-term story in a VTM setting, try Parliament of knives and Out for blood, and if you have already tried these games and are trying to find a game to get a similar experience, then with a high probability you will not get a similar experience in this game.