Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong

100% success rate to influence a conversation, and somehow IT FAILS?

Es hätte so gut werden können. Die Charaktere selbst waren sehr interessant, aber alles drum herum war einfach.....nicht fertig. Das Game hätte länger Zeit gebraucht. Viele Story Abschnitte waren merkwürdig und die Entscheidungen waren auch oft blöd oder dort wo ich mich gerne entschieden hätte gabs nicht einmal eine. Und über die Bugs zu schreiben möchte ich nicht einmal anfangen.

This is peak chick smut: the video game. Impulse buy for three bucks while my brain was running on pure autopilot, chasing that same degenerate nostalgia I got from Masquerade 2. You customize your character, roll up on Harley Quinn, and respectfully admire the rack physics like a true gentleman. Absolute 10/10 degeneracy. If you don’t have a vagina or a penis that’s actively regressing into one, this game simply isn’t for you.

I sincerely wish I had read the reviews before buying - this is among the worst games I have ever played. There is no save mechanic and the game is full of bugs. It often becomes necessary to restart a scene to correct issues, but the inability to save means that restarting a scene can require repeating several hours of play. I had to repeat every scene at least once; 12 hours in, after repeating the fifth scene 7 times, I decided it wasn't worth the time and effort despite having purchased the game at full price. If you enjoy being frequently frustrated and repeating the same less than inspiring dialog over and over and over and over again then this might be the game for you. Otherwise, don't waste your money even if it's on sale for $5.

I really wanted to like this game having absolutely loved other games in this universe, unfortunately it borders on unplayable. the save system in the game can erase hours of progress if you don't understand how it works.

[hr][/hr] [h3] [strike] Awful [/strike] > [strike] Bad [/strike] > [b] OK [/b] > [strike] Good [/strike] > [strike] Super [/strike] > [strike] Awesome [/strike] [/h3] [hr][/hr] [i]There is a lot of negative sentiment around this game and I understand why, though I think it's bit undeserved if you give the game a proper chance. It sits right on the line between good and OK or outright bad, and which side it falls on heavily depends on your own preferences and the decisions you make at the very start of the game. Those early decisions can completely destroy your run and make the game becomes really unfair. Some questionable design choices then add on top of that frustration throughout mechanics like the "suspicion", which especially deserves your close attention from the start. Then there are confrontations, willpower, and hunger, all of which could have been handled better. And yes, there are also bugs and some of them quite severe. The very first decision you'll make is choosing skills and disciplines. The customization is a nice touch, but this is not an RPG where every skill has meaningful use. If you don't want your playthrough to fall apart from the start and continue to degrade as you go, you need to pick the right combinations. THe the problem is, you don't know how the game works yet, when you're making those choices. The skills aren't self explanatory in the way like most RPG skills are, so if you go by instinct or pick what sounds cool, you can easily end up feeling like a completely incompetent and weak kindred (vampire). That really isn't a good experience. As for the three main characteres... let's say... they could be better: Leysha has an interesting story, but her character design, voice, and missions don't quite fit together in my opinion. Emem is just irritating. Galeb is the coolest of the bunch, but feels frustratingly weak and incompetent for someone who should be an immensely powerful, centuries old vampire - in fact the oldest in Boston. If you don't invest in the right skills for him, he'll struggle to persuade or dominate even the lowliest of the NPCs. That said, he arguably has the best cutscenes and missions in the game. Secondary characters are mostly a letdown across the board. Models, voice acting, writing ... all feel underdeveloped. Though maybe I just didn't click with them personally. [hr][/hr] So I've been quite critical so far, but the game really does have genuine redeeming qualities. The environment design is excellent (aside from the opening chapter) and really sells the World of Darkness atmosphere, complemented by a solid soundtrack. The overall story kept me engaged, but you have to push through the introductory chapters to get it going. The puzzles were another highlight for me personally. Some solved through throguh deduction, others by accident or trial and error, but satisfying more often than not. Not all of them were great, but the package as a whole was fitting the game well. Thoguh I am not one who usually enjoy puzzles in games, so its probably different from person to person. Another significant positive is conditional. You need to make the right skill investments from the start and the experience transforms into you really feeling like you are playing a powerful creature of the night, and it becomes genuinely satisfying. Because of this, [u][b]I strongly recommend checking a guide or two before you begin playing. The recommendations in these guides are essential if you want to enjoy the game. Please read the guides. If you do that, I think you'll enjoy the game and won't regret the time you put into it. If you don't... well, I won't be surprised if you ditch the game t after few hours and leave a negative review.[/b][/u] It is unfortunate this that my recommendation of the game is linked to whether you heeded my advice and let guides help you make the right decisions. It should be developer's responsibility to make the game enjoyable as it is. But if you did that, I would really recommend the game and I do.[/i] [hr][/hr] [i]One last thing at the end. I do have a fair bit of familiarity with Vampire The Masquerade and World of Darkness lore and I think that helped me quite a lot. If you're playing the game without it, the game will throw a lot at you lore-wise and it can feel overwhelming and confusing, especially early on. It might genuinely harm the experience quite a lot I think. So if you're new to the World of Darkness, be prepared that this might not be the game for you. Or you should read all or most of the lore pieces in the game's codex.[/i] [hr][/hr]

I will give this another go at another time. However it is rough. The Dialog is... not amazing. One of the Characters is just insufferable. With luck it may get better but first impressions are awful. The Character Models are... weird, everything seems uncanny and kinda jank. The art direction feels like it is for something out of Dues Ex not VtM The Concept is interet... however it feels... ... budget. The fact this is supposed to have a $70 price tag gives it a super scam feeling. If it has a huge sale worth trying... at full price I'd be refunding right about now.

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first up, two warnings. 1. once you're at scene 9, if you quit the game during a scene after an autosave, there's a chance you'll get a game-breaking bug and have to restart the scene. i had one as Leysha and another as Emem. 2. i advise playing this game with a guide, especially if you have decision paralysis, because this game will throw a bunch of this/that decisions at you. not all of them make a difference to the way the story plays out. there are some skills that are completely useless and you'll never need to use them. also if you miss something you might have to replay the entire scene again because there's no manual save. this game is... okay. there's no combat, it's entirely walking around and talking to people, solving puzzles, and occasional hiding. i like that. i HATE the focus mechanic, i feel like it just overcomplicates something as simple as dialogue, which is like 70% of the game. i discovered about 2/3 of the way through that i could run, but decided i was going to walk because it felt more badass. i was really excited to [spoiler]figure out who the traitor was[/spoiler] but the game just tells you. there are no hints, no clues, no trail to follow, they just tell you the answer. and then i thought, aha! [spoiler]but the accomplice[/spoiler]! but no, they tell you that too. i thought that was a let down considering that the rest of the game is so puzzle-focused. i recommend it (with a guide open), but don't expect bloodlines.

Если относиться как к игре с 90% скидкой - замечательно. По полной цене бы покупать никому не советовал. Она того не стоит. Три героя понравились, все очень разные и интересные. Перепроходить игру очень не хотелось, очень неудобно переигрывать главы. Хотелось бы более простой сейв системы в играх данного жанра. Наличие прогрессивной повестки не вызвало резкого отторжения.