The test
If we put aside the various “visual novels” and other interactive fictions, the video game adaptations of the paper role-playing game Vampire: The Masquerade are ultimately not so numerous. And it’s not the Greek postponement of Bloodlines 2 that will fix things… Fortunately, the Bordeaux developers of Big Bad Wolf are now coming to our rescue with Swansong, a narrative RPG that follows in the footsteps of The Council , their previous production. And the result is even tastier!
It’s September 2019 and Boston’s vampire high society is in turmoil. The Prince of the Court received a red code, a sign of an extremely serious threat. Indeed, a massacre of nocturnal creatures has just been perpetrated during an evening with motivations as festive as they are political. In other words, the Second Inquisition has just started and the hunt for vampires is on! It is in this context that the player is led to incarnate the following three damned in turn: Emem Louis (queen of the night and Toreador by trade), Galeb Bazory (a charismatic Ventrue) and Leysha (a Malkavian accompanied by his young “child”). If this context seems relatively obscure to you, know that the game is aimed at both regulars of the World of Darkness and novices. An extremely extensive codex explains all the important terms and summarizes everything there is to know about this particular universe, whether it’s the Masquerade itself or the different vampire clans. It is also one of the strengths of the game to be able to perfectly transcribe the atmosphere of the paper role-playing game.
The atmosphere is dark and sultry, the surroundings urban and glitzy, and the parties particularly decadent. But when the ‘bondage and cocaine’ program turns into ‘beheadings and stakes in the heart’, the gore comes to the party and it is necessary to intervene. The exploration phases are part adventure game (search everywhere, find clues…), part investigation game (question different people to better understand what happened…) and part game. infiltration (become invisible or change uniform to access certain prohibited areas…). There are always several ways to achieve your goals, and failure almost never leads to a dead end. It must be said that Swansong really excels in its role-playing aspect, and offers us multiple choices, consequences and ends. A failed action or a dialogue that goes badly can just as easily result in a simple “-10% chance of success in the event of a tie in Intimidation” as in the death of an important character! You will never know before, but will be systematically informed of the consequences of your actions. Moreover, each mission ends with the display of an “end table”, which summarizes the traits gained, the successes, the failures and the alternative paths the player missed (“you could have met someone ‘hidden where no one looked’, ‘you could have protected sensitive documents’, ‘you could have discovered a ghoul among the police forces’…). A very good idea, which underlines a strong replayability.
AN RPG BOTH BLOODY AND TO THE POINT
Rich in game mechanics but still accessible, the game offers us for each of the three heroes a character sheet to fill in yourself or predefined choices (Investigator, Jack-of-all-trades and Veteran). Experience points are spent on Attributes (Physical, Social, Mental), Dialogue Skills (Rhetoric, Intimidation, Persuasion, Psychology), Exploration Skills (Security, Technology), Knowledge Skills (Deduction , Erudition) and Disciplines, too numerous to be detailed here since each character has a tree of specific powers (ability to teleport, to perceive odors, to become invisible, to dominate in the dialogues or to copy the uniform of a target). The gameplay is therefore much richer than it seems at first glance, and we can just as easily get out of the same situation by hacking a phone as by spying on someone or by using supernatural abilities. . But it is all the same the dialogues which carve the lion’s share, since they take place here of real confrontations. Most social interactions offer different choices depending on the skills possessed, with a whole system of success percentage and concentration allowing to increase the chances of success, a dice roll coming from time to time to be displayed on the screen .
Once again, the game manages the feat of being complete but never too complex. The two most important concepts to remember are Willpower points, which allow you to use certain Skills, and Hunger, which increases when using Disciplines. We must constantly try to keep the first gauge as high as possible (to be able to use it in crucial moments) and ensure that the second does not increase too much (otherwise our character may start biting the first comer ). To control Hunger, you must first find a safe area out of sight, then invite a prey to join you there to draw blood. However, be careful not to kill her, which would raise the Suspicion gauge. In short, we could spend hours detailing each concept of the game, but the best thing is that you discover it for yourself. Unless you swear by the silly and mean action, you won’t be disappointed.
SWAN OR UGLY DUCKLING?
Does this mean that Swansong achieves perfection? Basically, we are actually not far from it. But a few points still need to be improved on the form. Be careful, the game is far from being an unsightly disaster full of bugs! The sober and elegant art direction really does not lack class, the textures of the clothes are extremely detailed, and certain faces are glaringly true. But… not all of them, oddly! While the three heroes have obviously been given great care, other characters seem to have been oddly modeled. Likewise, the facial animations blow hot and cold depending on who you’re talking to, while the movement animations feel relatively stiff more generally. As for the bugs, there are still a few to eradicate. We were thus treated to a character remaining blocked for a few seconds with his mouth open, to a hero who had become mute for two or three lines (with subtitles still displayed, fortunately), to hair moving in an unnatural way or the classic Unreal Engine texture display problem, which you have certainly already encountered elsewhere (textures that first appear in low resolution for a few moments before returning to their full splendor). The biggest issue we encountered was when our save game disappeared altogether, which forced us to start the game over from scratch. It is certainly a good way to test and appreciate the replayability, but we still hope that many players will not have to suffer such a mishap with the “day one” version. If most of these bugs will certainly be fixed after a few patches, the absence of French voices is an immutable defect, which could possibly put off some Anglophobic players. Fortunately, the English voices are of very good quality and the game gives us all the time necessary to read the subtitles. In any case, Swansong is clearly worth the detour!
