Embraced: The world of darkness isn’t one to be toyed with, you’re either in or you’re kicked to the curb faster than you can say Nosforatu. It’s a dangerous life, a life that shows little remorse and doesn’t take kindly to humans or vampires for that matter poking their nose where it out not to be. Swansong dives into the secrets of the reunification of the Boston and Hartford domain. The aftermath of this party is a messy one at that, and this story unravels at the hinges of our three main playable characters, Emem, Leysha and Galeb. Tonight, we feast, and no isn’t an option. World of Darkness: In Vampire the masquerade Swansong, the delicate balance of dialogue, action, hard hitting storylines and suspense create this unease and soft but well-done pacing throughout the game. The world of darkness has been looming just out of human eyes since the 90’s and has created a whole world that aged like fine wine. Swansong extends on the story of the world of Darkness and lets the player in on what it’s like to be a member of “vampiric high society” if you will. Each part that the player explores will expand of pieces of the story and clues to further expand your characters knowledge about what their investigation on their specific task and the world they are in.
With different upgrades that you apply to each character at the start of every chapter there is room to create your own build, if you will, to create a very unique experience that will make your experience of the story to your liking. When going through the game I found the upgrading system, easy to use and interestingly enough applied to the story when broken down. Completing tasks in chapters allows players to gain points to use when upgrading, also different tasks such as eating rats, using a presence discipline, or even using an intimidation skill will unlock talents as well! There is so much in this game to explore and be a part of that it will take two to three playthroughs to get a platinum trophy, maybe more just based on how many dialogue choices there are. Even Vampires Get Bugs: To say there were just a few bugs would be an understatement. This game has more bugs than I’d like to admit and makes for some silly glitches and just downright annoying game breaking bugs that I actually needed to remove my batteries from my control in order to get through. With the controls being as simple as they are (this game is a narrative journey, with %50 picking dialogue and %50 walking/exploring, there is no combat or fighting unlike Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines) I wouldn’t have expected the mélange of bugs that popped up. Another thing that I found annoying, and borderline uncomfortably overbearing was the controller shake. The vibration of the controller was too much at times and when I looked for something in the menu to turn it down, to my dismay there was not option for vibration control. If you are sensitive to that sort of thing, it may make the game an issue because it occurs often during game play.
Well, That Was Unexpected… The story in this game took me by surprise when it came to Leyshas character. The developers create finalities in this game that made our choices more impactful. In this game you have many different ways to get from point A to point B. One of my favorites is when you have control of Galeb, you can utilize the help of a werewolf. (Hold the screams of joy,) it’s awesome I know! But, with choosing the help of the werewolf it affects Lyesha when looking for her daughter/imagining (it’s a complex story, one that I won’t spoil here).
Upon looking for her daughter, you have to sneak around the werewolf without being spotted. If you’re spotted after three times, you die, and not the kind of death where the game brings you back anyway, no you die die and that’s the end of Leyshas story. It’s really amazing how finite the choices you make in this game are. The consequences are deeply and heavily felt in each character I interacted with.
The Last Dance: With an incredible atmosphere, a character that deals with psychosis/premonitions, characters that range in diversity form emotional, physical, mental and the addition of a same sex couple (we need more games to do this), this game is a prime example of the world in all its beauty and differences. We have a planet filled with unique people of all sizes colors and people who have different mental abilities to shape the world around us. With Boss battle that are dialogue spats between two characters and a Second Inquisition looking to erase Vampires from the history books there is no shortage of experiencing a good story and intense immersion form this game.
Comments