I didn't even know it was out. Does it come with ray tracing like promised or it will come as alate update?
Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong | Review Thread
- Thread starter Dancrane212
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Just started the game and i have to say i appreciate the diversity shown already. April Bosley with her vitiligo was lovely to see.
Having played this for a bit now. It's really fun, however it is easy so freakin easy to screw up. Especially if you aren't familiar with tabletop games. I think the tutorial should had covered things like confrontations... it really sucks having not experienced it before and blow something up mid level. That said, I'm hooked on this game. While the tech aspects are unfortunate, i don't think it detracts too much.
I plan on playing Swansong but I'm currently making my way through the developer's previous game, the Council, since I was curious how similar they would be and how their style of game has evolved. The Council actually also has confrontations so I'm wondering if they're structured the same way. In that game you can pick from a number of dialogue choices depending on the skills you pick and using those skills takes away from a limited pool of points (called effort points). The characters you're talking to have different vulnerabilities and immunities to your skills, which you have to figure out (either by gathering information or by trial and error). To successfully complete a confrontation you have to get through a number of steps and are allowed a varying number of fuck-ups, i.e. picking the wrong dialogue option (sometimes up to three and sometimes none). Does that sound familiar? Either way, I'll take any general tips you can give me since Swansong is next on my list.
The Council is actually also quite interesting and I find myself enjoying the ride even though it is HELLA janky, the character models look like shit and the voice acting ranges from passable to absolutely awful. There's just a certain charm to it and I figure if that's the case I'll handle those issues just fine in Swansong.
I've only done two confrontations. So far, there isn't anything about weaknesses. It's mainly praying you lvled the right skill. Because if you didn't that's an immediate loss for that turn... Also praying that rngesus is on your side for those low percents. I think i get the flow now. Like you want to have either rhetoric and persuasion, or intimidation and psychology lvled together. I haven't played in a day so it may be flipped with persuasion and psych. I'll edit it later.
It's also worth mentioning that in many instances there's a third or fourth response (outside the skill-gated ones) you can choose to pass the confrontation. In fact, spending willpower or vampire juice is sometimes a waste because the character you're confronting doesn't respond well to rhetoric or psychology or what have you.
There's a lot of emphasis on reading characters and tailoring your strategy to their (in)competencies. It's pretty rad.
oh really? i seemed to always fail the non skill ones. i imagine i needed to find more info in the area, or guess what would work best?
Paradox Interactive bought the franchise for the explicit purpose of getting more games out, and they're happy to license it out. There's even a fan license you can use for selling games on Itch.io!
Warhammer is a good comparison, neither will get the massive deals for that real top tier of AAA games, and with Bloodlines 2 seemingly in development hell, getting a lot of variety out makes sense.
Got it. I didn't even realize Paradox bought the license, I just assumed they were licensing it out too lol
thanks for this, it showed that you don't need to skill everything. so one of my few issues is gone. I just need to be more observant.
That's interesting, there are no percentages in the council, you either have the skill or you don't, though succeeding more difficult checks requires more resources. I quite like the vulnerability and immunity system in that game, I wonder if they sort of just hid it a bit better. If there's a character that's well versed in politics and you try to beat him rhetorically going that route you'll get fucked up, lose more resources and often receive a negative psychological affliction for example. You can also get by using regular answers that don't require any skills but the skill answeres have a higher chance to work. Seems like it's similar in Swansong.
Anyway, thanks for the tips (I'll also give that video a watch), looking forward to playing this later, almost done with the council now.
Not entirely true. By the point Paradox bought the remains of White Wolf from CCP, it had already been decimated heavily and relied on licensing deals to produce anything within the World of Darkness. White Wolf as part of CCP did nothing in house after 2012, and mainly acted as a licensor of their properties. In that aspect, not a whole lot changed after Paradox bought them.
I have to look back, but i need to check if the percents only matter if your skill lvl is the same. Also, it looks like if you are able to find information in the world you can use that instead of skills or disciplines during conversations.
It seeming more like an adventure game makes me want to play it more tbh!
Something about the art style is really off-putting. The gameplay seems like the kind of thing I'd love, though. Even if it's imperfect.
I didn't even know this game existed. It looks really impressive in terms of narrative design, jank and all.
Started playing the game in earnest, and I like parts of it, but really hate whatever they're doing with the skill system/conversation mechanics. Everything always fails and you never seem to have enough points to do anything.
It's just ridiculously disheartening.
It's just ridiculously disheartening.
it can be yeah, but i learned that if you do alot of searching you can find dialogue that doesn't require any skills. Or find a different way to access the same scene. Still when you meet a skill check, it can be really annoying to know what you invested in won't help. I've tried to stick to one or two conversation skills, so far that seems to help. I guess in the end, it helps with replayability.
Yeah, I'm finding much more success just selecting normal dialog options now. Other games have kinda taught me that skill-based dialog options are the "best" options, but here they just seem to be.. options.
I do wish they'd just made the skill checks a threshold, though, instead of this weird "percentage that doesn't really seem to mean anything and then the other character just gets a burst of willpower out of nowhere and beats you anyway" system. Centuries-old Galeb losing a battle of willpower to some recently-embraced thinblood just rubs me the wrong way.
I guess this is the OT then :D just finished the game, really fun "point&click" with lots of World of Darkness lore and it really just throws you in the deep end so fans will definitely get more out of it.
Lots of meaningful decisions and it's kinda similar to the Telltale games in that sense. Do agree that a lot of the dialogue powers seem kinda obscure and you rarely have enough points there to challenge others.
And the main rap theme just reminds me of What We Do In The Shadows :D
Lots of meaningful decisions and it's kinda similar to the Telltale games in that sense. Do agree that a lot of the dialogue powers seem kinda obscure and you rarely have enough points there to challenge others.
And the main rap theme just reminds me of What We Do In The Shadows :D