If you play a vampire in a video game, you’d expect to use speed, strength, and your fangs to get rid of any obstacle in your way. However, in Big Bad Wolf’s upcoming Vampire: The Masquerade-Swansong, players will be more focused on dialogue than action, according to lead writer Laure Delmas in Play Magazine:
“Our dialogue/fight system fit particularly well with the political conspiracies, mysteries, and conflicts of interest in the World of Darkness.”
The World of Darkness is a tabletop RPG system developed by White Wolf Publishing, taking place in a fantasy world hidden behind the Masquerade. Here, alongside other magical creatures, powerful vampire clans jockey for power. However, if you’re new to the series, Swansong won’t leave you out in the cold, according to Delmas.
“With three heroes from different clans, Swansong gives an overview of a part of the World of Darkness. Our story is built on the pillars of this fantasy world, and so we sought an experience balanced between one that’s friendly to newcomers…but satisfying for core World of Darkness fans.”
Big Bad Wolf’s last game, The Council, was a similarly dialogue-focused game, and Vampire: The Masquerade-Swansong might be somewhat familiar to people who played that game. However, with three players each running around, players will have to keep track of a lot of information that their characters may not know, and have to carefully choose who to play at certain points in the game, according to lead quest designer Maxime Moze.
“As every event in the game is connected, that choice will shape your comprehension on things and might prompt you to make different decisions depending on what you have–or haven’t–seen before.”
And as is the case with many choice-based games, players may suffer consequences for the choices that they do pick. You are, after all, going through various conversations with amoral vampires. And Vampire: The Masquerade-Swansong might even punish your other characters for choices a certain one made, according to Delmas.
“We raised the bar of the consequences, introducing also repercussions between the three protagonists. In Swansong, Galeb, Emem, and Leysha may pay the price of choices that were not their own.”
You’ll be able to play as all three of these characters and go through their story when Vampire: The Masquerade-Swansong releases in February of 2022.