Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong dev walkthrough highlights the bloodier aspects of investigation

Discerning the truth in the dead of night

The newest game in the Vampire: The Masquerade universe is right around the corner. Today, developer Big Bad Wolf Studios showed off a big chunk of the game, highlighting just how detective work and vampirism meld in Swansong.

Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong is a narrative RPG, mixing aspects of traditional role-playing and adventure games. In it, players take the role of three different Kindred, after a party gone wrong threw the Boston vampire scene into disarray.

In the new gameplay walkthrough, lead quest designer Eliot Hipeau and freelance writer Matthew Dawkins navigate through an investigation as Galeb. Galeb is one of the three main characters, and in this section, he’s investigating a murder on behalf of the Prince of Boston.

While investigating the abode of the Camarilla’s treasurer, Galeb can use various vampiric powers to look into the crime scene. Powers of persuasion and domination help deal with social situations. But they also come at a cost, and eventually a vampire needs to feed.

In Swansong, it looks like core aspects of the Vampire role-playing universe are maintained, including upholding the Masquerade and feeding on humans for power. At one point, Galeb spots a particular target that he has a particular affinity for feeding on. He takes the opportunity, but does leave the body in a place where it will, eventually, be discovered.

Light up the night

It’s a pretty lengthy walkthrough of one chunk of the game, so I won’t dive too much into it. Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong looks to be taking a very narrative approach to the nightlife of Boston.

It lines up, as Big Bad Wolf previously worked on narrative adventure The Council. And several parts of this Swansong definitely remind me of The Council. It’s a bit more about the story and narrative duels.

If you want a little more action in your vampire games, good news: Bloodhunt, the Vampire battle royale, just hit full launch. In fact, the Vampire universe in games has been rapidly expanding. Now if only we could find out more about the state of Bloodlines 2.

Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong is out on May 19 for PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.