Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong on Mac

Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong is a narration-focused RPG that you can play on your Mac through game streaming services, such as Boosteroid. You can also play Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong on Mac via Boot Camp Assistant, or with the help of Parallels.

Vampire: The Masquerade is an RPG that mostly focuses on the conversations between characters. Here dialogue, combined with your character’s knowledge and willpower, is your main tool for progressing through the game. Therefore, do not expect any action sequences or battles. Instead, Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong is intended as a game that focuses more on the social aspect of being a vampire in a world hostile towards your kind. One of your main goals is to remain hidden in plain sight – you must not reveal your true identity to the surrounding humans, so you must pick the most appropriate dialogue option, while also taking into account how much knowledge and willpower your character has. In a way, Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong is a sort of social-maneuvering game, where your most important battles are fought using words rather than weapons. On paper, this is an interesting concept for an RPG, especially for someone who has prior knowledge of the Vampire: The Masquerade lore. However, in practice, this game is a mixed bag and, unfortunately, though it has some cool ideas, most players will likely not enjoy the game. Still, if you want to try it out on your Mac, it is possible to play Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong on Mac despite it not being supported for macOS. The instructions in the second half of the current article will explain how you can do that. As for now, let’s share with you a bit more of our thoughts about Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong.

The setting and the overwhelming lore

Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong takes place in Boston and follows the story of three vampires from different clans, each with their own agenda and end goal. The events of the game take place during the unification of two major vampire factions and the violent events surrounding it. A shootout kicks off the game’s plot and from there you switch between the three playable characters, slowly revealing the mysteries that lay ahead, while also getting closer to your specific end goal. It sounds nice, but all the immersion and intrigue quickly is soon replaced by clunky and tedious dialogue filled with names and terms from the depths of the Vampire: The Masquerade lore, and unless you have prior knowledge of that lore, you’d feel lost and overwhelmed by the endless references to stuff you know nothing about. This style of dialogue in a game where dialogue is 80% of the gameplay would inevitably alienate the majority of players by preventing them from getting invested in the story and the characters. Maybe someone versed in the expansive lore of Vampire: The Masquerade would appreciate the references and have a better experience with the game because of them, but for nine out of ten players, this would only serve to make the game boring and tedious.

Gameplay, ideas, and poor execution

There are several interesting ideas presented in Swansong. For starters, each of the characters starts their day with a set amount of willpower as a depletable resource that they can use to empower their special abilities (each character has a special ability) and also to dominate conversations. On paper, this is a cool mechanic in a game about social maneuvering – you can use the sheer willpower of your character to appear more imposing in a conversation and thus make others do things for you or answer your questions by simply asking them more firmly. However, the problem arises when this same willpower resource is required to execute the special abilities of each character. This means you constantly need to choose between dominating a conversation or, for instance, hacking a computer. This limits your gameplay options, and it makes it so that, no matter what you choose to spend your willpower on, you will always end up failing in some aspect of the game.

Another interesting idea is the need to feed with blood – if you allow your character to get too hungry, they lose control of themselves and reveal their true nature to the humans (i.e. game over). To feed, you need to isolate a human and feed on them while being careful not to kill them and thus make others more suspicious of you. Again, on paper, this sounds like an okay mechanic, but the actual feeding process is a boring, tedious mini-game that doesn’t add in any way to the overall experience.

Those are only two of the many examples of gameplay ideas that could have actually been good, had they been executed properly.

The technical aspect

One of our main gripes with this game is its execution on a technical level – Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong simply feels and looks unfinished. From expressionless faces to weird textures, to bad and glitchy animations, it feels like the game was rushed and didn’t get the needed amount of time to make it somewhat presentable. Furthermore, this isn’t some indie title made on a shoestring budget, and its in-store price is ridiculously high for such an unpolished product. While the writing and gameplay weaknesses of the game can somewhat be forgiven – it’s not always easy to realize one’s vision – having a game that looks so unfinished and unpolished is a simple matter of effort and time, and neither of those seems to have been given to Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong in sufficient amounts. Unfortunately, this has come to be a common phenomenon in the gaming industry nowadays. 

Conclusion

If you are a huge Vampire: The Masquerade fan and have deep knowledge, and also if you don’t mind wooden animation and uncanny-valley characters in expensive video games, you may get some enjoyment out of Swansong. For everybody else, however, this is probably not a game you’d want to purchase. Maybe if there’s a large discount or if the game gets offered for free on Epic Games Store (each week there’s a free gaming title), then maybe you could give it a try mainly for its unconventional social-maneuvering gameplay, but other than that, we cannot say we recommend this game.

Can you play Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong on Mac?

Yes, playing Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong on Mac is possible, but only through workaround methods, as the game isn’t natively available for Mac. The methods to play Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong on Mac are via cloud gaming or by installing Windows on the Mac.

Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong has no Mac version, which means that the use of a workaround is required to play this game on a Mac. The good news is that there are quite a few such workarounds, with some of them being very easy to set up and use. In the following guide section of this post, we will tell you about four such methods of playing Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong on Mac. Choose the method you think would work best for you and follow the respective instructions to be able to play the game.

How to play Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong on Mac

To play Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong on Mac, we recommend subscribing to Boosteroid, or another cloud gaming service, and streaming the game to your Mac. The other options to play Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong on Mac are using Parallels or Boot Camp Assistant.

Cloud gaming is an easy-to-use, streamlined way of playing a wide variety of games, that don’t have a macOS version, on a Mac computer. A cloud gaming service allows you to connect your Mac to a remote gaming PC that has the desired game installed on it and start that game on the remote computer. The game then gets streamed to your Mac, from where you can play it without even needing to have it installed on your computer. Below, you will see instructions for two cloud gaming platforms that have Swansong in their libraries and that can allow you to play it.

Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong Set Up Methods

MethodsAdvantageDisadvantage
Cloud Gaming– No set-up required – Register and Play
– Access to a Library of over 70 top-rated free Games
– Smooth performance
– Compatible with M1 and Intel Macs		– Monthly Fee
– Requires Decent Internet Connection
– No Free Trial
BootCamp– Free to use any time
– Windows 10 Environment
– Painful Setup
– Mediocre Performance
– Only Compatible with Intel Macs
Parallels Virtual Machine– Easy Set-up
– Adequate Performance
– Play almost any PC game
– Windows 11 environment
– Compatible with M1 and Intel Macs
– 14-day free trial		– Yearly Fee

How to Get Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong on Mac:

First, you will need to purchase the game. Limited time offer on CD.Keys.com for a discount – 25 % Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong for $ 37.79

Epic

Now you will need to register for Boosteroid. This allows you to add Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong to their Cloud Gaming Library. Once uploaded you can seamlessly play the game from your Mac, TV, or Mobile Device.

When Registered you will have additional access to more games for free. Pricing varies depending on the subscription plan.

Play Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong

Play Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong on Mac with Boosteroid

  1. Begin by getting a Boosteroid account on Boosteroid.com.
  2. Next, log in and click on your profile name in the upper-right corner.
  3. Click the Subscribe option in the My Subscription section, then pick the subscription plan you’d prefer to use, pick a method of payment, and enter your details to start the subscription.
  4. Once you are subscribed to Boosteroid, click the magnifying glass icon from the top, type Vampire: The Masquerade, and click on the Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong search result.
    • Note: There seems to be a bug in the Boosteroid search, where, if you type the whole name of the game, e.g. Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong, you will get no search results for that entry. However, if you only type Vampire: The Masquerade, you will get the game in the search results along with Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodhunt.
  5. Click Play and then OK, let’s go to start loading the game. Once the loading completes, enter your Epic Games Store details, and the game will start within the browser.

Play Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong on Mac with GeForce Now

  1. First, you will need a GeForce Now account, so register on GeForceNow.com.
  2. Once you access your new account, go to your profile page, open the Downloads section, and download GeForce Now for Mac.
  3. Install the GeForce Now client, open it, and log in with your account.
  4. Search for Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong, and click on the game when its tile appears.
  5. Select Play, then Continue, wait for the game to load, and then log in to your Epic Games Store account to start playing.

For a more in-depth guide on using GeForce Now, visit this page.

How to download Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong on Mac

To download Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong on Mac, you must first create a Windows virtual machine or install Windows in a separate partition. With Windows installed/emulated, you will be able to download Vampire: The masquerade – Swansong on your Mac and play it.

Note that both of those methods take significantly more time and effort to set up compared to the game streaming options we showed above. Additionally, your Mac would need to meet (in the case of Parallels, exceed) the system requirements of the game in order for you to be able to play it (there is no such requirement with the game streaming methods). The plus side here is that your Internet connection won’t affect your gaming experience – with the cloud gaming methods, you’d need fast and stable Internet to get good gameplay performance.

The two methods of downloading the game are quite different in both execution and also differ in performance depending on what Mac you are using. Normally, we’d recommend that Intel Mac users go for the Boot Camp variant, while users with M1 Macs would need to use Parallels. Here is a brief rundown of the two options. For more details, select the respective link provided below each method.

Play Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong with Parallels

  1. Get the Parallels app from the official site and install it.
  2. Install Parallels on your computer by running the .dmg file and following the directions on the screen.
  3. Once Parallels has been installed, open it and select the “Install Windows” option to begin the process of creating a Windows VM.
  4. Create a Parallels profile or sign in to the virtual machine using one of the other available sign-up options.
  5. Once you enter the VM, download the Steam or the Epic Games client and use it to install the game on the virtual machine.

If you need more in-depth steps for Parallels with screenshots, check out our Full Parallels Guide.

Play Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong with Boot Camp Assistant

  1. Go to Microsoft and download a Windows 10 ISO file (64-bit).
  2. Open Applications > Utilities, launch the Boot Camp Assistant app and load in it the ISO file.
  3. If needed, make changes to the storage space distribution and then click Install.
  4. Follow the prompts for installing Windows, launch the installation, and once it completes, personalize your Windows settings and create a Windows account.
  5. Once you enter your account and load it into Windows, use the Boot Camp Assistant window on your screen to install missing Apple drivers for the new OS.
  6. Lastly, install the Epic Games Launcher, purchase the game (if you haven’t already), install it, and start it through the launcher.

Full guide on how to use Boot Camp Assistant

Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong on Mac M1

Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong is playable on Mac M1 with the help of game streaming services, such as Boosteroid. Another variant is creating a Windows 11 virtual machine using Parallels and then playing the Windows version of Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong on your Mac M1.

M1 Mac users don’t have access to the Boot Camp Assistant method, but all other three methods of playing Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong on Mac are still available. You can use Boosteroid or GeForce Now to stream the game to your M1 Mac without the need to download it, and you can also create a Windows 11 VM on your Mac with the help of Parallels and then download and play Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong within that VM.