Vampire: The Masquerade — Sins of the Sires

Reviewing (mostly) every game (or DLC) in my library, part 628: ⭐️⭐️⭐️☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ (3/10) Okayyyyyyy, then. Yeah, yeah, I see why [i]Vampire: The Masquerade — Sins of the Sires [/i](“SofS”) has such a controversial rating in the fandom. Because it’s frankly, uh, not good. Incredibly rushed and disappointing. I finished the game in one hour. One. And while I am a fast reader, most CoG/HG titles are twice that length. I literally checked the word count on the Steam page after finishing the game because I thought no way, is the game over already. While Theodoridou’s writing is as lovely and philosophical as ever, it’s not enough to hide how flat, nonsensical, and lacking SofS is, both as a narrative and as a [i]Vampire: The Masquerade [/i]game. [b]Thank you to the staff for the free copy![/b] [b][h2]Pros:[/h2][/b] ✅ [b]Writing/atmosphere.[/b] I’ve quite enjoyed Theodoridou’s previous games: [i]Rent-a-Vice[/i] and [i]The Odyssey.[/i] I’ve pointed out his flaws as a writer in the past—the narrowing linearity of some choices and abrupt endings—but I’ve always liked the philosophical glimmers present in a usually dark setting. While oddly choppy at the beginning, SofS’s prose is beautiful a…

I went into this one with incredibly low expectations and was still so disappointed. Not even my super autistic hyper-fixation on VTM could convince me this was good. The first chapter starts off pretty decent, but anything after that is terribly written. Doesn't feel like it takes place in the universe or has much to do with VTM. Very flat characters and story that I could not care about at all. It's also super short, I can't believe it's price for two hours of content. Don't bother with this one, just play Night Road and Parliament of Knives instead.

Out of all the VTM interactive novels this is the only one I just can't recommend. The clans didn't feel like they made much difference in the game. A lot of the earlier stories went nowhere, which could be a symptom of me just choosing to go a different path but there was so many I cant believe it was just a skill issue. Also the story felt like it ended far to early. It wasn't short exactly but where it felt like you were entering Act 2 of the story it just sped up at light speed and then was suddenly over. Like Act the first half of the story was about 90% of the play time. All in all just felt off, wouldn't replay or recommend in really any circumstance. Really nice writing in the begining which was a shame.

A major decline in quality when compared too Parliament of knives and Night Road. The Pacing is all over the place, the reader is expected to attach themselves to the characters within the first 3 chapters. The broader issue however is pacing. The chapter lengths are short, like really short. One chapter never takes longer than 20 minutes to read, hence there aren't many words dedicated to building lore, character relations, or work on our stats. Additionally it contributes to the pacing issue, within 2,5 hours or 10 chapters the reader is not left any time to really resonate with the story nor for the story to establish itself. All in all this feels more like a cash grab using the VTM IP than a well crafted choose your own adventure.

As a fan of Natalia Theodoridou’s short fiction and Vampire: the Masquerade, I knew I was going to play [i]Sins of the Sires[/i]. The question was when. Previous to playing myself, I’d chalked up the more critical reviews as players not really “getting” Theodoridou’s vision, like a preference misalignment or artist & audience not quite meeting. But then a reviewer I respect, who is familiar with Theodoridou’s previous work, had a poor experience. I was so astonished I hit download to figure out what exactly, is up with this game. One run later and oh…I get it now. Like I said, I’ve read Theodoridou’s short fiction, so I thought I was prepared for the level of melancholy, but dear Lord. The prose is honey-dripped-from-thorns beautiful, but the despair drenches deep and bleak. The Greek tragedy framework is heavy-set in. My PC truly felt like a cog in fate’s machine. Which is all well and good at an artistic level–sparkling even–but it’s quite depressing to hang out in a space so nihilistic. Was it a story worth telling? Yes. But it wasn’t [i]fun.[/i] I also think other reviewers are right about the game design needing some tweaking. I missed the Storyteller System because it w…

I liked Night Road, I liked the three New York games, Parliament of Knives even had some good moments... this game was ♥♥♥♥. Just as it starts getting good around chapter 7ish the game ends extremely quickly after, good or bad endings it still feels entirely unfulfilling. I'd skip this one if I could redo it.