Yeah, I had that. He still beat me every time. Can you tell me everything you had as your skill?
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I’m getting a sense that although the writing is good, it pulls a Mass Effect where choices don’t really affect the story, lots of illusion of choice going on. Writing is good, replayability apparently isn’t. Still working through my own playthrough.
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I disagree with you about replayability. There’s not a huge amount of narrative branching in the first half, although there’s plenty of variable flavoring text, but starting in Ch. 7 there’s a lot. I could probably list a dozen distinct endings just off the top of my head.
That’s perhaps fair, if it’s late-branching that’s a thing.
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I didn’t have to use any of my other skills. I just ordered Gor to drop his weapon and he did, and he just stood there looking miserable while I cut his head off.
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I chose Dominate, too, but I I only had three choices, and none mentioned using Dominate to fight. I was strong enough, but I expected being able to use it.
@PaleHorse6 I wouldn’t have minded being able to spend more time with other characters in later chapters, I agree. Perhaps a few more scenes at the mansion before the “big mission” would have benefited the story.
I really liked this game nonethless, and I’d love to see more of it.
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Yeah that’s the problem I have. I have high dominance but can’t use it in that fight. I have 3 choices and all result in defeat
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Is there any way to end the game without being blood bound by someone? I ended up on two different routes that had me locked up in someone’s house / basement and fed their blood, on my first playthrough it was Neoptolemos and on the second it was Kariel. I was really confused on the second playthrough as well because Kariel just … drops you off at Sophia’s house anyway and you get credit for killing Gor, when I actually sided with him and just lost the fight with Kariel. This isn’t really a problem for me plot-wise I just was never clear on what Kariel’s motivations were and I literally never saw him again after that anyway (but admittedly I did a fair bit of skimming so perhaps I missed a line of two of connective tissue).
I absolutely loved the first half. I’m not sure if I just haven’t found a really great ending yet but I am a little disappointed by the pacing of the second. By the time you get to the house burning down you not only have no control but so much happens off screen and so many people are just … never seen again. Some of the epilogues are just gorgeous though although I am kind of confused/curious about what stats/choices lead to the different epilogues. I also can’t figure if there are any romantic encounters that last more than one scene besides Markos (barely).
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Yes, if you kill Gor.
I feel the same way. The other Vampire games seemed to last a lot longer to me. They took me a couple of days to read through. This one was much shorter. I had a hard time understanding what was going on, and feeling attached to the characters. There was some nice imagery but the story itself felt very rushed.
Gonna try some different routes, but I dunno. I guess I was just hoping for more fleshed out characters to get excited about (or maybe I’m still too spoiled from how fleshed out not only the characters but also the romances in Parliament were >.<). I mostly focused on the Sophia and Gor routes so maybe there’s one out there with more information.
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I had a similar opinion while playing the game. I think it excells at the mystery reveal who your sire is, and the overall structure of playing as a vampire who’s family dynamic isn’t all made up of deception was cool, but…I never had the feeling that any character was really ‘powerful’ in a roleplaying way.
We are told Markos is a bigshot and the MC can do what they want because of it, but outside of having a screwed up father-childe dynamic with us he…doesn’t really do much.
The Prince was really well set up, but then you see him like twice in the whole game, with the second confrontation feeling very by-the-books. Gor is interesting, but he becomes more of a chess piece by the second half rather than a fully fleshed out character. Elias is a cool human character, if he did anything remotely interesting. Etc etc.
I feel like there were too many one-scene characters with roles that could have been filled by other, more important characters, so that we get actual character growth and difficult decisions.
Why should I feel bad about killing a person if I know there’s a 90% chance they would never show up again even if I spare them?
This game had such a great way of describing scenes and the inner trauma our character carries with them, and being able to set up your own version of morality was really cool, but then the plot feels like a highlight reel the moment the thing at the house happens, and it felt very unsatisfying because of it.
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So steam reviews are mostly negative, what are folks’ opinions here on whether it’s worth picking up? Seems like it’s great to a point then falls flat on its face and there’s a report in one of the steam reviews of one path being totally broken (in that scene says one thing, then you jump to a scene where the previous choice didn’t happen).
Don’t really want to spend £6/7 on a game that was rushed. Already got that t-shirt.
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The game itself feels great to play, and the writing style of the author is very nice. The big problem stems from the fact that after roughly 60% of the game that feels very coherent and well thought out, the rest is a very by-the-books highlight reel.
These last chapters have the most difference based on player agency that happened before them (and influence who your sire is, who you side with, etc.) but they feel the most shallow because everything is done in a case-by-case you succeed or you don’t basis. So big conflicts become “you fight, X dies” with no aftermath, character developments become “you are on path X so they matter, you are on path Y they don’t” and romances become “if you are on the right path you get one more scene, if not they don’t exist at all”.
It feels like the author had a specific timeframe and the end result date was approaching fast, so anything that wasn’t fully finished by then was given the “we kinda need a result here, now” treatment or abandoned.
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Guess I’ll wait and see if any future updates fix up the later parts of the game then. Shame because I enjoy the VtM world and it seems much of the game was pretty good.
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I’d say its… ok. Decent if you consider it buying a short book for $7 but I think definitely on the weaker end of the VtM CoG.
Something about the pacing felt very off to me. I’m not sure the best way to describe it, but I personally felt it went straight from exposition into climax and that if the climax was in any other vtm cog it would have been a peak in the rising action.
In terms of the branching end (I could just be bad at interpreting the author’s exact choice phrasing to stat associations) but it felt like something you’d need a guide for. I’ll have to poke around the code sometime but if also feels like so far (around 7-10 playthroughs) that to have a “good” ending, you need to go for a specific ending OR have a combination of very specific Clan/Allies/Stats.
I personally couldn’t tell what the author was going for, it neither really worked as a political intrigue or a mystery as everything is kind of out on the table, if you go in expecting anything like Parliament of Knives you’ll be disappointed.
The story was fine I guess but it felt a bit like your character was just there while more interesting characters did more interesting things that you’re told about later.
I personally don’t regret buying it, but once I’m done with replays and poking around the code, I’ll likely shelf it and never replay it. Its decent light reading for one playthrough but not something I’ll likely go back to as there’s kind of a vtm cog that does each aspect of what Sins of Sires is trying to do, but better. Parliament of Knives for political intrigue, Night Road for “figuring out secrets about your past while running errands for more powerful people”.
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Can you be more specific about instances where you would have liked an extra scene with a character but didn’t get one?
Please send to support@choiceofgames.com
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While the writing is atmospheric, I feel like I am reading a book more than playing a game because my choice doesn’t matter at the end (Maybe because I am bad at choosing the right path/stats) . Comparatively I feel that I have more player agency in Night Road for also playing a nobody.
I don’t feel connected to the characters because we don’t spend much time interacting with them. Therefore it doesn’t seem meaningful to make choice concerning them. For instance, my character never interacts with their mortal lover, so it seems out of place when the story assumes that they care about the lover.
For game mechanics, I really miss having relationship stat to know how much (or little) the other characters think about my character.
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i finished a few playthroughs and i agree that a relationship stat would be nice, especially since some of the choices seem to affect them.
also i haven’t really explored beyond the results i got and i can’t tell if i’m just failing the stat checks or if it’s just scripted this way, but agreeing to run away with gor and ending up being bloodbound and dragged back to sophia’s is a very nice thing to add? seems to tie up well with fate and how you can never escape from it, and i think it’s my favorite aspect of this so far. very neat.
also: i absolutely adore the inclusion of the tragedy plays in the meeting! not sure if it’s a randomized thing or if it’s got something to do with your stats but i think it’s just a very good thing to add on the whole, and puts emphasis on the overall theme of the game.
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After reading the comments here about what people don’t like about it or were confused by, I feel like I can summarize the issue as “this is a totally different game than what the description promises.” It may be a good game, but only if you have expectations that are different from what the description tells you.
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I reached a part after climbing up to peer through the window at the ex-lover, where the game broke. The next button doesn’t work and does nothing. 
The stats screen still works, but the next button doesn’t.
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