Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong is a new game in the highly successful Vampire: The Masquerade franchise. Developed by the Big Bad Wolf game studio, it finally released in 2022 after an unfortunate COVID-caused delay.
Much like the previous games in the franchise, Swansong is a roleplaying game with a strong narrative focus. There are three main characters in Swansong – all of them vampires, of course. They have a defined appearance and backstory, which can slightly detract from role-playing. Nonetheless, this is an understandable move, one that the Vampire games have taken several times by now – the narrative opportunities are easily worth it. The players can still customize the characters’ skills and attributes, and decide how they would react to the world around them. The players do not simply select one of the three vampires to play as. Rather, it is possible to switch between all three – which is often necessary as they have different strengths. All three protagonists work together to investigate a mysterious shootout in Boston. Even though vampires have superhuman abilities, it is not easy – to uphold the Masquerade, they cannot use their powers in front of regular humans. Swansong can be played on Windows, Switch, PS4 & 5, as well as Xbox One & Series X/S, but, unfortunately, it is not available on Mac. Despite this, you can play Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong on Mac by following this guide.
Play Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong on Mac with Parallels
Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong requires lots of PC resources, but if you have a powerful Mac computer (iMac, iMac Pro, or Mac Pro) Parallels Desktop can be a solution. This is an application that allows for Windows virtualization on Mac with the full support of DirectX and GPUs. In simpler terms, what this means is that it allows you to install Windows 10 on Mac with just a couple of clicks and switch between MacOS and Windows instantly. So you will be able to run Windows, install Steam, and enjoy the Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong game on Mac just like on a regular PC.
Note: Recommended devices to run resource-demanding games: MacBook Pro (models with an Intel processor, discrete graphics cards, and 16 GB of RAM or more), iMac (models with Intel processor, discrete graphics cards, and 16 GB of RAM or more), iMac Pro (all models are suitable), Mac Pro (all models are suitable). Parallels on Mac computers with M1 (M1 Pro, M1 Max) chips may not support recent games. Games that require DirectX 12 and later are currently not supported by Parallels. AppsOnMac recommends using Parallels’ free trial feature to determine whether you can run the game or not if you’re uncertain.
Play Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong on Mac with cloud gaming services
If you have an old Mac or it cannot satisfy the Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong game system requirements, there is an easy solution. Cloud gaming services will be happy to provide you with sufficient computing power – though not for free, of course. All you need is a browser or a small client program and a good internet connection starting from 15 MBit/s. There are several great platforms that provide these services, among the best are Boosteroid, Xbox Cloud Gaming, and Nvidia GeForce Now. As you can see on the image above, Boosteroid has Swansong in its game library, making it a bit more important for the reader than the rest.
Play Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong on Mac with BootCamp
Note: Mac computers with new Apple Silicon (M1, M2, M3 Pro, or M1, M2, M3 Max) currently do not support BootCamp. In this case, please, use the options above to run Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong on Mac
This method is simple but time-consuming. If your Mac meets all the system requirements above, you can play Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong on Mac by installing Windows. You need to set up a dual boot of Windows and Mac via BootCamp. This is an application that allows users to choose the system to work in on startup, however, you won’t be able to switch between systems like in Parallels. You will need to reboot your machine every time you want to switch from Mac to Windows and vice versa. Remember that Mac is just a computer, in the end. And while newer Macs have their own special Apple Silicon chips that cannot run Windows, older Macs are very much similar to computers that run Windows, they have Intel processors, compatible RAM, disks, and other components. So you can install Windows on an older Mac by allocating no less than 64 GB of disk space (to be able to run Windows and a couple of games) and following these steps:
For OS X El Capitan 10.11 and older
For MacOS versions prior to OS X El Capitan 10.11 you will need to create a bootable Windows USB.
- Download this Windows ISO file.
- Open Boot Camp Assistant (Go to Applications > Utilities).
- Define the Windows partition size and choose the Windows ISO file you’ve downloaded.
- Format the Windows partition and go through all Windows installation steps.
- When Windows boots for the first time, follow on-screen instructions to install Boot Camp and Windows support software (drivers)