Vampire: The Masquerade - Shadows of New York

If you've enjoyed the story, presentation, and mood invoked by Coteries of New York, Shadows of New York will not disappoint. I welcomed the fresh take of a more focused story seen through the eyes of a single Lasombra character, established quite compellingly. The eerie mood got kicked up a notch this time around, which fits the shadow clan well. Like Coteries of New York, it's mostly a story-focused visual novel, with few choices sprinkled in. Those not a fan of that approach will not find much in a way of improvement. Otherwise, for what it is, it's a marvelous treat, and a great companion product to other VTM books and games. It feels a bit longer than Coteries, but not by much, with similar level of modest replayability for those truly dedicated. As I am looking to recommend this to people who are not familiar with VTM, I am unsure if this game will appeal necessarily. It feels tailored more to established fans, especially VTM lore nerds like myself. For long-time fans of VTM games, there are even a few notible references to a prior VTM game I won't spoil. It's very hard to miss if you're familiar with that prior game's characters. Similarly, even though it is a standalone story that players can enjoy right away, Coteries players will benefit more from the familiar evolving conspiracy and established characters. Still, the Lasombra character's journey may yet pull in newcomers, given her unique struggles. One critique I'd like to give to the game's writing team is that, while having thoroughly enjoyed the more fleshed-out Lasombra character, there were moments, especially near the end, where she surprised me with the amount of knowledge she suddely acquires between scenes, seemingly "off camera" as it were. Though I enjoyed the resulting exposition (as a lore nerd), it felt a bit disjointed, the narrative overriding well-nurtured immersion up to that point. Otherwise, keep up the good work. I thirst for more! :)

Same verdict as Coteries: good atmosphere, decent writing with a bit of cringe—for VtM fans worth checking out on sale but not at full price. The feel is different though: to me Coteries felt like a tabletop session while Shadows feels like a fanfic. To be clear, Coteries had little choice but it did IMMERSE you in a role. The changes in Shadows take that feeling away and make it clear you're reading someone else's story. The biggest one for me is the narration is 1st person now, not 2nd person (Julia says "I see X" instead of the game saying "YOU see X"). And there are numerous time skips that take away the feeling of being a fledgling with no idea what will happen next—we just skip to Julia having already dealt with it. Last big change is that Julia is a well-defined character. That made the minor dialogue choices feel unimportant because it doesn't feel like filling in a blank slate—Julia is always Julia no matter what you pick. About that character, personally I found her abrasive, edgy and self-righteous, which was annoying because these things were clearly meant to be relatable—contributing to the fanfic feel (and I say that as someone who does relate in many ways). BUT I've seen plenty of comments saying Julia was their favourite thing about the game so it really is a personal taste thing. I don't wanna sound like I hate Shadows because I don't. It feels like a well presented, decently written fanfic—and I mean that as neutrally as possible. If that sounds interesting, pick it up on sale (but definitely try Coteries first).

Like all good sequels, it takes the groundwork laid by he first and brings it to a new level. This one focuses the story (and storytelling itself) around one particular subject, her quirks and her journey. For example, the Codex no longer just lists monotonous details of the world's elements, this time they're written from the main character's perspective and with her unique attitude. I actually like having a character who isn't just a blank slate but unfortunately, for all the better design decisions, the main character in this is kind of annoying and doesn't have many redeeming qualities. Your choices are pretty much limited to different ways of being snarky and entitled, while inexplicably nonchalant. It does balance this at least when most of the Camarilla treats her like she's useless, but I couldn't bring myself to feel all that sorry for her. Then unfortunately this set up leads to some pretty unbelievable leaps to get things rolling which often felt fan-fictiony. Without spoiling anything, at least one of the endings feels like an absolute fever dream it's so bizarrely unearned. All in all, if they tried this concept with a variety of characters it could be amazing and this could just be that one character I didn't like, but unfortunately she's all you get and she's not star material.

Better story, better writing, more focused, better than Coteries in pretty much every way. Glad to have a predefined character that gets some depth instead of picking from a few shallow options like in Coteries, those kind of pseudo RPG elements like picking a bloodline really have no place in short visual novels like these. Shadows embraces its identity as a simple visual novel and is better for it. While it is better than Coteries, I don't think you should skip the preceding game. Pretty much the entire cast returns from Coteries and it helps to already know who they are.

Great to understand the mood of "vampire the masquerade". With special edition it has a lot to helo a storyteller like myself for my tabletop games