Vampire: The Masquerade - Shadows of New York

A bit too preachy and leaning heavily into the feminazi perspective, but still a fun vampire game.

First off, this is a visual novel. Just deal with that and accept that you're getting a visual novel game with a few choices in the narrative. This might not suit many tabletop/Bloodlines fans, but this is what this project is. Now, I would say a lot of what irked me in the original game was the protagonists - they were dumped into the world way too quickly and you didn't get enough time to get to know and like/dislike the supporting cast. Shadows of New York gets personal - you're introduces to the protagonist gradually and carefully and she's likeable enough - not marysue-ish or all-powerful at all but rather as lost as a person in these circumstances would be - yet also she kind of likes the situation she's in. No moping around with her, she gets stuff done. This is refreshing for a world of darkness game - you very rarely get to play as a class that actually kind of loves what they've become. Visually and aurally the game is fantastic. The soundtrack, especially, is a work of art - i stopped several times at a dialogue option just to listen to the tune. The characters are very well painted, and you get several varied looks at the protagonist in the CG cutscenes that ensue - a welcome break from the different character sprites we got in Coteries of NY. Stylistically and in terms of the narrative this is also an improvement. This is a noir detective story, with some classic 80s goth undertones and infused with very modern, 2019 tropes. The game is very immersive and made me want a game where you can sit and chat with the protagonist in that burger joint for hours. That brings me to the thing I like the least in these two games - their length. In the previous game there was no way you could explore all the storylines in full. It seems this is also true for this game. One thing I would very much like is a New Game+ for this game - something where you could get all the dialogues, see all interactions and talk to everyone you want after you finish it once.

The previous game from this studio, Coteries of New York wasn't free of current day ideology, but this one just couldn't put a lid on it! I guess this whole series is an aphabet+ preacher dwelling into the World of Darkness, and making a cheap VN about it on the side. It's quite frankly, disgusting. I think I'm not alone to say that the World of Darkness should be about monsters, the dark side of the human condition, the irony of engaging atrocities not as the hero, but as a fellow villain. This series, and most definitely this game has nothing to do with that. This game is written with the skill of an edgy teen with modern day vocabulary and virtue signalling. The choices are vain, whatever you do you will either "win" it or "lose" it. There is also the death option, but that's too early to count. The art is REUSED FROM THE PREVIOUS GAME. There are SOME new art in there, but most setpieces and a lot of characters have the same art as in Coteries of New York. A'la an asset flip. The story is shallow, the characters not just two dimensional, but also inconsistent, the overall vibe of the game is that the MC is "single white femaling" the audience (game's own words btw... ugh). There is nothing to praise about this game, nor anything they did average, or just alright. It's a complete mess I expect from NO BUDGET 4chan visual novels, not a commercially available game. Would I not be naive and notice all the red flags, I would've stopped at Coteries. I recommend you to learn from my mistakes and DO NOT BUY THIS SLOP! Even if you are ideologically aligned with the creators, still, DO NOT BUY! It's still a shit game with absolutely zero effort put into it.

As a sequel, Shadows of New York improves on it's predicessor in just about every way. The main character is much more developed, your choices matter, the overarching plot strings together into multiple endings. Like it's predicessor, it tries to tell a mature and contemporary story, often dating itself it it's attempts to seem modern. Here Shadows of New York is much more successful, it's focus on a single character allowing it to get much more personal, making the pop culture references feel for the most part, grounding. While I would highly reccomend this game for any interested in Vampire: The Masquarade, a casual reader should be prepared for a highly social and political experince, with little in the way of high octaine action or over-the-top vampire fights. It's a short read, ~4 hours, and I reccomend multiple playthoughs for a complete experince.