So, of course it is a visual novel and even more so here. Shadow of NY is clearly a virtual book you read at night, listening to the delightfully obscure score. Julia is embraced as a Lassombra at a moment when the infamous clan tries to win a place in the Camarilla. Her position is precarious, she is unhappy, she feels inadequate, useless, manipulated and without perspective. She struggles with her girlfriend, with her mentor, with high-profile people, with her loyalties, with everything. She tries to get away from her past but ends up serving as a bureaucrat in the very same fast food she dreamt of leaving behind forever. Her personal story is the main dish here. And I love it. It is perfectly human and kindred at the same time. For once, we are not served with the usual oh my god I have to drink blood now ?! or even worse you used me ?! I though I could trust you ! . Julia is already beyond that and sees the Camarilla, the Anarch, the Church and the Lassombra for what they are. The main issue with the game : it pretends to let you play. Big mistake. Because it involves letting you make some choices but the game does not really want you to choose. From the beginning, the game clearly indicates the way to go by forcing you to pull the trigger and later, when you gain your first perk, the game explicitly tells you that a real Lassombra is reckless. So you can take the 3-4 choices for another stroll but the game WANTS you to follow the script. If you do, you reach an ending where pieces are forcefully put together and you get somehow an achievement that says Good Ending. If you do not, you get and absolutely weird ending which does not make sense at all but may make you feel good about Julia. Oh, and also it is labelled Bad ending for some reasons. So… the game would have actually been better if it pretended even less to be a game.
