Vampire: The Masquerade - Shadows of New York

Though it's light on meaningful choices, this brief dip into the Vampire: The Masquerade universe is at least filled with strong writing, interesting characters, and gorgeous art.

A mature visual novel that isn't afraid to be fun, Vampire: The Masquerade - Shadows of New York is a quick plunge into the freezing waters of a bloodsucker-filled Big Apple. It won't last you forever, but you'll be hooked for its short runtime. It does a lot with a little and is breezy enough to fly by. Just don't expect to actually, you know, do that much. Great art and good writing, but not enough of it.

A promising visual novel that just slightly misses the mark.

Unless you’re a mad fan of Vampire: The Masquerade, and need to absorb every piece of literature about the universe, this will be a disappointing experience. While the artwork is rich and the music moody, the writing – the game’s backbone and its entire selling point – is weak.

The totality of my opinion on Vampire: The Masquerade - Shadows of New York is a bit muddied. Strong writing and characterization, phenomenal art, and appropriately moody music are huge boons for the game. However, its lack of choice and similarity to the previous title, combined with the endings being codified as “good” and “bad”, sour the experience.

Whoever decides to try out the world of Vampire: The Masquerade for the first time is not going to have a bad time, but they could definitely have had a different introduction.

A proper iterative effort that builds upon Coteries of New York in unexpectedly compelling ways, Vampire: The Masquerade - Shadows of New York is an often opulent and brilliantly written visual novel that both veterans and newcomers alike can sink their fangs into.

Shadows of New York is an unremarkable story that tries to hold your attention with relevant themes, but ultimately fails into abyss of triteness and weak presentation. If you crave some good vampire story, just read an Anne Rice novel, instead of wasting your time with this game.

Going into this "standalone expansion," it was always going to be the case that it wasn't going to address the issues of Coteries of New York. There just wasn't enough time to rethink the approach to the game so quickly. Instead, it was always going to be an extension of everything that game did, both good and bad.

A lot of the world-building in tabletop game universes comes from a DM, and the Draw Distance visual novels aim to create almost a one-on-one story. They've done well in the first couple of attempts this year, so if you're looking for an entry point into Vampire: The Masquerade, Shadows of New York is worth staking out.