Vampires are alive. But…they’re not trying to hide it. Nighthawks is Vampire: The Masquerade but without The Masquerade- vampire stories without the secrecy: vampires are out there, people know about them, and they are living their unlives. Nighthawks is also Vampire: The Masquerade, but mercifully not trying to be a crappy action game, so it’s better than whatever the latest attempt at making a Bloodlines 2 is. Instead, it’s something like a text adventure and something like a visual novel, somewhere between Esoteric Ebb and Disco Elysium in tone with a Fallen London flavor.
Overall, there’s a lot of dicking around. Each act has a Big Thing to Do, usually investigating a mystery that usually has to do with how you wound up a vampire in the first place. This involves going to various locations and talking to people, a lot of whom are vampires, some of whom are shady, some of whom are flirtatious, many of whom have excellent voice acting, and some of whom are trying to kill you because they hate you, they are in an anti-vampire cult, or they want to cut you up for parts. It’s hard out here for a vamp.
But…because it’s more of a visual novel, it doesn’t push you the way a standard video game does. You know what you need to investigate, generally, but you don’t always know exactly how to go about it. Sometimes you’re just making choices based on your skills and trying to survive. Was it wise to feed on the old woman who was unwilling? Should you have forced that door or picked the lock? Oh, maybe that private detective you met a while ago can help you crack this cellphone related to your missing sire. Maybe the smartass street kid who commands the rats can help you out with the ghouls in the sewers. Maybe you can fill up your low blood at the charity run for destitute vamps.
Ultimately, it comes down to choices, and it’s not always about the correct ones; it’s just about…making them. I met a mobster who coerced me into working for him, and obviously that wasn’t by choice. Then I found a vampire running a pyramid scheme and got him to cut me in on it, and we became bros because he admired a good hustler. Then I found an underground vampire fighting ring and worked on my brawling skills. Yeah, you have skills like brawling and grifting, and detective, mechanic, and thief. They come in handy. You can also meet people, usually vampires, who can follow you around and help you out.
Mechanically, it takes time to get anywhere, and there’s only so much time during the night to explore. You can also wind up low on blood if you get jumped or get permanently wounded or diseased if you drink bad blood or start drawing the attention of the cops.
But… hey, maybe the gangster needs a favor done, actually. Oh, it turns out he does, and you got some money. Now you can buy some stuff the detective needs to crack that phone, which gives you some interesting leads to explore towards the big mystery. Oh, neat, there’s new people with new info.
See, that’s what I mean. This is one of those games where you have to be comfortable exploring, poking around, and seeing what’s going on without the push of quest markers or being nagged. Because you absolutely can and will just wander around locations talking to NPCs until you stumble on what you need to advance the quest. Or maybe you meet a suicidal guy and tell him to jump. Or maybe you run a vampire nightclub. Or maybe you get chopped up for vampire parts.
Good
The Final Word
It’s a whole world of choices. I didn’t say they were good choices.
