In the second visual novel game to help flesh out the World of Darkness universe, Vampire: The Masquerade – Shadows of New York puts players in the shoes of one Julia Sowinski. And this change of direction from Coteries of New York was a breath of fresh air. By providing a grounded character with an already established backstory and history and motivations, I found it much easier to slip into the role. Whereas with Coteries of New York, the new fledgling servant of Sophie Langley just felt like an extension of myself. 

With this new take of the world, while also advancing some of the plot details that came before in its predecessor, Shadows of New York manages to weave a vastly more interesting tale of cover-ups and political backstabbing. 

By providing a named character with her own share of troubles, navigating the masquerade was much easier. Yes, there was still plenty of exposition, but it was helped by the fact that Julia was a reporter. In this way, the writers could incorporate vivid descriptions of the world through a first-person narrative and tie it with the actual characterisation of Julia. I felt this quite refreshing because it was much easier to get into her head and understand where she was coming from and how best to shape her end goals.

Returning in this entry were several familiar faces. The Prince Panhard, the Sheriff Qadir, Hope, D’Angelo, Tamika and the lost pages of Agathon.

Due to Julia’s role in the hierarchy of the Masquerade – as an ambassador of the Lasombra clan, it also made it much easier to pick up the nuances of each clan and the specific phrases utilised by the vampires. The sarcasm and sass in the dictionary definitions were also great in personalising what would have been rather dull descriptions.

The investigation into the death of Baron Callihan was interesting and provided a much needed carrot to navigate. While Coteries was a lot more open-ended initially, with a particular focus on gathering party members, I felt that the more immediate objective, with a clear deadline, helped to ensure a much better narrative overall. I had an end-goal to strive towards, with occasional side distractions if Julia wanted to feed.

During my playthrough of Coteries of New York, I was vastly disappointed that I couldn’t do everything. The mystery timer ticking in the background didn’t help it either, as it made it hard to bond with all the possible teammates.

And, because Julia was more fleshed out, I also got a better sense of her relationships – both with Qadir and with Dakota, her human lover. So, when it was revealed that Dakota was dressing up as Julia and pretending to be her, it was a somewhat terrifying revelation. That she would immediately shun Dakota was understandable. Even though I wanted them to mend the relationship in the end.

Still, I think in the ending that I got, Julia’s reaction to Dakota’s death was a little tone deaf. I know that she didn’t see the relationship going much anywhere, but the blase nature of her acquiescence was much too quick and brutal for me to stomach. 

Of course, it made sense from a power-hungry standpoint – that the Julia I’d curated cared more about herself and getting a leg up in a world of scheming immortal predators, but tonally, it seemed a little too quick.

The humane ending where Julia accepts the cover-up for Callihan’s murder was also somewhat disappointing. Julia fought for so long to get that information; why would she simply let it all disappear? After the opening moments where her entire professional career imploded, I couldn’t let that happen either. And honestly, I felt for her in that moment. The despair of having all that research be all for nothing.

It was nice that there was some payoff for the Double Spiral story that had been buried, but I also understood that having Hope ride in to replace the CEO made Julia’s fight with big corporations anticlimactic. Unfortunately, these things happen quite a lot in the real world and justice is often out of reach of those that were wronged.

I also liked how Shadows of New York also referenced quite a bit of pop culture and current events. Although the vampires live in our world, they also seem vastly disconnected with their more medieval mindset. It’s very easy for a lot of video games to not reference the troubles people face and serve as escapism, but the very fact that Shadows of New York alluded to the pandemic also served to further ground the narrative in a way that helped me connect to it.

Vampires might be above us all mortals, but maybe they also need to be worried about virus outbreaks that thin the herd of those that they need to feed.