Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York - PC review

avatar

image.png

The Steam page for Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York indicates that it is a "narrative experience", set in the universe of the Vampire: The Masquerade universe, which most PC gamers know of due to the the rather excellent Vampire the Masquarade: Bloodlines. (It also feels like a small cash grab prior to the highly anticipated Bloodlines 2.)

It is for the most part, a visual novel, bereft of voice acting, full of atmopshere, and a world in which your choices, unfortunately, don't mean all that much in the grand scheme of things.

For the price of admission, its about on par with the entertainment bang for buck you'd get for renting a dvd and picking up pizza. The only advantage is that you can replay this story over and over again.

You get a fair bit of choice along the way, choose your background, become a fledgling vampire, then make sense of the intricacies of New York City vampire politics as you explore a world full of blood, intruige and well, vampires.

Any game with the Vampire: The Masquerade branding has a significant chunk of imposter syndrome heaped upon it for me, following the deeply atmospheric and well built world of the original Bloodlines.

Regrettably, Coteries of New York does not live up to the hype I imposed upon it.

Is this a shortcoming of my own? Or is it a shortcoming of the game?

image.png

I have to examine what's missing in Coteries of New York that made me think that Bloodlines was such an exceptional game.

First, there's no voice acting. I still hear the voices of those Bloodlines Characters everytime I think about that game. I still hear the fantastic sound design, the amazing soundtrack, and the incessant late-night radio talk show, much inspired by the days of early Grand Theft Auto talkback.

Then, there's the lack of an immediate, impactful consequence to your actions. In Bloodlines, if you commited a despicable act, and were awarded a masquerade violation, losing your humanity along the way, there was pangs of instant regret.

Here, as a fledgling text based vampire, you've got far less immediate consequence to your actions, to the point where it feels like you may just live in a consequenceless world.

As a PC game - Coteries of New York isn't up to snuff. If this was released on Android / iOS (how I wish it was!) it would make excellent late night reading and interaction that would be riveting and enjoyable on such a small screen.

It would have to be priced lower to extract that level of value out of the smaller-time platform.

In any case, it is a decent effort, and there's nothing wrong with the story as it unfolds, the character archetypes, the artwork, it just feels as though it could be ... better. Much better.

The other benefit of a title like this is that it makes me temper my expectations for Bloodlines 2, and that means I will be looking forward to release of that game with an even more bated breath.



0
0
0.000
3 comments
avatar

I wanted to try this few months ago, then the delay of Bloodlines 2 happened and I lost interest, good thing I did considering your review.
I like the fact that they decided to polish the game instead of releasing it too soon.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Dang it, I didn't research this story enough, or I would have spoken about that in my review. I didn't see the news about the delay!

I'll get over this news shortly! I can wait, though.

0
0
0.000