Vampire: The Masquerade – Reckoning of New York may not be an action-filled immersive sim, but it’s still well-written and worth your time.
Vampire: The Masquerade – Reckoning of New York is the third visual novel in a three-part Vampire the Masquerade Visual Novel series developed by Draw Distance. Draw Distance is a Polish Indie game development studio that used to be known as iFun4all, and it is known for games like Far Peak, Ritual Crown of Horns, and Halls of Horror.
The game was published by Dear Villagers, a game publishing studio based in Montpellier, France. They’re known for publishing games like Fabledom, The Land Beneath Us, and Nocturnal.
Visual novel games originated in Japan during the 1980s and are a genre of interactive storytelling that blends elements of prose, visual art, and often sound. Rooted in text-based adventure games, the first visual novels were heavily influenced by early computer adventure games like Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken, released in 1983 and created by Yuji Horii.
These games featured branching narratives, where players’ choices influenced the story’s direction, which became a hallmark of the genre. Over time, the genre evolved, integrating more detailed character art, voice acting, and complex plotlines.
Pioneering titles such as Tokimeki Memorial, released in 1994, and Kanon, released in 1999, helped define the genre’s romance, drama, and fantasy format. The early 2000s saw visual novels expand globally, fueled by the success of games like Fate/Stay Night and Clannad, released in 2004.
As the genre matured, it diversified in theme and style, with many visual novels embracing psychological horror, science fiction, or philosophical themes, such as Danganronpa and Steins; Gate. Today, visual novels are an integral part of both Japanese and global gaming cultures, combining unique narrative experiences with interactive gameplay.
Vampire: The Masquerade – Reckoning of New York is the third game in the Vampire: The Masquerade visual novel series. It is set in the World of Darkness, a series of tabletop role-playing games created by Mark Rein-Hagen. The first release of Vampire: The Masquerade was in 1991.
The setting of this universe is a Dark, Gothic punk interpretation of the real world where the supernatural exists in secrecy within their societies. The player takes on the role of a supernatural being within the World of Darkness, and Vampire: The Masquerade – Reckoning of New York is no exception.
You play the game for the first time as Kali, a Ravnos, also called Ravens. These Vampires are masters of misdirection, and their Sire has gone AWOL. She gets wrapped up in a conspiracy as unexpected as the disappearance of the Kindred who had turned her.
However, after playing the story as Kali, you will unlock Pádriac Conroy, a Caitiff you meet in Kali’s playthrough. The story and scenes take place within the World of Darkness version of New York City.
Most visual novels nowadays have times when your choices affect the storyline, keeping to a non-linear rather than linear format. Vampire: The Masquerade – Reckoning of New York keeps to a stiff linear direction.
For clarity, linear and non-linear visual novels differ in how the story progresses and the player’s role in shaping the narrative as a whole. The story follows a predetermined path in linear visual novels with little to no player influence.
In other words, everyone experiences the same plot, with few or no choices that change that outcome. Non-linear visual novels, on the other hand, offer branching narratives where player decisions influence the story’s direction, often leading to multiple endings or unique plotlines. This interactivity makes non-linear novels more dynamic, providing varied experiences based on choices made throughout the game.
That being said, a visual novel can only contain so many mechanics if it sticks to the genre solidly without mixing it with anything like a walking simulator or a turn-based strategy. Vampire: The Masquerade – Reckoning of New York has an interactive map that helps with scene transitions and the story’s progress.
Depending on whether you activated Hunger and Hunter Threat when you started your playthrough, what extra scenes you have access to throughout every chapter influences what you have access to. However, you don’t have to focus only on the main story.
There are detours you can click on; they add extra context and help introduce you to more of the characters’ personalities, making them a little more relatable while adding a more lighthearted break to the story.
The Hunger and Hunter Threat toggle adds a bit of variety to the game in terms of detours and extra difficulty, although there isn’t any with a linear visual novel. Toggling these adds risk management to Vampire: The Masquerade – Reckoning of New York.
You’ll have extra options for detours to get some blood into your vampire, although you can skip it if you wish. Although you’re actions throughout the chapter, your playing can influence if Hunters come after you while you are feeding.
Disciplines are essentially the powers each clan of vampires has, such as the Brujah’s Potence, the Toreador’s Presence, and the Ventrue’s Dominate. When you play as Kali, you have access to three disciplines.
The first is Animalism, which allows a Kindred to communicate, control, and feed off animals more easily. The second is Obfuscation, which allows a Kindred to hide more easily, move unnoticed, and divert the eyes of the observers.
The third Discipline Kali has is Presence, which gives the Kindred the ability to influence others’ emotions and attract or terrify them. These abilities will be used with options, allowing scenes to play out differently depending on what you pick, such as summoning a murder of crows to attack someone or walking away from hunters unseen but in plain sight.
For those unfamiliar with the terminology used in Vampire: The Masquerade – Reckoning of New York, there is a glossary in-game that allows you to understand, learn, or refresh your knowledge of the terminology used. Of course, if you put the game down for a while, there is an easy way to recap the story in the journal. The journal has three tabs: Logbook, Characters, and Disciplines.
The Logbook provides a summary of the story so far, summarizing each chapter into its own subtab. The Characters tab has a detailed look at the characters you meet, providing a backstory for you to read at your leisure. Finally, there is the Disciplines tab, which shows you how proficient you are with each of the three disciplines Kali has access to.
The sound design of Vampire: The Masquerade – Reckoning of New York is good, but unfortunately, compared to the previous games of the visual novel series, it is lacking. The previous games had soundtracks that included numerous genres such as Industrial, grunge, and new wave synth in comparison.
Vampire: The Masquerade – Reckoning of New York still uses intense industrial sound but only for high-octane moments, such as intense moments during the main story and detours. During the rest of the game, the majority of the music is a dark ambient track that doesn’t change much from moment to moment, becoming quite a tedious listen.
Like the previous games, Vampire: The Masquerade – Reckoning of New York features beautifully hand-drawn character and scene art. Thanks to their color choice or silhouette, all the characters are unique and easily recognizable.
A nice addition to the game is the inclusion of light animation with certain character art and sprites, which brings to life, well, technically unlife, a little. Despite all the scenes across the game taking place at night, the characters don’t get lost in the background, which is surprising considering that most color choices are darker shades or straight-up black.
Overall, Vampire: The Masquerade – Reckoning of New York is good, although it feels a little lacking in certain areas compared to the other entries in the trilogy. It will be great for long-time fans or even those playing any Vampire – The Masquerade for the first time, as it has an in-depth glossary explaining the lore and terminology. This is definitely for someone hoping for an action-filled vampire title, but it is more suited for those who want a good read.
