Nighthawks Review Summary

Play as a vampire whose choices shape a superbly written narrative with excellent characters and voice acting, though the awkward, gamified mechanics get in the way.

Superb writing quality: Feedback frequently describes the writing as amazing, well-written, wonderful, or great. This includes both overall writing and specific praise for excellent writing.

Excellent character design praised: Players consistently highlight the characters as interesting, memorable, varied, and deep. This is a core strength frequently mentioned across reviews.

Outstanding voice acting: Many reviewers commend the voice acting as excellent, good, or top-notch. It significantly enhances the overall experience.

Immersive atmosphere: The atmosphere is described as enjoyable, spot on, great, and oozing with a wonderful sense. It strongly contributes to player immersion.

Overall game highly enjoyable: General positive sentiments emphasize that the game is really good, awesome, and the whole package. It is widely regarded as a solid, fun experience.

Mechanics feel awkward and gamified: Combat and skill checks are described as silly or frustrating, with rules that seem illogical. Players note awkward requirements like needing high combat skill for a cheap knife, leading to save-scumming or blundering.

Lack of meaningful choice: Players report few real choices in certain situations, with forced actions or dialogue that doesn't make sense. Character creation also lacks clear starting stat choices, requiring trial and error.

Unbalanced powers and skills: Powers like Corpsetalking are worthless while Tenebrous Form and Beast Within are much more useful, often allowing skipping combat checks. Detective and persuasion skills can replace Mesmerism, making it inferior.

Navigation and direction unclear: The game doesn't hold your hand and can leave you going in circles trying to find the next move. Sometimes the reviewer gets a little lost working out where to go or what to do next.

Writing and world feel empty: The writing doesn't hold up for a visual novel, and everything feels empty and bland. The 'vampires are now public knowledge' concept is disliked as difficult to execute well.

Play as a vampire: The game is set in a vampire world where players take on the role of a vampire. This includes dealing with vampiric urges and navigating a society that knows vampires exist.

Player choices shape the narrative: Decisions made by the player significantly influence how the story unfolds, leading to different outcomes and branching paths. This choice-driven design is a core pillar of the experience.

Companions with personal storylines: Players can recruit companions who have their own character arcs and storylines. Companions can assist in the main story and provide various benefits.

Text-based interactive fiction: The game is primarily text-based, with a lot of reading and a format similar to interactive fiction or gamebooks. It features a streamlined text adventure style with images to support the narrative.

Visual novel with RPG elements: The game is primarily a visual novel that incorporates heavy RPG mechanics such as skill checks and character progression. Players describe it as a hybrid of interactive fiction and traditional RPG systems.

Great for visual novel readers: The game is frequently recommended for visual novel enthusiasts and players who enjoy text-heavy experiences with voice acting. Those who love reading and interactive stories will find it appealing.

Recommended for vampire fans: Many reviews recommend Nighthawks to players who enjoy vampire-themed games and the Vampire: The Masquerade setting. This includes fans of the tabletop RPG and related video games.

Great value and fun: Many players find the game an incredible bargain, worth more than its price, and describe it as a great game that is fun to play. Some are glad they bought it on day one.

Priced too high for content: Several reviewers struggle to recommend the game at full price, feeling it doesn't offer enough value in its current state. Some suggest waiting for a sale or that better options exist in the genre for the money.

Recommended for story and atmosphere: The game is praised for its great story, atmospheric horror, and characters that players care about. It is recommended for those seeking a captivating narrative to sink into.

Session length: 2.0h.

Nighthawks opens with slower worldbuilding and setup, then becomes more enjoyable once players reach Act 2 or have spent a few hours with it.

Reported time to anchor: 3h.

Friction: Opening is not fast-paced or strategic.; First act may feel like setup rather than payoff.; Pacing only gets going more in Act 2.; First hours are primarily worldbuilding..

Unlock drivers: Act 2 pacing improvement.; After a few hours, fewer downsides are reported..

Immersive Vampire Roleplayer: Narrative choice-driven roleplay, including moral restrictions such as never feeding on the unwilling. Motivation: To live out a vampire fantasy and make meaningful moral roleplay choices. Stance: buy.

Build Optimizer Save-Scummer: Trial-and-error character creation, frequent restarts, and save-scumming to control consequences. Motivation: To optimize character builds and prevent bad outcomes from ruining the run. Stance: no buy.

Narrative-First Newcomer: Reading dialogue and exploring the early game at a narrative pace, with replay in mind. Motivation: To experience a deep, text-heavy story and discover branching narrative. Stance: buy.

Vampire Masquerade IP influence: Many reviewers highlight that the game is a Vampire: The Masquerade game or draws heavy inspiration from the franchise, capturing its charm and formula with a unique twist. It is often compared to other Vampire: The Masquerade titles like Bloodlines, Night Road, and Coteries of New York.

Wadjet Eye publisher trust: Reviewers bought the game because they trust Wadjet Eye as a publisher, citing their previous point-and-click adventure games and a positive track record. Some prefer their traditional output but appreciate the new genre attempt.

Kickstarter-funded with demo history: The game was funded via Kickstarter, with backers and beta testers following its progress over years, including a switch from Unity to Godot engine. A demo version was available during development.

Lengthy development realises creators vision: The game underwent a lengthy development period, which allowed it to realize its creators' vision without compromise. Reviewers who followed from early demos to release note the effort and determination put into the final product.

High-quality voice acting and art: The game features a very high level of voice acting compared to the average indie title, with many talented actors contributing. The art by Ben Chandler is also highlighted as a strong point.