Vampire The Masquerade Coteries Of New York Review (Nintendo Switch OLED)

by Jim Smale · November 9, 2023

For this Vampire The Masquerade Coteries Of New York Review we presented the conflict between two vampiric factions: the traditionalist Camarilla and the fiercely independent Anarchs. It’s a unique, atmospheric, single-player narrative experience, set in the rich universe of Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition.

Vampire The Masquerade Coteries Of New York Review Pros:

Decent graphics.
3GB download size.
Game settings – text size, typing speed, dialogue options in the middle, and language.
Dynamic backgrounds – on/off.
Three save slots.
Three clan choices – Brujah, Ventrue, and Toreador.
You can name your character.
Visual novel gameplay.
Can save when you want.
Powerful and impactful soundtrack.
The story is told with animated still shots and music.
The game plays as a visual novel, you have an inner narrative that describes everything happening.
Multiple choice questions and encounters.
Really good writing that is powered by the soundtrack.
Makes references to many popular TV shows and songs, usually involving vampires but not always.
The dictionary is a menu you can bring up at any point and it fills in as you get new information and need more insight. The dictionary has a new, all-, and unread filter.
This game tells the story of you becoming a vampire and what that entails.
Log is where you go to reread the last parts of a conversation.
A skip button can be used to speed up proceedings.
Excellent descriptive writing.
The whole game is just as engrossing as a good book.
For the best experience, I found handheld and headphones to be a winning combo.
Simple easy-to-use controls.
Hunger in the game is always shown on the frames of the screen, hunger dictates what you can and cannot do in situations along with story-critical interactions.
Feeding opportunities can pop up, doing so is risky but it will help lower your hunger.
The most important thing is to keep the hunger at the right level in order to remain in the Masquerade.
A fascinating story and it’s hard to put down.
Every choice you make feeds into the sort of character you become and forms your narrative.
The map fills in as you play and you get to choose where and when you go places.
memorable characters and locations.

Vampire The Masquerade Coteries Of New York Review Cons:

Not the best loading times.
Playing with big text makes keeping up a lot harder and you have to scroll conversations more. The story is told with animated still shots and music.
Never sure if and when it saves outside of the manual save and quit.
You can skip interactions but I don’t really see the need and plus it’s more of a short burst fast forward.
At times it would have been nice to have more animations and images to accompany the writing instead of just a scene shot.
No voice work is shown off.
Can be a pain to keep checking the dictionary.
The new dictionary entry added text is a huge eye-sore.
No touchscreen.
You have to be invested in the gameplay style.
At times it feels like your choices have no bearing.

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