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Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York

You've played the tabletop games and the PC games... now play the visual novel.
69%Game Brain Score
story, music
stability, grinding
69% User Score Based on 3,418 reviews
Critic Score 69%Based on 22 reviews

Platforms

PCPCXboxXboxXbox Series X|SXbox Series X|SPlaystation 4Playstation 4WindowsWindowsPlayStationPlayStationNintendo SwitchNintendo SwitchLinuxLinuxMac OSMac OSXbox OneXbox OneSteam DeckSteam Deck

About

"Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York" is a single-player Horror Role Playing game with an interesting plot, set in the universe of Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition. Players can choose to be a Ventrue, Toreador, or Brujah and explore the conflict between the Camarilla and Anarchs in New York, utilizing their unique Disciplines. Despite its awesome visuals, exceptional music, and unique atmosphere, the game is criticized for being very grinding and buggy.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York screenshot
Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York screenshot
Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York screenshot
Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York screenshot
Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York screenshot
Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York screenshot
Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York screenshot
Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York screenshot
Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York screenshot
Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York screenshot
Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York screenshot
+2

69%
Audience ScoreBased on 3,440 reviews
story1k positive mentions
stability40 negative mentions

  • The game features beautiful artwork and atmospheric music that enhances the overall experience.
  • The writing is engaging, with well-developed characters and an interesting storyline that captures the essence of the Vampire: The Masquerade universe.
  • It serves as a good introduction to the World of Darkness, providing lore and context for newcomers while still being enjoyable for fans.
  • The choices made throughout the game have little to no impact on the overall story, leading to a feeling of railroading and lack of agency.
  • There is only one ending, which feels abrupt and unsatisfying, leaving many plot threads unresolved.
  • The save system is frustrating, as it only allows for one save slot and can lead to losing progress if the player makes a wrong choice.
  • story
    3,700 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The story of "Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York" is generally well-received for its engaging writing and atmospheric setting, effectively immersing players in the world of darkness. However, many reviewers criticize its linearity and the lack of meaningful choices, as decisions often lead to the same outcomes, diminishing the sense of agency. The abrupt ending, which leaves numerous plot threads unresolved, has also been a point of contention, leading to a mixed reception regarding the overall narrative experience.

    • “The storytelling is masterful, weaving a rich tapestry of intrigue, politics, and personal struggle.”
    • “The writing is consistently strong, with well-crafted plot twists and compelling character arcs that keep you hooked from start to finish.”
    • “Its immersive storytelling, stunning visuals, and impactful choices make it a standout title that leaves a lasting impression.”
    • “You get the same plot for every character and POV, and the 'choices' you get aren't really choices at all, as they don't affect the story at all.”
    • “You are given choices of how you behave, then the game reports on your choices, but after that the story moves like you didn't act that way, but instead as if you've acted the way the story expected you to.”
    • “The problem is that none of your choices really matter or affect anything, other than removing plot from your playthrough.”
  • music
    525 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The music in "Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York" has received widespread acclaim for its atmospheric and immersive qualities, effectively enhancing the game's dark and moody aesthetic. Many players noted the soundtrack's ability to complement the narrative and visuals, with some tracks becoming favorites for their haunting melodies. While some found the music repetitive or less memorable, the overall consensus is that it significantly contributes to the game's engaging atmosphere and aligns well with the World of Darkness lore.

    • “Moody and atmospheric, beautiful art and music to accompany a compelling text-based adventure that pulls you into the world of darkness.”
    • “The haunting soundtrack further enhances this ambiance, with its eerie melodies and ominous undertones lingering in your mind long after you’ve stopped playing.”
    • “The music is great, the atmosphere, animated backgrounds, are all quite pretty.”
    • “The music is lackluster and repetitive.”
    • “The mood is wrong, the music is wrong.”
    • “Like the art, the music is in short supply, being reused over and over for what is a 3-4 hour game.”
  • graphics
    525 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The graphics in "Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York" are widely praised for their beautiful artwork and atmospheric visuals, effectively capturing the game's dark themes. However, many reviewers noted issues with repetitive and reused visuals, which detracted from immersion and variety. Overall, while the art style is considered stunning and fitting for the narrative, the lack of animation and limited graphical diversity left some players wanting more.

    • “The moody, gothic visuals perfectly complement the game's dark themes, creating an atmosphere that is both beautiful and unsettling.”
    • “The artwork is exceptional in most part, although I am disappointed it's not more animated.”
    • “The visuals are stunning and the character sprites look amazing, the dialogue is fun and engrossing, the music is great, and the narrative was compelling and in line with what you'd expect from V:TM stories with some twists and turns I didn't even see coming.”
    • “Graphics are pretty cheap and repetitive; asset reuse is so bad it kills immersion.”
    • “The trailer makes the visuals look vibrant, but don't be fooled - poor story development and the cheap practice of reusing artwork soon devolves the story into a blur of meaningless repetitive imagery.”
    • “With the minimum expected artwork and very little variation in plot options, this 'video game' recreates the feel of an '80s choose-your-own-adventure book, with less variation in plot progress and endings.”
  • atmosphere
    460 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The atmosphere in "Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York" is widely praised for its immersive and moody design, effectively capturing the dark, gothic essence of the World of Darkness. Players commend the combination of beautiful artwork, atmospheric music, and rich storytelling that draws them into a compelling narrative filled with vampire politics and moral dilemmas. Despite some criticisms regarding gameplay mechanics and linearity, the overall ambiance is described as captivating and engaging, making it a worthwhile experience for fans of the franchise.

    • “Vampire: the masquerade - coteries of new york is an exquisite blend of narrative brilliance and atmospheric immersion that truly captures the essence of the world of darkness.”
    • “The moody, gothic visuals perfectly complement the game's dark themes, creating an atmosphere that is both beautiful and unsettling.”
    • “The writing, the atmosphere, the art and the ambient sound all come together quite nicely.”
    • “The atmosphere and the dialogue is there but your choices don't really make a difference, so it's a huge waste of time to even click them.”
    • “From the artistic point of view, the game visuals of Coteries of New York fail to create a proper VTM atmosphere, and this is a big loss considering it is a visual novel game with no voice acting.”
    • “I did not enjoy myself in the slightest, in spite of the initial wonder with the atmosphere and art style.”
  • gameplay
    315 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The gameplay of *Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York* is primarily a visual novel experience, heavily focused on dialogue and narrative choices, with limited mechanics such as a hunger system that feels underdeveloped and often confusing. Players report that while the story and atmosphere are engaging, the gameplay lacks depth and meaningful player agency, leading to a short experience of around 5 hours that may not satisfy those seeking traditional RPG elements or extensive character customization. Overall, the game is best suited for fans of visual novels rather than those looking for robust gameplay mechanics.

    • “Gameplay and storyline are good, choices really matter.”
    • “The blood management system (you need to keep track of how much blood you suck and how many times you've used your abilities) adds some nice gameplay to what you'd expect to be just another visual novel.”
    • “Extremely immersive and interesting gameplay, story, and characters.”
    • “It has serious problems with both of its core mechanics: choices and hunger.”
    • “The gameplay is just meh.”
    • “The gameplay is you hitting 'next' about 4000 times so the next page of text can scroll by accompanied by the occasional static image.”
  • replayability
    229 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's replayability is a mixed bag, with some players noting that while there are multiple characters and branching narratives, the overall impact of choices is minimal, leading to a generally low replay value. Many reviews highlight the short playtime and linear structure as significant drawbacks, making it difficult to justify multiple playthroughs despite the potential for exploring different character interactions. Overall, while some players find enjoyment in revisiting the game for its story and characters, the lack of meaningful consequences and a single predetermined ending diminish its replayability.

    • “The characters and side missions are fun, and it offers a lot of replayability as you'll never have time to explore all possible threads thrown at you in one playthrough.”
    • “This branching narrative structure ensures that no two playthroughs are the same, offering immense replay value.”
    • “The game shines with its compelling branching story and impactful choices, strong character development and relationships, and high replay value with different clans and choices.”
    • “Structurally, it is dumbfounding why you would make a game that has zero replayability (because there's only one predetermined ending), but don't give players enough time to explore the entire game.”
    • “The game itself is just too short with no real replayability in the slightest, and the choices you make really don't make any difference.”
    • “That being said, there is literally zero replay value to this game.”
  • character development
    43 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Character development in the game receives mixed reviews; while some players appreciate the compelling storylines and strong relationships, many criticize the lack of meaningful choices and character growth, feeling that the designs lack diversity and distinctiveness. The art style and character designs are often praised for their visual appeal, but the overall impact of character development is diminished by a linear plot that limits player agency and leads to unsatisfying conclusions. Overall, players express a desire for more depth and variety in character development to enhance the gaming experience.

    • “The game shines with its compelling branching story and impactful choices, strong character development and relationships, and high replay value with different clans and choices.”
    • “Likes: interesting character development, and subplots.”
    • “+ excellent character design of NPCs, unique and you feel for them in many ways and always makes you curious to know more.”
    • “Because you can't diverge from the main plot no matter how stupid you act your choices don't really matter because something will just happen to get events on track anyway. It would honestly have been better to just have no options except for brief moments to instead just have the writers able to focus on more content and better character development. The same with character selection where they really might as well have just had one main character.”
    • “No character growth, no character development.”
    • “The biggest design points of the game - story and character development - are neglected, and this is mostly due to how short this game is.”
  • stability
    40 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's stability has been widely criticized, with numerous users reporting persistent bugs, including dialogue glitches, typos, and issues with save functionality. While some minor glitches do not significantly impact gameplay, many players have expressed frustration over the frequency and severity of these issues, suggesting that the game may require further patches before it is fully enjoyable. Overall, the consensus is that the game is currently a "buggy mess," and potential players might benefit from waiting for updates before purchasing.

    • “Sadly can't experience the new one, Shadows of New York, as it's still a buggy mess to this day and refuses to launch.”
    • “Beyond that, the game is a buggy mess; there are spelling and grammatical errors aplenty, some sets of choices net you the same passage of text no matter what you click, and at one point the game skipped an entire plot-critical event where I was supposedly beaten and introduced to a critical NPC, leaving me to find out about the events via an NPC remarking about the trouble it would bring.”
    • “Although the release was already postponed one week to polish the visual novel more, I still encountered a good amount of typos as well as interface glitches (text was assigned to the wrong character) and more often than not different soundtracks overlapped each other.”
  • grinding
    34 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious and repetitive, often requiring excessive clicking to navigate through dialogues and backtrack in the story. While some appreciate the character differences across playthroughs, many feel that the lack of variety and the absence of features like a skip button or save/load function contribute to a frustrating experience, making multiple playthroughs feel unnecessarily burdensome. Overall, the grinding is seen as a significant drawback that detracts from the enjoyment of the narrative.

    • “You'll need a second life for grinding.”
    • “The lack of one in this is that you have to do a lot of clicking to get back to where you were; it gets tedious.”
    • “It thus becomes tedious to see all these side quests to their end during multiple playthroughs when the main storyline is practically the same.”
    • “You can replay it to find out what happens when you make different response choices or pick different protagonists or different side quests - there's no 'text skip' button which can make clicking through dialog on replay a bit tedious.”
  • emotional
    18 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The emotional aspect of the game is characterized by a mix of discomfort and intrigue, particularly through its seductive vampiric themes and first-person narration. While players appreciate the emotional weight of their choices, many express disappointment over the lack of meaningful consequences, leading to feelings of heartbreak and frustration. Overall, the game is seen as an emotional experience, but its perceived shortcomings in storytelling and gameplay mechanics detract from its impact.

    • “The choices can be highly effective from an emotional standpoint, but mechanically they don't mean much.”
    • “Since a big theme of VTM: Bloodlines was the importance of choice, an ending that doesn't change, pretty much no matter what you do, is upsetting, even heartbreaking.”
    • “This is mostly an emotional experience, delivered vicariously through first-person narration, and if you feel at all intrigued by the setting and are not easily offended by the idea of not 'really' having a choice of direction throughout the story, I don't see any reason not to recommend it.”
    • “Boring story, gameplay mechanics that make no sense as a visual novel, re-used assets... feels like not a lot of effort was put into this game.”
    • “Also, it's a rather boring story.”
  • humor
    16 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The humor in the game is described as a blend of terror and comedy, with players finding amusement in NPC interactions and the absurdity of certain scenarios. The writing often contrasts humorously with the art, leading to awkwardly funny moments, while players enjoy sharing their experiences and character names, enhancing their understanding of the game's world. Overall, the game successfully combines grim themes with comedic elements, making for an engaging and entertaining experience.

    • “It's grim, it's funny, it has plot twists, it's able to drag you in, and shock you.”
    • “Some NPC recruiting scenarios are quite funny.”
    • “My one recommendation as you play is to give your character a funny name.”
  • monetization
    14 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The monetization aspect of the game has drawn significant criticism, with users feeling that the franchise prioritizes cash-grabbing tactics over quality content. Many believe the game is merely a quick cash-in on the Vampire: The Masquerade brand, particularly as fans await Bloodlines 2, leading to disappointment in its perceived lack of ambition and originality. Additionally, there are calls for clearer advertising to better represent the game's narrative style.

    • “I love VTM, but it seems to be a franchise more obsessed with cash grabbing than anything else today.”
    • “Honestly, this game just feels like a cash grab sporting the Vampire: The Masquerade title, knowing those of us who are eagerly waiting for Bloodlines 2 would buy this just to tide us over while we wait.”
    • “Otherwise, I can't decide if this is a quick IP-based cash grab or a rush job on an already unambitious visual novel.”
  • optimization
    8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The optimization of the game has been criticized, with some users noting that even simpler games created in a short time frame exhibit better writing and optimization. While one reviewer reported no performance issues, the overall sentiment suggests that the game's optimization falls short compared to other titles.

    • “I've played games thrown together in Ren'Py in two days that were massively better written and better optimized than this.”
    • “The optimization in this game is impressive, as I experienced no performance issues whatsoever.”
    • “Seriously, I've played games thrown together in Ren'Py in two days that were massively better written and better optimized than this.”
    • “Background music doesn't stop there, and it keeps clashing with the band's performance.”
    • “My performance section will be rather obligatory this time, as I obviously did not have any problems.”

Buy Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York

6h Median play time
7h Average play time
5-10h Spent by most gamers
*Based on 34 analyzed playthroughs

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