Nighthawks review – A fangtastic vampire RPG

Vampire RPG Nighthawks has taught me two important lessons. One, being a vampire sucks unless you’ve got money – it turns out that you don’t get your own magnificent castle the moment you sprout fangs. And two, never, ever trust anyone who looks like they’re cosplaying Tim Curry.

Disco Elysium meets True Blood with a dash of What We Do in the Shadows, Nighthawks casts you as a newly-turned vampire in a world where ‘coldbloods’ are public knowledge. Half the nameless city’s populace would happily stake you and the game never lets you forget it, making them more of a concern than your fellow undead.

Minus a clan system (there’s plenty of drama without), you’re free to build your own bloodsucker. Appearance and gender are unspecified, but you can choose your character’s talents and origins. You only get to pick one uncanny power (mesmerism, form of mist and so on) but between that, your less mystical skills and the choices you make mean no two playthroughs will be the same.

On my first wickedly entertaining run, I teamed up with not-Tim Curry, aka Deacon Maze. Next time around, he tried to hoodwink me into falling for his baby vamp-bilking scheme. That was before I pursued any of the many, many side-stories Nighthawks has to offer, which range from perpetrating your own scam through to tracking down a companion’s menacing, Saw-style sire. If, like me, you were seriously disappointed by Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2’s lacklustre diversions, you’ll gorge yourself on Nighthawks’ side-quest smorgasbord.

Nighthawks’ main storyline is relatively linear; you’re always going to end up as the owner of the titular in-game nightclub. This isn’t a management sim, not by a long stretch, but you do get to make decisions that impact your bank balance. The more the club makes, the easier it is to afford extras like fancier outfits and the odd weapon. I couldn’t stop grinning when I was finally able to goth up in one of Nighthawks’ shops.

And, at the end of Act 3 you’ll always… well, that would be spoiling things. Let’s just say that Nighthawks’ central narrative is one heck of a ride. But even though those core events are fixed, there are myriad ways to reach your next stop along Nighthawk’s twisty-turny tale, and that journey is always a bloody delight.

It’s not without the odd pothole, though. Nighthawks keeps track of your various quests via a smartphone, but on two occasions, when I tried to advance the story I was told I had unfinished business. I had no idea how to proceed and it wasn’t until, after wandering around for a couple of in-game nights, I succeeded in activating the appropriate character encounter.

I’m glad I did, however, since it ended up being a truly heart-rending sub-story; the direct consequence of a decision I’d made earlier without fully appreciating its impact at the time. Nighthawk’s varied and fully-voiced NPCs are a huge part of its appeal, and not just because they’re so gorgeously drawn.

The characters here are a thoroughly three-dimensional lot, with issues that are all too human for a bunch of undead beings. There’s detective work involved (which largely involves employing your talents of choice), which means that you’ll come to understand what makes the characters of Nighthawks tick – and it’s frequently far from straightforward.

Hearing the ‘King’ talk about his still-living family brought a lump to my throat, as did the fate of another character, realising I was the only one who seemed to care. They didn’t even get a gravestone. The vocal performances are top-notch too, including a turn from Baldur’s Gate 3 narrator Amelia Tyler as the sly and menacing Monica Vail.

Success or failure often comes down to your character’s skills (which can be levelled up) and the roll of an unseen die. Nighthawks helpfully informs you of each action’s chance of success, though not everyone will be on board with using such a system to determine the outcome of the game’s scattered combat encounters. Essentially, you get into a fight and sit back and hope you win (one companion in particular can boost your chances of victory).

Fortunately, it seems near-impossible to get killed in Nighthawks, but losing a fight can cost you hours of in-game time and earn you a health-limiting injury. While I never ran out of the former, I can see it becoming a precious resource if you’re a completist. You can also fail side quests which, given how much disdain some characters have for your ‘baby vamp’ status, hurts.

There’s more to these activities than just the outcome, too. Nighthawks has sneaky ways of testing you, seeing just how willing you are to undermine what remains of your humanity. Whether it’s messing with people’s heads or ‘donating’ victims to a creepy doctor to heal your wounds, you’ll feel more than a little compromised by the time the credits roll.

My first playthrough ended with what Vampire the Masquerade would call an ‘anarch’ ending, but I’m so hooked on Nighthawks that I’m already well into my second run. This time, I’m out to rule the whole city, playing a mesmerism-wielding brawler who’ll punch anything they can’t hypnotise. What could possibly go wrong?