My first week as a vampire in "Nighthawks"...

Yeah, shake those... cards...

I'm five hours into Nighthawks and I just spent my first week in Cradlebridge. I've met a bunch of people, both vampires and humans, did some errands for some of them, earned me some money, bought some new clothes and even weapons, though apparently I can't even use them since I lack the skills... I'm playing the game as an average nice guy; I'll try to avoid confrontations and insulting people, but when push comes to shove I don't have an issue with dropping my pacifist principles and defend myself or even go full Anakin Skywalker and take revenge when someone truly makes me angry.

Ah, the lovely Becca...

I've noticed that I'm not really making any conscious decisions in this game. I'm just doing what works for me. Some options are unavailable to me because they involve traits I didn't choose when compiling my character at the start of the game. Other options I fail at because my stats aren't high enough. Usually leaving only one option, or sometimes even none at all and then I have to leave locations without having anything to show for it. I do try not to harm any humans, but a certain mission required fresh human blood and perhaps I'm just lazy and didn't look hard enough for alternate and more peaceful solutions, but I couldn't find any willing "donors", so eventually I went on a hunt.

Don't tip the scales in the wrong way...

The hunting mechanic is actually quite interesting. You pick a place where you stalk your pray; yet you don't yet know who your victim will be. I went to a diner, and then you have to observe and mingle with the other guests. Sometimes an interaction will let you come closer to your target, other times your suspicion bar will be raised. Trying out the available options, you have to try and fill your target bar first, otherwise you go home thirsty. I really enjoyed the scene animations here, because usually all scenes are static. This time, the screen colors red, and vague silhouettes slowly move back and forth, the music becomes more suspenseful, and to be honest, even while very intriguing, the whole made me very uncomfortable as well. I don't think I'd be very good at this hunting if it were real.

This kid reminds me of my son's half-sister...

I'm actually curious what the average adventure gamer thinks of Nighthawks. It's certainly not a traditional adventure. You can't literally explore the scenes by clicking on hotspots. Instead it's all done via the textual interface. But there are dialogues with NPC's, there are fetch quests, it's very much like a detective game and just as with The Séance of Blake Manor, every action costs time. Every click, even going through the dialogue menus and leaving again without actually asking anything, takes you a minute closer to sunrise. It's an exploration game that is a lot more than a simple click-to-progress visual novel. I can tell by my behavior of saving the game. It feels like I'm playing an old Sierra title with death waiting around every corner. The comparison fits even more, because it even contains a maze, in the form of the city sewers! I must have at least 25 save files by now, probably more!

Quite the gathering...

Nearing the end of Act One, I was offered the choice of immediately continuing the storyline, but the game then alerted me there were some "side quests" I would miss. Because I didn't want to miss anything of this brilliant example of fine storytelling, I simply went to bed and waited for the next sunset, after which I could talk to some people again and do another errand for them. I assume I'll be able to do this a couple of nights in a row, until every quest is completed and the main storyline will automatically take over again. At least this way, I guess I can raise my stats a bit more and be better prepared for whatever showdown is coming... Or at least I hope so...

You can find Nighthawks on Steam and on GOG!