Sadly, my "Nighthawks" adventure comes to an end...

Such lovely banter between these characters...

Sometimes a game comes along that's crazy addictive. A game you wish you didn't have to pause when real life gets in the way. A game you just want to keep playing until it's completely finished. That's pretty troublesome when the game in question takes you 45+ hours to reach its ending. But Nighthawks is one of those games. Never did I feel I was getting bored by it. Never did I want that ending to hurry up and arrive so I could go play something else. Every step of the way I was completely enthralled by it. No pun intended... The story, the characters, the side quests, the humor, the lighthearted banter, but also the dark and violent twists, the unexpected gruesomeness. This game captivated me more than any book or TV show has been able to in a long time. Even when perhaps the gameplay isn't what you would normally expect from an adventure game; even when it requires a lot more reading than you are used to; in fact all those descriptions and dialogues are what make Nighthawks stand out so much to me. And that's why it will most likely wind up in a very high place in my annual top ten.

Ah, the aristocracy...

But Nighthawks isn't without its flaws. I've heard from other players that they find the last week of each act is quite uneventful. I've always used that time to raise the respect of my fellow companions during enemy attacks, but you can only do that for so long until you can only rely on going on actual quests with them for that. After a while it's pretty obvious there's nothing coming anymore in a particular act. You can skip ahead to the final showdown, but I didn't do that because each night there's another news headline, and also a funny conversation at the bar, and I didn't want to miss those. Should you decide to skip, you get a message stating which quests you'll miss out on, if there are any, and then you can go back. It was only at the end of Act 4 when there were no more conversations at the bar, that the daily news was truly the only interesting thing left to discover. So yes, that might be a bit meagre for some.

They never learn...

Another element are recurring character designs when it comes to the extras. You'll face random enemy attacks, and they're usually the same people - sometimes wearing masks, sometimes showing their faces - even if you have previously killed them. The woman with her baseball bat and skull t-shirt is even the exact same character guarding one of the locations you often visit; you don't see her attacking you there, though! There are other examples where different characters look exactly the same as someone you encountered far earlier, like a homeless man, or a member of a cult you encountered in an alley, though that one could at least still be plausible, I guess... 

A very punchable face, this one...

Very confusing also were the instances when a quest status is updated, stating you have to take the next step in the mission, while in fact you can't actually do anything yourself but have to wait for the story to catch up instead. For instance, at one point I discovered the location of a group gathering I had to infiltrate, yet it didn't show up on the map. Turned out I had to wait for another character to come pick me up one night, and they would take me there. But since I had already triggered several other future "start of evening" events, and you can only see one of those each night, I could only continue this quest after several nights had passed, which was a bit frustrating because I really wanted to continue the story and see what would happen there.

Goodbye, dear friends!

But all those things are rather minor annoyances in what is otherwise an excellent story experience. When the game ended for me after 47,5 hours, I was very sad it was over. It felt like falling into a black hole, a lifeless void. There were some choices to make at the end, and here I followed my heart and decided the city would take care of itself and I could easily leave it behind with someone dear to me. I often say I might replay a game that promises multiple endings or different playthrough experiences, though I must admit I hardly ever do. There are just so many games out there; and my official review editor is probably wondering if I'm still alive... But I really do want to start a new playthrough of Nighthawks and play no longer as Jonathan Nice but as Jeremy Naughty and be an absolute bastard this time!

You can find Nighthawks on Steam and on GOG!