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Vampire: The Masquerade – Coteries of New York Demo Impressions
THE SWITCH VERSION OF VAMPIRE: THE MASQUERADE – COTERIES OF NEW YORK WAS DEMOED AT PDXCON WHERE SCREEN RANT WENT HANDS-ON WITH THE GAME.
Paradox Interactive and Draw Distance showcased Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York at the recent PDXCON event in Berlin where Screen Rant had the chance to try the demo of the Nintendo Switch version of the game. Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York is an upcoming visual novel that adapts the Vampire: The Masquerade tabletop game into a story about the secret ruling class of vampires that operate within New York City.
The Vampire: The Masquerade license is owned by Paradox Interactive and Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York is one of several games based on the property that appeared at PDXCON, with Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong announced for the first time at the event. Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York was the only video game based on the property that had a hands-on demo at PDXCON and we were able to experience the first few parts of the story.
There are three playable characters in Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York and each of them is transformed into a member of one of three vampire clans, a passionate Brujah, an artistic Toreador, and a controlling Ventrue. The demo only had the Brujah and Ventrue options available and each character's story started out differently. The Ventrue main character is a businesswoman who is transformed into a vampire by a mysterious associate of her employer, while the Brujah is turned by a wild girl he meets at a party. The two storylines converge when the newly formed vampire is abandoned by their sire and left to fend for themselves. The demo of Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 that we saw at PDXCON also began with the main character being turned into a vampire by a stranger, so it's possible that they're paying homage to the similar intro from Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines.
The main character is then found by a vampire named Quadir, who is tasked with bringing them in for questioning. The player has the choice of going along with Quadir's demands or resisting - the latter of which is a terrible idea since he is far more powerful than the protagonist. The choices determine whether the player arrives at their meeting in one piece, or with a gaping hole in their chest.
Quadir brings the main character to a meeting with Prince Hellene Panhard, the current ruler of New York City. The main character's fate should be sealed, as they were turned into a vampire without the permission of the Prince, but they are given a lifeline by a member of Hellene's council named Sophie who offers to adopt the protagonist at the cost of becoming her servant. If the player refuses this offer, then they are sentenced and beheaded by Quadir.
The main character is sent to live in a fancy apartment that is owned by Sophie and they are given time to come to terms with their new unlife. Sophie tasks the player with seeking out other local vampires and helping them with any problems that they have, in return for favors that can be reclaimed at a later date. There are several allies around New York who can help the protagonist, including a powerful vampiric sorcerer from clan Tremere and a hideous member of clan Nosferatu who fancies himself a detective. The player can perform side-quests with these characters, which will lead to them becoming party members in the full version of the game.
The demo ended before we had a chance to test out different aspects of the game, but we learned more about the game during an interview with the developers. The three characters have access to the Presence discipline, which they can use to attract or scare mortals, while the Brujah has Celerity (super speed) and Potence (super strength), the Toreador has Celerity and Auspex (supernatural senses), and the Ventrue has Fortitude (super resilience) and Dominate (mind control), all of which can be used to solve problems in different ways.
The devs told us that the story of Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York is canon with the Vampire: The Masquerade tabletop game and will feature characters from the books. One example of this is Prince Hellene, who appeared in the New York by Night sourcebook from 2001. The three characters have their own prologue chapters and they all converge into the same main storyline, but actions within the story can change a lot of different things, such as how the protagonist deals with their loved ones from their mortal life. It won't be possible to recruit every party member in a single playthrough, which will also change how the story plays out. It was confirmed that other supernatural creatures from the World of Darkness will be referenced in the game, but they won't make any direct appearances.
Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York will be the first new Vampire: The Masquerade game since 2004, as Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 was delayed to later in 2020. The tabletop game has always been more about social interaction and hard choices than action set pieces, so a story set in the Vampire: The Masquerade universe is a natural fit for the visual novel format. The brief story snippet of Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York that we saw was intriguing and had us interested in seeing how it will play out when the full version of the game launches later this year.
VAMPIRE: THE MASQUERADE - COTERIES OF NEW YORK FEATURES
Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York will be released for Linux, macOS, and Windows on December 4, 2019. The Nintendo Switch version of the game will be released in Q1 2020.
