Vampire: The Masquerade — Night Road

Just finished and giving this a rare 10/10 score, as I experienced no bugs or errors and got my perfect ending. I played it raw - no looking things up, no guides, nothing. I went in with a blank slate and glad I did as the tension of knowing I had to deal with every choice created a lot of excitement and tension. No reloads and no going back to chose something else. I was nervous I might not get the ending I want but thankfully I got it. So, my score reflects my personal experience with the game and isn't based solely on its mechanics. I.e. its more a subjective score vs. an objective one. The game itself I went into thinking it would be ho-hum. I had just finished two play through of the original VTM Bloodlines and wanted more VTM/vampire game play. I was skeptical of how good a text only game could be but I was bored and sometimes it pays to try something different. In this case it paid off. I was up until 2:3 0am at night unable to pull myself away from the story. I like that it has a character sheet with stats, attributes, and skills that all go up based on both usage and how you spend some of the experience points your earn doing things. There is tracking of reputation with 3 factions, simple inventory, tracking of the masquerade and humanity, money, and an excellent journal you could access at any time to get help. I also appreciated that when trying to make a choice in dialogue, with skill/attribute influence you could easily jump to your stats page to see your points, then return. I did play with storyteller mode on as it said that is how VTM is played and I preferred it that way. The writing was top-notch. I wasn't expecting anything too good for a game like this, it can be hard to write a good story when there are so many choices and paths, but the writing was excellent and pulled me right in. I listened to some dark occult trance music while playing which really added to the atmosphere. I also liked the few pieces of artwork of some of the characters in the game. I played the basic game, no add-ons, and can highly recommend it. I also liked that I had freedom to chose who I fed on and was able to play as a gay vampire, who also got to do a little romance on the side - although I want to stress that was not the focus of the game by any means. Just a nice side option and a surprise I hadn't expected. Anyhow really fun well done game IMO.

My personal favorite of these "Choice of" games set in the Vampire the Masquerade setting. Night Road offers a very enjoyable and personalized experience with tons of ways to go through the engaging story.

It's not perfect, but if you like Vampire: the Masquerade, it would be stupid not to give it a try. As simple as that. A pretty immersive and captivating Cainite experience.

As my first interactive fiction experience, Night Road was fun and exciting, though the abruptness of some potential deaths caught me off guard. I'd recommend it to a fan of vampire games, or an interactive fiction fan looking for a story with a great deal of variation in their game.

Contrived writing and obtuse systems that ended up making me feel like I wasted my time playing this. Even starved for Vampire content I don't think I'd recommend it.