$19.99Nighthawks Run the Nightclub, Rule the Night
Build a vampire empire from a failing club, choosing charm, fear or forbidden magic as your path through a dark, funny, fully voiced story.
Is Nighthawks worth it?
Nighthawks is worth it if…
- you want a vampire story where the undead live in the open and pay taxes, sort of
- you like text-heavy games with fully voiced characters and a lot of dark humour
- you enjoy recruiting companions and digging into their pasts at your own pace
- you would rather talk, seduce or turn into smoke than fight your way through a problem
- you have the patience for a long, slow-burn story that rewards reading closely
Screenshots
A second life in a city that knows what you are
Vampires have been exposed. Your existence is tolerated; your thirst is not. You arrive in the one city willing to give the undead a fresh start and find paranoia still clinging to its neon-lit streets. From there, you claw your way up: take over a failing nightclub on the wrong side of the tracks and turn it into an empire built on seduction, intimidation and careful use of supernatural Gifts. The setting flips the usual vampire fantasy on its head. There is no shadow to hide in anymore, so you have to learn to live in the light, among humans who fear you and vampires jostling for position. Outcasts rise when the sun sets, and this city is full of them.
Powers with teeth
Being a modern monster comes with options. Mesmerism lets you exert control over the living. Natural Dominion puts animals at your command. Tenebrous Form lets you shift effortlessly into smoke, which is as useful as it sounds when a conversation stops going your way. Your skills shape which doors open: a seductive approach and a scholarly one lead through different scenes, and failing a check rarely dead-ends you, it just pushes the story somewhere rougher. Murder, betrayal, friendship, all of it is on the table, and the game lets you play a civilised vampire who never hurts anyone or a predator who feeds the old way. The magic is there to use, and to abuse.
Ten outcasts worth knowing
The heart of Nighthawks is its companions, and there are ten to recruit. Madame Lux is a vampire magician. Maze is an incorrigible con-artist. Domino is a private investigator whose career ended in disgrace. Each has their own storyline to dig into, and their skills fill the gaps yours leave open. They also talk to each other: bring one companion to another's place and watch what happens, or let events at the nightclub spark conversations you had nothing to do with. Treat them well and the club becomes a found family for lonely souls. Treat them badly and the game does not look away.
Reading by neon light
This is a text-heavy game and proud of it: over 800,000 words of stories and secrets, from the hilarious to the horrific, covering every corner of a world where the living and the dead both have a lot to learn. The writing is the draw, and it is fully voiced, so the characters land with real performances behind them. The art is hand-drawn and gothic, the music keeps the mood humming along, and short vignettes pop up throughout that can be grotesque, funny or quietly sad, sometimes all three. If you like your visual novels long, atmospheric and written by someone with a taste for dark humour, this one has a banquet laid out. Bring an evening. Preferably several.
Questions before you bite?
Do your choices actually change the story?
They shape it. Your background, skills and decisions open different scenes and colour how people treat you, and there are multiple endings to reach. That said, the main plot follows a set spine: some players who wanted a fully branching RPG find it more linear than expected. Come for the characters, the writing and the atmosphere more than a sandbox of diverging plots.
Is it more of a game or more of a book?
Closer to a book that reacts to you. It is a visual novel with role-playing elements: skill checks, resources like blood for your powers, a day-and-night clock, and choices that shape scenes. There are no levels or gear to manage, so if you want deep mechanical systems this is not that. If you want to read a great vampire story and steer it, it is exactly that.
Can you play as an evil vampire?
You can feed on people, intimidate, betray and generally behave like the predator you are, and the story will react. But the game has opinions about its monsters, and some players feel it judges cruel playthroughs more harshly than they expected. A charming monster with a functioning nightclub tends to have a better time than a feral one.
Who made it?
It is written and designed by Richard Cobbett, known for Sunless Sea and Sunless Skies, with hand-drawn art by Ben Chandler, music by Thomas Regin, and Dave Gilbert of Wadjet Eye Games producing. It was funded by 3,934 Kickstarter backers. The rats, according to the credits, were paid in delicious berries.
