Nighthawks Game Guide: First Nights, Powers and Choices

This Nighthawks game guide covers the systems that actually drive the vampire RPG before you sink your teeth in: what the game is, how the opening Act plays out, how powers, traits and companions work, and how the nightclub, blood meters and monthly deadlines fit together. Everything here comes from the official store pages, launch-week reviews from PC Gamer, GamesRadar and Rock Paper Shotgun, and the developer's own Steam news posts.

What Nighthawks Is

Nighthawks is a text-driven vampire CRPG from The Curiosity Engine, published by Wadjet Eye Games. The official pitch: vampires have been exposed to the world, and you play someone who died six months ago and was reborn as one of them. You arrive in Cradlebridge — the world's first integrated city, per PC Gamer, where vampires carry ID cards, have their own political committee, and can pick up watered-down blood at a clinic — and take over a failing nightclub called Nighthawks, building an empire through seduction, intimidation and secret supernatural Gifts. The game carries more than 800,000 words, is fully voiced in English, and contains no ads, no energy meters and no microtransactions.

The headline facts, at a glance:

• A text-driven vampire CRPG from The Curiosity Engine, published by Wadjet Eye Games.
• More than 800,000 words, fully voiced in English.
• No ads, no energy meters and no microtransactions.
• Choices Matter and Multiple Endings tags on Steam, with 100 achievements.
• Released September 22, 2026 on Windows, macOS and Linux at $19.99.

Your First Nights

Act 1 is a detective story: PC Gamer describes hunting a traitor across Cradlebridge, while later Acts shift toward the vampire integration project and becoming one of the city's movers and shakers. The city itself splits into three neighbourhoods — down-and-out Cradlebridge, the red-light district Angelbreach and wealthy Fountaincourt (Rock Paper Shotgun) — and each evening you pick locations from a map and play out scenes in choose-your-own-adventure style. GamesRadar describes the main plotline as fairly linear (to confirm), with the real spread in how you handle side stories and people along the way.

For your opening, the priorities below follow directly from how the systems unlock:

• Follow the Act 1 traitor investigation through — it doubles as the tutorial for the map, traits and the nightclub.
• Get a feel for all three neighbourhoods early: down-and-out Cradlebridge, red-light Angelbreach and wealthy Fountaincourt (RPS).
• Recruit your first companions before the first month ends, since quests you bring them on raise their respect.
• Watch both meters — blood and predator — through the first month before experimenting with fast-forwarding.
• Play the patched build: Patch 1.1 (September 23, 2026) cleared early-Act roadblocks and eased sewer navigation.

Powers, Traits and Companions

Character creation defines your background, your vampire sire and a single power (to confirm the exact power list, PC Gamer). Officially listed Gifts include Mesmerism (charm), Natural Dominion (commanding animals) and Tenebrous Form (turning to smoke). Traits grow through use: brawling climbs when you fight, seduction when you charm, and PC Gamer notes an exhibitionist trait that, maxed out, raises seduction but also infamy. You can recruit ten companions — including Madame Lux the vampire magician, Maze the con artist, Domino the disgraced private investigator and Agatha, the self-styled Empress of the Rats — and bringing them on quests raises their respect for you.

The officially listed Gifts line up like this:

Gift	What it does
Mesmerism	Charm and control the living.
Natural Dominion	Command animals to do your bidding.
Tenebrous Form	Dissolve into smoke.

All three come from the official store page; character creation grants one starting power (to confirm the exact list, PC Gamer), with more learned as the story unfolds.

Time, Blood and the Nightclub

Every choice and location visit ticks time toward sunrise, and each Act spans one month with deadlines at month's end; you can fast-forward at your sanctuary, but the game warns you about events you would miss (PC Gamer). Two meters need managing: a blood meter that is easy to fill in later Acts, and a predator meter that, if ignored, can trigger a fugue state with messy consequences. The Nighthawks club itself is your base and your empire — restore it, run it, and let it anchor your rise. Patch 1.1 (September 23, 2026) also softened sewer navigation, adding an escape option and faster sewer travel.

The core systems, as the sources describe them:

System	What it does	Status
The Nighthawks club	Your base and your empire — restore it, run it, and let it anchor your rise.	Confirmed (official pages, PC Gamer)
Blood meter	Keeps you fed; easy to fill in later Acts.	Confirmed (PC Gamer)
Predator meter	If ignored, can trigger a fugue state with messy consequences.	Confirmed (PC Gamer)
Monthly deadlines	Each Act spans one month, and every choice and location visit ticks time toward sunrise.	Confirmed (PC Gamer)
Trait growth	Brawling climbs when you fight, seduction when you charm.	Confirmed (PC Gamer)
Sewer travel	Using sewers builds toward fast-travel; Patch 1.1 added an escape option and faster travel.	Confirmed (PC Gamer, Patch 1.1 notes)

Choices and Consequences

Steam tags the game Choices Matter and Multiple Endings, and PC Gamer rated it 89/100, calling it "a novel vampire RPG that's also a vampire novel's worth of writing." RPS's review is the counterweight, arguing the RPG systems rarely lock outcomes and the vignette structure can feel uneven — so plan for a story-first experience rather than a build-optimization one. See our endings page for what is confirmed about finales.

Act 1 Route Map: "The King of Cradlebridge"

The first community walkthrough (Into Indie Games, September 24, 2026) documents the shape of Act 1 end to end, and it does not match the name launch reviews assumed. The Act is titled "The King of Cradlebridge," and its question is not whodunit — it is how you unseat Sam Tancredi, the vampire King of the city, while search threads for Elijah Morrow run underneath. Beat by beat, as documented:

• Prologue: choose your Sire, Origin, Gift and Knowledge (the walkthrough ran Aristocrat / Imperial / Beast Within / Technology), then search Elijah Morrow's apartment — what you decide to look for (a watch, a gold ring or a locket) resurfaces later, and the armed-old-lady encounter is a keep-the-urge-or-drain choice the walkthrough calls low-stakes either way.
• The Halcyon Hotel is your opening sanctuary; a hotel-NPC companion (the walkthrough met Veronica Castigliano) can be recruited before you step outside, and Domino Quick's address can be found by sneaking a peek at the resident list.
• Sewer rooms are letter-number grid addresses: east-west moves the letter, north-south the number. Key gates to learn: Blackmarket at M13, M0 toward Angelbreach, Z11 toward Fountaincourt — and Agatha Condell can guide you through certain sewer quests.
• The club unlocks via Old Town: watch Madame Lux's street show, talk to the flyer-distributing man, and Nighthawks appears on the map. The Salvation Centre in Old Town is where Dr. Irene Velasco and Saoirse Kane enter the story — and where you can also work a shift for money.
• The investigation loop: odd jobs for Sam Tancredi (paid via Gideon), hunts planned from your sanctuary (bring targets to Samuel Finch at St. Raphael's Hospital Ruins and he heals your wounds in exchange), and bar-rumor check-ins with Becca — who identifies the logo on Morrow's phone as belonging to a group called the Human Edge.
• The finale: infiltrate Sly's Basement, report the red-masked man's features to the King, and when the raid opens everyone inside is already dead — a giant vampire saves you from Tancredi's blade, Saoirse Kane assumes you killed the King, and a time skip installs you in the Nighthawks club with Gideon serving you and the money bleeding.

If you want one route, that is the canonical Act 1 skeleton — but note the walkthrough itself stresses that almost every fork ("What is your name?", the keepsake search, drain or resist) re-routes later scenes rather than the destination.

What Launch-Video Reviews Add

The week's YouTube reviews, taken together, settle a few details the written reviews leave open. IndieLoop's launch-day verdict — which awarded Nighthawks a 9/10 and ranks it among its favourite games of the year — emphasizes three specifics worth knowing before your first run. First, character creation is four cards with mechanically divergent mixes, and the reviewer never felt the need to reroll hours in, so pick once and play forward. Second, the cast is big: "well over 30" voice actors (IndieLoop's count; to confirm against credits), with the reviewer singling out the street urchin Agatha (voiced by Angel Ray), Monica Vale voiced by Amelia Tyler of Baldur's Gate fame, and noting that only two out of 60-plus named, voiced characters grated enough to skip. Third, the reviewer confirms a single playthrough took "over 30 hours" — a slower, more thorough read than GamesRadar's under-20-hour finish, so treat run length as a dial you control.

Also worth flagging from the same video: the reviewer notes Nighthawks is the first release from both Cobbett's The Curiosity Engine and, outside its point-and-click remit, Wadjet Eye as a text-RPG publisher — a "first" on both sides that the Steam pages do not spell out. The same video also captures the game's slang in dialogue: humans hostile to vampires say "cold bloods," while the politer press term is "revenants" — vocabulary that recurs in conversation and is worth knowing before the first bar scene.

The launch video facts, in one table:

Fact	Detail	Source
Character creation	Four cards — sire, lineage, sphere of knowledge, one Gift — each mechanically divergent; no reroll needed.	IndieLoop video review (9/10)
Voice cast	Well over 30 voice actors, 60-plus named voiced characters, two misfires; protagonists are unvoiced.	IndieLoop (cast size to confirm against credits)
First-run length	Over 30 hours for a thorough read — vs GamesRadar's under-20 finish.	IndieLoop / GamesRadar, side by side
Wadjet Eye precedent	First Wadjet Eye release outside the point-and-click adventure remit.	IndieLoop
In-game slang	Humans hostile to vampires say "cold bloods"; polite usage is "revenants".	IndieLoop video review (per the in-game dialogue as transcribed)