Shadows on the Vatican: Nightingale Reviews

If you enjoy good storytelling, and a unique gaming experience, then you should definitely play this game. It has great character driven moments. The plot is strengthened further by the branching outcomes. An enjoyable time from start to finish.

I really enjoyed this short psychological story. It is incredibly well crafted (text speed is fixed in the first playthrough because it's actually tied to the music score!) and the writing is extremely compelling. There are several point in the game where you can steer the protagonist's mental ruminations in one way or another and it's very satisfying when you "get it" and you discovered that, indeed, you gave the right input and the protagonist's thoughts are shifting into the direction you wanted. It's also 1 hour long only, so it doesn't overstay its welcome. Can be played alone, but I'd play the two Shadow on the Vatican titles first, as one of the characters comes from there and the whole experience will be more impactful

Dull, uninspiring and essentially pointless. The first two Shadow of the Vatican games were adequate point and clicks. This is a meandering interactive text that over focuses on the most cliched character in the games. I played through once 'not finding the truth' but couldn't care less what the 'truth' is supposed to be. Pity, I will probably still pick up part 3 as and when it emerges, but this has effectively done the opposite of whetting my appetite.

A very short text-only game in the series. I've only played through once so far, there is a 'rewind' feature, so you can go back to previous choices later on. Probably only worth getting in the Shadows bundle.

I'm not a fan of text based games, i got this as part of Shadows on the Vatican package and i decided to give it a go prior to playing anything else from the series. As i was thinking that this is too much for me the first achievement popped then the second and not long after i was sucked in by the plot and continued playing through completion. All in all it was intriguing, the writing was brilliant and not tiresome and at moments intense! It was a nice experience that i did not expect, i totally recommend it!

“Nightingale” is a text-based adventure (or rather a choose-your-story interactive novella) and part of the “Shadows on the Vatican” series. Though rolling text “blogposts”, you follow the story (and get to decide its next course at several points) of the mysterious Nightingale with her special ability, and her fateful encounter with an assassin that was bound to happen. The story itself, narrated from the protagonist’s perspective, contains a lot of suspense and is sure draw you in as you read through it, with melodious music underscoring the most dramatic moments. Developer recommends playing this game after the second episode – Act II: Wrath – of the series as it acts as a sort of intermezzo before the third game is out, but it can be still played independently. At any rate you shouldn’t leave this one out if you already have the other Shadows on the Vatican games in your library, and even if you don’t have them yet you can give this one a try too – it may pique your interest to get into the whole series.

As developers suggested I tried this game after completing Act 1&2 and ohh.. boy, I did not expect this. Well, mainly because I did not read tags and description of this game before buying, but hey, not complaining. Well, honestly there is one moment to complain, because games like this I’m starting to “ get into “ text games with choices… and who is going to take responsibility for that? Alright, alright. Back to the game, I did not expect parts of it to be so chilling. Honestly the only actual downside is that it leaves desire for more, like what happens later after “spoilers”. So yeah, totally worth its money, if you like the genre then it’s a no brainer.

A bit of background : I have played both acts of Shadows on the Vatican to the end. And I am also old enough to have played every Infocom text adventure when they first came out. So I was really looking forward to Nightingale. Alarm bells rang when I found I couldn’t save whenever I wanted but I must say the branching system works well whenever you wish to change any earlier decision. I have managed to get a few different endings in one playthrough – and not a save file in sight. I found the pacing of the text worked well, introducing a sense of tension that might not have been there otherwise. There are quite a few novelties in their text adventure system that appealed to me. Especially the music intro and outro, which created an appropriate atmosphere. For me, it did what all good games should – it left me wanting more. Although the game is short (I found the ‘proper’ ending in under an hour), I would certainly recommend it.

As many of us here, I have played my fair share of games, spanning from every genre under the sun. However, I have never laid my eyes on anything like this experimental TEXT-BASED adventure game. The all captions is just to make sure that it’s very clear what we are going to play, and set the right expectations, that is to say a classic game where all the interaction takes place through on-screen WORDS. But Nightingale is not simply a modern yet nostalgic take on Zork, or AI Dungeon. I would call it a "choose-your-own adventure soundtracked ebook", with all the facets and the great writing of a novel, but where choices - your choices, that is - matter and have consequences. Even though Nightingale should be played after Act II of Shadow of the Vatican, as a prequel of the third Act coming soon, it can also be played independently, as it is a self-contained background story of some of the characters in this universe. As usual, I won’t speak a word of the plot, as you can read the synopsis by yourself, and then go and discover all the rest. I will just say that I will NEVER, EVER, forget the feelings the game left me with. Speaking about it is spoiler territory, so you will have to experience it by yourself. If you boot up the game on a Steam Deck, you will immediately notice how the polished, smooth and swift continuous text scrolling glides gracefully on your fingertips. And if you are playing with earbuds, thus cutting off any foreign noise or sound, you will be completely immersed in a story that lasts roughly an hour, but will have a much more lasting impact in your mind, for days and weeks to come. The music is another flagship feature of the whole Shadows on the Vatican series, and it won’t disappoint. Some common themes come back, others are brand new, and it is as much a protagonist as the main character, the story and the gameplay. One of the never-before-seen features of this innovative game, is a perfect marriage between words, gameplay and music. Every word wears its note, its pause, as a second skin. The pace and the rhythm follow the stream of consciousness of the speaker, and for this reason you won’t be able to adjust the speed or skip dialogues in your first walkthrough. You NEED to experience the story, the music, the pauses, the action, the twists and the journey into the characters’ psyche as it is intended to be. You will always be able to change and skip dialogues in future walkthroughs, especially if you wish to gain the fun achievements arranged for us by the developing team. It is possible to rewind to a previous point of the story and choose a different path, unlocking various endings. It never feels boring, it never feels repetitive and it leaves you wanting for more. The writing is unforgettable and the gameplay, the navigation, the dynamic text display with synchronized music are absolutely UNIQUE. I encourage everyone to get out of their comfort zone and immerse themselves heart and mind in this adventure! My Curator page: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/43938467/

I tried this game mostly because I really liked the Shadows On The Vatican -and- wanted a short game tonight: it was short, indeed! And a good story to follow, well told as in good writing and good story-telling. Not Litterature Nobel Prize good, of course, but good. To sum up, this game takes place in the same universe, but no worries, there's no need to have played Shadows... to understand what's going on here. Still, I had missed that this is a text game: please beware of that. Still, and while I'm not most into this type of game in general, this story was interesting enough to not see me leave very fast (which usually happens in such games). I had pleasure going back into the branching system, looking for the "real story". This system is really well made and easy to go through. Maybe because the game is so short, still easy. Beware though: this is a text-game, which absolutely deals with mature issues. A 16 years old can probably play it, but I wouldn't let a 12 years old in front of it, for instance. Also, and even if that's a text-game, I regretted that the background doesn't change sometimes. At the very least, we know that the action takes place in three different places: it would have been nice to see three different backgrounds, with different atmospheres for each and so on? Anyway: Would I recommend this game? Yes, absolutely. But as explained here, please beware that this is a text-game (with a good text, but text-game) + not for young kids + prepare to read without enjoying some "atmosphere background". And it's short, but it's cheap too, so that's ok.