OK, I will start by saying, there will be spoilers, from the other SH games in this review, as well as to this one, so that you know before reading on.
As you can see, I have voted 8/10, this is because I like the game, but it may disappoint you if you really enjoyed the other two, I would give both of them 10/10 but a lot of the dark and contaversal themes have gone from this new game.
I will start with the story. It was not what I expected, the only main villains are really Lady, Killer and Gilbert, which was quite disappointing, In Covenant, the first main villain was Rasputin, then Nicolai, then Kato. It was quite clear the Nicola would take over from Rasputin in covenant, but I had no idea Kato would turn out to be the main boss. In the original SH, it is clear enough that Albert would be the main boss, but the first mission was to defeat another villain, Dehui. This made the story to the latest game feel very short. I would have liked if it went on a bit longer.
On the subject of Bosses, the main bosses from the other two had more depth, they told their reasons, I SHFTNW, Lady doesn't say what her plans are.
The characters in this game. Johnny; The main character, OK, not too bad, after you get used to not having Yuri, he is not too bad.
Shaania; A good character in the game, this version's harmonixer, only has four fusions but three are dark, I can see this as a good idea in a way. She really suits the element of Dark, as she is driven by vengeance.
Natan; Not a lot of depth to him, but seems a strong character.
Frank; Really fond of this character, liked the way he has Joachims way of picking up random things to use as weapons.
Hilda; A good character definitely, but in a way disappointing. I say this because, as you know if you are an RPG fan, there are 3 main types of characters in battle, Those very strong with weapons, those with magic and average weapon, and those who are very strong with magic, but not very good with weapons. Hilda was on the average, this is disappointing, because both her brothers in the previous games were more strong with weapons. I think that is the way she should be as well. Still a good character that I do use, but I think a vampire should be very strong with weapons.
Mao; What can I say, A talking cat. OK, first impression is bad, but remember first impressions are often wrong. Mao is good in battle, but being a talking cat does push it. Blanca was a good idea as a wolf but he was a normal wolf that didn't speak, although, as a water element character, Mao is OK, The only Water element character that I often had on my team was Margarette back in SH1, they should really have another character like Margarette if they make a new SH. Secret weapons was a great idea.
Lastly, Ricardo. Don't use him often, an OK character I think, any Desperado fans out there? You will like him, he has a guitar, that has built in fire arms, like one of the guys in Desperado.
Conclusion about it, a very good game, definitely if you like the other two, it should be worth a look, just don't expect it to be near as good as the other two.