Shadows wasn't bad. I liked it. I think it's worth it. It's got multiple endings, multiple characters, it explains all of the relevant lore through a codex or whatever so it doesn't waste actual scenes on info dumping. There's a prologue.
I felt somewhat immersed in Julia's life.
Coteries, not so much.
I felt like it ended super abruptly. Like I was expecting a lot more time. And as such the story is just kinda bleh. Your character is a uber pawn in court politics that sees the death of NYC's Anarch baron, and gets maybe whacked at the end.
It's super skippable unless you really want to replay it five or so times focusing on single characters to get every last detail.
It felt jammed in there, for me, at least. Like there's basically nothing, nothing , nothing, put on a mask!
Like just 'let's jam in what's going on in IRL into a game people play to escape IRL, tee hee!'