This review is divided into two sections, the screen and the companion.
The Screen:
That's the reason for the high Style rating. After all, a screen must have style. It's a big, four panel screen. As a result, it holds many charts, and still has a lot of space, so it doesn't confuse the GM, and doesn't tire the GM.
The side facing the players is excellent as well. It has some artwork from the book, some of it in color, and looks like some hunter's memo board, with all sorts of notes which seem to be attached to it with pins, like photoes, hunter codes and a shopping list (ending with "SHELLS - LOTS!")
If you're the kind of GM that uses screens, you're going to love this one.
The Companion:
This one is a real money saver. Instead of buying all five rulebooks for almost 150$, you get this book for one tenth the price. The introduction elaborates on the messengers and explains the history of the world of darkness, so that storytellers could run chronicles in accordance with White Wolf's plans for the future, yet remains vague enough to let you do whatever you want with the game.
Each chapter explains one kind of creature at a turn, from spirits to nightmares (Changelings). The explanations don't go into the creatures societies. You won't find information about the Cammarilla, or the Hierarchy in this book, but then again, what does it matter to hunters? What you will get is some mechanics for the creatures, and a list of powers they can use, so you can use these creatures in your game without owning the rulebooks, a thing that was rather hard to accomplish with the mechanics presented in the Hunter rulebook.
And what if I already own all those rulebooks, you may ask. The book is good for your type too. I, as the owner of all five books, know that my players know all the ins and outs of supernatural societies and powers. This book helped me create unexpected creatures, since the powers are somewhat different than the ones presented in the rulebooks, and the way they are acquired is very different. After all, these mechanics allow me to create a vampire that can become unseen, wipe a victims memory and boil a victims blood. That kind of vampire is pretty hard to describe in the official mechanics of Vampire: The Masquerade, and when your players know the world of darkness, it all comes down to breaking the rules.
Style: 5 (Excellent!)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)
