YMMV / Vampire: The Masquerade – Coteries of New York

• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Hope for being a sexy punk girl and super-hacker Malkavian.
  • D'Angelo for being a Nosferatu Film Noir Detective with an 80s attitude.
• Hollywood Homely: The Player Character's inner narration will describe Prince Panhard as "plain", but this seems very much in the eye of the beholder; she could easily be mistaken for a Toreador before she's identified as a Ventrue. It's an even bigger Informed Flaw after seeing her in her masquerade outfit in Shadows of New York.
• Player Punch: The ending is full of them, from Sophie's unceremonious murder, a Karma Houdini for the most despicable character in the game, and the grim fate awaiting the PC.
• Scrappy Mechanic: Feeding, thanks to Gameplay and Story Segregation. What you're told will be the all-consuming need that now defines your existence is dealt with in a rather unintuitive way: Although you're penalised for not feeding and the Player Character often reminds themselves to keep on top of their hunger, the tutorial is the first and last time you're actually given the freedom to go out and hunt for a victim. For the rest of the game, your only chances to feed will be limited to specific points in the story, leaving you with an annoying lack of control.
• So Okay, It's Average: The plot-railroading becomes obvious on the second playthrough and many players felt it was done pretty poorly.
• Ugly Cute: D'Angelo has a mild facial deformity but otherwise just looks like he needs a shower. It is a sharp contrast to your typical Body Horror-suffering Nosferatu. He also dresses endearingly out of date (circa The '80s).
• Unexpected Character: Considering that the game mostly features original characters and references the wider events of the World of Darkness only in passing, having Aisling Sturbridge appear on-screen — with her own character sprite and everything — comes as a bit of a surprise.

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