VtM:CoNY - Marketing vs Reality

[Psyringe]

I finished several playthroughs and definitely loved the writing and the characters, but felt that the gameplay and the main plot were rather disappointing. Part of that disappointment was that - in my opinion - the gap between the advertised features and the actually delivered product was uncomfortably large in this case. To demonstrate this (and in the hope that the devs might notice), here's a comparison of the game's description (taken directly from a bullet point list on the product page) with the actual product:

Marketing:

Presents the conflict between two vampiric factions: the traditionalist Camarilla and the fiercely independent Anarchs among the iconic landmarks and night lights of The Big Apple

Reality: The conflict between Camarilla and Anarchs plays no role whatsoever in the first three quarters of the game, apart from a single character that appears in two scenes and could have been just a regular thug. In the last quarter, a main plot takes over that _does_ feature the conflict (but has no connection to the aforementioned character) and culminates in a tacked-on cliffhanger twist ending.

The "iconic landmarks" don't seem to exist in the game. A few scenes play in Flushing Meadows, but describe it like any other park. One scene takes place in Coney Island and one in Brooklyn, but apart from the name appearing once in a description, there is nothing in the game that refers to anything in these areas. The game very occasionally name-drops a few New York district names. That's it. It could just as easily take place in any other metropolitan area by just changing about a dozen words in the text.

Marketing:

Choose your character from one of several distinct Clans

Reality: The player can choose between 3 different clans, which play mostly identically. The protagonist's clan isn't even known to any character - including the protagonist himself - at any point in the game. Only the player knows it, from the character selection process. The only gameplay difference is the existence of 2 vampire skills per clan that occasionally appear as dialog options. Each clan does come with its own starting scenario, but the clans themselves aren't even mentioned there.

Marketing:

Every playable character offers unique powers (Disciplines), different ethical approaches to certain issues, and dialogue lines

Reality: Every character plays like every other character for the most part. Occasionally you can use disciplines that aren't available to all characters (but even there there's some overlap).

Marketing:

Character-oriented quests allow you to create your own coterie and shape your relations by reinforcing NPC loyalties

Reality: There are 4 of those characters and only 3 states for each (loyal / undecided / permanently disinterested), which have barely any influence on gameplay. The whole effect of this entire mechanic is that it decides which NPCs show up to help you in one specific scene. There will always be at least one NPC showing up and you will always be helped in exactly the same way. You can completely ignore "creating your coterie" and the rest of the game will play out in exactly the same way, just with one different face in one particular scene.

Marketing:

Highly replayable - choices made in the game are reflected by the game's changing fiction

Reality: An estimated 90% of choices in the game are meaningless. The game will adjust the next scene's text slightly and then set you right back on a linear track. The game has enough content for 2 playthroughs due to a time limit mechanic that makes it impossible to complete all quest lines in a single playthrough. The second playthrough already gets tedious because the main plot plays out in the same way and there is no fast-forward function.

Marketing:

Different variants of the ending, depending on player’s choices and a grand finale that will leave players surprised and eager to see more.

Reality: The ending plays out in exactly the same way, with exactly the same text, no matter which choices the player took. I'm sorry, but this is false advertising and a blatant lie. And I don't see how this false information (on a topic that is important for many potential customers) could have slipped in accidentally. Surely the devs are aware that they have only written one ending and that there are no variations to it all.

"Leaves players eager to see more" is probably the most devious and condescending advertisement of a disappointing cliffhanger ending that I've seen in 35 years of being a gamer. Most developers have at least the decency to not talk about their game's ending if it provides so little closure. Advertising a cliffhanger ending as a _positive_ thing is pretty brazen, to say the least.

Marketing:

Suitable for both Vampire: The Masquerade veterans, and fans of mature narrative-driven games who are newcomers to the setting

Reality: Of all statements in this list from the product description, this is the one I don't have a problem with. The game does make use if the VtM lore and at the same time introduces new players to the setting. It even maintains a growing glossary of specific vampire terminology that you encounter.

I don't know about others, but I would certainly have been less disappointed by the game if the marketing hadn't advertised it as something so different from the actual product. Labeling it as a visual novel (which it is) would already have lowered my expectations about the gameplay. But instead, the description even tried to feature high replayability, choices that matter, and different endings as strengths of the game. :(

[EroSanin]

Yeah, this is exactly what i have filled after ending the game.
This is as usual in this type of games: game of ilusionary choices

[captrench]

Agree also.

[wei270]

is this enough grounds to sue the company for faults advertisment?

[Psyringe]

Originally posted by wei270:

is this enough grounds to sue the company for faults advertisment?

No. I do feel that the gap between advertised features and the actual game is too large for comfort in this case. And it's the only game (out of my 13,000 game library) where I ever felt strong enough about this to start a forum thread, if that means anything. I do think that potential buyers need to be made aware of these discrepancies so that they can make an informed decision. And I _will_ be wary about future product descriptions from these developers. But to be honest, the idea of taking legal action over a $20 entertainment product seems ridiculous and completely unnecessary to me.

[Bruxae]

Personally I didn't feel there was a need for all these features to begin with, maybe I'm wrong and you need them to attract a market. But personally I'd be much happier just having a longer static VTM story. It is such a wonderful setting and the writing was superb, the whole thing was just kind of screwed over by trying for "replay value" and player interactions.

[Wintermist]

Just finished a playthrough and yeah this all feels pretty accurate. Still, I did enjoy my playthrough, I was just expecting a bit more from it.

[Chapel]

I totally agree with all of this.

[Bloodartist]

I do agree that while the story was great and characters interesting... there is little to no deviation in the story. The ending seems exact same deus-ex-machina ending every time that quite efficiently undermines everything you did and makes it meaningless. Vast majority of the dialog is exact same on other playthroughs and other clans, which makes replays tedious.

I feel like I got my moneys worth, but there is a lot of room for improvement.

[SyntheticCorpse]

100% agreed with all of this.

[Stuker]

For me the biggest game-disconnect aspect was the title: Coteries of New York.

While you technically form a cotery, it has no gameplay or plot implication at all (you could remove the whole "cotery" thing, just present the plotlines as individual ones like the others and nothing would change).
And it is technically placed in New York, but it does nothing of note with the setting and it could've been almost anywhere else.

[Squish That Cat]

dead on, well written

[Red]

The thing I like most about this game: It made my appetite for Bloodlines 2 in 2020 more ravenous....... I was very disappointed in how this game ended in a railroad ending.....