I must be the only one who liked the game, then. The flavor and writing were good, and it had a lot of useful information on both the setting and the period. I never had the original set, so I can't compare to what was done in that. I likewise don't have OGL Horror or Grim Tales, so I couldn't comment on differences in mechanics.
The magic system, I really liked. It's more usable (by PCs) than something like Call of Cthulhu D20, but will still hurt PCs in the long run. It's essentially a skill-based system, you roll Spellcraft to get the spell to succeed, and have chances of both critical success and critical failure to keep things uncertain. There's also a caveat with normal failure: if the spell doesn't succeed, but the caster really wants it too, then they can make some sort of sacrifice to give it the push that it needs. It could be ability damage, or hp damage, or a bargain with a spirit, or a few other things.
I prefer something like this to the upfront harsh cost of CoC D20. Under that system, it pretty much just allows the villains to cast spells, who always seem to ignore the rules when it comes to spellcasting costs (or did in BRP, anyway). Here, the players can cast the spells as well, but they have to balance the costs, especially in the long term, vs. the powers they're getting. It's essentially like giving them enough rope to hang themselves- how their character will fare is in their hands, it all depends on how badly they want the power and what they're willing to give up in exchange. To me, this is exactly how occult-style spellcasting should work in an RPG.
As for the classes and other stuff, meh. It doesn't really concern me one way or the other. From the initial announcement I knew that the book would be licensed, non-OGC, and would have core classes instead of Modern ones. It wouldn't be too hard to use Modern classes with the setting instead of the ones that are given; alternately, the "class proliferation" in the book is presented as alternate versions of the four basic classes, so one could just ignore all the extra ones and stick with the basic four.
From what I could see, the only other book that someone would need would be the Ravenloft 3.0 book. It's true that Masque doesn't have the Fright Check or Powers Check rules, which is sort of annoying for a supposedly stand-alone game. Since I already had the Ravenloft 3.0 book, again this just wasn't an issue for me. Masque had everything I wanted as far as setting and magic rules, so it's a purchase I'm happy with.
