Choice of the Vampire
By Jason Stevan Hill
☆☆☆☆☆☆ (4/10)
Choice of the Vampire is one of the earliest games in the CoG franchise, and I’m a big vampire fan. The fact that I ended up refunding this is kinda a bummer. The premise is super compelling: you awaken as a newly made vampire in early 19th-century New Orleans, a city alive with music, sin, and revolution. Over the decades, you navigate moral decay, racial tension, and immortal politics, shaping both your personal fate and America’s emerging identity. It’s ambitious, historically rich, and dripping with atmosphere.
And yet … for all that potential, Choice of the Vampire feels strangely lifeless! The writing is elegant and the history is fascinating, but the story itself forgets to make you, as the player, matter. It wants to be a serious historical epic and a personal vampire story, but in trying to balance both, it ends up doing neither particularly well. The writing is undeniably good—sometimes even beautiful—but it’s sterile. You can admire it from afar, but it never lets you in. It’s an atmospheric, literary take on vampirism that doubles as an American historical commentary. But I was more hoping for a character-driven, emotionally resonant story.
Pros:
Gotta give credit where it’s due. Vampire absolutely nails its setting. New Orleans in the 1800s feels way more realistic than any of my high school’s history books. The language is florid, the social divides are stark, and the tone of decay and transformation lingers in every scene. The author clearly did his research, and there’s surprisingly a lot of historical detail: religious conflict, racial hierarchy, the tension between old European traditions and the New World. Super cool.
No flashy vampire tropes. There’s no Twilight-style melodrama or constant bloodlust; the immortality here feels way more grim and burdensome. There are moments when the writing shines: like a beautifully described sunrise you’ll never see again, or a philosophical reflection on what it means to outlive everyone you love.
Great stats. Not only do you have your usual strength/intelligence/dexterity, there’s also artistry, stealth, languages, and so on. There’s even a money/income system, which I wish was more present!
Cons:
The biggest problem is its complete lack of emotional investment. For a story about immortality, power, and identity, there’s very little to actually feel. You make choices—big ones, even—but the story consistently forgets them. Twice, my lovers died but I seriously didn’t care. There’s little time spent with your companions, let alone romance options. It’s hard to put my finger on it (ironic for a reviewer), but the writing just wasn’t … emotional. It touched on anger, betrayal, melancholy, but the writing feels more sterile than anything, I suppose. Scenes land more clinical than cathartic.
Pacing. Hmm. There’s a lot of paragraphs about bank defaults, the war, and racial politics—dense, often fascinating topics. But instead of connecting those themes to your personal story, the game keeps them at arm’s length. It becomes more of a dry history lecture than an interactive experience. You stop playing and start reading about things happening around you is the best way I can put it.
While I totally get the author needs to pay the bills, the absence of an ending isn’t great. The $6 I paid for gives me the first two out of four acts. However, after the second act, you reach a certain point in the story, and the text suddenly tells you to “save your name for the next installment.” While there is a sequel, the first (second?) half of the series doesn’t feel like a complete narrative experience on its own.