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9. Dracula Resurrection

Developer: France Telecom Multimedia/Canal+ Multimedia Publisher: Dreamcatcher Interactive Release Date: 2000 Just Adventure Grade: B+

Dracula Resurrection is actually presented as a sequel to Bram Stoker's novel. The opening movie reenacts the climatic events of the 1897 novel as we watch Jonathan Harker attempt to destroy his arch-nemesis. His weapons prove futile, though, and only the rising sun saves Jonathan and Mina, his fiancee, from a life of eternal darkness. Seven years pass, and we watch as Jonathan reads an unbelievable letter from Mina, now his wife. She has been overcome by an irresistible urge, a yearning for the sexual bloodlust of the vampire, and has returned to Transylvania. Jonathan, as we learn through a letter he composes to his friend Seward, journeys to save his beloved, and thus our game begins. This is not a Hammer film, though. There are no subplots, no vampire hunters, no Christopher Lees. It is simply you, playing in a first-person perspective as Jonathan Harker, attempting to reach Dracula's castle and rescue Mina. Much as the novel dripped of atmosphere over a hundred years ago, so also does the computer game. A feeling of loneliness prevails as you wend your way through catacombs and hidden passages. The fear of the townspeople is reflected in their eyes and etched in their faces.

Can you think of a better way to spend a romantic evening than protecting your loved one from the bloodsucking advances of a vampire? How about your loved one protecting herself from your advances as you play this game with the lights out? It won't take long until the howling and moaning you hear are coming from places other than your computer speakers.

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