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Having fallen under the spell of Count Dracula, the beautiful and vulnerable Mina (wife of Jonathan Harker, hero of Bram Stoker's celebrated novel "Dracula") is being transported unceremoniously in a wooden crate along with Dracula from England to Transylvania. In pursuit is Jonathan, who first encountered Dracula when he was sent to Transylvania to negotiate the purchase by Dracula of property in England and discovered the terrifying secret that Count Dracula is one of the living dead, a vampire who comes out of his coffin at night to quench his insatiable thirst for human blood. Jonathan is accompanied on his desperate mission by: Professor Abraham Van Helsing (a specialist in mysterious diseases and a metaphysician), Dr. Seward (a physician in a mental institution) and Quincey Morris (an American friend from Texas). The opening cinematic scenes of the game take the player to the snowbound Borgo Pass in 1897, where you observe Dracula's henchmen trudging along, pushing their valuable cargo on a sled toward its destination, Dracula's Castle. Lying ahead in ambush are Jonathan and his friends. The trap is sprung, gunshots from Jonathan's party ring out and Dracula's henchmen either flee or are killed. Quincey approaches the wooden crate that contains both Mina and Dracula and thrusts his sword through an opening in the crate and into the chest of Dracula. Dracula "explodes" from the crate and kills Quincey, but Jonathan comes up behind Dracula and slits his throat with a knife. Dracula "disintegrates", turning to dust under the faint rays of sunlight, apparently freeing Mina from his evil spell, as the bite marks on her neck "fade away". Has Mina been truly "saved"? Is that the end of Count Dracula? Well…we wouldn't have a game entitled "Dracula Resurrection" to play, if the answer to both of these questions was "yes", would we? So…the story will begin again, 7 years later in England, where Dracula's power over Mina will surface once more and lead Jonathan on an incredible journey that will take him back again to Transylvania to face the vengeance and evil powers of the ultimate vampire, Dracula. Since this game is clearly intended to be a "sequel" to the Bram Stoker novel, I thought that it might be helpful to one's appreciation of the story to learn a little about The Real Prince of Darkness, the real Dracula that became the inspiration for the novel and now this game's resurrection of Dracula. Yes, there was a real Dracula. He was Prince Vlad III, also known as Vlad Tepes, meaning "Vlad the Impaler". Born in Transylvania in the year 1431, he was the son of Vlad II, who adopted the "nickname" Dracul (meaning "dragon"), because he belonged to the Order of the Dragon, a secret fraternal order of knights founded by Emperor Sigismond of Hungary, which was formed to uphold Christianity and defend the empire against Turkey. Members of the Order were known to have worn a special costume for their gatherings on Sundays. It was, in fact, a red garment with a black cape over it…hence, the fictional Dracula costume. Vlad III, the son, became known as Dracula, meaning "son of the dragon", which eventually was extended by Dracula's enemies, especially the German Saxons, who called him "son of the devil". Dracula (Vlad III) ruled a territory corresponding to today's Romania, on the border between two worlds, the Christian world with Hungary and the Moslem world with Turkey. His reign is best described as being "tumultuous" and along the way Dracula became particularly enamored by the past life and views of Vlad Tepes, who was considered to be an important figure in Romanian history because he unified the region and resisted the influences of foreigners. Echoing Tepes, it is Dracula's cruelty that most historians recount. He liked to set up a banquet table and dine while he watched people die. His favorite form of execution was impalement. It was slow; people could take days to die. He liked to impale many people at once, arranging the stakes in fancy designs or patterns. Nothing was too brutal for Dracula and he prided himself on justifying the punishment as supposedly "fitting the crime". By 1462, when deposed by his younger brother Radu, he is said to have killed perhaps 100,000 people, or more. Dracula fled to Hungary and lived there for twelve years, virtually as a prisoner of the king, Matthias Corvinus. Eventually, he ingratiated himself to the royal family, married the king's sister and became a Catholic. But, he was still the same old Dracula, impaling rats and birds for fun. After the death of his younger brother Radu, eventually Dracula again became Romania's prince in 1476, but was killed only a few months later while resisting one of the frequent Turk attacks against his territory. Some say he was assassinated by his own officers on the battlefield or was accidentally killed by one of his men. In any event, the Turkish sultan displayed Dracula's head on a pike in Constantinople to prove that he was dead. According to accounts, his body was buried at the island monastery of Snagov. But… excavations have failed to turn up any sign of his coffin. Hmm! How much of the career of Dracula (Vlad III) is real and how much is legend remains subject to some speculation. But, we do know that there was a real Dracula, so let's go on to the fictional extension of Bram Stoker's novel…the story of Dracula's Resurrection. The Story's The Thing: London, 1904…Mina's nightmares continue and she often sleep walks without accountability. Worse yet…this troubling behavior is symptomatic of her suffering when she was consumed by Dracula's power, seven years ago. Tomorrow, Mina will visit with Dr Seward for an examination that will ascertain whether the vampire's power has remained within her body, no matter how dormant it may have been. Today, Jonathan is worried with thoughts that he and his friends may not have eliminated Dracula at the Borgo Pass seven years ago. Perhaps, the monster simply disappeared and is still alive. Could Dracula be beginning a process that is aimed at bringing him vengeance? The answer comes the next morning, when Jonathan awakes to find Mina gone and reads the disturbing note, left behind along with her wedding band, all of which quickly and painfully serves to confirm his worse fears. As he reads further, Mina explains that she has been summoned to Transylvania by powers beyond her control and that she is compelled to follow her strange destiny. Jonathan realizes that Mina is undoubtedly heading directly to Dracula's castle and that he will be in a race to rescue her from the vampire and to save her life. He knows from the lessons of the painful past, seven years ago, that he only has 30 days until the next full moon to find Mina, destroy Dracula and save his beautiful wife from becoming the vampire's bride. Before setting out on his dangerous journey, Jonathan writes a letter to Dr. Seward telling him of the circumstances of Mina's plight, his intention to travel to Dracula's castle and asks Dr. Seward to investigate the probability that Dracula still exists…awakened and alive…resurrected as the embodiment of evil, if you will. Your travels deliver you to the gate of the Golden Crown Inn, not too far from Dracula's castle, where you realize that you need to seek advice and directions, if you are to be successful in your quest. Upon entering the Inn, you encounter and speak with a "regular customer", Micha, who interrupts his drinking long enough to provide a cautious direction that the way to Dracula's castle must take you over the bridge near the rear of the Inn. You also will meet and speak with Barina, the owner of the Inn, who forewarns of the evils that surround and abound on St. George's Eve…tonight. As you investigate the rooms in the Inn and the surrounding labyrinth of paths that lead you to places (i.e. the well, bridge, cemetery, calvarium, metallum and Lacus) where progress is hindered by the need to solve puzzles through employing your logical thinking skills, you will meet Dracula's henchmen, an extremely uncooperative and potentially dangerous lot, who are intent on preventing you from reaching your objective…Dracula castle and the imprisoned Mina. Your tasks within the environs of the Inn and its surroundings will be arduous, but once that you have solved all of the "puzzles", you will take a wild railway tram car ride past the gloating Dracula and his henchmen and on to the Castle, where the second and most dangerous part of your journey awaits you. Here you explore Dracula's castle from the dungeons to his bedroom and his library. You will meet the sorceress, Dorko, who although under a curse by Dracula will offer to help…but at what price? Armed only with your daring and your wit, you will need to solve the many mysteries to be found within the castle walls and your expectation is that eventually you will come face-to-face with Dracula in a showdown with Mina's life as the prize for the winner. As you progress through this second part of the game, the tension builds as you anticipate the nearness of the ultimate final encounter. Then…came my only "mild disappointment" with the game, when Dracula tells his henchmen that he is leaving to travel back to London, but that Jonathan's fate is sealed, because he will be "dealt with" by Dracula's favorite and most effective "messengers of death", the 3 vampire sisters. The tension quickly builds again, however, when Jonathan meets the 3 vampire sisters and realizes that overcoming their destructive mission will not be an easy task. So…the excitement prevails all the way to the conclusion, when you will learn whether or not Jonathan is successful in outwitting the 3 vampire sisters and rescuing Mina. At the end, the story will leave open the opportunity to make another Dracula game, as a continuation of this game and I truly hope that this game will enjoy enough commercial support to warrant the making of another Dracula story-based game. When this game ended and I finally got to sit back from the "edge of my seat", I experienced the two emotions that ultimately determine for me whether or not the game's story was successfully delivered and enjoyed. Did I feel relief from the tension of managing to progress through the excitement of the game? And…Was I sorry that the game was over, because I would have wanted it to continue? The answer to each question is a resounding "Yes". This is a story for all of you horror-adventure fans out there and it is not to be missed. In the final analysis, because I thoroughly enjoyed the story of Dracula Resurrection and found it to be "true" to the tradition established by Bram Stoker's novel, I am giving The Story a Rating of A+. The Gameplay: Dracula Resurrection is a straight point-and -click adventure game that should be familiar and comfortable for most players. Icons appear as "hot spots" on the viewing screen and by left-clicking on a "hot spot" some form of movement, object capture, close-up viewing or action will take place or is available. In the case of an action that requires an inventory item to be used, you will, of course, need to have already obtained the necessary item in order to "trigger" the action. In most cases you will need to perform an action using an inventory item in order to progress in the game. In that regard, this game is pretty much linear with respect to exploration and progress through the environments. The hand icon is used to
indicate that you can capture/take an object and place it into your
inventory. Objects are stored in slots on a wheel and there are many
more slots available than you will need for storing items. Right clicking
the mouse button provides access to your inventory and if you place
your cursor over an item it will also cause that item to be "magnified"
as it appears in the center of the wheel, which gives an enlarged
view of that item. You can interrupt any video motion scene by pushing the spacebar. You can access the Options screen by hitting the "Esc" key. The Options screen will then allow you to choose between Starting a New Game, Saving your Current Game (you will have 8 save game slots), Loading a Previously Saved Game and Quitting the Game. The gameplay interface was familiar, easy to use and free of problems, so I will give Gameplay a Rating of A. The Graphics: We have come to expect that the adventure games made by French companies will contain excellent graphics and I am pleased to say that Dracula Resurrection will not be an exception. The graphic designers have constructed a visual masterpiece of 3D characters and environments that always, yes always, delivers just the right atmosphere for settings that often are dark and foreboding. As you move seamlessly through the more than 20 significant places that make up the worlds of Dracula Resurrection, you will be able to use 360 degree viewing to capture every detail of the beautifully rendered environments and to plan your next step with full awareness of your surroundings. The animations/video sequences in Dracula Resurrection are outstanding in terms of graphic quality and presentation. From the opening video sequence of the ambush at Borgo Pass through to the exciting escape sequence at the end of the game, there are a fair number (not too many) of animations/videos that help to further the story visually and they are always presented smoothly and effectively. Not perfect however, as I did grow a little weary of watching Jonathan go up and/or down stairs in too many video sequences. While it will suffice to say that the graphics are as good as any you may have previously seen in an adventure game, it is important to note a "special feature" that provides this game with a certain uniqueness in graphic presentation that has not often (maybe never) been seen previously. This game has about 12 characters that are modeled in 3D and for each of these characters we have the opportunity to see them "up close and personal" (graphically speaking). When speaking to the characters, the graphic designers provide us with close-ups of the characters faces that are priceless. One can clearly discern every expression, wrinkle, vein, blemish or other distinguishing characteristics of the faces, as they converse, and I found that this unique presentation technique added immensely to understanding and appreciating the emotion and humor of what is an unusual collection of characters. The graphics are truly "special" and considering all of the above features, especially the close-ups, and finding no "bugs", leads me to give the Graphics a Score of A+. The Music, Sounds and Voice Acting: The developers and producers of Dracula Resurrection have included essentially nothing about the music or sounds of the game in their promotional materials, so I imagine that they might have been of the opinion that the quality of this category of the game was "adequate", but didn't rate anything special. I found that the background music was only adequate. Even though it always seemed to be appropriate for the emotion and activity that was happening at any given time, there was not a "crescendo impact" that left some sort of indelible aural imprint on one's brain. Missing were the special musical memories that occurred in other adventure games, like the Jazz themes from Faust that I still find myself "humming" even to this day. On the other hand, the sound effects were worthy of note and could easily have been promoted by the game's producers. Whether it was the gun sounds of the ambush at Borgo Pass, the death struggles that followed the ambush, the wild railway tram ride or the game ending escape attempt from Dracula's castle, the sound effects were, in fact, first rate. The acting was generally pretty good, but not outstanding. Dorko, the sorceress, and the Christopher Lee look-alike, Dracula, were very well acted, almost riveting. Jonathan came across as a bit of a "wimp", primarily because the actor did not having a strong, deeper voice and the result was a lack of conviction. Unlike the graphics, the attention given to this category of the game was only adequate, so I was left without many memorable moments to recall. For this reason, I am giving the Music, Sounds and Voice Acting a Rating of B-. The Puzzles: The puzzles are always logic-based and designed to fit the advancement of the story line. An absence of timed puzzles and mazes may also appeal to many game players. There are no "action/arcade" puzzles and you won't have to use hand/eye coordination to solve a puzzle. So…what is left is a neat series of logical puzzles that advance the game by applying inventory items at appropriate times or places in the game. As mentioned earlier in this review, the game is designed such that many times you will not be able to advance unless you apply the correct inventory item in the right situation. Very linear. There are some puzzles that require the player to use information that one has gathered by observation. An example of this type of puzzle, would be that you are required to place objects or click on objects in a certain sequence, which sequence you should have obtained knowledge of through previous observation at an earlier point in the game. In general, the puzzles are fairly easy to moderate in difficulty, so frustration or resorting to a walkthrough should be minimized for experienced adventurers. For the above reasons, I am giving the Puzzles a Ranking of B+. Overall Rating: My Overall Rating for Dracula Resurrection is an A. System Requirements:
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