Let’s start this review bass-ackwards, if you will, from the end of the game. Now, if you have been locked in a coffin for the past few centuries and have never seen a Dracula movie or read any of the numerous books on vampire lore, then what follows should be considered a spoiler and you may want to skip ahead a paragraph or two.

The final five minutes of Dracula 3: The Path of the Dragon is a tense, suspenseful confrontation between the game’s protagonists, Father Arno Moriani and the Prince of Darkness (no, not Ozzy Osbourne). In what is a welcome change from the norm, Dracula himself has been visualized by the developers in a manner unlike any I’ve ever seen before. After his defeat – and has any book, game or movie ever not ended with the ‘death’ of the vampire – there is a wonderful cinematic that jumps to the future and opens new & mysterious avenues for sequels.

But what about the previous six to eight hours of gameplay that led to this point? Where was Dracula? For that matter, where were any vampires at all? Oh, there are some revelations made along the way that some of the supporting characters may be vampiric, but their nocturnal tendencies never really figure into the game. There is not even a single cinematic of the Count, though it is later revealed that he was the shadowy character skulking in the shadows. No Dracula, no vampires - frankly, that sucks.

To be fair, the game’s subtitle, Path of the Dragon, refers to the path one must follow to become a vampire and is based on a loose interpretation of historical fact intermingling Romanian history and the Order of the Dragon. But the path that leads to Dracula is fraught with much tediousness and ennui.

The game is set right after the end of World War I, with parts of Central Europe in ruins including the small Transylvanian village that the Vatican sends Father Arno Moriani to to determine if one of their citizens should be considered for sainthood by the church.

The time period of the game is important for numerous reasons – political, religious and psychological – and features a wonderful subplot foreshadowing the onset of the second world war. But the subplot also eventually becomes the game’s albatross as it eventually seems that it was used for no other reason than a set-up for a sequel.

The game itself is first-person point-and-click. The graphics and cut-scenes are well-done and atmospheric, as is at times the musical score, especially the screeching violin that rises in crescendo. The voice-acting is fine, but I do wonder why none of the characters seem to have any sort of accent, either Central European or otherwise. Instead, everyone sounds like they learned to speak English from Berlitz. Guess we didn’t want to offend anyone with characters who have Slavic or Italian accents and could make the game more authentic.

Now I understand that budgets are limited and animations are expensive so it is understandable that there are only six or seven interactive characters in the game, but couldn’t a little more of the village’s populace been shown either in some of the cinematics or even as shadows seen through windows? Instead, we get a decimated village that seems to have only five citizens (the gravedigger, doctor, gypsy, innkeeper and a young boy) and two visitors. Three counting Father Arno. When a local building is burnt down by an angry populace, we are told about it rather than seeing it in a cut-scene or cinematic that would have enhanced the intensity of the story. Instead, we are treated to scintillating cinematics of Father Arno reading a book or Father Arno talking on the phone.

The puzzles vary in difficulty and complexity. Some, such as drawing blood from your own arm, are difficult only because there is no clue as to how to proceed and it is a trail-and-error process. Others, such as testing blood, are tedious and time consuming at best. The more interesting puzzles involve the mystical such as illumination text, finding prophecies in the Hidden Apocalypse or skulking around a sarcophagus.

You needn’t worry too much either about not knowing what to do next as you can access a list of Objectives that is detailed to such a fault that it is almost a step-by-step walkthrough and there are even a few puzzles where you are offered the solution by another character if you linger too long.

Kheops Studios always takes great care to offer something inventive to their gameplay and this time it is a full in-game bible, in Latin. It is meant to provide clues to help Father Arno, but I honestly never found it to be very useful. There is also available a full text version of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. I did find it incomprehensible though that someone as learned and well-traveled as Father Arno would have absolutely no previous knowledge of Bram Stoker or the vampire legends.

While Dracula 3: The Path of the Dragon is a step above some of Kheops latest efforts (Cleopatra, Destination Treasure Island) it has a minimalist look to it and still feels too much like a cookie-cutter project. To avoid any confusion with the recent Frogware’s Dracula Origin that was published by Dreamcatcher, this Dracula is meant to be a sequel to Dracula: The Last Sanctuary and Dracula Resurrection, both of which were originally distributed in North America by Dreamcatcher more than seven years ago. Got that? Not that it matters though, as there doesn’t seem to be any discernible reason to have played the previous titles first.

System Requirements:

• OS: Windows® 2000/ME/XP/Vista™
• Processor: 800 MHz Pentium® 3 or Equivalent
• RAM: 128 MB
• Graphics Card: 64 MB DirectX® 9.0c Compatible
• Sound Card: DirectX® Sound Card
• DVD-ROM: 4x
• Input: Keyboard, Mouse and Speakers
• Hard Disk: 1.8 GB Free Disk Space
• DirectX®: Version 9.0c