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.
Left-clicking on the object that you
want to use will pick up that item and automatically return you to the game screen.
If the item that you have selected can be used with an action icon (a set of gears)
in the game, then that inventory item with have a green circle around it, meaning
that you have selected the correct item for use at that spot. Then, click on the
item to place it in the game and cause the desired action to occur. A very simple
and convenient system.

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:

PC:
Pentium 166 (200 recommended)

32 MB RAM (64 with Windows 98)
Video card with thousands of colors
16-bit
sound card
4X CD-ROM drive (8X recommended)
Windows 95 or 98

Mac:

Power PC OS8
32 MB RAM
Video card with thousands of colors
16-bit
sound card
4X CD-ROM drive (8X recommended)