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