Dracula Trilogy

At the time they came out, the graphics in Resurrection and Sanctuary were stunning; they still are, for the most part and not only in the cut scenes. I stayed far too long in the underground dungeon just looking around. (Ignore the plastic hair and the odd, static barrier of energy you see at one point.) If you like a beautiful game, this is it. I say 'this' because these two are really one game. They far outshine Path of the Dragon because they are not only gorgeous, with a properly menacing Dracula and some interesting puzzles but they are FUN to play, something that got left out of The Path of the Dragon which is one of the dreariest games I've ever slogged through and Dracula, when he does appear at long last, looks more like a Chicago thug than the Prince of Darkness. No woman in her right mind would offer her lily white throat to that. But gloomy and depressing as The Path of the Dragon is, as teeth-grinding as the puzzles are, it's still far, far better than the fourth installment in which Dracula does not even appear and for some reason the developer doesn't even tell you that if you don't play the prologue you miss half this short game. Four should be the freebie, not the immensely better ones that precede it.

These are classic adventure games, easily recommendable to fans of the genre. They're more horror-themed than actually horror - no one is likely to be frightened by them. They don't have quite as much personality as the true icons of the genre but the interface is smooth, they're rewarding without being punishing, and they don't outstay their welcome. Unfortunately, neither Dracula 2 nor Dracula 3 work out-of-the-box on modern systems, and both games will require a trip to the forums to get them up and running. It's disappointing when it would only take a simple fix from GOG to make the default installation work properly.

The developers chose for those games a historical approach and documented of the famous myth built around Dracula. The texts are excellent, particularly those on Von Kruger and Irina Bocsow who defend remarkably their point of view on vampires belief ^^ The dubbing is very good, even for Dracula who had a few difficult lines. Maria's dubber is however the worst in the group (for example when she says "maybe it was more than dreams" it sounds totally ridiculous). I liked the two littles games on probability (optional) of the bohemian and in general the "intelligent" aspect of the games, a little maths in a video game is very rare but it feels good. The enigmas are really difficult and well found (especially the one with granulocytes and the one with pictures to develop which are certainly two of the best enigmas ever offered in a video game) You've understood we're far from idiot capcom-ish enigmas like "insert the cube in the cubical hole"...

Usually I agree with GOG players, but now... It's the first time I play a "point & click", and I'm happily surprised. Nice graphics, interesting story on vampire myths. A lot of references really interesting (for example, there is the full novel "Dracula" from Bram Stoker, in english). There are beautiful musics. I found the enigmas interesting. Only bad point is the linearity of the game. But in all, they are good adventure games, really interesting, that I recommand highly.