Dracula Trilogy

Dracula: The Resurrection The first game was promising. It has a good atmosphere, things seemed to make sense and there was progress. Despite the fact that Dracula didn't appear often, you always felt that his shadow was over you while progressing on the story. Then the first samples of a bad adventure started to pop up with puzzles that didn't make sense and with the difficulty to find the over specific interaction points. Dracula: The Last Sanctuary In this game Dracula appears a lot more, though the most of the times without reason and doesn't help on the progress of the game. Actually it shows us that there is poor scenario and the protagonist could actually die on several occasions but Dracula just doesn't bother with him. The game mechanics are really really bad. There were a lot of cases that I lost my time trying to find the right PIXELS to make an action and there were times that I passed from the same spots just searching, not thinking about the puzzles as you should in an adventure game. Also the lighting on this game is really bad and doesn't help at all. Now the scenario started to derail when many puzzles or the scenario it self started to make no sense. Logic, is not a skill used in this game. Additional, many actions are not required and are just fillers. The 2nd game is worst than the first. Now I am moving to the 3rd game and I hope it's better. I will add my review here when I am done.

Those unfamilliar with Bram Stoker's Dracula novel will be confused to start of the trilogy with an explanation of prior events. This is indeed contains the first game, Dracula - The Resurrection, of the series but it takes place after certain events in the novel (good novel and worth reading). The three games in this Trilogy are all about the same setting but the third is obviously an extrapolation of themes that loosely tie it to the first and second. Dracula - The Resurrection is a fun adventure that doesn't bend too hard in the ways of the impractical or out-of-context thinking when it comes to solving the puzzles of the game. Navigation of the game is scene by scene, where if you're familiar with Point and Click style adventures, involving clicking items to pick up, to look at or to go to certain places. This is the better of the games in the trilogy, which I recommend people experience. Dracula - The Last Sanctuary leaves much to desire but brings the previous game to its Ultimate Climax. Much of the same gameplay is repeated with the clicky clicky with items and inspection; however, the addition of enemies to fight bring a new level of annoyance to the game. Instead of taking your time and coming up with a solution, the red bar comes up and you're expected to solve the multi-tiered of puzzles very quickly or die. A part from that, there is a level of impractical with some puzzles of the game but no expectation that things outside of the game's knowledge is needed. Dracula - The Path of the Dragon is the third game in the series but carries the least engaging factors. Puzzles are long and require extra-impressive thinking to accomplish, which is great for the evolving puzzle solver but hard to understand when considering the games before it. Puzzles in one and two only require the most basic of solving; where as, three requires the understanding of the Fibonacci sequence. Its a great game but not a well fit for the other two before it.

In many ways, this collection serves as a great example of all the good elements of point and click adventures, but it also falls for many of the common pitfalls of the genre. Dracula 1 and 2 may as well be seen as one game. The story continues directly through both games, and it's exactly what you'd expect from a game with this title. The first instalment is a rather simple and short affair, with very basic puzzles, although with decent enough atmosphere and pretty environments. The second game is pretty much just more of the same, with some notable exceptions. The main problem with Dracula 2 is that the puzzles are far, far too hard. Not in a proper difficult kind of way, but rather just unfair. Many times does it commit the cardinal adventure sin of making you use an inventory item on parts of the environment that give no indication of being possible to interact with, and it also adds some rather awkward timed sections which just feel out of place in a game like this. Overall it is still an enjoyable experience, but it could have been a lot better. Dracula 3, however, is the real star of the show here. It throws out the clichéd Dracula mythos of the previous games and sets up an entirely unique story of its own, which initially has nothing at all to do with vampires! If it wasn't for some shared voice actors (who do a good job, by the way) and graphical style, it would be hard to tell this is part of the same series as the previous games at all. The story is very interesting and well thought out, with Da Vinci Code-esque toying around with historical documents and myths to create a believable universe that feels truly real. While it should be said that most of the game consists of (albeit well-written) dialogue and inspecting documents, it also does have some very creative and mind-bending puzzles that really make you feel smart when you crack them. The "final" puzzle in particular is a true marvel, kudos to anyone who solves it. Should you buy this? Yes.

I'm not saying you should skip Dracula 1&2. They're passable games in their own right - a little fun, a little campy, and the puzzles are light enough that you can blow through either in a few hours. Nothing too memorable. What I *am* saying is that this bundle is worth buying on the merits of Dracula 3 alone. The game is a gem of the genre; just regard the other two as a bonus with your purchase. The setting, story, and puzzles are all done wonderfully - just bring a dose of patience for scouring documents with your in-game magnifying lens. I played the game with my wife and daughter; the puzzles were reasonable enough that we never felt compelled to cheat, but hard enough to slow us down and make us think. Winning the game felt like a genuine accomplishment.

Good puzzle game with a great atmosphere. The atmosphere is what I really like about the game. I haven't finished the game yet but I'm already at the castle and it felt short, as in it progressed fast. Kind of easy puzzles.