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 The story is very interesting and well thought out, with Da Vinci Code-esque toying around with historical documents and myths to create a believable universe that feels truly real.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.
