Seriously, this is the scariest game I've ever played. The sheer horror of the decors, the tension building for what will come out in the end and the creepiness of your interaction with ghosts make you uneasy from the very first moment and never let go. No cheap thrills à la Outlast here. It has its flaws as an adventure game (though it's not as hard as the other dark falls), so you might want to play with a walkthrough to really focus on the scary experience. Go play it now. And afterwards go play Scratches.
This game is very confused. It wants you to play the prologue separately but doesn't prompt you to do it. It has a health mechanic that's more a nuisance than anything. It's short, devilishly short (took me three hours). It's really just half a game, with the other half (Dracula 5) releasing soon, yet it's fully priced. Being half a game, the ending is just stupid. And yet this game can be brilliant. It builds off the interface and mechanics of Dracula 3:Path of the dragon while making them (finally) user friendly. The exploration of the main location (because we really only have a main location and a couple smaller ones) feels natural. The puzzles are logical and easy enough to solve without feeling trivial. Also, people who played PotD will get a real kick when they unlock the Vault. Unfortunately I can't recommend this game outright, both because it feels incomplete and because it is way too expensive for what it offers. BUT if you loved the dracula series (as I did) or you stumble upon this game at 50% off you should definitely buy it.
There are two different souls in this collection: there's the Dracula: resurrection diptych and there's Path of the Dragon. These souls are distant both in time and philosophy. Dracula:Resurrection and The Last Sanctuary still belong to the pixelhunt era, and you'll be stuck more than once just because when you scanned the room you missed a single spot that was barely visible. Apart from that, if you can get past the (honestly atrocious) cutscenes, you'll find two good adventure games. But to me the real standout is path of the dragon. It is without a doubt the smartest (and thus hardest) adventure game that came out in the past few years. Instead of somewhat following the Bram Stoker book, this game gives it a twist of supernatural (similar to gabriel knight games) and puts you on the path to becoming a vampire. Once again the puzzles are very reasonable. On the other hand, it is a HARD game. you can stumble pretty easily for a while, going from place to place, but unless you actually decide to read and examine every single document carefully and THINK you will end up being stuck in the last hour. In this regard it's very similar to Riven (in the Myst series, other fabulous game): unless you're able to completely immerse yourself in the adventure and the character you'll need a walkthrough to get out of it alive. If you have the time and will to go through it though it's a wonderful experience.
