Dracula: Origin

To be perfectly honest with you, the whole Dracula mythos has been done waaaay too much in film, books and video games. Oh sure, there is a rabid fan base for the ol' bloodsuckers, and I even personally know a couple of people who have an unhealthy obsession with Dracula and vampires, but please listen to my point and then we'll get on to the preview. People who know Dracula are going to have a certain preconceived notion of the characters. For instance, you play the game as Van Helsing; now depending who you are, you may see Sir Anthony Hopkins as Van Helsing, or Hugh Jackman or maybe even Christopher Plummer. Mina and Johnothan Harker are always going to be Winnona Rider and Keanu Reeves to me, so I had a hard time accepting them in the game and of course, Dracula himself always makes me think of either Gary Oldman or Frank Langella, go figure. 

So, if you can open your mind and accept new looking characters then you may be in for a real treat. First off the game has a really good grasp of voice work and dialogue, not a strong point in value-priced games, but here it works. Accents and tone are done way better than they ought to be and I couldn't be happier. After 20 minutes I was totally buying Van Helsing and his somewhat biting personality (pun intended), a man who knows the danger that is coming for young Mina and he's not about to put up with any nonsense from Dracula.

Next, even though the game is point and click, the rendered backgrounds are well put together and appropriately creepy. The game is set in the 1800s and the level designers did a good job of making things look authentic and well-worn where needed. There is the typical hunt for a changing icon in order to find all the things the game has hidden, but interestingly, there is an option to make everything that is "touchable" if you will, appear to the player. Yeah, this is a kind of a cheaters way to play the game, but if you are like me, and you get a little frustrated with point-and-click games, then this is exactly what I was looking for. True purists can simply ignore this function, but it is nice to know that it is there.

Interestingly enough, the game kind of reinvents the whole Bram Stoker story, with Johnothan sending a letter of urgency to Van Helsing who seems to be a sort of mentor to Johnothan; the mission is simple, use newspaper clipping and other clues to find out where Dracula is going to be and stop him before Mina is taken forever.

Dracula is something those who love an occult mystery and some good old-fashioned blood sucking is looking for. Look for it soon.