Dracula Origin PC review

I’ve never been a huge fan of point-and-click adventures, simply because I haven’t got the time or the patience to sit and work all the puzzles out, and wait for dialogues and things to play out. But given I’m a vampire freak, Dracula Origin caught my eye. Since the original novel is now well out of its copyright, people can mess around with the plot as they so wish – hence the multitude of books, films and games on the subject littering the retail shelves.

At the beginning of Dracula Origin, you play as Professor Van Helsing. A long-standing vampire hunter, Van Helsing knows exactly how to dispatch a vampire should he come across one. And it’s your job to help him do so. As you progress through the game, you discover that several women have been killed around London in unusual circumstances; that is, they’ve had the blood drained from them. The ignorant newspaper reporters have described the deaths in numerous ways, but Van Helsing (and of course you) know better. Count Dracula is in London.

Having worked this one out, you must now track down the vamp, and kill him. But that’s probably not as easy as it seems. For along the way you must solve dozens of complex puzzles to progress in your quest. I think hardcore point-and-click adventurers will probably zoom through these without too much hesitation, but for a newbie like me, it quickly became frustrating. I soon resorted to a walkthrough, I’m ashamed to say.

Working your way through the game, you’ll discover it does have lots of similarities to the original plot of Dracula, for example the Count’s fixation with Mina, as he believes she is the reincarnation of his lover from many years past. However, where things differ are when you must zoom off to Cairo in pursuit of the fanged foe, and then Vienna. Finally, you are sent to Transylvania, which if it wasn’t a linear game I would have gone to first! Alas, you must do as you are told in this genre of game.Once in Transylvania you are close to Dracula, who is working his magic to bring back his lover through Mina, and you must stop him before he does so.  Then wing your way through to a climactic ending – enjoy!

Overall, this is a good game, if you’re a fan of point-and-click adventures. I thought the subject matter would be enough to keep me interested, but unfortunately, if it hadn’t have been for the walkthrough I’d have gotten frustrated with the puzzles and abandoned the game quickly. But that’s a reflection on me, rather than the game. The game itself is fab. The graphics, sound, dialogue, characters etc all pull together to make a really creepy game, so much so that I was constantly on edge whilst playing it, expecting something to jump out on me! A word to the wise: if you don’t do complicated, don’t bother with this game. Stick with cheesy casual games, like me.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to find me some frantic button clicking game!