Having finally finished playing, replaying and blogging the entire Carol Reed series, I noted that I had another game I'd never tackled on the XP side of my computer: Dracula Origin.
I had played Dracula Resurrection many years ago and had lots of fun with it (and, in fact, finished without getting a hint). This one clearly is not from that series, but made by a completely different company. It has generally good reviews from the ones I found, and I own it. Now seemed as good a time as any to play it. It came out in 2008. Yes, I manage to stay pretty well behind the times. It's point and click and that's what I like. So far the atmosphere is perfect. Here's Van Helsing in a nicely gloomy graveyard:
Complete with buzzing flies, too!
And ooooh, this one is far more complicated than Resurrection! We've got all the dialogue recorded (that turns out to be a really good thing, actually). We've got an inventory that likes to get a bit sticky (can't get rid of an item without multiple clicks). We do have to use the keyboard for two essential things: first, to access the main menu you have to hit "escape." With the complexity of this game, I find I'm doing that often.
But more than that, you really do need to hit the space bar to locate all the hot spots. This game is extremely finicky. You have to be exactly on the correct pixel to get the hit. Plus, the screens are quite busy, so you'll spend all day clicking on everything--and still missing hot spots--if you don't use the space bar. It even gives you clues on where to step so you get to see the other side of a room, or continue down a path, for example.
Lots of stuff to click here--don't take all day!
Puzzles! This is absolutely a puzzle game, and they're tending to be fairly complex so far. I just had a serious bit of trouble opening a safe in Dracula's London house. I figured it out--I found both spaces, used the correct item on both, and even figured out what to do with the information--but it still didn't work. I finally had to look at the WT. I had left out one step: I had to click on the information to enter it into my records book before the puzzle would work! Turned out I had it right--I was just missing that one step. As soon I a made the second click the safe opened. I already had all the little dials set correctly.
That's just a bit too finicky for my taste. These puzzles, as in all good adventures, don't come with directions either. So not only do you have to solve it, you have to figure out what you're supposed to do with it in the first place in order to solve it!
The game appears to be all from Van Helsing's viewpoint. He's our main character, and fortunately they got a decent voice actor for him. It's a pleasant voice with a touch of accent that fits the character nicely. I've only met a few other characters and they all seem to be at least adequate.
Plus, the artwork is really good. These is a complicated game with complicated puzzles and has complicated scenery. I'm really enjoying that aspect of it.
Is that blood on the floor?
So this looks good! A full-blown adventure game with major puzzles to crack. I have no doubt I'll be needing the WT from time to time. I'm quite happy about my puzzle-solving ability so far, but I admit to getting a few hints to get me started. Now that I have a better feel for the game I might need fewer of those.
We'll see!
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