Romania has not always been the safe and beautiful country that you see today. No, as hard as it may be to believe, there once was a much darker time, when fear ruled these lands, and death stalked at every corner. Fear of vampire attacks was much higher during those times and the reign of terror of Vlad Tepes had reached unspeakable proportions. Those older than myself can surely remember sleeping with garlic under their heads and wearing a cross at all times... but I`m glad to say those days are pretty much over. Some Romanians still carry garlic with them when going out at night, but vampires have become almost extinct, even here. I don`t know about Transilvania though, so tourists, beware!

You`ll fill the shoes of Professor Van Helsing as he receives a disturbing letter from one of his students, who has unfortunately become dinner for Dracula, but not before showing the vampire a picture of his fiancée, Mina. Fearing for her safety, Helsing rushes to her house only to discover that he is too late as she has already been bitten by the evil count, and decides that the only way of saving her is to track Dracula and kill him before her transformation is complete.

Players of the Sherlock Holmes series from Frogwares will feel right at home, as the interface is exactly the same, only with a different, bloodier look. The one major change that is going to stand out as soon as you start the game is their decision to drop the first person view and go back to the more classical third person view that works like a charm. This might seem like a step backwards for some but it`s certainly not; navigation is as simple as it could be and the camera angles are very good.

We`ve certainly seen Bram Stoker`s Count Dracula portrayed in a million different ways, starting from a maniacal bloody nut to a more philosophical approach where even the thought of draining blood would repulse him. Van Helsing`s Dracula is somewhat of a combination between a beast out for blood and a prince fallen in love for the second time, which is an interesting approach, but like most others, it has nothing in common with how Bram Stoker imagined him.

Nonetheless, adventure games with vampires are somewhat of a rarity, so I enjoyed it very much. The story is pretty weak (we`ll get to this soon enough), but the chase for Dracula will take you to a number of different and beautifully rendered locations including the desert and Dracula`s castle.

As I mentioned before, the first person view was dropped for a third person one, using the mouse for navigation instead of the keyboard. A double click won`t make Van Helsing run, like it does in other adventure games, but you can use this to quickly go from one scene to another, as this changes them instantly.

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The inventory is easily accessible by a right click, and you can also find here all the clues you have collected along the way and see all the dialogues you`ve had so far in the game. Even if you can`t see the name "Sherlock Holmes" in the title, it`s not far from it, as Van Helsing`s adventure would have puzzled even the great detective at times.

One problem adventure games have always had to deal with was the dreaded "pixel hunt" that basically meant that gamers had to spend a lot of time moving the mouse slowly over every scene just to find interactable items. I`m glad to see this is quickly becoming a thing of the past, every game having a different system to solve this issue. Dracula: Origin does this in a way that lets players choose if they want to be helped or not.

One press of the space bar will highlight all interactable items on screen, as well as showing you all the locations that you can travel to, from there. You can use this only when you`re stuck, or you can keep one finger on the space bar at all times and remove all challenge from the game. Yes, this actually makes the game much easier and could be considered cheating, even if it is a built in feature.

At first, even without the spacebar, I thought the game was too easy, but the difficulty of the puzzles increases as the game progresses. Finding the necessary items won`t be a problem (considering the space bar), but combining them, will. Once every while you`ll just have to try combining every item with all the others and see if you can come up with something useful. Unlike the quests, this part was a little confusing, but you can rest assured that all the items are in your inventory, just waiting to be combined. Whenever you want to leave a scene, without collecting all the items or doing everything you have to, the game won`t let you and Van Helsing will comment on how he has to look around more. His comments are quite funny actually, especially when picking up an item, he`ll always say something along the lines: "This looks useful, I`m taking it".

The locations visited are full of life and very detailed, as your travels take you to London, Egypt, Vienna and Transilvania, but especially the final level seems rushed, with a small number of locations to explore. This was the first thing that left me a little disappointed after finishing the game. Another issue I had with the game was the story. I appreciate good graphics and logical puzzles in a quest game (although the piano puzzle had me searching on google for piano keys), but the story is the most important part for me and Dracula: Origin seems to be lacking in this department.

You find out almost nothing about Van Helsing or Mina, and even Dracula remains quite a mistery during the game, even with the occasional letters that tell life from his point of view. The ending of the game was shallow and unsatisfactory as the final confrontation was about 10 seconds long, with no dialogue or tension build up. Another problem I had, that reminded me of Darkness Within, was the presence of (absolutely required) steps in order to solve a puzzle. I don`t understand why the game has to acknowledge my progress with an "Aha" from Van Helsing to let me solve a quest, when I already knew what I had to do. You`ll know what I`m talking about quickly enough, when you start dusting the graves for clues :).

The graphics are certainly a strong point, like most adventure games, but I was (yet again) disappointed by the voice acting and dialogues. There is no emotion in any of the dialogues in the game and all the dialogues seem mediocre. And while I appreciated the gothic atmosphere of the game, I felt the dialogues were a little farfetched, everyone trying to sound "more gothic" than the other. The music is excellent though, changing as the locations change and even if it does seem out of place at times, it is mysterious and gloomy enough to keep you hooked into the game.

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Conclusion:

I had some problems trying to rate this game, as it was a mixed bag of both ups and downs. While the navigation, camera, inventory and dialogue systems are excellent, the dialogues, voice acting, game mechanics and the story are lacking. There are a lot of things in the game that seem rushed, and I`m confident that a little more development time would have done wonders for the game especially improving the story and giving it more depth. While not an excellent game, Dracula: Origin does have its strong points and I recommend trying it out. Just make sure you`re not expecting too much of it and end up being disappointed, like I was :).

Gameplay: 73

Adventure games aren`t rare, but playing a vampire hunter in one, is. Too bad the developers didn`t use the great possibilities opened up by this. The third person view is certainly easier to use than a first person view and the space bar will get you out of almost all trouble. Google will get you out of others :).

Graphics: 82

Details are abundant in every scene visited and all the locations seem full of life thanks to the vivid colors used. The characters are a little blocky but this is to be expected from an adventure game where the backgrounds are usually much more detailed. Speaking of characters, I was pleased to see there were some that had nothing to do with the game, and were there just to populate the world.

Sound: 74

The music is in sharp contrast with the voice over part of the game and while the dialogues might scratch your ears, as soon as they stop, the music will soothe you then drag you back into the dark atmosphere of the game.

Multiplayer: n/a

Hardware: 85

The game ran smoothly on my system, with no frame rate issues or weird lock ups. Even the alt tab test was passed with flying colors.