Dracula: Resurrection

Dracula: Resurrection
Cover-art for French PC release
Developer(s)	Index+, France Telecom Multimedia, Canal+ Multimedia (Windows, Mac, PS) Tetraedge Games (iOS, OS X re-release, Android)
Publisher(s)	DreamCatcher Interactive (Windows, Mac, PS) Microïds (iOS, OS X re-release, Android)
Director(s)	Jacques Simian
Writer(s)	Jacques Simian, François Villard
Composer(s)	Laurent Parisi
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows, Mac, PlayStation, iOS, OS X, Android
Release date(s)	Windows EU June 7, 2000[1] NA June 14, 2000[2] Mac NA June 14, 2000[3] PlayStation EU March 2, 2001[4] NA June, 2001[5] iOS (Episodic) WW September 1, 2011[6] OS X (Re-release) WW November 11, 2011[3] iOS (Full) WW October 1, 2012[7] Android WW September 18, 2013[8]
Genre(s)	Adventure, Point-and-click
Mode(s)	Single-player
Distribution	CD (2), Digital distribution

Dracula: Resurrection is a 2000 point-and-click adventure/horror video game developed by Index+, France Telecom Multimedia and Canal+ Multimedia, and published by DreamCatcher Interactive for Microsoft Windows and Mac. In 2001, it was ported to PlayStation as Dracula: The Resurrection, and in 2011 it was released in a three-part episodic form for iOS, developed by Tetraedge Games and published by Microïds.^[6] This remake was also re-released for OS X^[3] and, in 2013, for Android.^[8] The game is an unofficial sequel to Bram Stoker's Dracula; set seven years after the end of the novel, Jonathan Harker finds that he must once again do battle with the evil Count Dracula.

The game was followed by a direct sequel later in 2000, Dracula: The Last Sanctuary. A third game, with an unrelated storyline, followed in 2008, Dracula 3: The Path of the Dragon. A loose sequel to Path of the Dragon was released in a two-part form in 2013; Dracula 4: The Shadow of the Dragon and Dracula 5: The Blood Legacy.

Gameplay

The game is played from a first-person perspective with the direction in which the player is facing controlled by the mouse. On each static screen, the player is free to look around 360^o. The game's interface is very simple; there is no HUD, instead the player has access to an inventory in which all items are stored. To speak to people or interact with objects, the player must click on them with the pointer. As the player moves the pointer around the screen it can change to an arrow (meaning the player can move in that direction), a magnifying glass (meaning the player can inspect something in more detail), a cog (meaning the player must use an item on the object), a cog with a hand (meaning the player can operate the object without using an item) or a hand (meaning the player can pick the item up). When the player clicks on a person to whom they wish to speak, a list of conversation topics appear on screen in the form of small icons. The most often encountered symbol in the game is the cog. When the player encounters this symbol, they must enter their inventory and select an item. If it is the correct item to operate the object, the item will appear in a green circle instead of the cog icon. If it is the incorrect item, the cog icon will remain.^[9]

The 2011 iOS version developed by Tetraedge adds several new features to the gameplay, such as an optional help feature, which highlights interactive zones on each screen, and a "Compass Look" feature which utilises the iDevice accelerometer controls for looking around.^[6]

Plot

The game begins with the final scene from the novel, as Dracula's gypsies are attacked by Jonathan Harker and his men, and Dracula himself is supposedly killed, releasing Harker's wife, Mina, from her psychic enslavement to the Count. Although Dracula has seemingly been destroyed, Harker (voiced by David Gasman) remains sceptical as to whether or not he is really gone. The game then cuts to London, seven years later, with Mina (Gay Marshall) feeling a sudden and irresistible force drawing her to Dracula's castle in Transylvania. She leaves a letter for Harker, begging him not to follow her. However, upon finding it, Harker writes to his old friend Dr. Seward, asking him to investigate the matter in London as he himself must follow Mina, hoping to catch her before she reaches Dracula's castle.

Harker arrives at the Crown Inn in the Borgo Pass late at night and is advised by the innkeeper, Barina (Liza Jacob), not to venture to the castle until morning, as it is Saint George's Eve, a night when demons are believed to walk the earth. As Harker ponders what to do, a man at the inn, Micha (Steve Gadler), tells him that the fastest way to the castle is via an old bridge at the back of the inn, but the way is strewn with traps and extremely dangerous. Unperturbed, Harker heads to the bridge but finds it guarded by a gypsy who won't let him pass. He is drawn to the nearby cemetery, and sees a mysterious blue light emanating from a grave above which is a mural depicting Saint George slaying a dragon. Harker begins to dig in the grave and soon finds a strange mechanical ring - a dragon eating its own tail. Returning to the inn, he shows the ring to Micha, who tells him he doesn't understand the powers of what he is dealing with and he should just return to London. Micha explains that seven years ago, Dracula's gypsies disappeared, but have recently returned, and that Dracula himself is pure evil. Harker also shows the ring to Barina, telling her of the blue flames. Shocked, she tells him that blue flames only appear at a grave when the demon locked within has broken its chains, and anything taken from such a grave is eternally cursed.

Continuing to explore the area, Harker finds a pan flute at a nearby house. Micha explains that the gypsies use the flutes to call to one another, and teaches Harker the secret melody they play. Harker uses the flute to call the guard at the bridge to the inn, where he drops a lead weight on him, killing him. He then tries to cross the bridge, but it collapses before he can do so. He returns to Micha, who tells him there are rumours of a secret passage to the castle leading from a nearby cabin, but no one know how to access it. As Harker speaks to the inn's occupants, the other gypsies find their slain companion and surround the inn, preventing anyone from leaving. Barina then tells Harker that prior to his death, her husband told her there is a secret passage in the basement leading outside the inn. She gives him her husband's journal, where he finds that the ring he discovered in the grave is actually the key to this passage. He finds the secret entrance in the cellar, and enters it, escaping the surrounded inn. He then heads to the cabin and finds the secret passage Micha spoke of, which leads into an abandoned mine shaft. Harker uses a mine cart to cross the lake blocking him from Dracula's castle, unaware that he is being watched by the gypsies and by Dracula (Allan Wenger) himself, who reveals that he wants Harker to bring the ring to the castle; Harker's discovery of the ring is all part of Dracula's plan.

Upon arriving at the castle, Harker meets Dorko (Gay Marshall), an old woman locked in a dungeon. She vows to help him find Mina if he helps her to escape her confinement. She says Mina is in a secret tower guarded by three demons. She explains to Harker that he must find an amulet to open the tower. In the library, Harker finds a note from Dracula taunting him about his imminent failure. Dracula mentions that he is in London and that his three brides will soon kill Harker. As he searches for the amulet, he finds another letter from Dracula in which he talks about meeting Leonardo da Vinci and how he has built a flying machine of his own. Eventually, Harker finds the amulet but is confronted by the three demons. The amulet protects him from them, but they taunt him that its protection won't last for long. He returns to Dorko, who takes him to Mina, but she betrays him, locking him in the tower in an effort to regain Dracula's trust. However, the tower in which Harker and Mina are locked is also the tower where Dracula has stored his flying machine, and Harker is able to activate the machine and use it to escape. As he and an unconscious Mina fly away from the castle, Harker muses on how Mina can never be safe whilst Dracula lives, and as such, upon returning to London, he plans to defeat the Count once and for all.

Reception

Reception
Aggregate scores Aggregator Score GameRankings 63.92% (PC)[10] 64.00% (PS)[11] Metacritic 67/100[12] Review scores Publication Score GameSpot 6/10[13] GameSpy 69/100[14] GameZone 4.5/10[14] IGN 8/10[15] Official PlayStation Magazine (UK) 2.5/5[16] PC Gamer US 79/100[14] PC Zone 39/100[14] Adventure Classic Gaming [17]

The game was met with mixed reviews. The PC version holds an aggregate score of 63.92% on GameRankings, based on eighteen reviews,^[10] and 67 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on thirteen reviews. The PlayStation version holds a score of 64.00% on GameRankings, based on two reviews.^[11]

IGN's Scott Steinberg was impressed with the PC version, scoring it 8 out of 10, and praising the simple interface, the logic of the puzzles, the difficulty level, the graphics and the storyline. He concluded "We've been waiting for a respectable point and click adventure since Grim Fandango came along, and although Dracula: Resurrection is a quick ride, it's well worth the price of admission."^[15]

GameSpot's Ron Dulin was somewhat less enthusiastic, scoring the PC version 6 out of 10. He criticised the fact that the game never explains how Dracula has resurrected despite being killed by sunlight at the end of the novel. He was also critical of the core gameplay; "Simply clicking every object in your inventory on every object in view will get you through the majority of the puzzles in Dracula: Resurrection. There's no way to die in the game, so there's no real punishment for simply trying everything and anything. And if you're stuck, chances are you just haven't searched the area thoroughly; plus, you won't have to move far to find the item you need. There are only two puzzles that actually require any sort of deduction on your part, and as a result the game often seems like a process of mindless trial and error." However, he was extremely impressed with the graphics, calling the NPCs "some of the best-looking rendered human characters ever to appear in a PC game," although he was not so complementary of the voice acting, and he also criticised the absence of Dracula himself for almost the entire game. He concluded "Dracula: Resurrection is somewhat interesting only because it's quick, easy, and atmospheric. It's very short, so even novice adventure gamers won't have much trouble finishing it in a few sessions. The designers have evidently planned to make a sequel, and hopefully that game will be a more concentrated attempt to live up to the source material, or at least to the beautiful shell that decorates this otherwise shallow game.^[13]

Adventure Classic Gaming's Zack Howe was similarly unimpressed, scoring the PC version 2 out of 5. He too praised the graphics and atmosphere; "the highlight of this game is its production and the most recognizable draw is its sublime graphics. The graphics are simply state-of-the-art. A lot of attention has been given to render the incredibly realistic looking environments." However, he found the gameplay did not support the graphics; "this game ranks far away from the best games in the adventure genre. Instead of an adventure, the game is played out feeling like a showcase only for the designers to show off the latest and state-of-the-art animation techniques."^[17]

References

External links

• Official Site
• Dracula: Resurrection at MobyGames