Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Dracula Origin


Review:

Known for its Sherlock Holmes series, independent developer Frogwares has certainly been keeping busy with adventures games. The latest in its lineup is Dracula: Origin, a new adventure based off the epistolary novel Dracula by Bram Stoker written back in 1897. The fascinating dark fairy tale of the Prince of Darkness is revealed as you progress through the game. You don't even have to know much about vampires or Dracula himself to be absorbed in Van Helsing's quest to eliminate the vampire once and for all.

We are introduced to Professor Van Helsing as he's pouring over his life's work and quickly learn through a letter that one of his students, Jonathan Harker, has fallen into Dracula's clutches. Fearing for the safety of Harker's fiancée Mina, Van Helsing rushes over to her place to protect her. It seems that Dracula has taken an interest in Mina, as she looks like his one true love that he had lost and plans to use her body as a host to bring his beloved back. Van Helsing's journey takes him to London, Cairo, Vienna, and then Transylvania, where he must find a way to save Mina and defeat Dracula.

Unlike Sherlock Holmes: Nemesis, Frogwares' previous game, the developers went back to the traditional third person view and made the controls much more user-friendly. While some hardcore adventurers might frown upon it, pixel hunting has been eliminated with the help of the spacebar. Hitting spacebar will light up everything that can be interacted with on screen. You don't have to do this, of course, but it saves a lot of time and energy for you to devote to puzzles rather than scouring the scenery. The menu is easily brought up with the right click of the mouse; the entire game can be played without the use of the keyboard. Like Sherlock Holmes, documents and important notes are jotted down for you as well as dialogue. Using the mouse wheel to scroll quickly through text or inventory items is effortless. It seems that this interface was carefully designed to alleviate any flaws that previous adventure titles had. If Van Helsing could only run with a double click, that would be have perfect. However traveling across each screen doesn't take much time at all, sometimes it'll take you there instantly, but when he is walking, you can't help but wish he'd pick up the pace.


A majority of the puzzles are relevant to the story and the task at hand, so nothing seemed entirely out of place and obscure. Although a lot of it has to do with combining everything that you just picked up; who knew you could use a beaver carcass to help drain a barrel? There are two puzzles that stand out which didn't make much sense, one involving demons and wolves early on and another involving hieroglyphics. After much trial and error (and Google searching how to read Egyptian hieroglyphics) you may get through, but the solution is not entirely obvious. Dracula: Origin does provide a bit of hand holding since you can't leave a certain area until you've completed your task. This prevents needless backtracking, and with the use of the spacebar you'll know that you have everything you need in your inventory. This doesn't necessarily make the game easy, but it does make it a lot more enjoyable for those who do not want to spend their time running back and forth looking for items or wondering what they need to move on.


Another reason for Dracula: Origin's appeal is the presentation and art direction. Loading screens have beautiful artwork of the various locations that you'll visit. Even though you travel to specific cities, most of your exploring is indoors but the attention to detail is impressive, from the decaying manor to the Victorian home. The locations that you visit aren't very large; this is helpful when it comes to collecting items but for some it may seem that the game feels small. It's also a relatively short game if you compare to other adventure titles, but if this was any longer it might start to drag. The deep shade of red is seen everywhere, either in the form of blood, large curtains, or a vase of freshly cut roses. This theme and detail stand out amidst some of the darker environments and even when you're in a fancy living room. The cutscenes are a pleasure to watch; the animation isn't flawless, but a solid effort was put in to bring these characters to life.


The music compliments the scenes well, with eerie violins playing in the background along with chilly piano melodies. The mood changes when you travel to Egypt; the music weaves a desert-like environment with the twang of foreign string instruments. Van Helsing's voice is something to get used to; you'll hear a lot of the same phrases over and over again when you're solving puzzles, but as a whole the voice acting isn't too bad.

Closing Comments
Dracula: Origin is elegant piece of work visually, using well-known fictional characters and blending it into a fun and challenging adventure game. Everything ranging from the puzzles to the music fit in perfectly with the story. Note that this game is not ground-breaking in any way; it uses the old adventure format but with a few tweaks that make it accessible and easier for those who aren't familiar with the genre.

System requirements

CPU: Windows XP/Vista
Video card memory: 64MB
RAM: 512 Mo (1Go with Windows Vista)
Processor: Intel Pentium 4 1.5Ghz/AMD Athlon XP 1500+
Hard disk space: 2.5 GB
DirectX: 9.0c

Install Notes:

1. Unrar.
2. Burn the image.
3. Install the game.
4. Copy the cracked executable over from the Crack directory on CD1 toyour installation directory.
5. Play the game.


Download Links:
Posted by Chaitanya,Pavan at 11:25 PM
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