Dracula: Origin Demo

As far as almost anyone is concerned, Dracula is the face of vampires in Europe and America, or at least he was before the media went overboard with the fanged creatures of the night and started portraying them in ever-weirder manners. However, the count from Transylvania is still an iconic part of the myth, especially since he still adheres to slightly more outdated characteristics as well, such as the fear of garlic or the ability to turn into a bat.

Dracula: Origin is a point-and-click adventure game that concerns itself with the fate of the young and vicious vampire from eastern Europe, as well as with the confrontation between him and professor Van Helsing, the one who pursues him. Naturally, you get to play the professor's role and travel all over the continent in order to gather clues and try to pinpoint his exact location, before his achieves his evil plans.

Speaking of which, the plot itself is largely the same as it was in the original book written by Bram Stoker at the end of the 19th century, although there are some modifications as well. Hence, after Dracula makes a deal with the Devil and becomes the world's first vampire, he goes on a quest to find a book on how to raise the dead, in order to bring back his beloved lady friend, among with a few other creatures. Van Helsing aims to stop him from finding this book and it is your duty to unravel the mysteries leading to Dracula's hideout.

When it comes to the gameplay, everything goes as usual, with you trying to collect objects, combine them together and sometimes talking to people in order to advance the plot. The puzzles themselves are not particularly complicated, but they do require a bit of tinkering before you are able to guess how to use the items you pick up along the way. Thanks to the easy-to-use interface, it is quite easy to try out your theories and basically toy with the objects any way you like.

Obviously, a tale like this needs good visuals to create the proper atmosphere, which is nicely achieved by the game at hand. Thanks to the nice blend of 3D characters and 2D pre-rendered environments, the landscapes are quite creepy and you should have no trouble getting into the atmosphere of the grim tale. The same can be said about the sound, since there are some pretty eerie effects coming out of the speakers at all times.

While Dracula: Origin does not bring anything new to the genre and the story itself is not very original either, that doesn't mean the game isn't enjoyable. Thanks to the nice puzzles, good level design and expertly portrayed characters, you should feel right at home in the game, especially if you are a fan of the vampire universe.