Dracula in London

The Good
Back in the mid to late 90's, a few companies would release "super cds" full of games. Most of the games were just demos or shareware, such titles as the single episode games of Wolfenstein and Doom. However, many of these discs also included the full version of older games, such as the Hugo Trilogy, Jill of the Jungle, or Nightmare 3-D. One of the games included on these discs was "Dracula in London," based on Bram Stoker's "Dracula."

A quick note - I'm writing this review based on my memory of playing a game a good 11-12 years ago. I've searched around, but I no longer have my original game cd.

While having never read the original "Dracula" novel, I can not tell you how closely the game follows the book. I do remember a definite sense of deja-vu when I finally sat down a few years ago and watched the movie "Dracula", the one with Gary Oldman and Anthony Hopkins. The game definitely follows the events of that movie, which makes sense since they both came out around the same time I believe.

"Dracula in London" is a dying (or dead) breed of game. The graphics and style of the game is vaguely reminescent of classic games like "Carmen Sandiego" on the old Macs and IBMs. You read a big long paragraph or two explaining what is happening, where you are, and hopefully what you need to do. Then the game gives you multiple text options, things like "Search the cemetary"; "Go visit the Library"; "Check your inventory"; or as the screenshot indicates, "Go Visit Renfield."

Speaking of Renfield, I remember you do visit him quite alot in the game. Based on what day it is and what time, not only will he be acting differently but there would be different gameplay options you could do with or to him. Things such as heal him, talk to him, attack him...the usual things.

Since the game essentially takes place over a short period of time, about three to four days, the game experience remains largely the same each time you play the game. You basically being to memorize when and where each event in the game will take place. What the game does to break this up is having you search for both Dracula, his minions, and his coffins of dirt (go watch the movie).

Suppose you need to go search a warehouse to find those coffins of dirt. You'd choose your party, decide which weapons you want to carry with you (Holy Water, cross, medical kit, etc...go see the screenshot), and then go to the warehouse. You'd first assume control of one character, move him around, and then assume control of the next character, repeat, etc. I do remember each character had a limited number of moves he could make per his turn (although I can not remember if that applied to general movement or just movement during combat).

If you found a box that might contain dirt, you'd start tapping the arrow keys in the direction of that box. Then, depending on who your character is, or what item or weapon he has, the game will declare if it's just regular dirt or if you managed to poison the dirt that Dracula brought with him.

Eventually you'd face off against Dracula himself. You would need to attack him all at the same time with your party, using the variety of weapons at your disposal. Occasionally he would attempt to poison or subvert your party (ie, turning them against you) by mind control, and you would have to deal with them too. Depending on how successful you were in the game, and whether or not you managed to even defeat Dracula, the game would treat you to a different end game screen, chronicling what happened to each of your characters after the events of the game. If you were highly successful, each character would grow old, retire, and die wealthy or at least happy. If not successful, chances are half your group would end up in mental wards, and the other half would be suicidal or minions of Dracula.

The Bad
Ever read a review on Mobygames, usually by someone who writes one or two lines without thinking about them, where it says something like "Tetris sucks because there are only x number of blocks?" Or my personal favorite - "Super Mario Bros. is a bad game because the graphics aren't that good."

This game was made in the late 80's to early 90's. As such the graphics are not Half-Life 2. They are not even Quake II, Doom, Wolftenstein, or X-Wing. What they are is a good example of what gaming was like back in the olden days, for better or for worse.

Yes, you could make the point that "Dracula in London" sucks because Dracula is not in 3-D and dripping with blood, but you'd be missing the point. This game is by and large a text adventure, with some nice visuals just to add flavor. Your onscreen characters do not need to be heavily visual; a simple "D" for Dracula is sufficient to tell you that that the big D is moving at you.

Here's another good negative review- "There is too much writing." If there is one thing "Dracula in London" is good at it is making you read, what with numerous journals, vampire lore, and even just location and event descriptions. Many gamers nowadays get turned off by too much reading; they want their action now. Yet when this game was made, nearly all pc videogaming was text based; therefore "too much reading" is not a reason to not like this game.

If I had to give serious thought to a flaw in this game, it would be the length. You do essentially play the same things over and over again, with minor variations. Yet what you do play is still good enough to warrant playing over and over until you do everything just right.

The Bottom Line
After writing this review, I want to play this game again. And isn't that what a classic game should do to you? It should remind you and haunt you of fun and chills you had long ago. While it might not hold up as well today, any game worthy of the "classic" label should be first a walk down memory lane, and a "technical and visual achievement that still holds up today" second.

This game, along with many others, I wholeheartedly recommend trying out if you ever find a copy. A perfect weekend game.