Dracula Unleashed

"Dracula Unleashed" är ett utmärkt exempel på vad CD-ROM-tekniken kan bjuda på. Om bara äventyrsdelen varit bättre skulle det kunnat ståta med en solklar femma. Nästa gång, kanske.

The search for Dracula takes you around London, dropping in to visit various characters, picking up clues and items. Its cheesy atmosphere makes this sequel of sorts to Dracula to resist.

Not a bad version of the PC game. For fans of the Sherlock Holmes games for this peripheral, Dracula Unleashed will undoubtedly be appealing. The full-motion video is well done (if a bit grainy color-wise) and the music is a knockout (don't play this one with the lights out). This one requires a lot of thinking and shouldn't be thought of as a fast action game like Night Trap or Sewer Shark. Let's see more like this one.

On the whole, there isn't much negative to say about this game. Sure, it suffers from the inherent flaws of the genre: little interactivity, linearity and some really annoying scenes (too many maids). On the positive side, it has a strictly limited number of locations (unlike the Sherlock Holmes games), a nice atmospheric storyline and good production values. So, this is probably as good as 'Interactive Movies' can get. Don't expect too much gameplay or too much of a challenge, and you might be positively surprised.

What a breath of fresh air for Dracula to have a good game on the Sega CD! It's visually impressing, and the voices all come across crisply. It's chock full of FMV scenes, and it's a game you won't be beating in one night. While the game might be too unclear in where to go and what to do next, and the desire to play might not be too high after you beat it, this is still a solid FMV title on the Sega CD. The campy nature will either lure players in or keep them away, so those annoyed with bad acting might not care for the acting. Still, if you play only one Dracula game on the Sega CD, make it Dracula Unleashed!

Though I thoroughly enjoyed Dracula Unleashed, I readily admit that it is not everyone’s cup of tea. Patience is the keyword and even at that, if you play on your DVD video player as I did, it is often difficult to press those small buttons on your remote. Still, it would make a great family game or a must-have purchase for any horror film/game buff.

I like full motion video games, and I have already said I like vampires, so I was predisposed to like this game. However the unforgiving time factor did its utmost to change my mind, so perhaps this stakeout is one only for similar minded players.

if you're a die-hard fan of Dracula mythology, you might enjoy playing through this once. Just don't expect to actually discover or do much on your own. This is more like playing the fatalistic part of an actor going through the motions of fulfilling a predetermined script, and the limits of FMV make this one of the more restrictive adventure games you can find.

Als großer Fan des Dracula-Mythos kann ich dem recht gelungenen Filmaspekt durchaus etwas abgewinnen. Natürlich ist 'Dracula Unleashed' dabei lange nicht so gut wie die großen Vertreter des Vampirfilm-Genres, aber es ist recht unterhaltsam und schön schaurig. Sehr schaurig ist allerdings auch das Gameplay, was diesen Titel für nicht wenige Spieler zu einem absoluten No-Go machen dürfte. Von Sackgassen über permanente Zeitnot, wird man permanent mit Dingen konfrontiert, die man als Adventurespieler einfach nicht sehen will, während man jegliche Form von Rätsel dafür umso lieber gesehen hätte. Dass 'Dracula Unleashed' recht unbekannt ist, hat also durchaus seine Berechtigung. Lediglich einige Vampirfans, Freunde von altmodischen Gruselgeschichten und Hardcore-FMV-Fans mögen ihre Freude an diesem Multimediaprodukt haben, ansonsten dürften eher die wenigsten mit 'Dracula Unleashed' glücklich werden.

Dracula looks a lot like Dracula from the 1992 film, but you only see him near the end of the game. There's some gore, but the Sega CD's trademark pixelation prevents it from being particularly explicit. The sound effects are terrific, especially when you ride in the carriage, and the music is well orchestrated and creepy. The user interface could be more streamlined, but it's acceptable once you learn a few shortcuts. Dracula Unleashed is a good-looking game, but only patient gamers will be able to deal with its slow pace.