Dracula: Origin (PC)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 3.5 stars Very good
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 7.0 (3.5 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Brett Todd
• Reviewed on: 06/06/2008
• Released on: 06/02/2008
• Originally published on GameSpot: Dracula: Origin (PC) Review

Good storytelling never goes out of style. For proof, check out Dracula: Origin, a point-and-click reimagination of Bram Stoker's classic novel from Frogwares that delivers a gothic tale as atmospheric and chilling as a London fog. While you couldn't ask for a more done-to-death story, the treatment of this legendary material is both respectful and innovative, with familiar characters and scenes being mixed in with all-new escapades set across Europe and the Middle East. Too many pixel hunts and logic puzzles that occasionally stray into "good luck solving this without a walkthrough" territory cause a few problems, although these frustrations aren't enough to ruin a great Victorian spook story.

Dracula: Origin keeps the bare bones of the Stoker novel, but adds to it by branching out in a few places and changing the focus from drawing-room horror to something of a detective story. Vamp hunter Van Helsing moves to center stage from his supporting role in the novel, as the dour professor turns sleuth and ventures to London, Cairo, Vienna, and, of course, Transylvania on a one-man quest to save poor Mina Murray and stop Dracula's plans to resurrect the dead. The story unfolds like a mash-up of Stoker's Dracula, any number of Sherlock Holmes short stories, and the less weird tales of HP Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos, with you playing vampire hunter, gumshoe, and intrepid researcher.

The script doesn't borrow much from Stoker, although it is excellent in its own right as a modern take on the old Victorian penny dreadfuls that influenced Dracula. Voice acting is generally impressive, as long as you've got a taste for melodrama. Van Helsing in particular gets awfully worked up over the slightest little thing, becoming so uptight over such minor annoyances as running into a locked door that you'll frequently think that Dracula himself has just jumped out of the shadows.

Counterbalancing this fresh story is gameplay that feels like something out of a point-and-click adventure made 20 years ago. As Van Helsing, you stroll from one scene to another, carefully scanning the surroundings for anything that can be pocketed and later used to construct some sort of contraption necessary for opening a door or unlocking a safe, for example. You gather and hoard all sorts of items, such as meat hooks, mummy wrappings, and even a jar of flies. There generally isn't any rhyme or reason to all of this scrap collecting, other than that you know you're playing an adventure game, so you're going to need this junk at some point down the road. Van Helsing's entire philosophy of vampire hunting is expressed in one line he repeats over and over: "This might be useful. I'm taking it."

Continue reading

Where to buy

Dracula: Origin (PC): $7.73

store	price	in stock?	rating
	$7.73	Yes

see prices from 1 store

Compare prices for Dracula: Origin

Amazon.com

$7.73

Recent user reviews

• Average user rating: 0 stars Not yet available
  Back to product review
• My rating: 0 stars Write review

• Showing 1 of 1 user review

• 2.0 stars

  "This game, overall, is not worth the money or time"

  by HeavenLeeCasteel on December 29, 2008

• See 1 user review Write review