Dracula: The Last Sanctuary (PC)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 2.5 stars OK
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 5.5 (2.5 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Ron Dulin
• Reviewed on: 03/07/2001
• Updated on: 03/14/2001
• Released on: 02/11/2001
• Originally published on GameSpot: Dracula: The Last Sanctuary (PC) Review

Dracula: The Last Sanctuary is the sequel to Dracula Resurrection, and, like that game, it has very distinctive graphics. Unlike its predecessor, which was short and easy, The Last Sanctuary also has a bit more substance. It's lengthy and difficult, and there are puzzles at every turn. Unfortunately, the game is also filled with long, empty hallways bookended by mysteriously locked doors--so it doesn't manage to be atmospheric at all, in spite of its great visuals.

Dracula Resurrection, like so many recent adventure games, was a modern sequel to a classic work of literature. As a sequel to Bram Stoker's Dracula, it made little sense. As an adventure game, it was brief and relatively enjoyable and made up for some of the shortcomings in its story with its great graphics. Dracula: The Last Sanctuary features both the same great graphics and the same silly story. You play as Jonathan Harker, and once again you are trying to save your fiancée Mina from the clutches of Dracula.

You begin the game in London, where Dracula has set up shop in a run-down house. In the house, you'll need to find some clue as to where Dracula may go next. During your explorations of the house, you'll be set upon by werewolves. These werewolves are easily destroyed by sunlight, and you'll find numerous puzzles that require you to reflect the light outside onto the hairy beasts. These puzzles are challenging and occasionally interesting, though less so if you consider that the creators of the game have ignored, without explanation, everything you've ever been taught about werewolves: Werewolves are nocturnal, and sunlight only turns them into naked, confused people.

The major problem with Dracula: The Last Sanctuary, as with its predecessor and other games like it, is that it ignores its source material and makes no effort to explain its own internal logic. For example, important character names, such as Renfield, have been inexplicably changed. And a good part of your time in the game is spent avoiding a Dracula robot. Context is nonexistent--you won't even get text descriptions of your inventory items. When you pick up a pile of paper, the only help you'll get in the inventory screen is a bigger picture of a pile of paper. This tends to add an unnecessary layer of difficulty to the inventory-based puzzles. For instance, the pile of paper's usefulness would have been much more apparent if someone simply had the foresight to label it "sheet music."

Continue reading