Dracula Unleashed - Viacom/Mindscape RRP œ49.99
                  (CD-ROM FMV adventure)

Some time ago there was a proliferation of Dracula films. Then it
was the turn of the computer world, with the release of Bram
Stoker's Dracula from Psygnosis and Dracula Unleashed, which is a
CD-ROM only title, rated at age 15 and over. This comes from the
creators of Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective, so if you've
seen those titles, you'll know what style of game to expect ...
and the quality.

Minimum requirements are a 20 MHz 386SX or higher (though my 16
MHz machine coped perfectly well), 4 meg RAM (450K conventional
RAM), 16-bit SVGA with 512k RAM or 8-bit VGA and a mouse. The
CD-ROM should have 150K per second transfer rate and 350ms seek
time is recommended. There is support for Sound Blaster, Adlib
Gold, Sound Blaster II, Microsoft Sound System and Pro Audio
System.

The storyline was written by Anthony Sherman and is, not
surprisingly, based on characters in Bram Stoker's original book
with some of the narration being given by Van Helsing, Dracula's
nemesis, played by John Arthur Olsen. I say 'played' because with
the style of the game, with much use being made of full motion
video clips, it is hard not to think of it as a film, especially
since one can rewind, fast-forward and pause the clips, as if
watching a real video.

The story starts in a flashback from the moment, on 31st December
1889, when Texan Alexander Morris visits his brother Quincey's
grave. Quincey had been one of Van Helsing's companions (the other
being Jonathan Harker) who had travelled with him to Transylvania
to destroy Dracula, that evil, blood-sucking creature of the
night.

Quincey had died in mysterious circumstances and Alexander had
recently received a letter from a Romanian priest, Father Janos,
suggesting that he investigate the circumstances behind it. So
Alexander travels to London, deciding to contact his brother's
friends and see if they can be of any assistance.  One of them,
Arthur Holmwood, is a prominent figure in London society and he
arranges for Alexander to meet the rest of them through their
membership of the same club, the Hades Club.

Despite Alexander's sadness at the loss of his brother, and the
eagerness he feels in trying to discover the facts behind his
death, there is still time for romance, in the form of the
beautiful Annisette Bowen who he meets at a theatre. Three months
later, deeply in love, he proposes and she accepts. But, around
that time, her father is struck down by a strange illness.

In late December, Alexander is finally made a member of the Hades
Club. But his happiness is short-lived when the butler delivers a
note - Annisette's father has died. Rushing round there, he finds
her distraught and her deceased father, having suffered a fatal
heart attack, dead in his bed, the window wide open nearby.
Checking the corpse, Alexander is horrified at the man's
expression - surely this man died of fear?! His face is drained of

blood, and his white hand clutches a strange piece of cloth, which
the young man removes.

That night, Alexander retires to his bed, to sleep ... and to
dream. Not peaceful dreams, but dreams of death and terror. Once
again, he is with Annisette. Once again, her father lies cold and
dead beneath the sheet. But this time, hands clutch at Alexander's
throat as the old man rises from beneath his sheet and tries to
throttle him, as his fiancee laughs with glee. Alexander wakes
from this terrifying vision, another day ahead of him; a day in
which he must start to solve the mystery of his brother's death,
and maybe those of other people as well.

For death is not only in the Bowen household. Grisly murders are
happening on the streets of London. Soon after the start of the
game, we learn of the latest in the series of strange murders, the
bodies being decapitated and drained of blood. Livestock have also
been found, bloodless corpses, strange puncture marks in their
necks near the jugular. We also hear stories of the 'Bloofer
Lady', an old legend of a woman who used to bite the necks of
children she lured away from their parents, returning them to
their homes close to death.  The children, unable to say the word
'beautiful' when describing her, corrupted her name to 'Bloofer'.

How does Quincey's death fit into these strange events? Surely
they cannot be unconnected? It's up to Alexander, and therefore
us, to find out in the short time permitted. The game starts
outside Alexander's mist-shrouded house in Notting Hill.
Atmospheric music, a barking dog and tolling bells throb from the
Sound Blaster while you check out the screen and the excellent
graphics.

The screen display and controls are very easy to get to grips
with. There are six icons arranged along the bottom of the screen,
looking very much like small stained glass windows, in marked
contrast to the ominous frame of pillars with demons coiling their
tails around them, and the Gothic style of the art work in
general. Though the house itself is of red brick, the blue effect
of the mist is the one which catches your eye.

The icons are, from left to right:

Your journal - an essential piece of equipment. In this you take
note of any conversations you've had. Clicking on the journal
opens it to a new page and clicking on the pen causes the entry to
be made. You can re-read the journal at any time. Addresses are
also noted in the back of the journal. You only get one chance to
write in your journal, immediately after something has happened.
Miss it and you'll be in big trouble and may find yourself unable
to continue.

A pocket watch - it's important to keep track of time and not
visit people in the dead (oops) of night when they're unlikely to
be helpful!

Your satchel - handy for stashing all those useful (and not so
useful) objects you pick up on your travels.

A compass - gives access to a map, used to judge distances around
London.

The Professor - he explains the use of the various icons.

A CD disk - save/load and other options.

A few other icons are only available at certain times and
locations, such as a bed (even a vampire hunter has to sleep
sometimes), a telegram (read ones that are sent to you) and a door
(to leave a location).

Travel around the capital is by means of cabs, which wait on each
street corner. These are manned by cabbies who have the most
appalling Cockney accents. Imagine, if you can, a cross between
American and Cockney with a dash of Loyd Grossman ... I longed for
the tones of Michael Caine, Bob Hoskins or even Danny Baker.
Clearly when devising what the producers thought was a Cockney
accent, they decided Cockneys can't say the letter 'i' - they have
to say 'oi'.  So you get expressions like 'Where moight oi be
taking you?' and 'Oi'm happy to say we've foinally arroived'. I
think there is just one actor doing the cabbies' voices but
sometimes he drops his voice an octave for variety. The cheerie
chappy selling newspapers has a similarly naff accent as does a
customer in a pub who comes out with the beautiful phrase, when
trying to remember a name, 'me noggin's gorn orll rusty'. Nice
try, guys! Other than that, the voices are good, particularly
Alexander's, and the acting is suitably OTT Victorian melodrama
style, especially the drunken foreigner at the Hades Club who
hurls himself to the floor in hysterical weeping when telling
Alexander about his dead wife.

By the nature of the gameplay, collecting clues and new addresses
which open up new areas for investigation and visiting certain
people at specific times of day, the game is pretty linear. When
you die - and believe me, you will, many, many times, all of them
horrible - it's a case of backtracking and trying actions in a
different order in the hope of uncovering something new. Though I
normally get frustrated at linear games, I found Dracula Unleashed
refreshingly challenging; definitely one of those
'just-one-more-go' games.

Now, I'll freely admit that I am not a fan of horror in general
and anything remotely connected with vampires in particular.  If
someone gets bitten in the neck, I'm out of the room! But I've got
hooked on this game. CD-ROM games should have three major areas
where they score above disk-based games - size of the game,
speech/sound effects, and graphics. Dracula Unleashed ranks highly
in all categories. The other bit of good news is the game plays
completely from the CD-ROM - only your save games go on the hard
disk and they take a mere 400K each.

All in all, I'd recommend it highly.
                                                  Sue







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