Mini-review of Dracula, The Last Sanctuary

Introduction:

	I had great expectations of this game, since it was the
	sequel to Dracula Resurrection, so I hoped that the producers
	would have fixed up everything that was wrong with the first
	game.  Which once again rubs my nose in the fact that things
	don't always get better.  I won't really review this game, as
	much as compare it (unfavourably) to its predecessor.  Out of
	sheer laziness, I will refer to this game as DLS and Dracula
	Resurrection as DR.

Graphics (quality, animations, cut scenes):

	The graphics were just as good as in DR, but the cut scenes
	showed the effect of what I can only assume was some drastic
	cost cutting.  Instead of the extremely fluid and lifelike
	motions of the characters, the characters in DLS were
	stilted, with strange body motions and minimal lip motions.
	Definitely a disappointment, and definitely a step backwards.

Sound (music, voices, special effects)

	Pretty much the same as in DR.  Some reviewers have had a
	problem with the main character's voice, but it never
	bothered me.  I don't necessarily equate a deep-pitched voice
	with a heroic character (or vice versa).

Story (plot, theme, depth):

	The plot is almost identical to the first game; go rescue
	your wife from Dracula.  The only difference is that you have
	to kill him this time.  The only strange part of the story
	was the sheer number of opportunities that Dracula has to
	kill you, but doesn't.  He was singularly ineffective as a
	bad guy.

Characters (depth, development, interaction):

	Dracula was the worst bit of characterization, but I found
	the other characters to be quite good.  In this respect, I
	think that DLS actually improved upon DR.

Puzzles (difficulty, uniqueness, suitability, ugliness, linearity):

	Instead of improving on the first game in the series, the
	developers seemed to think that timed puzzles and lots of
	dying was the the way to go.  I just cannot believe that they
	could see these changes as improvements.

	In addition to the timed sequences, the developers turned
	this game into a pixel hunt from hell.  As one example, there
	is a hot spot in mid air, which is completely invisible until
	an item from your inventory is applied to it (blindly).  We
	spent the entire game trying to solve seemingly difficult
	puzzles, which turned out to be trivial if you had found the
	correct hot spot.  Waggling the cursor over every square inch
	of a view was not a fun way to spend our evenings.

	It turns out that the timed puzzles didn't bother me too
	much, since I discovered a cheat very early in the game; as
	soon as the red timer bar starts to get low, just save your
	game.  As soon as you get back into the game, the "life"
	timer would be back to the top again.  I assume this wasn't
	intentional on the developer's part, since they didn't
	document this feature at all, but I am not too proud to make
	use of it.

	Some of the hot spot icons were inconsistent in this game.
	They showed gears to indicate that an inventory object was
	needed, but some spots didn't show anything at all until the
	correct inventory object was waved over that spot.  A door
	would show a forward arrow with a red bar through it, while
	other times a door would just be inactive until you did the
	required actions to allow you through.

Controls (user interface, save/restore, sound/video adjustments):

	The controls were quite easy -- move mouse to look around,
	left mouse button to move somewhere and interact with things,
	right mouse button to bring up inventory, and escape key to
	bring up main control panel.  I do have a few comments about
	the controls though:

	I wish the main save/load/quit panel had been on the same
	screen as the inventory.  I can't remember how many times
	I brought up inventory when I just wanted to save my game.

	There were only 8 slots for saved games, which was usable,
	but I always want more.  DLS didn't have slot numbers under
	the saved game pictures, so you had to scan by date and time
	to find the one you wanted.

	The mouse motion had no dead spot in the middle of the
	screen, so hunting for hot spots could cause some serious
	dizziness if you didn't have a smooth mouse hand.

	When the game asked you to insert a CD, there was no way to
	back out or cancel.

	You always had to insert CD 1 to start the game, and then you
	had to wait for the screen of company logos to time out, skip
	the introduction, watch another timed title screen, and skip
	a second introduction.  Only then could you restore a saved
	game.  When you quit, the first page of credits came up and
	you had to push a quit button again to actually get out.
	This was a very poorly thought out start up and shut down
	sequence, since they could easily put a button on the main
	control panel for "play intro" and "show credits".

	Longest Journey had a key to highlight all exits; I wish that
	this game had a key to highlight all hotspots.  Every time we
	had to resort to a walkthrough, it was because we couldn't
	find a hotspot.

Bugs or problems:

	None.  The audio stuttering problem I encountered in DR was
	completely absent in DLS.

Install/Uninstall:

	Clean install and clean uninstall.

Pros:

	Extremely beautiful graphics
	Good sound effects

Cons:

	Pixel hunt from hell
	Timed sequences that killed you
	Miserable start up and shut down sequences
	Could only start with CD 1 in the drive
	Hot spots that weren't consistent

Conclusion:

	In the final analysis, I rate a game on how much fun I had
	playing it.  Dracula, The Last Sanctuary fails in this
	respect, since the major emotion by the end of the game was
	"where the !%^&&*% is the %^&*$@! hot spot this time!".  Once
	you knew where the hot spots were, the puzzles weren't
	challenging enough to keep up my interest, nor was the story
	good enough to override the frustration.  I enjoyed Dracula
	Resurrection enough to recommend it, but this game just
	doesn't make the grade.  Unless you enjoy pixel hunting, I
	would recomend that you avoid this game.