Here is a game that deep down I wanted to be bad - blame it on my none to friendly relationship with point and click adventure games, a genre that I've always felt is a lazier alternative to the more immediate thrill of 3D adventure games, but I'd be lying if I said that was the only reason for my downbeat attitude towards Dracula: Origin. In actuality, I had a whole set of Dracula orientated puns lined up for this review that just don't work if the game actually manages to be halfway decent! Jokes that do NOT apply to Dracula: Origin include:

"Who knew a game about vampires would suck?"

"It's basically Dracula, just without the bite."

And erm... yeah, that's about it, my creative mind kind of went blank when against all odds I actually found myself enjoying the game!

Based on Bram Stoker's popular tale of the dark prince of vampires, Origin revolves around Van Helsing's journey across the globe as he seeks a means to once and for all destroy Dracula and put an end to his bloody reign. Along the way various details are revealed about Dracula's past and the way in which he became the bloodsucking fiend that he is. It's this story that manages to be the real pull, amazingly enough, as point and click games are known more for their puzzles than for their ability to tell a gripping yarn, yet Dracula: Origin defies this rule with a tale that just about manages to keep you interested enough to persevere through the minefield of puzzles that lie ahead. It isn't without it's faults, as although Van Helsing himself appears to be voiced by a credible actor, much of the supporting cast suffers from that all too familiar curse of wobbly accents. It's not a massive problem, but it's a bit too obvious to ignore altogether.

With this being a point and click adventure game, plot details tend to come only after you've solved an assortment of overly elaborate puzzles - the type of puzzles you solve by, er, pointing and clicking. Admittedly this whole process is less of a headache than it usually tends to be, thanks to a simple control system where everything is handled through the mouse - left click to move and interact and right click to open the inventory. It's an effective system but it has to be, as the majority of puzzles you face are anything but.

They range in difficulty, the simplest being those that require little more effort than to combine an item with some stupendously ridiculous locking system, a tad old hat perhaps but easy to grasp. The more difficult ones are those that require a little more thought; puzzles that actually require using clues to complete them, without which they are nigh on impossible. Oddly enough these types of puzzles are actually quite fun to solve, once again going against what other point and click games tend to favour - there's always logic behind them and figuring out the clues to their completion reaps its own rewards once you've finally tackled them.

Very occasionally though you hit a brick wall and come up against a puzzle so mind bogglingly difficult that you might question whether it has a solution at all. It's partly down to a lack substantial clues in certain areas and a failure to fully explain the precise nature as to what it is you are meant to be doing. Of course, being a point and click game means that if you get stuck in one area you've pretty much completely halted your progression.

It's also disconcerting to see that for all the effort put into the game to set it apart from all of the other humdrum adventure games out there, the age old problem of 2D backgrounds hiding vital items that you need later is still a persistent nuisance. Yes, you will on occasion find yourself scouring every corner of each room with your cursor, waiting for the arrow to turn into a hand to indicate that you can pick something up. It wouldn't be so bad if the items you needed were actually in clear view and not, as they are, expertly hidden in the background. This is one of the many foibles of the traditional adventure game, it's a slower more methodical experience that sacrifices the ease of use and immediate gameplay of its 3D orientated brethren for something more laid back. A nice amount of effort has been put into this particular game that very rarely gets lavished on much of the genre though; the environments may be two dimensional but they are colourful and detailed, and despite some difficulty, this is one of the few games of the genre that actually makes you want to play through to the end.

And so I end this review not, as I'd imagined, in a rant at how dated and rubbish the game is but at how surprised I am that it's actually quite good! A great use of the source material combined with puzzles that are enjoyable to solve (minus the few that really are just too cruel) has made Dracula: Origin one of the better point and click games to emerge recently. It won't appeal to everyone, but those who like adventure games and vampire mythology should feel right at home here.

Reviewed by Kieron Giacopazzi for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).