Dracula: Resurrection

. The cursor is a magnifying glass, indicating that the player can zoom in. Dracula: Resurrection is a graphic adventure game that takes place from a character's eye-view in a pre-rendered graphical environment. Dracula restricts player movement to jumps between static screens in the game world. which the player toggles with a button press. As the player mouses over the game environments, the cursor changes shape in a context-sensitive manner to illustrate the possible actions. For example, the hand cursor indicates that an item can be picked up, while the cog cursor indicates that the player can use an item on a location. The iOS re-release of Dracula includes a "Compass Look" feature, which uses the gyroscope inside the player's iPad or iPhone to control the first-person view. This version of the game also contains an optional "Help" function for beginners, which keeps every on-screen interaction point highlighted at all times. ==Plot==

(pictured) and his father Vlad II Dracul are referenced throughout Dracula: Resurrection. Dracula: Resurrection begins by recounting the final scene of Bram Stoker's original novel. In the year 1897, protagonists Jonathan Harker and Quincey Morris ambush the caravan of Count Dracula and his minions in Borgo Pass. Although Morris dies in the struggle, the pair succeeds in killing Dracula and releasing Jonathan's wife Mina from her psychic enslavement to the vampire. Afterward, an ellipsis takes the story forward seven years. The Harkers' new life in England is disrupted by Mina's sudden disappearance, and Jonathan finds a letter from his wife that suggests Dracula's involvement. He subsequently tracks her to Transylvania. followers of Dracula. Jonathan questions the innkeeper Barina about Dracula's castle, but she warns him against traveling there in the dark, especially as it is Saint George's Eve, a night on which evil spirits move freely. Jonathan gets directions to the castle from Micha, a bar patron, who suggests using the bridge near the inn. He claims that the building is abandoned, and that Dracula has not been seen since his death. However, Dracula's henchmen Goran and Iorga roam the countryside around the inn, and Iorga stands guard at the bridge to prevent Jonathan's passage. Jonathan travels to a nearby cemetery, where he sees a mysterious blue light near a representation of Saint George. Using a pickaxe, he digs up a section of the ground there and discovers the Dragon Ring beneath. Micha also informs Jonathan that the followers of Dracula, Viorel and his henchmen, have recently become active again after a long disappearance, and questions whom they could be working for. Jonathan manages to trick and knock out Iorga and Goran, opening the path to the bridge and the henchmen's cabin. Viorel is angered and begins to search for the perpetrator; in terror, Barina bars the doors to the inn. The bridge collapses when Jonathan attempts to cross it, which forces him to find another way. The book explains that the Dragon Ring is a key to Dracula's lair, to which the tunnel leads, and that Barina's husband had hidden the ring in the cemetery to keep the door closed. Jonathan uses the Dragon Ring to enter, As he travels, it is revealed that Dracula is watching, and that his plan was always for Jonathan to bring the Dragon Ring into his domain. Upon arriving inside the castle grounds, Jonathan progresses with the help of the Dragon Ring. He soon opens the cell of an old woman named Dorko, a witch imprisoned by Dracula and kept outside the main castle by a curse. She was once a follower of Dracul, Dracula's father, until Dracula banished her after his father's death. She offers to help Jonathan find Mina in exchange for her own freedom. Theorizing that his wife is held in Dracula's crypt under the watch of Dracula's brides, Dorko explains that two objects are necessary to locate Mina: an amulet and the medal of the Dragon Brotherhood. Dorko opens a passage into the castle for Jonathan, and he begins to explore Dracula's realm, including his library and personal quarters. In the library, Jonathan discovers a letter addressed to him, 's ornithopter plays a pivotal role in the story. Continuing to explore with the help of the Dragon Ring and Dorko's advice, Jonathan finds the medal and opens the way to Dracula's secret chamber. Jonathan proceeds to the crypt and takes the amulet, Jonathan opens a window to drive the brides away with sunlight and proceeds to the attic. When Jonathan gives her the amulet in exchange for Mina, Dorko betrays him, explaining that she wants to rule with Dracula as she had with Dracul. She plans to use Jonathan, Mina and the Dragon Ring to prove her loyalty and secure her position with Dracula. Dorko locks them in the attic, but Jonathan uses the Dragon Ring to open a path for the ornithopter to launch. ==Development==

Dracula: Resurrection was a co-production between Index+ and the companies France Telecom Multimedia and Canal+ Multimedia. The project was headed by Index's long-time designer, art director and writer Jacques Simian, who had previously art directed the developer's Opération Teddy Bear. To create the game's plot, the team wrote that it worked from "popular legend, superstition and myth". The creators noted that the etymology of Dracula's name in Romanian was unclear—possibly implying a relation to both Satan and dragons—and that they drew from the story of Saint George and the Dragon as the source for the central Dragon Ring item. William of Newburgh's Historia rerum Anglicarum was referenced as well. by author Bram Stoker. According to the team, the environments in Dracula were built from "sketches, photographs, architectural plans, works on Transylvania" and other such sources. Films about vampires also influenced this work. a middleware engine provided by 4X Technologies. The software was also used in games such as Amerzone. For Draculas cutscenes, the team licensed 4X Technologies' "4X Movie" codec. Dracula underwent a rapid development cycle of around 8 months, according to Sébastien Rossignol of Index. He described production as "an enormous challenge". and a port for the PlayStation followed in early 2000. Draculas North American distribution rights were acquired by DreamCatcher Interactive on March 20, 2000. DreamCatcher founder Richard Wah Kan forecast a minimum of 50,000 lifetime sales for Dracula in North America, but noted that "[a]nywhere from 50,000 to 150,000 would be great." He based these figures on the perceived high quality of Dracula compared to similar games of the era. The publisher shipped Dracula in North America in early June 2000. A plan to release the PlayStation version in North America was underway by the time of the 2000 Electronic Entertainment Expo. The PlayStation version's North American launch remained pending by June 2001, but had occurred by that August. ==Reception==

Sales Dracula: Resurrection was commercially successful. According to Index+, combined global sales of its computer and PlayStation releases had reached 200,000 units by mid-September 2000. In North America, the game was one of DreamCatcher Interactive's top titles for 2000 and made up 9% of the publisher's sales that year. PC Data reported 27,798 retail sales of Draculas computer version in the region by the end of 2000, of which 6,012 were sold in December. GameSpy's Mark Asher wrote in March 2001 that the game was "selling well in the U.S. (doing about 100,000 copies) and doing better in Europe." PC Data recorded another 21,050 retail sales for the game's computer version during 2001, and 3,709 in the first six months of 2002. According to DreamCatcher, Dracula totaled 170,000 copies sold in North America alone by early 2003. The computer version's jewel case re-release achieved 20,910 sales in the region during 2003, by PC Data's estimates. In April 2007, Microïds announced that the combined global sales of Dracula and its sequel, Dracula 2, had surpassed 1 million copies. Sales of the overall Dracula series rose above 1.5 million units worldwide by November 2013. Critical reviews According to the review aggregation website Metacritic, Dracula: Resurrections computer version received "mixed or average reviews" from critics. The game was one of three adventure titles recommended in IGN's 2000 Holiday Buying Guide; the editors called it "a bright spot in this past year's adventure games" and wrote that its soundtrack "is creepy enough to fill two horror games." Dracula was also nominated for The Electric Playgrounds 2000 "Best Adventure Game for PC" award, but this prize ultimately went to The Longest Journey. IGN's Scott Steinberg scored the game 8 out of 10, praising the simple interface, the logic of the puzzles, the difficulty level and the graphics. He concluded "We've been waiting for a respectable point and click adventure since Grim Fandango came along, and although Dracula: Resurrection is a quick ride, it's well worth the price of admission."-->GameSpot's Ron Dulin scored the game 6 out of 10. He too criticised the fact that Dracula's resurrection is never explained, and was also critical of the core gameplay; "simply clicking every object in your inventory on every object in view will get you through the majority of the puzzles. There's no way to die in the game, so there's no real punishment for simply trying everything and anything." He was impressed with the graphics, calling the NPCs "some of the best-looking rendered human characters ever to appear in a PC game." However, he was critical of the voice acting. He concluded "Dracula: Resurrection is somewhat interesting only because it's quick, easy, and atmospheric. It's very short, so even novice adventure gamers won't have much trouble finishing it in a few sessions." ==Legacy==

Dracula: Resurrection was the first entry in what Adventure Gamers' Pascal Tekaia later called a "long-running point-and-click horror series". It was followed in September 2000 by a direct sequel, Dracula 2: The Last Sanctuary, released by Canal+ Multimedia and Wanadoo Edition. The latter company had been formed earlier in September by the merger of Index+ and France Telecom Multimedia. When asked in late 2000 about the likelihood of a third Dracula game, the team's François Villard noted that writers face "the temptation of the trilogy", but that Dracula 3 nevertheless was not planned. However, he left open the possibility of another entry if player interest was high enough. Villard ultimately exited the game industry after Dracula 2. A third installment was eventually announced by MC2 France in April 2007, under the name Dracula 3. MC2, which had absorbed Wanadoo Edition in 2003, contracted Kheops Studio to develop the new project. The project was initially scheduled for release during the 2007 holiday shopping season, After being retitled Dracula 3: The Path of the Dragon that February, the game launched in France on April 10, 2008. In late 2009, Iceberg Interactive and MC2's Microïds label reissued Dracula: Resurrection and its two sequels as the Dracula Trilogy. A revised, episodic version of Resurrection was launched for iOS by Anuman and Microïds in September 2011. This move was part of a wider strategy by Anuman, which had bought the Microïds label in January 2010, to reach iPhone and iPad customers with iOS reissues of Microïds' back catalog. In July 2013, Dracula was again re-released as part of the Dracula Trilogy bundle on the digital distribution platform GOG.com. A standalone version for Steam followed in 2014. Anuman announced a fourth entry in the Dracula franchise at the November 2012 Game Connection Europe conference, ending a hiatus of original releases in the series. the game follows the story of an art restoration expert named Ellen Cross, who travels the world while investigating an anonymous artwork. The game was released in June 2013. That August, Anuman and Koalabs announced a direct sequel under the title of Dracula 5: The Blood Legacy. The game concludes the narrative of Ellen Cross, who is now under the effects of a terminal hematologic disease. ==See also==