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Dracula 3, Nostradamus, Sinking Island: Vampires, Prophecies and Islands

Company: Encore

We recently got some first-hand experience with three of Encore Entertainment's newest adventure games that they are bringing to the U.S. from Microids studio. One will continue the company's Dracula line, while another follows in the footsteps of Nostradamus, while the last is an original story taking place on an ill-fated island.

Dracula 3: The Path of the Dragon continues the universe created by Bram Stoker as Father Arno Moriani. While investigating a nurse for the possibility of sainthood, you start to learn some dark secrets of her past. For one, you will learn that Martha (the nurse) had a strong belief in vampires, and upon explaining this to his superiors, Father Moriani is retasked to disprove the existence of vampires.

Moriani's adventure will take him to the depths of vampiric lore as he travels to Transylvania itself and follow the path of Vlad the Impaler (whom most players might know as Dracula). Moriani's investigation reveals to him the path to becoming a vampire. Among other things, this path requires a person to sacrifice someone else, sacrifice a monument and sacrifice themselves. Unfortunately for Moriani, it isn't long before his initial investigation into what the Path of the Dragon is leads him to realize that he is inadvertently following it.

As Moriani, you will have to decipher mysterious manuscripts, rune stones and ancient prophecies. There is even a point where you will have to use an Enigma machine in order to decode secret messages. If you want to get a better view at some of the images we have available for Dracula 3: The Path of the Dragon, then check them out on flickr.


Encore and Microbe's next game they are planning on releasing together is Nostradamus: The Last Prophecy, where you will take the part of the prophet's daughter, who is trying to decipher a prophecy that implies the royal family will start dying off. When it starts to come true, the Queen approaches Nostradamus and asks him to decipher the cause for the deaths. Unfortunately, because Nostradamus is sickly and near death, he cannot actually help in the investigation. Instead, he asks Madeleine (his daughter) to look into the matter.

The problem is, Madeleine is a woman, and considering the time period, this means she won't really get a lot of useful information from the characters, despite her extensive investigatory abilities. So she decides to dress like her brother, Cesar, and she starts to get a lot more answers. During the game's investigation, you will have to switch between both the male and female personas frequently in order to get different reactions.

In the demo we got to participate in, we got to investigate the first death. At first glance, it appears that a bookshelf fell on the librarian and killed him, and that is what the police's initial investigation says. But upon closer examination (simply moving the bookcase for instance), it becomes obvious that there is something more underhanded going on.

Another segment demonstrates some of the game's frequent timed events. Here, we had to go into a cave, examine an object and grab a shield in order to save an imminent cave-in. If you do the sequence in the wrong order, then you won't have what you need when the ceiling starts to collapse. Like the Dracula 3 screenshots, you can find better (and more) pics of The Last Prophacy at this flickr page.


Sinking Island is the third game to come out soon and it is by Benoit Sokal, the same studio to create the hit Syberia. This game will have players racing against time as the island that it takes place on is slowly being sucked into the sea. You play an investigator, Jack Norm, looking into the death of the island's hotel owner, Walter Jones. Your investigation will start where the wheelchair-bound man apparently fell out of his chair and down a cliff. Upon close examination of the body, it is apparent that his death was far from an accident. Claw marks on the cheeks (with a broken nail) and rope burns around his neck point to the most foul of play.

Gathering evidence not only requires you to take pictures of objects and bag various inventory items, but it will also require you to try and match up existing clues with other objects you find (like a shirt with a piece of cloth). You also use this interface to associate the clues themselves with possible suspects, thus making it easier to not only identify who was where at the time of death, but who is the most likely person to have murdered the hotel owner. You can find more images from this game on flickr.

All three of these games are slated to hit the streets by the end of the quarter, and the fourth game expected to come out, Still Life 2 will be released by the end of the year. Look for a preview of that game shortly.



-J.R. Nip, GameVortex Communications
AKA Chris Meyer

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