Dracula: A Gothic RPG
Dracula is back in this dark but cute RPG.
Collect souls for more powers, learn alchemy, and cast your dark magic in battle.
Black cats, werewolves, zombies; he’s buddies with all types of Halloween friendlies – and he’s going to go questing with them!
Story:
After thousands of years, Dracula has been summoned for a grand purpose by ghosts and dark magicians. They require his resurrection to fulfill the prophecy.
After he has awakened, he meets a quirky cast of characters that will get him in a lot of trouble and comical shenanigans.
Features:
👻 Party members include ghosts, zombies, and many types of Halloween friendlies.
🦠 Collect Souls to increase your power, or talk to the dead to learn their skills.
🎁 Collect items to decorate Dracula’s Mansion.
⚔️ Explore and adventure the world with some … rather unusual quests… as a dark hero.
📺 Classic role-playing style
Explore areas in classic JRPG style
~Victorian Forest~
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Future Updates:
⚗️ Craft items in the Underground Alchemy Lab.
📜 Randomized side-quests
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🍪 Come to the dark side. We have cookies.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1563670
Read More: Best Vampire 2.5D Games.
Red Embrace: Mezzanine
Red Embrace: Mezzanine is a short (~1 hour or even less) free visual novel with point-&click elements, 2 endings rewarded with 2 achs. Unfortunately, for now the game has limited features, so those achs won’t appear on steam profile((
I’m sure even if someone didn’t play Red Embrace or Red Embrace: Hollywood the game will be interesting enough. I have almost nothing to complain about: visuals are great, music is perfect to set that gloomy mood, the writing is so potent dragging you deep into that dark atmosphere. That’s really amazing how that short story, maybe not even the whole story but some kind of prologue for the future game, can awake such powerful emotions. Really impressive!
– Real player with 3.2 hrs in game
Read More: Best Vampire Dark Games.
As usual, fine. As usual, there is a light sadness after passing the game. And not only because the story itself is sad, because it concerns loneliness, loss and hopelessness, but because it shows us what we dream about at some point. We all probably dreamed that on some day someone (and preferably some handsome guy) would offer us to change our lives. But this did not happen.
It’s very nice that the story echoes Red Embrace: Hollywood. I am very glad that I somehow found Argent Games.
Как обычно, прекрасно. Как обычно, после прохождения игры возникает легкая грусть. И не только потому, что сама история печальна, ведь она касается одиночества, потери и безнадежности, но и потому, что она показывает нам, о чем мы мечтаем в какой-то момент. Мы все, наверное, мечтали, что когда-нибудь кто-нибудь (и желательно какой-нибудь красавчик) предложит нам изменить нашу жизнь. Но этого не произошло.
– Real player with 2.9 hrs in game
Vamp Night
It’s an interesting idea. Sort of a stripped down Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines. There aren’t many quests and little interaction/dialogue with the NPCs. The developer is adding new content and improving the game, so it’s a work in progress. You basically wander the city sandbox and try to balance feeding and avoiding sunrise as well as hunters while picking up money. You can also acquire a haven and decorate it.
The game is a little dark and it can be a little difficult to see in some areas (even with the games brightness turned all the way up). The hunters literally come out of nowhere, but it keeps you on your toes. You can’t fight them melee, but you can shoot them (and anyone else who attacks you) using a gun you pick up.
– Real player with 26.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Vampire Life Sim Games.
The best Steam vampire simulator!
– Real player with 8.3 hrs in game
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2
Oh Rats! No I’m serious actually…and bats as well. Just like a bat out of hell Dracula has furry friends in both low and high places. Awaken from an extremely long eternal night and find some nice necks to chomp on. Whip your blood back and forth (Whip it real good). Explore Dracula’s back to the future adventure. Talk about a miserable pile of secrets. You are the prince of darkness! The dragon Dracul! What a terrible night to have a curse.
This is the direct sequel to Lords of Shadow 1, which was one of my favorite Castlevania games. It feels like you are playing a medieval version of God of War. If you liked the GBA/DS SoTN style Metroidvania ones you might not enjoy this one.
– Real player with 62.1 hrs in game
I think I need to add this to the “games that most people hated which I actually enjoyed” list. Admittedly, I’m biased because I really dig Castlevania, enjoyed the first Lords of Shadow and Mirror of Fate, and am a sucker for the idea of playing as Dracula himself. But even at its most frustrating moments, Lords of Shadow 2 isn’t nearly as bad as Edge Magazine (which gave it a 4/10) or any of the other mainstream reviews would have you believe.
Bloodsucking awesome stuff:
- I feel like combat’s speedier and more responsive than it was in the first Lords of Shadow, and there’s less reliance on quicktime events. This might have to do with the fact that I’m just more experienced with the combat system after playing through the first game and Mirror of Fate, but I had a lot of fun beating up some of the bosses, which leads me to the next point…
– Real player with 42.0 hrs in game
Golden Krone Hotel
Latest (Experimental) Update Review
The updates for this game have elevated this game to the status of roguelike gem in my eyes. Before, I would have recommended this to anyone who is interested in roguelikes. Now, I would say it is an absolute must-play for any roguelike fan as well as point to it as THE quintessential introductory roguelike. I would say it is certainly better than the standard introductory roguelike recommendations (Brogue and Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup) because of its streamlined controls, well-implemented mouse control (you can do everything there is to do in the game with a mouse), well-designed menus (best menus in any roguelike I can think of), high customizability (can play with 4 directional or 8 directional movement, with mouse+keyboard or controller, with tiles or ASCII), rebindable controls (surprisingly not common in roguelikes), gameplay that isn’t dependant on spoilers (lots of roguelikes require spoilers to progress), difficulty settings (so a new player can actually see the end of the game and learn of mechanics that would otherwise kill them), great visuals (Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup has static and admittedly subpar tiles while Brogue has ASCII that Golden Krone Hotel simply beats with animated 8-bit tiles), music and sound (once again, not common in other roguelikes), and just the fact that it presents interesting mechanics and gameplay to players much sooner than any other roguelike typically does (a common complaint with Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup is that the game isn’t interesting until you reach Lair).
– Real player with 85.8 hrs in game
Disclaimer: This review is for version 1.8 of the game which is the only one that I played. My understanding is that the game has improved significantly since its release and some of the features that I talk about here have been added after the original release (for example controller support).
Pros:
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The music is great and fits well with the vampire theme of the game.
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I love the controller support. This is very uncommon for rogue-like games and allowed me to play the game exclusively on my tv.
– Real player with 63.9 hrs in game
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Ultimate Edition
First off, I’m a huge fan of the Castlevania series. So that foundation may color my opinion of this game and it’s ensuing interquel and sequel (which I’m currently in the midst of). Something about medieval through Enlightment era Europe with a heavy gothic/baroque aesthetic, corrupted through dark forces that threaten the world? Awesome. Tons of monsters pulling on a multitude of inspiration from the myth cycles of antiquity through the modern Universal monsters? Yes, please.
Konami struck gold initially by creating these dark adventures that took a quite serious tone for the early Nintendo systems, offering a beefy challenge of vintage Nintendo difficulty through several increasingly impressive platformer games. They then evolved into the famed Metroidvanias with the release of Symphony of the Night on the Playstation - trading a bit of the reflex-intensive difficulty for massive sprawling environments that took forever to explore and fully unlock - and followed this formula with several excellent installments on Nintendo’s handhelds where they found their most sustainable home and success through the late 2000’s. Then Konami, sensing the increasingly stagnant nature of the series as it became mired in repeated iterations of SotN’s sprawling platformer/RPG hybrid, started searching for a way to revitalize the series again, just as SotN ignited a sort of Golden Age for the series.
– Real player with 98.7 hrs in game
(Important note: This game, for whatever reason, doesn’t like being set to fullscreen + max res on a display other than that which Windows / your video card identifies as Display 1, regardless if it’s your primary display or not. Weird bug but easy to fix.)
Lords of Shadow is a flawed but polished masterpiece and a triumph of artistic direction. It’s shortcomings are forgivable. That said, since you can expect to sink upwards of 40hrs into this, I’ll go into some more detail.
Presentation wise, this game is stunning. Masterful visuals paired with smooth and optimized 4K performance make for an eye-popping experience. The art team went all out on this and it shows. I’ve never taken so many screenshots of a game before. Two major detractors though: 1. Some of the cutscenes were pre-rendered for console are unimproved by modern hardware (they still look passable but they’re jaggy af); 2. Godrays are a weak point. The score is powerful but not iconic; you’ll love it in the moment but try to recall the music later and you’ll likely struggle, for the most part. This isn’t objectively a bad thing, as it simply means it’s enhancing the experience without overpowering it but I was disappointed by the lack of iconic singles and the abscence of a Bloody Tears revamp.
– Real player with 47.4 hrs in game
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2
Its Soul Reaver lite
While not a bad game, its definitely not as good as it’s predecessor in a lot of respects.
The Good:
Superb voice acting, nice story, the puzzles are more complex and involved yet overall pretty good and offer a bit more clues to solve them, which is a marked improvement to the previous game.
The Not-so-good:
-The combat - In comparison to SR1 it feels distant, with little weight or consequence behind your punches, making it rather unsatisfying.
Furthermore, by the endgame, when fighting 4+ opponents, they will ALL attack at the same time, and while realistic and “challenging” it really comes out as cheap, specially when
! some of those enemies would naturally attack each other, but as soon as they detect you, ALL of them go for your ass instead. . Your Soul Reaver blade can be used from the start of the game and is a bit OP, that however is countered by a bar which fills the more you use the blade and kill with it, and once filled takes away some of your health, thus forcing you to mix its use with regular weapons, which at least brings some depth to an otherwise humdrum combat system. Speaking of the blade, it can be infused throughout the story with different elements (light, dark, wind & fire) but disappointingly only come into play in puzzles; yet another sign that the combat is undercooked at best.
– Real player with 20.1 hrs in game
I was finally able to get the game working courtesy of this excellent patch right here .
“But suppose your throw a coin enough times – suppose one day it lands on its edge.”
The opening to Soul Reaver is seared into my memory.
No matter how many times I watch the introductory cutscene, the booming synth pulls me right back into the Gothic tableau of the Legacy of Kain universe, as if I were discovering it anew. With slick narrative efficiency, it sets in motion a tale of vengeance that spills out across time, daring its protagonists to challenge the apparent indomitability of fate.
– Real player with 17.4 hrs in game
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver
(Ignore my time on record as I’ve spent most of my playtime offline)
Easily one of my most favorite games of all time! I remember playing this on the original Playstation like it was only yesterday. In my mind this game set the bar very high for what video games were capable of. Wonderfully written script and rich dialogue, Extremely clever puzzles that make you consider all possibilities. A unique and large open world game that managed to pull off one of the first concepts of streaming data directly from the disk, cutting out loading screens from area to area. Crystal Dynamics had outdone themselves when making this game, and it’s a shame that we don’t get games like this more often.
– Real player with 33.2 hrs in game
Soul Reaver
“Tumbling, burning with white-hot fire, I plunged into the depths of the abyss. Unspeakable pain… relentless agony… time ceased to exist… only this torture… and a deepening hatred of the hypocrisy that damned me to this hell. An eternity passed, and my torment receded, bringing me back from the precipice of madness. The descent had destroyed me… and yet I lived.” ~Raziel
This game, to me, was the start of the Legacy of Kain series. Although, technically, that was actually Blood Omen. As a matter of fact, the first Blood Omen unknowingly set the stage and essentially serves as the backdrop for all of the Legacy of Kain games. In Soul Reaver however, you do not actually play as Kain. Instead, you play as one of his vampiric lieutenants, Raziel. But almost immediately, things immediately go bad as when Raziel approaches Kain and shows that he has evolved by gaining a set of wings (the first evolution of all of Kain’s vampiric brood), Kain considers this a transgression against him. In an act of rage, he rips your wings from you, and then has you thrown into the Lake of the Dead. Burning, trapped in the abyss, Raziel reaches the bottom but he is lifeless, his body practically destroyed.
– Real player with 20.4 hrs in game
Fury of Dracula: Digital Edition
I hadn’t played this game since the 1st edition that came out in the 80s. Back then three Hunters chased a nearly-impotent Dracula around the map, eventually slaying him. Nearly every time, anyway. Dracula had hidden movement behind a screen, and left some rumors in his wake, but the damnable hunter cards would give him away at horrible times, and if you encountered him he would get caught during the day more than half the time (you rolled a die, but the hunters had more cards) - a vampire during the day is as feeble in combat as you would think. We called it “The Frustration of Dracula.” He was fun to play, but it was very difficult to win with him. Still, I have fond memories.
– Real player with 37.3 hrs in game
While no game is ever going to translate perfectly from the board to digital I have to tip my hat to Nomad games for taking on Fury of Dracula, not just for doing it, but doing a very capable job.
*When you read negative reviews about the lack of 1 vs 4 during initial roll out of the game, I have to point out that this was clearly posted on the store page well in advance and in the discussions. It shouldn’t have been a surprise to anyone and it’s a poor excuse to give a thumbs down. It was perfectly clear and the developers have repeatedly stated why they released it as 1 vs 1 and 1 vs AI initially, along with their plans to work on and release 1 vs 4. Understandably, the developers want to get it right, so we just need to be patient. Their professionalism and consistent feedback to our inquiries leads me to believe they will get it done.
– Real player with 30.8 hrs in game
Nosferatu: The Wrath of Malachi
Nosferatu: The Wrath of Malachi is the sort of game that feels like it’s flying apart as you play. It’s an authentically janky experience, filled with rough visuals, rough AI, and rough edges of all sorts… but a surprisingly playable, unique, charming, and fun “janky experience.”
At heart it’s actually a fairly simple FPS–traditional, even, with its backtracking and weapon inventory and twitchy gunplay. You’re tasked with exploring a pseudo-random castle to rescue various family members and deal with the local vampire population. “Deal with” in this case meaning “slaughter.”
– Real player with 13.4 hrs in game
In the endless search for quality in the bargain bin of the Steam catalog, there lies a special category for games that many have purchased on a whim, but never played. These tend to be older games, created under time crunches or by small studios. They became either punching bags for being mediocre crap, or things that are actually worth talking about, but fly under the radar because everyone’s backlogs are constantly filled with superior products purchased on sale. It’s a shame, as Nosferatu: The Wrath of Malachi is an interesting experience that provides quite a bit of bang for the buck (or 3, if you’re not getting it on sale.)
– Real player with 9.8 hrs in game